Author: mschmidt
Date: 2008-02-19 17:42
What Chris says is certainly a good deal of the explanation, but I think there may be something else involved as well. The only parts of the reed that actually clap together are the tips; the back of the reed is essentially a cavity with flexible walls--an extension of the overall cavity of the oboe itself. Increase the volume in this cavity with a wide open reed, and you lower the resonance frequency of the overall reed-oboe cavity. It may not seem like much of a volume change, but it's at the narrow end of the oboe, where small changes make for big differences.
As for why a reed would be more open, I can't give you a good explanation, other than it has sometimes been my experience. When you soak a reed, not all parts are going to absorb moisture at the same rate, meaning that some parts of the reed will swell faster than others, resulting in more or less curvature of the blades.
Mike
Still an Amateur, but not really middle-aged anymore
|
|
The Oboe BBoard
.jpg){kind=small}
