 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Simon Aldrich
Date: 2018-04-03 17:09
Attachment: Size comparison.jpg (1665k)
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In my local woodwind shop recently, there was a couple seeking info on a relative’s clarinet.
It was a Buffet high-pitch model, whose serial number looked like 4L735. Buffet appears to have removed their serial number look-up site, but there is a Buffet serial number site at:
https://www.adams-music.com/instrumenten/serienummer/buffet-crampon.asp?lid=1033
There was no serial number that started 4L, only 1L. By the photo attached, the first number could very well be a 1 and not a 4.
A clarinet with the serial number 1L735 would have been made in 1918.
The strange thing is that this instrument plays in tune with itself in the key of B natural!
As you can see from one of the photos, the clarinet is shorter than my Bb (A Yahama CSGII, pictured next to it), but noticeably longer than a C clarinet. I assumed that a HP Bb clarinet would be a bit shorter than a Bb clarinet, but I understood that HP did not raise the pitch a semitone. (Of course, the amount to which a HP instrument’s pitch is raised might not have been standardized.)
Another curious thing was that the barrel (a Boosey and Hawkes barrel that did not match the bore of the instrument) seemed too long for a short instrument, yet the throat tones were quite high compared to the other ranges.
The bell did not look like it matched the instrument and was not stamped.
The HP stamp looks less worn than the Buffet logo above it. Could the HP stamp have been put on later than the Buffet logo?
Is it luck that this instrument plays a full semitone higher than a Bb clarinet, or is that common in HP Bb clarinets?
Does anyone know anything about a possible 1918 HP Buffet clarinet that currently plays in tune a semitone above a Bb clarinet, making it effectively a clarinet in B natural?
Thanks in advance,
Simon
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Author: jdbassplayer
Date: 2018-04-03 17:24
This is actually a pretty common. I've seen many instances when people claim to have found a "rare" B natural or C#/Db clarinet when in reality these are just high pitched instruments. What we call high pitch was a range of pitches that varied from A=452Hz all the way to A=466Hz, the latter being roughly a semitone sharp. Unfortunately there is almost no literature for B natural clarinet so the trick of using a HP Bb clarinet as a LP B natural clarinet is more of a novelty than anything else.
-Jdbassplayer
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Author: Simon Aldrich
Date: 2018-04-04 15:15
Thank you for your help Jared and Ken.
I had not realized that high-pitch clarinets were as high as a semitone in some cases.
Simon
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2018-04-04 19:11
There were some Buffet clarinets built in the key of B (natural) - but they were most likely calibrated to 439-440Hz (instead of being HP).
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: TrueTone
Date: 2018-04-04 19:36
The barrel's not original like you said, Simon, and the upper joint looks to me like it was shortened some, as there should be a noticeable bit more space above the register pip and top trill key, so I think someone (possibly the couple's relative) probably tried to make it useable with changing pitch standards, and your comment on the throat tones being rather high also makes me think that's right, as they'd be rather sharp with that. (although what Chris posted is interesting, I didn't know they made any Clarinets in B Natural...)
Your Buffet's keywork looks remarkably like my Buffet Eb's though, so 1918 is right, like Ken's photoshopping of the serial shows-yours is also probably made the same week as mine even, mine is 1L7xx. (I can't read the first of those ones I replaced with an X very well, its either a 6 or an 8.)
I think that by the early 20th century that HP was basically standardized at about A=452 to about A=458, but I could be wrong about that. I've never seen an instrument from the 19th or 20th century that was still pitched at A=466, but I suppose it's still possible.
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