The mouthpiece of a
woodwind instrument
Woodwind instruments are a family of musical instruments within the greater category of wind instruments. Common examples include flute, clarinet, oboe, bassoon, and saxophone. There are two main types of woodwind instruments: flutes and r ...
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 (apart from those using
pirouettes) and
open flutes do not. The characteristics of a mouthpiece and reed can play a significant role on the sound of the instrument.
Single-reed instruments
On
single-reed instruments, such as the
clarinet
The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The instrument has a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell, and uses a single reed to produce sound.
Clarinets comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitch ...
and
saxophone
The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of Single-reed instrument, single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed (mouthpi ...
, the mouthpiece is that part to which the reed is attached. Its function is to provide an opening through which air enters the instrument and one end of an
air chamber
The atmosphere of Earth is the layer of gases, known collectively as air, retained by Earth's gravity that surrounds the planet and forms its planetary atmosphere. The atmosphere of Earth protects life on Earth by creating pressure allowing f ...
to be set into vibration by the interaction between the air stream and the reed. Single-reed mouthpieces are basically wedge shaped, with the
reed placed against the surface closest to the player's lower lip (the ''table''). The player's breath causes the reed to vibrate. The reed beats against the mouthpiece, and in turn causes the column of air inside the instrument to vibrate. The top half to three-quarters of the table is open to the inside of the mouthpiece.
As with the
brass instruments, the shape of the interior of the mouthpiece can greatly affect the sound of the instrument. Mouthpieces with a large, rounded chamber will produce a quite different sound from one with a small or square chamber.
The distance between the tip of the mouthpiece and the tip of the reed is known as the ''tip opening''. The tip opening has little effect on tone, which is more affected by the design of the mouthpiece's chamber (interior space).
The ''facing'' (or ''lay'') is a curved section that leaves the flat table and continues to the tip of the mouthpiece. The length of a facing—defined as the distance from the tip of the mouthpiece to the point where the reed and mouthpiece meet—can vary. Different facing lengths have different response properties.
The reed is held tightly against the mouthpiece by a
ligature. Anything that can hold the reed on the mouthpiece may serve as a ligature. Commercial ligatures are commonly made of metal or plastic. Some players (including many German clarinetists) prefer string or a shoelace, which is wrapped around the reed and the mouthpiece, to commercially manufactured ligatures.
Clarinets
The clarinet mouthpiece is narrow inside, typically with straight side walls. through the throat. The bottom of the mouthpiece is formed with a
tenon that is ringed with cork.
Today, as with the saxophone mouthpiece, the reed is placed against the surface (the table) closest to the player's bottom lip. However, this was not always so: The earliest clarinetists would often place the reed on top of the mouthpiece.
Bernhard Crusell
Bernhard Henrik Crusell (15 October 1775 – 28 July 1838) was a Swedish- Finnish clarinetist, composer and translator, "the most significant and internationally best-known Finnish-born classical composer and indeed, — the outstanding Fi ...
(1775–1838) was one of the first clarinettists of note to consistently place the reed against the bottom lip.
Of particular note is
Reginald Kell who was known for using a "double
embouchure", also known as "double lip". This is a technique popular in the UK up to the 1960s, whereby the reed is placed against the lower lip, which covers the lower teeth—as in the single embouchure—and additionally, the upper lip is tucked in between the top of the mouthpiece and the upper teeth.
Some clarinetists in
Madagascar
Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Afric ...
today still play with the reed on top as can be heard on the CD ''Bémiray: Polyphonies des Hauts-plateaux''.
Clarinet mouthpieces are available in hundreds of styles from dozens of manufacturers around the world. Mouthpieces are often named after famous performers who contribute to their designs. Popular mouthpiece makers include
Selmer,
Vandoren,
Yamaha, and Rico.
Saxophones
The saxophone mouthpiece is outwardly similar to that of the clarinet but has no tenon. Instead, the saxophone's neck has a ring of cork glued to it, and the mouthpiece fits firmly onto the neck cork.
