The imperfection of some of those overtones seem to be emphasised to an acutely sensitive ear by octave clarinets, where otherwise they might not cause the slightest twinge. Instead of the tones stacking nicely, they tend to have certain edgy timbre, not always pleasant in quality. They’re rich in odd-numbered partials, which result in overtones that spell out a complete dominant ninth chord. This is also why the lower oboe may swallow the upper oboe in an octave if the lower tone’s second partial is too dominant.īut clarinets are a special case, in that they don’t reinforce the second partial at all. Auxiliaries tracking below standard instruments will add a spectrum of timbre, the dominant partial of which will actually reinforce the root tone of player above. Underlying this phenomenon is the reinforcement of partials. Of course, all these problems go away when it’s an auxiliary doubling at the octave, because both instruments are at exactly the same respective register and level of projection. The upper player will drown out the lower player unless the dynamics are carefully controlled, and even then there will be difficulties balancing the quality of tone between the two players. For double-reeds, this will generally be the lower player, which on certain octave notes may go so far as to swallow most of the high player’s resonance. When two of the same wind instrument play melodically an octave apart, whichever is in the most resonant register will tend to dominate. But in an exposed melody, a number of problems may occur. Of course, this advice doesn’t necessarily apply in other functional applications, like harmonies (especially in combinations with other winds), doubling with strings, bass lines, and so on. Rimsky-Korsakov gently advises against their use, though he opens the door for doubling by auxiliaries at the octave, like contrabassoon below bassoon, or piccolo above flute. Octave melodies for wind instruments of the same model are generally problematic. ![]() Use extreme caution when scoring octave melodies for clarinets, and be aware that the overtones reinforce each other with great potency.
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