We have now arrived at the clarinet. Although embodying a very ancient
principle--the "squeaker" reed which our little children still make,
and continued in the Egyptian arghool--the clarinet is the most recent
member of the wood wind band. The reed initiating the tone by the
player's breath is a broad, single, striking or beating reed, so
called because the vibrating tongue touches the edges of the body of
the cutting or framing. A cylindrical pipe, as that of the clarinet,
drops, approximately, an octave in pitch when the column of air it
contains is set up in vibration by such a reed, because the reed
virtually closes the pipe at the end where it is inserted, and like a
stopped organ pipe sets up a node of maximum condensation or
rarefaction at that end. This peculiarity interferes with the
resonance of the even-numbered partials of the harmonic scale, and
permits only the odd-numbered partials, 1, 3, 5, and so on, to sound.
The first harmonic, as we find in the clarinet, is therefore the third
partial, or twelfth of the fundamental note, and not the octave, as in
the oboe and flute.
In the oboe the shifting of the nodes in a conical tube open at its
base, and narrowing to its apex, permits the resonance of the complete
series of the harmonic scale, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and upward.
Pages:
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45