As composers and clarinetists, one thing we know about the clarinet is that its distinctive sound comes in large part from the fact that it only has access to odd partials in the harmonic series. This is all very well and good, except that because the clarinet is completely out of tune with itself, as composers, you can’t actually use that information.
You can’t write harmonics of certain notes, or spectral multiphonics based on those harmonics, without knowing which partials are out of tune and in which direction they lead. And guess what? There aren’t any rules for this out-of-tuneness. So what you actually need is some charts and audio examples, and that’s where I come in.
If this post was useful to you, you might also find that on spectral multiphonics for Bb and bass clarinets helpful. Or even that on spectral multiphonics for contrabass clarinet. Spectral multiphonics are also a kind of overblown harmonic.
For clarinetists: Practising harmonics is an invaluable way to increase the strength and flexibility of your embouchure. It’s also a great way to understanding how the instrument works, and where alternate fingerings in the high register come from. It also helps you to stretch your altissimo register, and for anyone interested in really learning how to play very very high, I would highly recommend getting yourself a copy of Joseph Marchi’s Etude des Harmoniques et du Suraigu. He explains beautifully how to reach for various harmonics, but I’ll quickly share what has for me been his most useful advice: DO NOT BITE. Do note bite down in order to produce high notes. It will work, until a certain point, but it will also limit you, tire you out and cause you pain. It will also be very difficult for you to produce legato connections between different harmonics. The thing to focus on when practising going up and down the harmonics is to think about the relaxing and contracting of the vocal cords. It is these muscles that produce the correct level of airflow and tension in order to hit those harmonics!
Just in case it’s not clear what I mean by clarinet harmonics: in all of the examples below I am using the fundamental fingering (the one that comes before the bar line – a B natural in the first example), in order to produce all the tones that come after that. My fingers never move, and I adjust the pitches by changing air flow and altering the pressure on my vocal cords. Hope that makes sense!
The first thing I want to present is a chart of some relatively easy to achieve harmonics (everything here is notated as written – in Bb) and what they sound like. I’ll also include a sample of the same harmonic series as a spectral multiphonic. Each of these are produced by removing the register key and overblowing the harmonic spectrum (so each multiphonic has a fundamental a 12th below the pitch notated in the chart – a middle line B is a low E below the stave, a fourth space C is a low F, etc.). So the first spectral multiphonic example could be notated as such:
(Of course there are a dozen other ways this could be notated – graphically with squiggly lines to indicate movement between harmonics for example – but the point is that you can be fairly specific about the pitches!)
What you’ll notice about the spectral multiphonics, and this is very important, is that I can’t get to all of the high harmonics without starting to lose the low fundamental. This is much easier on the bass clarinet (the wider bore gives me more flexibility), but in some of the examples you’ll hear the low fundamental drop out. These don’t sound very nice, but I’ve left them in because I think it’s really important that composers hear what happens when you notate spectral multiphonics with harmonics that go too high. Use your ears, you can hear how many are possible on each pitch and how there are fewer and fewer as I ascend chromatically. It is of course, possible to do sweeping glissandi between the harmonics, which I demonstrate in this post.
And now for the first chart (more information on harmonic trills and colour fingerings follows below, so keep reading!):
| Notated Spectrum | The Spectrum (Audio) | As a Multiphonic (Audio) |
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If you’d like a .pdf of the entire chart for easy reference, you can download that here!
Now, the question is then how can you use this information as a composer? Part of that is of course, up to you and your imagination, but I can suggest for example, using the harmonic possibilities as colour fingerings. My favourite group of these are ones that produce colour trills on pitches from G5 – C6 as in the following example:
And here’s what they sound like. Isn’t it beautiful, the way the lower pitch sneaks in during the trills, colouring the note? Note that for the C natural, there are two possible harmonics, one on B and one on D#, and the different colours possible for this note.
One other quick note about these: these colour fingerings are made up just of harmonic fingering alternatives. It’s also quite possible (and usually a bit easier), to use colour fingerings based on slight microtonal variations of the fingering (using the same harmonic). This is simply another alternative, and one that can be a bit more dramatic!
What follows is a chart detailing pitches from D5 to C6, with harmonic trill possibilities and sound file examples. Some of them work better than others, use your ears to decide which suits your music best. And if you want a .pdf of the whole chart, download it here.
| Notation | The Trills(Audio) |
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Pingback: Index / Table of Contents (scroll down for recent blogposts) | heather roche
Hi Heather, do you really mean old partials, or maybe odd partials?
