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Re: Why is the low F flat?

Author: Tony Pay ★2017
Date: 2006-12-12 15:25

I wrote:

>> So, do I say that my clarinets have good low F? In one sense yes, so I can see what you mean.>>

I seem to be spending rather too much time on this, but there's something else to say that more advanced players will appreciate.

My clarinets in an important sense DON'T have a good low F, because it's almost impossible to play a SHARP low F when one is required. (Fortunately, that occurs very seldom in the literature -- has anyone got a good example?)

What do I mean, that it's a defect that I can't produce an 'out-of-tune' note?

Well, the fact is that playing in tune requires much more than reproducing on a clarinet the same pitches as those on an accurately tuned equal-tempered piano. (Indeed, playing in tune WITH JUST SUCH A PIANO requires much more than that!)

For example, it requires us to play major thirds and minor sevenths FLATTER than equal temperament in order to be in tune with other players in simple chords, and therefore -- this isn't always realised -- the roots of those chords SHARPER than equal temperament to be in tune with fixed pitch instruments if they happen to be playing thirds and sevenths.

A striking example of this sort of consideration is the first Eb chord in Mozart 39. The second violins have an open G string which is if anything sharp even to equal temperament, and the clarinets have G and Bb two octaves above. To have the Eb/G interval correctly small throughout the orchestra, the prevailing Eb has to be on the sharp side, and therefore the first clarinet has to play the Bb (written C) on the sharp side too, rather counterintuitively. The second clarinet's written A is a note that you'd instinctively flatten as a third in F major (sounding G in Eb major), but you don't want to do that too much because of the second violin G. All this has to be organised rather consciously, particularly if natural horns are being used, because the second horn G is then on the flat side! The player has to have the slide pushed in for the Introduction.

So, a good example of a sharp low F being needed would be one that had to be in tune with a piano chord containing a prominent G natural an octave and a third higher. I can't think of one right now -- though the analogy with the 'tricky' last chord of the 2nd movement of the Brahms F minor sonata springs to mind: THAT requires a delicately placed throat Bb, but fortunately throat Bb is fairly labile.

Tony

Post Edited (2006-12-12 15:43)

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Why is the low F flat? new

skygardener

2006-12-10 17:39