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RE: German facing mp with french clarinets

Author: Gregory Smith
Date: 2001-10-29 00:16

DANIEL ASKED:

"I have recently borrowed a Viotto N1 german mouthpiece from my teacher (he imports these mouthpieces for Holland). I have played three weeks on it in combination with my set of Buffet Rc's and seemed very satisfied with general tone colour and response.

I have then asked myself if German mouthpieces really are adequate on french bores. I've asked my friend Ren� Hagmann of Servette Music Geneva about this and he tells me that there are intonation problems in some registers (short notes : left hand without octave key and high notes) caused by the smaller chamber.

Then does anyone know if the Viotto german mouthpieces have a french chamber ?

If not, the above stated is maybe wrong. I myself feel very very confortable playing on this equipment, and I haven't noticed any problems with intonation in the registers described by Ren� (which I trust 100 %). My teacher (Bas De Jongh) is a very respected player in Holland and he would of probably told me if there was a problem. And by the way, in Holland many players who cannot afford Wurlitzers play buffets with german mouthpieces.

Any scientific comments about this will be greatly appreciated

Thank's

Best Regards

Daniel Bouwmeester"
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To clarify:

There are three different machine made mouthpieces being talked about here.

1) Zinner/Viotto French style mouthpiece with N1 facing (made in germany)

2) Zinner/Viotto German style mouthpiece with N1 facing (made in germany)

3) Zinner/Viotto German-Reform style mouthpiece with N1 facing (made in germany)

*The N1 designation refers only to the facing*.

ALL 3 have different interiors to fit the tuning and sound characteristics of 1 of the 3 acoustically different clarinets. They are not (optimally speaking) interchangeable.

ADDITIONALLY, the French and German mouthpiece tenon sizes are of differing sizes. French sockets will not fit German sockets and the other way around.

I have had experience with both (since I play both German and French clarinets in the Chicago Symphony).

Gregory Smith

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