The purpose of this section is to analyze the physical evidence of the mouthpieces in an effort to link changes in their shape and geometry to changes in performance practice and style. The shape and geometry of a mouthpiece have a great influence on the sound possibilities that we can obtain from it. Tone, articulation, volume, etc, are very related to the kind of mouthpiece used. Supposedly, these characteristics should align with the musical demands required of the clarinet players.
I focus my investigation on two aspects: reed position and national style. The reed position is an important performance practice issue when talking about the clarinet before the second half of the 19th century. From 1800 to 1850 a change occurred and clarinet players went from playing both with the reed against the upper lip and the bottom lip, being the former option the predominant one, to only choosing the last option. Do we see an according change in the shape of the mouthpieces?
On the other hand, during the first half of the 19th century, there are national differences regarding musical style: for example, German music compared with French music. Do we see a relation between the national styles and the mouthpiece design?
To study the mouthpiece shape and geomtry during this period, two clarinet collection were visited. The collections were the instrument collection at the Kunstmuseum Den Haag (former Gemeente Museum) and the Nicolas Shackleton Collection of clarinets, held by the Edinburg University.
Several clarinets from these collections were requested, to inspect their mouthpieces. The mouthpieces were measured by using an electronic vernier caliper and visual inspection for qualitative characteristics.
For each mouthpiece, the following measurements were gathered, either from the museum information or by direct inspection and measurement: date of creation, maker, city and country of origin, type of clarinet associated with the mouthpiece, height of the mouthpiece, dimensions of the window (length of the window, and wideness of the upper and bottom parts), length of the table, stamping marks, teeth marks, and special remarks if any.
The mouthpieces came from clarinets from various countries, mostly from Germany, France, England, and The Netherlands. Some scarce examples of Austria, the Czech Republic, and other unknown European locations, were also found.
Not all the mouthpieces inspected have been used: sometimes they didn’t meet the criteria to be used in this study. To be included in this study, it should be possible to date the mouthpiece, and the mouthpiece should be well-conserved enough. When the making date was not certain, an informed estimation was done; if this was not possible, the sample was discarded. After this screening, 44 samples remained.
Graphics were made to show visually the results of the research. These are dispersion graphics comparing different variables of the mouthpieces and have been made by using Python 3.8.8 running on Jupyter Notebook 6.4.2, employing the libraries Numpy, Pandas, Seaborn, and Matplotlib.
We will begin with the study of the reed position issue and how it relates, if so, to the mouthpieces shape and geometry.
The clarinet was invented at the end of the 17th century by Johann Christoph Denner. During the first six decades of its existence, it was played almost exclusively with the reed on top, opposite to what we universally do today.1
Evidence of this practice can be found in any of the anonymous English methods of the late 18th century2 as well as in the French ones. In words of Vanderhagen, in his Methode nouvelle et raisonée pour la clarinet (1785):
“Support the mouthpiece on the teeth and cover the reed with the upper lip, in no case touching the reed with the upper teeth, because the upper teeth have to sustain and press on the upper lip in order to pinch the high tones.”3
Another example can be found in the Méthode de clarinette by Lefevre (1802), in an illustration which shows a clarinet player with the reed facing up:
Apart from the methods, we also found proof of the use of a reed above technique in iconographic evidence: numerous pictures depict this way of placing the reed.4
In the last decades of the 18th century, players from the Hapsburg empire were the first to start playing with the reed against the lower lip5 and, by the beginning of the 19th century, the two reed positions could be found around Europe. Nevertheless, the situation varied greatly depending on the country.
In Germany, around the 1800s, we found evidence that using a reed below technique was considered a normal situation, and probably enjoyed a similar acceptance to playing with the reed on top. For example, Backofen, in his method from 1802, regards it as normal that people were playing either with the reed facing up or down.
We can derive another proof supporting this view from the physical evidence: a very useful indicator of the reed position is to be found in the maker’s stamp present – or not – on the mouthpiece. Makers frequently stamped all the clarinet joints, sometimes also including the mouthpiece. When the stamp is on the reed side of the mouthpiece, it seems quite clear that it was meant to be played with the reed facing up, so it would align with the rest of the stamps. In France and England, maker’s stamps were quite usual, normally with the stamp on the reed side. On the other hand, Germans often didn’t stamp their mouthpieces, while they were quite methodic in stamping all the other parts of the clarinet: “The phenomenon of unstamped mouthpieces is perhaps best explained as a tacit vote on the part of these makers for a choice of reed position.” 6
On the other hand, the situation in France was different. By the beginning of the 19th century, reed facing up was the majoritarian option, unlike Germany or Austria, and it will still be predominant for some decades. 7 As late as the 1830s, Berr - teacher of Paris Conservatoire - was playing reed down but he was going against the standard reed-above technique.8
Frédéric Berr was one of the first ones to advocate for playing reed below in France. The visit of the clarinetist Heinrich Baermann to Paris in 1817-1818 had a great effect on him, especially due to “his pianissimo sounds which were totally unknown in France”.9 Baermann played with the reed facing down and Berr became an enthusiastic supporter of this technique.
Not everyone agreed with him though, and we can see comments in this direction from Buteux, another teacher in the Conservatoire, in his method of 1836:
"The Germans who have given us the clarinet have kept the habit of playing with the reed below by pressing [the reed against] the lower lip. MICHEL and his student XAVIER LEFEVRE, who greatly improved the instrument, placed [the reed] above or against the upper lip. This principle adopted by our school distinguishes it from the German school. It has the advantage of providing mobility and sensitivity of execution, also clearness and pungency of sound, and generally more vigor throughout the entire range of the instrument."10
In any case, the reed below was gaining popularity, and the process of changing towards it was unstoppable: it was completed in France during the second half of the century.11
Regarding England, we find tutors as early as 1800 describing both reed positions, and at the same time, we encounter that figures like the English virtuoso Thomas Lindsay Willman played with reed on top till 1840.12
By the middle of the 19th century, playing with the reed below was undoubtedly the most spread option through all of Europe, and only in certain parts of Italy did clarinet players favor the reed above position. The preference for this way of playing was so great that in Naples it received the name of the “Scuola Napoletana”.13