The Benade NX clarinet

The Benade NX clarinet

Stephen Fox

The Benade NX clarinet, designed by the renowned acoustician Arthur Benade, will be familiar in name if not in detail to members of the ICA through articles in The Clarinet and a demonstration at the ICA conference in Chicago in 1994.This paper reports on a project aimed at examining the NX from a fresh perspective, and developing it into an instrument suitable for series production and for use by musicians in the real world.

History

A physicist by profession, Benade was a keen amateur musician with a lifelong passion for the workings and history of musical instruments, and the practical ability to modify and construct instruments himself.

His ideas on clarinet design took shape over many years; they are summarized briefly and non-technically (with the physics available in scholarly journals) in his posthumously published articles “Benade’s NX Clarinet: its Genesis” in The Clarinet, February/March 1994, and “On the Tuning of Clarinets” in The Clarinet, November/December 1990.

Beginning in the late 1970s, Benade built a pair of clarinets (starting with existing instruments and modifying them progressively), incorporating a number of features- either novel or inspired by instruments of the past- which he viewed as improvements over current clarinet designs; he gave them the designation “NX” (the precise meaning of which is no longer known).These instruments were developed to the point where they became Benade’s preferred choice for his own music making, and he felt that the acoustical design fulfilled his original objectives.He was aware, however, of some awkwardness in keywork and certain other drawbacks that could make the design problematic if offered commercially.This work was cut short by Benade’s illness and untimely death in 1987.

George Jameson, a woodwind technician and long time collaborator of Benade’s, then took up the project and built his own pair of NX clarinets.These were reported on in his article “Benade’s NX Clarinet: Mechanical and Other Considerations” in The Clarinet, May/June 1994, and presented in a lecture recital at the ICA conference in Chicago in 1994.Jameson's clarinets were acoustically similar to the originals but had a completely new system of keywork incorporating a number of Jameson's own ideas, which however remained very much at the prototype level (as well as being perhaps somewhat intimidating to traditional eyes!).This research was again terminated by George's own passing in 1996.

In 1998 it was suggested that I contact Benade’s wife Virginia with a view to taking the instrument to the next level of development.Copies of Benade's design notes were obtained and the original NXs (principally the Bb) examined and measured.The first new generation NX was built in the summer of 1999, and (at the time of writing, July 2000) has since undergone a year of performing as my everyday Bb clarinet (including recording a CD of chamber music); the first customer instruments were delivered in the spring of 2000.

Definition of the NX clarinet

What is the NX?Due to the handmade nature of the originals, and the fact that Benade’s research was cut off before completion, this is somewhat less clear than one might wish.First, what the NX is NOT:

It is most emphatically not the abstract creation of an ivory tower theorist.(Designing a clarinet entirely from theory would be neither feasible- woodwind acoustics is too complex and subtle- nor desirable; it would be silly to waste the experience of previous generations of makers.)Rather, like all practical instruments, it was conceived by taking what has been demonstrated to work well and altering it in ways aimed at specific improvements, with theory adding a valuable weapon to the designer's arsenal.

It is not particularly radical or different in operation from other clarinets; the fingering only departs from the Boehm system in a couple of alternate fingerings, and the one chief adjustment required of the player is the use of a mouthpiece with an appropriate bore.

It does not produce an unfamiliar sound, but rather presents a different, possibly more efficient, route to the kind of tone to which North American clarinetists generally aspire.

It is not, alas, perfect in all respects (as some might expect or demand).One of the conclusions stressed by Benade was that certain compromises inherent in the functioning of a clarinet make it impossible to achieve simultaneously and automatically both perfect intonation on the one hand, and ideal tone and response on the other; a somewhat better compromise can be made than is normally the case, however.

The NX is characterized by:

1.A distinct bore shape (described in detail below), including the bell and also the mouthpiece bore.

2.Essentially Boehm system tone hole and key layout, with two notable exceptions.

3.Use of an optimally sized register tube, with minimal disruption of the bore; this necessitates an additional tone hole for throat Bb, with accompanying mechanism.

4.An attempt to eliminate some redundant tone holes (i.e., two or more holes at the same distance down the body); this leads to a different arrangement of the left hand second finger hole and alternate fingerings for Eb/Bb.

