Added: 2 years ago
From: SamrFoster
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  • could you play what normally be a chromatic scale?

  • @pivotcup2580 No, the usual (12-edo or 12-tet) chromatic scale is not present on a Bohlen-Pierce clarinet, just as the Bohlen-Pierce scale is not present on an ordinary clarinet.

  • @SamrFoster I understand that but could you post a video of you playing from the lowest to the highest note? im really intrigued by this instrument :)

  • @pivotcup2580 Oh, I get it... Yes, I'll get that up in a day or two.

  • ok i was playing, i still didnt get what BP scale actually is, but if it is a 13tet variant, my flute does it pretty well. i tune it from C to Cb (or B major, whatever), and using same fingering i have an octave starting on C and ending on another C with C# fingering (sounding half tone lower, it means the octave goes from a low B to another B made with what would be a C fingering)

    anyway, i can make 2 octaves+2 half steps well tuned notes. the higher ones are pitchy because they are fifths

  • @ericoschmitt In terms of the pitches used, BP is actually close to 8-tet. That is, 8 chromatic steps in the BP scale is close to an octave (something like 30 cents flat). In my opinion, though, it shouldn't be thought of as dividing an octave at all; it was specifically conceived as an octaveless system.

  • @SamrFoster it is hard to get.. i was reading articles on wiki about it

    so.. can you play more than one "octave" of it on clarinet? fingering would change maybe?..

    what about harmonic series of wind instruments, are the notes out of the BP scale? (tonic, octave, fifth, octave, major third, seventh, octave, and so on)

  • @ericoschmitt The clarinet lacks the even harmonics, unlike other woodwinds. Its harmonic series *is* part of the BP scale. The interval called a twelfth in the usual scale (tonic to 3rd harmonic, aka a fifth one octave removed) is called a tritave in BP. A clarinet has a range of two full tritaves, plus a little more if you can coax out really high notes with good pitch.

    The other woodwinds' even harmonics do not belong in the BP scale, so you can't really make a BP oboe or flute or sax.

  • @SamrFoster aahm so you mean a clarinet has only octave and fifth harmonics, no major thirds and sevenths?

    and when you say clarinet has a range of 2 full tritaves in harmonics, lets say its tuned in C, it would have

    C1, C2, G2, C3, G3? or would that be two twelfths? like.. C1 C2 G2 G3 D4?

    what about other single reed like sax?

    also, using different fingerings for each "octave", wouldnt it be possible to play all bp notes on other kinds of woodwind?

  • @ericoschmitt A clarinet with fundamental C1 would have harmonics G2 E3 Bb3 D4, where that Bb is of course not a true Bb but a 7-limit 7th and those two highest can be pitchy and difficult to control.

    You could place the toneholes on a flute or oboe or sax so that the low register played the BP scale but then the next register would be wrong, because those pitches are an octave higher and so are NOT the continuation of the BP scale from the lower register.

  • @SamrFoster actually the flute has all those harmonics plus the even ones, so i can blow a G2 with C1 fingering

    its harder to control, but it is possible to make bp flutes in that way... i guess

    well my cello is tuned in just fifths so it is possible to play BP on it..

    i still think a non-octave scale is too weird!

    i may try it someday but i want to play 19tet first, maybe 22, then bp

    and thanks for all explanations, about the BP and the clarinet too, i was thinking about starting playing it! :)

  • @SamrFoster finally, what is the equivalent interval in 12-tet of an "octave" in the bp scale?

  • @ericoschmitt The tritave is the same interval* as the 12-tet twelfth, like from C1 to G2. Note that the 12-tet fifth, like from C1 to G1, is not present in BP. 

    *To be very accurate, the tritave is the same interval as a just twelfth, not an equal-tempered twelfth.

  • it sounds like 13 tet.. you could have achieved similar result by opening your regular clarinet, so the octave would be shorter than normal

    that way when you played the lowest Eb (not transposed, real Eb, with the last key of D open), and then a higher Eb they wouldnt sound like octave. the actual octave would be on the natural E

    tadaaaaann you got 13tet on clarinet.. at least i can do it with my flute (true octave has fingering of low C and high C#), but probably with clarinet it is possible

  • I wish he was wearing trowsers

  • !!!!!!!!!!!!! I really want one of these! I emailed Stephen Fox with an inquiry but he sort of dismissed my questions like I wasn't serious : -/

    Can you make more videos of this? I'd like to hear it in the clarion register!

  • multiple registers

  • does it have multiple registers, or just the chalumeau?

  • wow, that must have been really hard to calculate

  • I only had to count to 15.

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