 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Shorthand
Date: 2005-11-30 16:05
OK, the other thread got me thinking (and flipping through Dr. Suits other pages).
http://www.phy.mtu.edu/~suits/clarinet.html
It just occured to me that 2 clarinets in an octave (with the higher one suitably quieter) will fill in the even harmonics and sound very much more like a sax or an oboe than a clarinet on its own.
Think about it for a sec (or better, try it). Lemme know what you think.
This experiment might come off better with a Bass Clarinet and a Bb Clarinet playing the same fingered note together.
Post Edited (2005-11-30 16:12)
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Author: David Peacham
Date: 2005-11-30 17:08
Suppose the sax is playing at 100 Hz.
Then the partials will be:
100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700, 800 etc.
Suppose instead you have two clarinets, one playing at 100 and one at 200.
Then the partials will be:
100, 300, 500, 700 etc
and:
200, 600, 1000, 1400 etc
The partials at 400, 800 etc will still be missing. You can't really "fill in the even harmonics" in this way.
I haven't tried it with real instruments, but a quick and dirty experiment with MIDI on the PC suggests that two clarinets in octaves don't sound anything remotely like a sax. I'm glad to say.
The explanation as to why they sound different, I suspect, also has a lot to do with the relative strength of those partials that are present.
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If there are so many people on this board unwilling or unable to have a civil and balanced discussion about important issues, then I shan't bother to post here any more.
To the great relief of many of you, no doubt.
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2005-11-30 17:10
I think a clarinet and bassoon playing in unison sounds pretty much like a sax played straight.
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Author: clarnibass
Date: 2005-11-30 17:20
If I remember correctly then clarinet and saxophone together in unison sound a lot like accordion (but I'm not sure it was clarinet and saxophone, maybe I'm confusing with something else).
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Author: Katrina
Date: 2005-11-30 17:33
One thing to remember about accordions is that they can sound pretty much like any instrument depending on the skill of the performer and which stops are used. If the accordionist has practiced different releases with both the fingers and the bellows, it can come frighteningly close!
My accordionist and I sometimes can't hear which of us is playing certain lines at times, she's so good!!!
Katrina
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2005-11-30 17:47
Can your accordionist do pitch bends as well?
I never thought accordians could, but they can.
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Author: Tony Beck
Date: 2005-11-30 19:36
This is only vaguely on the subject, but one of the most haunting passages in classical music has to be the unison clarinet-violin arpeggios in the Saint Saen violin concerto. Any comments on the acoustical structure of that combination?
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Author: Bob Phillips
Date: 2005-11-30 19:46
With first chair firmly planted on my posterior in my second year of college, I heard someone new in the adjacent practice room play the introduction to Rhapsody in Blue. I ran next door, peeked in the window and found: An accordianist stealing my music.
Man, nothin' in our repertoire is sacred.
Last year, we had a piece in orchestra that put the oboe and flute together in a very haunting way --that sounded like a beautiful clarinet. I think that pitch lock between these two instruments is called a "floboe." Wonderful sound.
Bob Phillips
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Author: BobD
Date: 2005-11-30 21:46
In the movie "The Red Shoes" there is a piece called "Ring of Fire". The very opening features two Bb clarinets playing the intro in unison. That's a sound that is haunting to me...
Bob Draznik
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Author: sfalexi
Date: 2005-11-30 21:54
There's nothing more impressive to me than hearing two or three instruments play in SUCH perfect unison, that you can't pick out what that wonderful new sound is composed of.
US Army Japan Band
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2005-11-30 22:16
Maybe that's why Mahler scored for the top woodwinds playing in unison a lot - to get a unity of sound that's neither one thing or other, but one fantastic sound.
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Author: Katrina
Date: 2005-12-01 03:41
Yes. My accordionist can do pitch bends, but she doesn't use them much...apparently it's actually "really bad" bellows technique. (i.e. just like our pitch bends are really bad embouchures done on purpose?? )
Wasn't it a famous oboist (I'm thinking Ray Still but may be off-base) who once said that his (and every other woodwind's) job was to blend with whatever instrument he was playing with...
Katrina
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2005-12-01 07:18
It was on a BBC programme "Music In Auschwitz" (which also featured Emmanuel Ax and Maxim Vengerov) where there was a performance filmed outside in the snow, it was a modern piece with very Jewish elements but I can't remember the composer or the piece - written for a solo clarinettist (who was doing plenty of pitch bends) and accompanied by a brass group (who all doubled on shofars) and an accordion who did pitch bends - the first time I've ever heard that done.
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Author: allencole
Date: 2005-12-01 07:39
Hmmmm...Ring of Fire with clarinets instead of trumpets. Looks like we're moving up in the world.
Allen Cole
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