 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Bartmann
Date: 2009-12-16 14:38
Here is a website that shows the general tuning tendencies for different brands of clarinets.
http://www.clarissono.de/CS_Archiv/Akustik/A3_Klarinetten/A3K1_Intonationskurven/AkustikKlarIntonaKurven.html#leitner
And here is a link to the tuning tendencies of Buffet in specific.
http://www.clarissono.de/CS_Archiv/Akustik/A3_Klarinetten/A3K1_Intonationskurven/IntonationskurvenPDF/Buffet/IK0061_BUFFET_B_BAER.pdf
What I find interesting his how vibrato plays into this. The best vibrato sharpens and flattens the pitch by an EQUAL amount.
Look at how the lower chalumeau register: e, f, f# are all very flat. This is a typical intonation problem for Boehm clarinets. But to get these notes in tune I generally tighten my embouchure significantly. So ideal vibrato on these notes (for me at least) is impossible because I can't sharpen the notes any more; the vibrato on these notes is unequal. Vibrato on these notes, to me sound sickly, and to my tuner register as flat.
But a note like chalumeau b is very easy to create a nice vibrato because it is generally in tune. It is easy to sharpen and flatten the note equally, and to a varying degrees.
This could be why vibrato is not used often by clarinetists. The player can't just apply vibrato to any note of the clarinet because of tuning tendencies.
Perhaps this can be one of the reasons why an instrument tuned to twelfths is not ideal for vibrato. But a hint of vibrato, the sharpening and flattening of the note is subtle, seems to be acceptable in the clarinet community but also makes sense sonically as well.
Bartmann
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Author: Caroline Smale
Date: 2009-12-16 16:14
Vibrato does not have to be applied only by jaw pressure/pitch variation.
Some of the most attractive vibrato is a gentle variation of intensity obtained via the diaphram. I'm pretty sure that is how Jack Brymer obtained his unique sound.
secondly vibrato should be used very sparingly and only in the most appropriate places on a solo line, I can't imagine it being appropriate or effective on the lowest clarinet tones.
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Author: kdk
Date: 2009-12-16 17:10
String players I've talked to about vibrato seem fairly unanimous that vibrato, at least as it's produced by arm or wrist undulation, ideally begins at the pitch and goes below. Almost no movement above the true pitch, much as we like to complain that this frequently isn't the case in practice. So, I'm not sure that your image of an ideal vibrato that goes equally above and below the pitch is universally accepted. When i sing with vibrato I'm quite sure I'm going more below than above the pitch. Since the high part of the vibrato is the most intense (whether lip, jaw or breath induced) it's, therefore, probably the most audible part, so going significantly above the true pitch should give a strong sense of sharpness to the note. I think that the actual pitch range of a player's or singer's vibrato is part of his tone concept when using it and in practice probably varies from player to player.
In any case, oboists and bassoonists, not to mention singers, have similar intonation and tone quality issues in their lowest notes. That double reed players tend to be sharp and unstable instead of flat (while still quite stable on a clarinet) at the bottom of their ranges doesn't make the pitch less of a problem. Yet they use vibrato routinely despite these and many other "tuning tendencies." So I'm not sure the relative non-use of vibrato on clarinet has much to do with the specific problems you suggest, although that doesn't rule out entirely the possibility that overblowing twelfths or a basically cylindrical bore isn't part of the real explanation.
Karl
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2009-12-16 17:59
Find a combination of elements (mouthpiece/horn/voicing) that plays on the "higher" side and there should be no problem with vibrato on the clarinet's lowest notes.
Also, the Oehler system Wurlitzers compensate with a vent for low E and low F........no intonation issues there.
AND: There is the recent claim from Selmer that the bore of the Privilege gives you ideal pitch down there. I have played the horn briefly and although there is a tendency for the E and F to be better in tune than some of the competitors I didn't really find it to be in league with the Wurlitzer solution at all.
..............Paul Aviles
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