5.Careful adherence to principles of minimizing turbulence in the air column (especially that caused by the interaction of closely spaced sources of turbulence), by ensuring sufficient spacing between tone holes, sufficient depth of holes and sufficient pad opening height, and by rounding of all potentially sharp edges in the airsteam.

6.Final adjustment by measuring and aligning the resonance frequencies of the air column in order to produce optimum tone and response- something that must be a feature of any fine wind instrument whether the maker realizes it or not, but in this case applied explicitly and systematically.

(Space does not permit a full description here of the process of measuring the resonance frequencies of each fingering and relating this to the tone quality, response, stability and strength of each note; this would be a topic for a future article.)

Detailed description of the original NX Bb clarinet

Bore shape:

The accompanying graphs show the bore of the original Benade NX Bb clarinet and associated mouthpieces (Figs. 1 and 2), and for comparison a Buffet R13 with Vandoren mouthpiece (Figs. 3 and 4) and a Wurlitzer German bore Boehm system clarinet with Zinner mouthpiece (Figs. 5 and 6).

The most immediate observation is that, in contrast with the relatively smooth and regular bore shapes of the factory made clarinets, that of the NX appears very “bumpy” and irregular.The bore of the NX was arrived at by starting with the simplest possible shape- a cylinder with a cone attached- and then progressively modifying it based on measurement of the resonance frequencies for each fingering.These adjustments were made by a combination of reaming and hand scraping to create localized enlargements in the bore, and lacquering to reduce it.

Once one looks beyond the irregularity, some conclusions can be drawn:

The minimum bore diameter is around 14.65mm, within the range used on standard modern French style clarinets.This should put to rest the notion (“Claranalysis”, The Clarinet, February/March 1990) that Benade was an advocate of large bore clarinets.

The expansion in the top part of the upper joint is of neither the usual polycylindrical or conical forms, but instead could be called a “cavity” shape, reaching its largest extent in the region of the register hole and contracting slightly above that.

The lower joint shows a very gradual expansion for a considerable portion of its length, followed by a slightly wider flare, to about 16mm.This is roughly midway in concept between the mostly cylindrical lower joint of the German clarinet and the long, radical flare of the French clarinet.

There is an additional slight bulge in the middle, centered on the junction between the upper and lower joints.

The bell is conical, with a much wider angle than usual.The shape of the bell bore is one of the features borrowed from some early clarinets, being based on that from a Müller clarinet from the 1820's. There is also a row of vent holes around the bell, whose purpose is both to adjust the tuning of the bell notes and to improve the efficiency of sound radiation into the room.

At least two mouthpieces were made by Benade for the NX, both of which (designated by him as KNX and LNX) are shown on the bore diagram.They have mostly cylindrical bores of around 15.2mm diameter, with an additional flare at the bottom end; thus they have a considerably larger bore volume than a "standard" mouthpiece.Why would a small bore clarinet need a large bore mouthpiece?Largely to compensate for the flattening of the altissimo register by the smaller register tube (see below); or, to put it the opposite way, the oversized register tube of the conventional clarinet requires a reduction in mouthpiece bore to bring the high notes down to acceptable pitch.

An optimally proportioned (i.e., smaller diameter than usual) register tube is used, in order to minimize sharpening of the top and bottom of the scale caused by the

register hole.(The formula relating the length and diameter of the register tube is given in Benade’s Fundamentals of Musical Acoustics.)

This necessitates an automatic mechanism operating separate holes for the register function and throat Bb. Improvement of the quality of the Bb is thus an additional bonus.There is of course nothing new in principle about this; the desirability of including such a mechanism as standard on soprano clarinets (as on lower clarinets) has been written and spoken about ad infinitum.

Another requirement for the register hole is that the tube should project as little as possible into the bore, so as to avoid turbulence and an unwanted local perturbation in bore size; this means that it should be located on the side or the top of the tube, as with German clarinets or older Albert and Boehm system designs.

