Author: Ralph "Vintage" Morgan
Date: 2002-05-31 14:01
Dear Chapa;
I noticed your quest for a good jazz clarinet mouthpiece, and, in your
question about the perceived flat tuning of your R-13. It is seldom that
I speak up in the chat sites, except to address a very elementary, but
scientifically complex sublect.
Concerning the flatness in your clarinet, when the makers 'design' and
produce a clarinet, they may, (or more often, may not, these days) rec-
ognize the fact that the original blueprints for a clarinet were,(or
should have been) devised in such a way that, for the finished
instrument to tune properly to A-440, the barrel joint furnished with
the indtrument WOULD have to be pulled the thickness of a dime, or .055"
to play at proper pitch. It is MOST IMPORTANT TO NOTE HERE THAT THIS
WILL ONLY BE TRUE IF THE CCUBIC VOLUME OF AIR IN THE CHAMBER OF THE
MOUTHPIECE IS EXACTLY THE SAME AS THAT REPRESENTED BY ONE OF THE
'CONSTANT' NUMERICAL FIGURES IN THE EQUATIONS USED TO DETERMINE THE BORE
SIZE, LENGTH, AND TONE HOLE SIZES AND PLACEMENTS used to produce the
instrument.( quite a mouthfull, yes?) The fact I have stated has not
been written about by anyone in my memory, and so the importance of it
has very silently stolen away into the dim dark past. In measuring many
hundreds of different makes and models of clarinet mouthpieces, I have
yet to find one with anything near the proper cubic volume of the
chamber, the few exceptions in history being the old mouthpieces of
around one hundred years ago, when the chambers were of an A-shaped
configuration. The tendency of all more modern mouthpieces, when made on
machines, to be about 30% too small. When one looks into the chamber
from the tip-rail end, the "window", or throat, has straight up and down
sides, and very narrow, at that. That seems to be the only way machines
can cut that area. The last more modern one I have seen and played was
that one which belonged to, and was made by, Alexander Selmer himself.
As I last knew, it belonged to Emil Shmactenburg, the late bass
clarinetist of the Cincinnati Symphony, at whose home I had the distinct
honor of playing it.
So, what is the point? Well, first, please keep in mind that the bore of
the clarinet does not begin with the top of the barrel jopint, as the
mouthpiece makers seem to think, but at the tip rail of the mouthpiece.
Indeed, since that is the beginning, it is also the most important and
sensitive portion of the bore. It must have a proper cubic volume in the
chamber, or the clarinet does not stand a ghost of a chance of playing
in tune, with an even scale, and with even timbre and response. Do you
recognize there any problems you may be having with your instrument? Or
perhaps you can add the problems of a thin sounded out-of-tune throat
Bb, or stretched twelths, or a n ever sharper altissimo, (also thinner
sounding up there)? Well, perhaps you should look for a mouthpiece which
has the acoustically correct chamber volume and throat configuration to
correct those problems, instead of blaming them on the instrument.
Mostclarinets are well designed since they are copies of copies of
copies of the original SELMER clarinets which came into being in the
1880,s, and were the generally used ones in the world until WWII.
Now, the real simple WHY. Any note on the clarinet, or any other
instrument, to be heard in tune, must be produced by a VERY FINITE CUBIC
VOLUME OF AIR. Those various cubic volumes are measured in the
thousandths of cubic centimeters, so small they are not visible to the
naked eye. Do see, then, that if the volume of air in the mouthpiece is
too little by about 30%, then the scale on the clarinet will vary
greatly in and of itself. Of course, most players school themselves to
'fix' their embouchures, or reeds, compensate in some way, for the
discrepancies, but that does not remedy the cause. That is why I madethe
decision when I retired as Chief Woodwind Designer for The SELMER
Company 22 years ago, to be sure and remedy those discrepancies in
mouthpieces, including those for classical and jazz, and every other
mode. What I have put my two cents in about here is only the tip of a
very complex but exciting science called accoustical design, but one
which has never changed, and never will, as long as 2 plus 2 equals 4.
Thank you for the opportunity to hopefully be of some help.
Musically yours in Christ,
Ralph 'Vintage'Morgan
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