I must be getting odd.
(Thanks Bruce!)
Hi Ms. Roche,
I have a little question regarding a piece of clarinet repertoire. In your other post, you used Sciarrino’s “Let me die before I wake” as an example of spectral multiphonic tremolos. The first tremolo in that piece, if I am not mistaken, colours a high C, just above the staff, with two fingerings based on the fundamentals of E-flat and E. I have the score in front of me, and the title page indicates that it is for B-flat clarinet. If the score is for B-flat clarinet, how can the clarinetist finger the fundamental for E-flat, when it is a semitone below the possible range of the instrument? Some of the other tremolos also don’t seem to be in your chart; I’m wondering if this is a matter of me failing to understand his notation or whether I’ve been missing something about the nature of spectral harmonics in general.
By the way, your site is enormously helpful, and I thank you sincerely.
Haotian Yu
Good morning,
Sciarrino’s work was written for a full-Boehm system clarinet. These instruments aren’t played by that many players anymore, but they do have a low Eb key! (The system was very popular in Italy, so we see the use of this low Eb turning up in a lot of other clarinet pieces, the other thing that comes to mind immediately is Giorgio Netti’s clarinet solo.)
Heather, thank you for this excellent website! A goldmine for composers. The first fruits of which, for me, will be heard with the alterity.co woodwind quintet this coming November. Can I send you the recording when I have it?
Of course! Look forward to hearing it Keith. :)
Heather, thank you for this wonderful website. It is a goldmine for composers.
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Hi! Wonderful site, I just wanted to give a heads up that it looks like a link is broken.
It’s the link in this sentence: ” It also helps you to stretch your altissimo register, and for anyone interested in really learning how to play very very high, I would highly recommend getting yourself a copy of this book.” The “this book” looks like it should be a link? At least running chrome it only appears as bolded and doesn’t open to anything. Hope this helps!
Thanks for all your work,
Kelley
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Hey Heather! First of all, I really appreciate you and your blog. It is amazing! But I got a little confused about the notation of trills on this page. Do you trill between the indicated notes including both fundamental and the harmonic, or do you trill between the harmonic and the fundamental? I hope I have verbalized my confusion correctly. Thank you for your response already. Lots of love!
Hi Saim, it’s a trill between the harmonics, you’ll still hear the fundamental(s)!
hi heather. i’m a composer from the philippines and as a composer in a country where stuff like this has very limited resource i’d like to thank you for sharing these ideas and opening more of my mind. i used to think the clarinet is a bore of an instrument but after seeing and hearing extended techniques it made me reconsider. i have an ear for some contemporary sound or the modern ways and your techniques really has helped me think of ways to write for my own materials.
would just like to ask about colour fingerings. i’ve been all over the internet on different fingerings on how to achieve the sound above. but to no avail. i understand the technique and how it works but since finding a good clarinetist on my area who knows different unorthodox fingerings would take me 100 years (the very least, i reckon). i have a clarinetist friend but he knows only the conventional way on playing it. and sadly, he’s the only one i can lean on because he’s the only clarinetist i know. anyway, i used to go to music school but i had to stop because of how expensive it is. but i dont let me stop me from doing what i love which is writing not-so-common music. anyway, i hope you can help me. thank you so much, again for sharing these ideas.
Hi Yui – thanks for your comment, I’m glad it’s useful to people in places with limited resources —
I’ve been meaning to do a post on colour fingerings for such a long time, but it’s a major project, because each “starting note” will have so many options, and to notate and record them all will take me about a week! I _will_ do it some day because you’re right, it’s a real missing point with this blog, but for now I just have to do shorter projects that I can complete in a day…
Anyway, there’s not really a magical solution to this, all I can recommend is getting a clarinet and trying things yourself, as colour fingerings are not difficult to work on – just take your starting pitch and then try adding and removing fingers in different places, you’ll find many options!
Hi Heather,
I’m currently writing a piece for bass clarinet, I just wanted to make sure is this technique applicable on bass Clarinet.
Hi Kamram,
The technique is, yes, but the pitches will be slightly different!
omg love you so much, I’ve been searching for a chart like this for long time and now I can clearly understand how to write harmonics for clarinet efficiently. <3
Yaaay! Enjoy :)