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Re: Undertone

Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2007-02-27 12:38

Tony, that's a helpful article. Thanx.

Do any modern composers work with clarinet players to set up clarinets deliberately to emphasize the grunt instead of get rid of it? I had a major problem with adjusting an old metal clarinet that grunted and even ciphered. It might be interesting to adjust it "wrong" on purpose, for special effects, although I didn't do it.

I don't know if clarinet players use that term--a cipher on a pipe organ happens when a pipe plays all by itself, without the organist touching a key. On a clarinet, what I call a cipher happens when I move around with the clarinet in my hands but not in my mouth. With a quick lunge or turn, or by swinging the clarinet, I can get a faint hooting noise just from air movement through the open tone holes, and can vary the pitch with fingerings. I've only ever encountered it with metal clarinets with the tone holes "on stilts".

When I went to the International Saxophone Symposium in Virginia last month, I was intrigued with the way some modern composers made use of non-blown tones. French saxophonist Philip Geis, in a bass sax recital arranged at the last minute when a quartet cancelled, made spectacular use of these tones in performances of music he composed for himself. He gets the tone simply by smacking the key down hard, without blowing. There's enough air in that big bore for the sudden push of that key slapping down to vibrate the column, loudly enough to produce a pitch the audience can hear--I was in about the middle of the hall and it sounded pianissimo, but perfectly clear. Couldn't wait to come home and try it! Discovered it's possible to do the same thing on contra-alto clarinet, although I haven't had much success with it on soprano clarinets--the tone is there, but what I've achieved is too quiet for someone to use in a concert.

Lelia
http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/Lelia_Loban
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