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Vandoren is a manufacturer of mouthpieces, reeds, and accessories for the clarinet and saxophone families.
Vandoren was founded in 1905 by Eugène Van Doren (1873-1940), a clarinetist for the Paris Opera. The original location was eventually moved to 56 Rue Lepic, Paris, where his son, Robert Van Doren (1904-1996), took over the business around 1935 and designed the 5RV mouthpiece. [1]
In 1967, Bernard Van Doren (b. 1945), grandson of the aforementioned Eugène Van Doren, took over the company and designed the B45 clarinet mouthpiece. Bernard also introduced new machinery to the company, and moved the factory to its current location in Paris at Bormes les Mimosas in 1990. [2] With the improvements in technology, Vandoren was able to increase production, becoming a major manufacturer of reeds and mouthpieces for woodwind instruments. [3]
Vandoren clarinet and saxophone mouthpieces are made of vulcanised rubber called ebonite. Their V16 tenor saxophone mouthpieces are also available in a metal variant.
The company produces clarinet reeds in a variety of styles for French, German and Austrian style clarinets. [4]
Traditional reeds (blue packaging) are the most widely played style of reed. They are available in strengths from 1.5 to 5. They are made with a .09 mm thickness at the tip and a thickness of 2.8 mm at the heel. Vandoren V.12 reeds are produced from the thicker cane that is used to make saxophone reeds. At the tip, V.12 reeds have a thickness of .10 mm and at the heel, they have a thickness of 3.15 mm. This is equal to .124 inches, which is where the name V.12 comes from. The V.12 reeds come in strengths from 2.5 to 5. These strengths do not correspond to those of Vandoren traditional reeds (a strength 4 V.12 has a similar hardness to a strength 3.5 traditional reed). The V12 reed produces a darker tone than the traditional reed.
The 56 rue Lepic reeds (black packaging) are named after the address of the Vandoren central offices on 56 rue Lepic, Paris. They differ from the other two types of Vandoren reeds in that they come from the thickest cane. At the tip, 56 rue Lepic reeds have a thickness of .11 mm and at the heel, they have a thickness of 3.25 mm. They are very similar to German style reeds. V21 reeds were released from in 2015. They combine the shape of a 56 rue Lepic reed with a V.12 profile. [5]
The White Master is designed for German clarinet players, respectively. Their cut is calculated to suit the characteristics of the German system clarinet mouthpieces. Black Master reeds have a larger and thicker cut than White Master reeds. [6]
The Black Master is designed for Austrian clarinet players. They are available in two different models. The Black Master reed is designed for Austrian mouthpieces. This cut can also suit the Boehm system mouthpieces. The Black Master Traditional reed is designed in the tradition of the Viennese School for very closed Austrian mouthpieces with a long facing. [7]
Like clarinet reeds, Vandoren saxophone reeds come in a variety of styles. The most basic style is the Traditional reed (also known as the "Blue Box" reed), which is very similar to the Traditional clarinet reed. It features a thin tip and a strong heart. Although the Traditional reed is seen as a "classical" saxophone reed, it is extremely versatile and is used by many saxophonists in a variety of musical styles.[ citation needed ]
The JAVA reed, available in filed and unfiled varieties, is for playing jazz: the filed JAVA Red cut is more flexible with a slightly stronger tonal body than the original (green, unfiled) JAVA cut.[ citation needed ] In 1993, Vandoren began producing V16 reeds, also for jazz, which have a thicker tip and a longer pallet than the JAVAs.[ citation needed ] The ZZ is also intended for jazz.[ citation needed ]
Vandoren released in 2009 the V12 for classical music which is modeled after the success of the Vandoren V12 reed for clarinet. Then in 2016, the V21 reeds, a versatile model for various styles of music. [8]
Vandoren has a large range of accessories for clarinet and saxophone: these include ligatures, reed cases, cleaning swabs, mouthpiece cushions and cork grease, and even instrument harnesses and neck straps. Some other accessories include mouthpiece pouches, reed trimmers and reed resurfacers.
Saxophone and clarinet ligatures
Vandoren produces a wide range of ligatures for clarinet and saxophone players. They are made from materials such as metal, leather, and woven materials. These ligatures can be found for the B♭ clarinet, Bass clarinet, E♭ clarinet, and Alto clarinet. The same materials are used for saxophonists and can be found for the soprano saxophone, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone and baritone saxophone. Vandoren's Optimum, M/O, Klassik ligature, and leather ligature are all available for the clarinet and saxophone families. [9]
The clarinet is a single-reed musical instrument in the woodwind family, with a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell.
Embouchure or lipping is the use of the lips, facial muscles, tongue, and teeth in playing a wind instrument. This includes shaping the lips to the mouthpiece of a woodwind instrument or the mouthpiece of a brass instrument. The word is of French origin and is related to the root bouche, 'mouth'. Proper embouchure allows instrumentalists to play their instrument at its full range with a full, clear tone and without strain or damage to their muscles.
The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica include diatonic, chromatic, tremolo, octave, orchestral, and bass versions. A harmonica is played by using the mouth to direct air into or out of one holes along a mouthpiece. Behind each hole is a chamber containing at least one reed. The most common is the diatonic Richter-tuned with ten air passages and twenty reeds, often called the blues harp. A harmonica reed is a flat, elongated spring typically made of brass, stainless steel, or bronze, which is secured at one end over a slot that serves as an airway. When the free end is made to vibrate by the player's air, it alternately blocks and unblocks the airway to produce sound.
