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Re: Clarinet's High Voicing Questions

Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2022-09-02 20:53

Klarnt wrote:

> 1. Why does the Clarinet require such a high voicing and/or
> tongue position? I know it's needed for tuning, tone, and notes
> speaking... but what is the fundamental, acoustical, and/or
> scientific cause for needing such a high air speed?

I suspect there isn't a "fundamental, acoustical, and/or scientific" cause for **needing** a "high tongue position." I never heard in my own studies or through a good deal of my playing experience any discussion of "high tongue" or even air speed except as a way to make the altissimo range more reliable. I had no problem with tuning or notes speaking (unless I was pinching off the reed) and others' opinion of my tone seemed favorable (I always liked what I heard when I listened to recordings of myself).

A constantly high tongue position seems to be an element of the old "French school" but even then I don't think in my student days (mid-1960s to early '70s) it was much of a feature of the playing I heard locally. I read in one place a suggestion by Bonade that the mouth should pronounce "oo" with the lips and "ee" with the inside of the mouth (a nasal "u" in French, an umlauted "o" in German). Maybe other French players wrote the same thing, but I never saw it (this was very, very pre-Internet and pre-Google). My early teachers were all stylistically descended from French players, and I never heard anything but "open your throat."

I would concentrate less on "high tongue" and "fast air" and maybe think more about the musical quality of what's coming out.

Karl

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