The hole that was formerly the Bb trill key hole is used as the normal Bb hole, connected to the register key by a rocker arrangement (similar in principle to the octave key on certain saxophones); the selection of register or Bb hole is made by the position of the A and G# keys.The second trill key is used to open a new tone hole in the B natural position, in addition to the Bb hole; the top trill key (for C) also opens the B natural hole.This gives an improvement in some throat tone trills (similarly to the Mazzeo custom clarinet) at, however, the expense of an easy A-Bb trill.

L.H. 2nd finger and Eb/Bb fingering:

Any time there is duplication of a tone hole, i.e., more than one tone hole at a certain distance down the body of a woodwind instrument, there is in effect a localized "bulge" in the bore; this is acoustically detrimental and should, at least in principle, be avoided.

In particular, the Boehm system clarinet has no fewer than three holes for Eb/Bb (the left hand second finger hole and the right and left hand Eb/Bb holes) along with a hole for E/B.On the NX these four holes are replaced by two: a hole on the side for Eb/Bb (opened by either the right hand or the left hand key), and a single hole (instead of a ring and a pad) closed by a plateau for the left hand second finger.This is another debt owed by the NX to early clarinets, as it allows the possibility of a left hand fork Bb fingering.This is a large benefit; it is difficult to convey the usefulness of a good fork high Bb to players of the Boehm system, as, once one is used to it, it seems unthinkable to be without it (as players of German clarinets have known all along).It has a price, however.

Both Benade and Jameson wrestled with the vexing problem of how to access the alternate Bb fingerings with the single left hand second finger hole.The problem is that with the tone hole proportions used on modern clarinets, a simple fork fingering (L1 and L3) inevitably leaves the high Bb sharp.To bring it in tune, the second finger pad must be brought down fairly close to the hole, by means of a ring for the third finger; the result is a note that, if not voiced correctly, could be accused of being stuffy, unstable or at least weaker than the surrounding notes.The bridge key Bb requires the pad to be still lower, producing an even more tenuous note.Using a perforated plateau for the second finger, as Jameson did, does not seem to help much, unless the perforated pad is so thick that the resulting additional tone hole volume spoils the whole point of the exercise.A player who is not sympathetically disposed (especially one who tries to beat a clarinet into submission with a hard reed) will claim that these notes do not exist at all (and it is an unfortunate reality of being an instrument maker that one’s instruments must be built so as to satisfy unsympathetic players!)

A further disadvantage is that neither the left hand fork nor the bridge key fingering works at all for Eb in the low register.

Finally, it must also be admitted that the NX makes no attempt to eliminate two other duplicate tone holes: the F# trill hole, close to the thumb hole, and the B/F# hole, close to the right hand first finger hole.

Low F tuning key:

The NXs of Benade and Jameson had a key for the right thumb to sharpen bottom F slightly.

The S. Fox NX clarinet

The primary goal of the new instrument is to make the essential features of the NX accessible and acceptable to players of traditional clarinets.

At the outset, a choice had to be made between using traditional materials and key shapes, or taking the opportunity (as Jameson did) to redesign the entire mechanism; an additional possibility would be to use a synthetic body material.At least for the present, the safe, traditional course has been chosen.

The central challenge for the maker of a revised NX, one on which success of the entire enterprise rests, is to achieve a bore shape that gives acoustically equivalent results to the original, and furthermore to make it reproducible (at least by the normal standards of hand built instruments).To this end the main features of the bore as described above have been incorporated into a smoother, more regular shape.

The mouthpieces used so far have a cylindrical bore of 15.2mm (the same as is used for English bore clarinets).This may be revised once sufficient experience in real life playing has been accumulated by a variety of players.

Regarding the register/Bb/trill key area, two models are available:one following the original in all respects, and a somewhat simplified version.

On the latter, the register/Bb mechanism has been separated from the trill keys and moved to the opposite side of the body.The selection between the two holes is made by either the thumb ring or the throat A/G# keys, as specified by the customer (my own preference is for the thumb ring).For simplicity, the trill keys are conventional, with no interconnection.The second trill key hole is moved higher so as not to duplicate the Bb hole; depending on the size of the trill hole, the key can be made to produce either Bb or B natural.

