source file: mills2.txt Date: Sat, 16 Sep 1995 11:23:55 -0700 Subject: Re: clarinet microtones From: Gary Morrison <71670.2576@compuserve.com> In the basic sense, I'm kind of surprised by this performer's claim that multiphonics would be impossible on a German clarinet. It would seem like that would have the most to do with its fingering system, and, best I know, the old so-called Albert fingering system instruments are essentially gone at this point throughout the world. As far as I know, virtually all modern clarinets are keyed in the Boehm system the entire world over. That is not true, by the way, of the bassoon, and to a lesser degree not of the oboe. France, Spain, and a few other countries use a supposedly Boehm-inspired French keying system on their bassoons. Their bore and reed dimensions, and their overall sound, are also different. In the case of the oboe, the Conservatory system is pretty much universal, best I know, but there are manual, automatic, and semiautomatic (sounds like a gun eh?!) variants in how they manage its double octave key scheme. That in particular I imagine would have ramifications effects upon multiphonics. I understand that recently the flute has seen some enhancements to the now ubiquitous Boehm system, under the heading of the Cooper system, but I don't know the details of that. Perhaps this fellow is claiming that, despite having the usual Boehm fingering system, there are subtle differences in the dimensions used by his particular German manufacturer that make multiphonics infeasible. That strikes me as a little surprising, but not impossible. Received: from eartha.mills.edu [144.91.3.20] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Sat, 16 Sep 1995 20:25 +0100 Received: from by eartha.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) for id LAA26718; Sat, 16 Sep 1995 11:25:28 -0700 Date: Sat, 16 Sep 1995 11:25:28 -0700 Message-Id: <950916182131_71670.2576_HHB42-6@CompuServe.COM> Errors-To: madole@ella.mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu