 The Clarinet BBoard
|
Author: Kat
Date: 2001-09-20 23:10
Just thought it might be interesting to put this topic up for discussion. What can clarinets do that flutes can't and also the other way around, what can flutes do that clarinets can't.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Eileen
Date: 2001-09-20 23:20
One difference is in the range. In the low register, a Bb clarinet can go down into the middle of the bass clef to concert D below middle C. I'm not sure exactly how low a flute can go but it is around middle C. This means that a clarinet can play some bass parts which a flute cannot.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Anji
Date: 2001-09-21 02:10
Flute players seem to get dates, must be all the free time left from not fiddling with reeds.
Clarinet players sneak into the audience when the Baroque stuff starts (no chart) and steal these dates away.
Seems to be good news on both sides.
anji
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: jmcaulay
Date: 2001-09-21 05:24
Many clarinets will burn; most flutes will not.
Hope this helps.
Regards,
John
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: GBK
Date: 2001-09-21 06:09
flute - (noun) - a sophisticated pea shooter with a range of up to 500 yards, blown transversely to confuse the enemy.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Stephen Froehlich
Date: 2001-09-21 19:24
You guys are incorrigible.
Is it me or do the flute sections seem to attract the back-stabbing, driven, quiet (often blond - hence the dates) overachievers and the clarinet sections more of the smart, laid-back (sometimes gothic) types?
As for musically, the flute seems to have a useful range closer to an Eb clarinet than a Bb. The clarinet has a unique and extremely useful lower register. The flute's lowest register is rather notoriously low volume. The flute also has a great deal many more overtones, hence the "airy" sound.
In terms of flourishes, etc. Flutes can double-tounge just like brass can as there is nothing in the way. This gives them an advantage in articulation.
In terms of tone quality - the flute is the bird, the clarinet the cat. (Perhaps we should describe all instruments in terms of "Peter and the Wolf".) I.e. the flute is innocence, the clarinet is tinged by evil. In the Bb, its typically, like a cat, warm and fuzzy with a knowing look in its eye and the implicit threat of evil. In the Bass, the evil is much more overt.
Beyond that, I recommend that you listen carefully next rehearsal.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Anji
Date: 2001-09-21 21:10
Like I said, after the joys frilly joys of double-tonguing are exhausted, they will always come back to those of us that can go deeper.
"Tinged" by evil?
More like bathed.
Flutes are the Sopranos of the wind section, Clarinets are the Altos.
(Go ask a singer, they'll set you straight.)
There's a good reason why Artie Shaw managed to marry so many times and Herbie Mann's favorite TV show was "Saturday Night Live"!
tweedly-deet
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Danielle
Date: 2001-09-22 00:38
Hehehe....you guys are funny.
There isn't much clarinet/flute rivalry in my band-it's more clarinet/trumpet. especially that idiot who sits behind me and blasts into my head every day.
Danielle
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Micaela
Date: 2001-09-22 02:30
The flutists are always sticking their instruments into each others' ears. No wonder they're a little off balance.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Laurie
Date: 2001-09-22 02:38
Hey Danielle, it's the same with my band - The flutes and clarinets are fine, it's thoes darn trumpets that cause all the problems !!!!
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Erica
Date: 2001-09-22 02:52
I hear ya on the trumpet thing... I hate when the first trumpet and first clarinet parts are doubling each other on higher notes! Me and the trumpet guy battle for intonation, it's really annoying! ...ahh, the joys band.
Erica
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Josh
Date: 2001-09-22 06:25
I rather disagree with the statement that flutes can "play more notes" than clarinets...the practical ranges of both instruments when played by accomplished and talented players are approximately three and a half octaves each, more when pushed (but GAWD, who wantsa hear THAT stuff?!?!)
They are EXTREMELY different instruments in terms of coloring and functionality...while both are extremely capable of just as many different forms of musical expression as the other, the clarinet seems best suited to velvety melodic lines, rich harmonies, and lush, sweeping arpeggios and runs (look at some of the more famous clarinet solos...Scheherezade, Rhapsody in Blue, the mini-cadenzas from Capriccio Espagnol, Le Coq D'or...they're all runny [and even drippy, in the case of the last one...]! :P), and the flute is perfect for chirpy, birdy "twiddly bits", sweet melodic lines (mmm...Peer Gynt, Morning...), and brilliant, flourishing arpeggios sweeping up into the topmost register, soaring above the orchestra. *sigh* Now I have to go listen to some of this stuff...you guys got me all excited about it :P
And you guys are SO right...what is UP with trumpet players? Where do they FIND these people?!?!?! (although, they're not ALL bad...my best friend in all the universe is a trumpet major at Eastman...but I think she's a fluke :P) Just turn around and blast a super C in their faces. (Better yet, pay a piccolo player to sneak up behind them and bust some Firebird...they'll be nice to you forever )
This is a fun topic...keep going! :-D
J
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Ted Donaldson
Date: 2001-09-22 10:52
low c bass clarinets can get at least 4 octaves. Flutes have all the fame because of some american pastry movie... Oh well...
