 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Classical Saxophonist
Date: 2013-09-24 16:14
Are there any high baffle clarinet mouthpieces? There are some high baffle saxophone mouthpieces (which ruin the sound of the saxophone).
I would be interested to see if high baffle mouthpieces also ruin the sound of the clarinet.
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Author: NBeaty
Date: 2013-09-24 17:08
It's a bit of a leap to say the high baffle ruins the sound of saxophone mouthpieces. This design feature usually is accompanied by a very open tip, leaving the high baffle to compensate by adding a bit of brilliance and projection to the sound. A friend of mine just recently played as a finalist in the T. Monk competition in DC on a high baffle tenor mouthpiece that sounds fantastic.
To my knowledge, there aren't clarinet mouthpieces that have the extreme high baffle that certain saxophone mouthpieces do. Naturally, there are higher and lower baffles in clarinet mouthpieces, as well as a variety of concavity considerations. Generally, a higher baffle makes the mouthpiece feel like it has a bit closer tip opening and creates a bit more "eee" type voicing. There can be a point where it can compromise flexibility, but most of the time a bit higher baffle adds brilliance and point to the sound.
There may be some oddball clarinet mouthpieces with the very high baffle\extreme drop off that sax mouthpieces have, but they are not common. My guess would be that they would not get a "mainstream" sound and would be most likely preferred by doublers or others that don't necessarily have to have a sound that is in the realm of traditional clarinet sound.
I'd like to see some pictures and\or a list of any of these mouthpieces for clarinet as well. I wouldn't assume that it would "ruin" the sound though. I would use ruin in the context of dropping the mouthpiece and breaking off part of it. While that is fixable, the mouthpiece would be essentially ruined from what it originally was (any fixing requires at least a little bit of refacing).
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Author: Classical Saxophonist
Date: 2013-09-25 15:50
Well, I've never heard a high baffle mouthpiece that I thought sounded good. I can immediately tell when someone is playing one.
The sound is too drastically different from a classical saxophone timbre.
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2013-09-26 15:34
You are talking about extremes (certainly extremes that may not exist in the clarinet mouthpiece world perse).
A clarinet mouthpiece that has LESS of a concavity of the baffle will allow the reed to "spring back" faster (and offer less resistance). Of course this affects the timbre making things brighter. Off hand I can say the Portnoys and Brillharts are about the straightest baffles I've seen and they do play brighter.
Arguing if one is worse than another may be like arguing politics. But one has the ability to chose their own set up for their purposes.
..................Paul Aviles
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Author: Merlin_Williams
Date: 2013-09-26 16:23
"Well, I've never heard a high baffle mouthpiece that I thought sounded good. I can immediately tell when someone is playing one.
The sound is too drastically different from a classical saxophone timbre."
Not every genre of music requires a classical saxophone timbre.
Horses for courses; use the right tools to get the job done.
Jupiter Canada Artist/Clinician
Stratford Shakespeare Festival musician
Woodwind Doubling Channel Creator on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/c/WoodwindDoubling
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Author: David Spiegelthal ★2017
Date: 2013-09-26 18:50
A technical concern with high-baffle clarinet mouthpieces (the few that exist) is that they are very prone to squeaking. Clarinet is inherently squeak-prone (as we all know too well), and as in the saxophone world, a high baffle promotes the production of high partials in the sound (i.e. a "bright" sound), which unfortunately also promotes the initiation of squeaks if there is any imbalance of the facing, especially at the tip.
This phenomenon also exists with sax mouthpieces (and I should know, I play daily on stainless-steel Brilhart Level-Air mouthpieces on bari, tenor and alto; and these have about the highest baffles on the planet) --- but because of the different nature of saxophone sound production the tendency to squeak is not as pronounced as on clarinet, and when it exists is easier to mitigate.
I guess what I'm saying is that I wouldn't recommend a high baffle on a clarinet mouthpiece. And subjectively, just my personal opinion, your mileage may vary, etc. ---- every high baffle clarinet mouthpiece I've heard has sounded terrible. I say this not as a classical clarinet purist, because I am not one. But I doubt that any of my favorite non-classical clarinetists (that would be Paquito, Buddy DeFranco, Benny and Artie) use/used high baffle mouthpieces (ever).
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Author: NBeaty
Date: 2013-09-26 19:51
Classical saxophonists (of which I can safely assume you are a part) don't seem to prefer these high baffle pieces. As I previously stated, they are often found paired with large tip opening pieces, which are more often jazz pieces (vandoren Jumbo, for example).
I don't think these pieces would sound great in recital or orchestra settings for saxophone since they are "out there" enough to not fit in to the normal variations of classical saxophone sounds.
Artie Shaw's clarinet mouthpiece (I've tried the mouthpiece he played most of his recordings on) has a large tip opening. Other jazz clarinet greats have some similar mouthpieces, but it's worth it to note they played a good bit of classical repertoire with them (often pieces that were written for them).
If you want a quick answer to your question: Yes, there are clarinet mouthpieces that are in extremes and do not fit within the normal spectrum of acceptable classical sounds.
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Author: Classical Saxophonist
Date: 2013-09-27 01:49
I would be very interested to hear a high baffle clarinet piece to see if my assumptions are correct. Anyone have a link to a video?
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