The low F tuning key has been omitted so far because it does not seem essential; however, it would be no problem to add such a key (to this or any other clarinet) if desired.

The compromises inherent in the left hand second finger mechanism, as discussed above, are possibly the major potential obstacle to the NX reaching wide popularity.Further attempts to refine this have not completely solved the problem of the excessively resistant fork Bb and bridge key Bb.

To address this, a variation on the design has been introduced.Though it may be diluting the concept of the NX beyond the point where the name can be applied properly, this form of the clarinet uses the NX bore, bell, register key/Bb mechanism and general construction principles but restores the Boehm system second finger hole and separate E/B hole.Attention is still paid to reducing total tone hole volume in this area, however, and the separate left hand Eb/Bb hole continues to be omitted.The objections to the alternate Eb/Bb fingerings are thus removed, with no noticeable deterioration of general playing properties.

Playing impressions

Being perhaps too close to the NX for objectivity, I will leave judgement of its quality to others.A few specific comments can be made, however.

The almost parallel lower joint imparts focus and solidity especially to the bottom notes, similarly to a German bore clarinet.The slight amount of lower joint expansion, however, seems to "open up" the response to a considerable degree.Due partly perhaps to the greater efficiency of the bell, the tone appears to contain stronger overtones than conventional clarinets (a complete spectral analysis is yet to be performed).The net result could be described as the purity and focus of the German clarinet combined with the brilliance of the French clarinet.

Depending on the player’s expectations of resistance in the instrument and reed/mouthpiece setup, some adjustment in blowing style and voicing may be required.It seems that the NX (in common with modern German bore clarinets) is most happy when played with a moderate strength reed; it will produce the kind of sound that we wish for without the necessity of overpowering the instrument with a hard reed.

The stipulation of the mouthpiece bore is important; attempts to play the NX with a conventional mouthpiece will lead to sharpness in the lower part of the range, flatness on the high notes, and generally poor tuning.It is fairly simple to ream out any mouthpiece to the correct bore, but this could be a hindrance for potential users, especially those who like to change mouthpieces frequently.

Comment is frequently made about automatic register/Bb mechanisms introducing a "glitch" into slurs involving throat Bb.In my opinion, the current version causes no problems if one's fingering technique is clean and once a short initial familiarization period has passed.(But of course the maker would say that!Other players will have to make their own determinations of this.)The clear tone on the throat Bb is most welcome.

The fork upper Bb is nice to have, but, especially if the note is imperfect, most players would likely opt for a good bridge key fingering instead.

One final adjustment on the part of the player that may be necessary is modification of some altissimo fingerings from top G upwards; in some cases, addition of the C key is helpful.

Benade’s later writings on clarinet design contained some statements about the inflexibility and poor response of post-WWII clarinets resulting from the quest for automatically perfect intonation without, in his words, “using one’s chops”.This has, perhaps understandably if misguidedly, led some to believe that Benade, despite his primacy as an acoustician, was out of touch with modern clarinet playing technique and hence with the goals of present day instrument design philosophy.There is no need to debate this here except to give reassurance that the NX is indeed perfectly compatible with standard, current playing technique, and that it certainly requires no more embouchure adjustments for tuning than any other clarinet.

Conclusion

Although, as with any instrument, design work on the NX continues, it is now at the point where it can be sent out into the world for the musical community to assess its value to performers and its significance in the evolution of the clarinet.

Arthur Benade himself, apart from his contributions to acoustics and musical instruments in general, deserves in my opinion to be spoken of in the same breath as such figures as Ernst Schmidt (originator of the Reform-Boehm clarinet) and Robert Carrée (designer of the postwar Buffet R13) as a major contributor to the development of the modern clarinet.

Acknowledgement and appreciation must be extended to Virginia Benade, whose generosity in providing access to Benade’s private papers, instruments and tools in the spirit of the open sharing of information, in addition to her encouragement and hospitality, have made this enterprise possible.

Opinions and discussion are welcomed.

Stephen Fox

242 Ashlar Road

Richmond Hill, ON

CanadaL4C 2W6

tel/fax (905) 737-7263

emailsteve@sfoxclarinets.com

websitewww.sfoxclarinets.com