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Pam
Date: 2001-09-22 12:35
I just started learning flute about 5-6 weeks ago. Definately different from the clarinet. The range is pretty good though not as low as the clari. On a standard C flute the lowest note is a middle c. Some flutes have a B foot and can go one note lower. To me it's different/odd because there is no register or octave key. Everything is done with the embouchure and the angle of the air going in. Fingerings are similar to our middle register on the clari. I think they are pretty cool actually, though the clarinet is still my favorite instrument.
I tend to agree about the trumpet thing though. ;-) They sit right behind us in orchestra and warm up playing as loud and as high as they can. I try to scoot their chairs back if I get there early. Boy are they loud.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2001-09-22 14:40
I dropped almost dropped flute for a year when I was young. Apart from the flashy, frivolous music it always had a sadness - a longing - in its tone. I played it most when I was depressed and noticed that this made me more depressed - it encouraged me to nurture the depression.
That was the year when I picked up the clarinet, which, by comparison, always had warmth in its tone.
Several years later I learnt the meaning and concept of the word 'depression'.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Casey
Date: 2001-09-22 14:52
ahahahah...
The clarinets can squeek a heck of alot better than flutes can.
The flute is silver.
The clarinet has a bell.
And...i havent seen a flute yet that has to deal with buying those dag burnit reeds.
*casey*
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2001-09-22 14:56
The flute plays a lot in its 3rd octave. Here there are, on average, at least twice as many finger changes between notes as there are on clarinet in altissimo, and blemishes in technique show up more because of some aspect of the instrument's response. So in this respect a flute is a more difdficult instrument. Many flute players successfully double on clarinet, but the other way round is rare indeed.
Pitch of a clarinet is far more stable with volume. If the player does not compensate in the way he blows a flute, the difference between a loud and soft note can be half a semitone. It is bliss to go from fff to ppp on clarinewt with almost no pitch compensation.
For much of the range a clarinet has a very wide volume range easily available compared with flute.
It is easier to humour pitch on flute, so, being a sympathetic player on flute, I adjust to the pitch of the clarinet palyer beside me.
The pitch effect of a very cold or warm environment is more disastrous for a clarinet (an effect of a register covering a 12th)
Flutes don't split!
When they play together the flute normally gets the melody and the clarinet gets the harmony.
The flute player has to learn vibrato.
Flute is trickier to repad, and has all those linkages to attend to.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: jenna
Date: 2001-09-22 19:24
what does a trumpet player use for birth control..?
his personality. =)
(this is my current favorite joke)
too bad my best friend/kind of boyfriend is a fantastic trumpet player. trust me.. he knows it. they all know it. the arrogance is stifling in some instances when i'm near the trumpet section.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Anji
Date: 2001-09-22 22:01
What does a trumpet player say when he meets a composer?
"Ya want fries with that?"
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: GBK
Date: 2001-09-22 22:37
All right... I can't resist.
What's the difference between trumpet players and government bonds?
Government bonds eventually mature and earn money.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Missy
Date: 2001-09-23 00:40
BTW -- I never developed a "flute lip". Flutes sound very pretty for anything: classical, jazz, Baroque, and Renaissance periods, even some rock stuff (Van Morrison, anyone?) etc. ... but, being partial to clarinets, as I've played now for seven inconsecutive years (after an unintended fifteen year hiatus), flutes can't burn in fires ... but they can melt!
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Missy
Date: 2001-09-23 00:51
And, P.S. -- for those of you in the US, and for those of you who're parents to preschool children, clarinet music is features in three children's programs: Marc Brown's "Arthur" series on PBS (where Binky Barnes playes a clarinet to expend all of his excess bullying energy), in the music score from the movie "My Dog Skip", in another PBS children's series, "Dragon Tales" and the piece de resistence, the Nickelodeon kids series, (kknown as Nick, Jr.), "Oswald"
Obviously, if I know these shows as well as I do (and I homeschool my oldest daughter, too) you can see why i prefer the clarinet over the flute. I don't need an instrument to drive me "lip" crazy! Ha, ha. Couldn't resist.
Flute players miss out on those damn good Van Doren reeds, too ...
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: IHL
Date: 2001-09-23 09:59
http://www.mit.edu/people/jcb/jokes/
http://www.geocities.com/Vienna/9044/clarinet.htm
don't kill the messenger.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2001-09-23 14:26
Flute players make their own reeds and adjust them WHILE they play!
The reed on a flute is made of air. It IS the airstream impinging on the edge of the embouchure hole, and this airstream vibrates up and down. I change the hardness, and indeed many characteristics of the cut as I play. I can even adjust the facing (effective length) by adjusting distance from lips to edge.
During a performance I use dozens of different reeds and they are all free! Wow!
Eat your heart out, clarinetist! Oh dear, that's me too.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
The Clarinet Pages
|
 |
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