The oboe is a type of double-reed woodwind instrument. Oboes are usually made of wood, but may also be made of synthetic materials, such as plastic, resin, or hybrid composites.
The saxophone is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to produce a sound wave inside the instrument's body. The pitch is controlled by opening and closing holes in the body to change the effective length of the tube. The holes are closed by leather pads attached to keys operated by the player. Saxophones are made in various sizes and are almost always treated as transposing instruments. A person who plays the saxophone is called a saxophonist or saxist.
Woodwind instruments are a family of musical instruments within the greater category of wind instruments.
A reed is a thin strip of material that vibrates to produce a sound on a musical instrument. Most woodwind instrument reeds are made from Arundo donax or synthetic material. Tuned reeds are made of metal or synthetics. Musical instruments are classified according to the type and number of reeds.
Overblowing is the manipulation of supplied air through a wind instrument that causes the sounded pitch to jump to a higher one without a fingering change or the operation of a slide. Overblowing may involve a change in the air pressure, in the point at which the air is directed, or in the resonance characteristics of the chamber formed by the mouth and throat of the player.
The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B♭ (while the alto is pitched in the key of E♭), and written as a transposing instrument in the treble clef, sounding an octave and a major second lower than the written pitch. Modern tenor saxophones which have a high F♯ key have a range from A♭2 to E5 (concert) and are therefore pitched one octave below the soprano saxophone. People who play the tenor saxophone are known as "tenor saxophonists", "tenor sax players", or "saxophonists".
A double reed is a type of reed used to produce sound in various wind instruments. In contrast with a single reed instrument, where the instrument is played by channeling air against one piece of cane which vibrates against the mouthpiece and creates a sound, a double reed features two pieces of cane vibrating against each other. This means, for instruments with the double reed fully exposed, that the air flow can be controlled by the embouchure from the top, bottom and sides of the reed. The term double reeds can also refer collectively to the class of instruments which use double reeds.
Conn-Selmer, Inc. is an American manufacturer of musical instruments for concert bands, marching bands and orchestras. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Steinway Musical Instruments and was formed in 2003 by combining the Steinway properties, The Selmer Company and United Musical Instruments.
A single-reed instrument is a woodwind instrument that uses only one reed to produce sound. The very earliest single-reed instruments were documented in ancient Egypt, as well as the Middle East, Greece, and the Roman Empire. The earliest types of single-reed instruments used idioglottal reeds, where the vibrating reed is a tongue cut and shaped on the tube of cane. Much later, single-reed instruments started using heteroglottal reeds, where a reed is cut and separated from the tube of cane and attached to a mouthpiece of some sort. By contrast, in a double reed instrument, there is no mouthpiece; the two parts of the reed vibrate against one another. Reeds are traditionally made of cane and produce sound when air is blown across or through them. The type of instruments that use a single reed are clarinets and saxophone. The timbre of a single and double reed instrument is related to the harmonic series caused by the shape of the corpus. E.g. the clarinet is only including the odd harmonics due to air column modes canceling out the even harmonics. This may be compared to the timbre of a square wave.
The contrabass sarrusophone is the deepest of the family of sarrusophones, built in three sizes pitched in E♭, C or B♭. It was made in the 19th and early 20th centuries, primarily in France by its inventor and Parisian instrument maker Pierre-Louis Gautrot and his successor Couesnon & Co., and Evette & Schaeffer. It was also made in Italy by Milan manufacturers Romeo Orsi and Rampone & Cazzani, and in the United States by C. G. Conn, who built instruments in E♭ for US military bands. Romeo Orsi and the German instrument maker Benedikt Eppelsheim make individual contrabass sarrusophones on request.
Ronald Caravan is an American classical musician. He is a clarinetist, saxophonist, teacher, composer, and arranger.
The mouthpiece of a woodwind instrument is that part of the instrument which is placed partly in the player's mouth. Single-reed instruments, capped double-reed instruments, and fipple flutes have mouthpieces while exposed double-reed instruments and open flutes do not. The characteristics of a mouthpiece and reed can play a significant role on the sound of the instrument.
A reed clipper is a small tool used by clarinet or saxophone players to adjust the single reeds used on those instruments. The clipper is used to trim off a portion from the tip of the reed, similarly to a nail clipper. This can make a soft reed harder or more resistant, remove imperfections on the tip, or extend its life. Clipped reeds are also believed to produce a darker, warmer sound.
Eric Marienthal is a Grammy Award-nominated Los Angeles-based contemporary saxophonist best known for his work in the jazz, jazz fusion, smooth jazz, and pop genres.
Rue Lepic is a street in the former commune of Montmartre, in the 18th arrondissement of Paris, climbing the hill of Montmartre from the Boulevard de Clichy to Place Jean-Baptiste-Clément.
Saxophone technique refers to the physical means of playing the saxophone. It includes how to hold the instrument, how the embouchure is formed and the airstream produced, tone production, hands and fingering positions, and a number of other aspects. Instrumental technique and corresponding pedagogy is a topic of much interest to musicians and teachers and therefore has been subjected to personal opinions and differences in approach. Over the course of the saxophone's performance history, notable saxophonists have contributed much to the literature on saxophone technique.
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