Saxophone mouthpieces are available in hundreds of styles from dozens of manufacturers around the world. Mouthpieces are often named after famous performers who contribute to their designs.
When
Adolphe Sax invented the
saxophone
The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of Single-reed instrument, single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed (mouthpi ...
, he specified the shape of the interior of the mouthpiece as being large and round. All saxophone mouthpieces were made in this style until the 1930s, when the advent of big-band jazz made saxophonists experiment with different shapes of mouthpieces to get a louder and edgier sound. A ''baffle'', or section of the mouthpiece roof sloped close to the plane of the reed, became a design feature for enhancing volume and projection. Between 1940 and 1960, it became common for classical saxophonists to use narrow-chamber mouthpieces based on those designed for jazz use. These mouthpieces give the instrument a brighter and edgier sound (more high partials) than the traditional shape as designed by Sax. One saxophonist and teacher,
Sigurd Raschèr, spoke out against this change in mouthpiece design. He believed that when used in
classical music
Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical music, as the term "classical music" al ...
, the saxophone should sound as its inventor, Adolphe Sax, had intended, and that the gradual change to narrower and "brighter" sounding mouthpieces was a distortion of Sax's
tonal concept. His students and other disciples felt that the desirable tone for a classical saxophone was a softer, rounder sound—a sound that can only be produced by a mouthpiece with a large, rounded interior (often referred to as an "excavated chamber"). By 1970, narrow-chambered mouthpieces had become nearly universally popular for playing in an environment with amplified instruments, and virtually all new designs featured a narrow chamber, high baffle, or both. Large-chambered and low-baffle pieces continue to be produced for those who seek the tonalities of classical music and "classic jazz."
In recent years, new design techniques have emerged such as
3D printing, which allows for the creation of custom saxophone mouthpieces. This innovation was the result of research carried out in
IRCAM's scientific and acoustic research laboratory thanks to two acousticians, founders of
Syos.
Materials
Clarinet and saxophone mouthpieces have been made out of hard (vulcanized) rubber, brass or other metal, crystal, glass, plastic, and wood. Today, the most common material for professional clarinet and (classical) saxophone mouthpieces is hard rubber.
Jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...
saxophone mouthpieces are made out of hard rubber, metal, or (rarely) wood. There is some debate over whether the material affects the tone, or whether tone is shaped only by the internal shape and dimensions of the mouthpiece. According to
Larry Teal, the mouthpiece material has little, if any, effect on the sound, and the physical dimensions give a mouthpiece its tone colour. Some recent designs by Van Doren, Bari, and Saxgourmet reflect the theory that the mass of metal over the shank of the mouthpiece, which contacts the neck cork, stabilizes the connection and enhances the integrity of the
harmonic series.
Capped double-reed instruments
On a capped
double-reed instrument the function of the mouthpiece is simply to provide a chamber within which the reed can vibrate, with a hole through which air can be blown.
Fipple flutes
On a
fipple flute the mouthpiece, or
fipple, provides a shaped passageway for air to be blown against an edge, producing
turbulent
In fluid dynamics, turbulence or turbulent flow is fluid motion characterized by chaotic changes in pressure and flow velocity. It is in contrast to a laminar flow, which occurs when a fluid flows in parallel layers, with no disruption between ...
flow which excites the resonant vibrational modes of the air column.
Pirouettes
A pirouette is a wooden mouthpiece assembly or lip rest used in some European
double-reed instruments, including the
piffero,
shawm and
rackett. In band shawms, it is carried on the staple on which the reed is mounted On the European shawm, the pirouette replaces the loose disc of the oriental
surna, presumably to secure lip-control over the cane reed. The player presses his lips against the pirouette while holding the reed in his mouth. This permits control of the reed by the lips without appreciably affecting the amplitude of its vibration.
[ Anthony C. Baines, ''Woodwind Instruments and Their History'', third edition, with a foreword by Sir ]Adrian Boult
Sir Adrian Cedric Boult, CH (; 8 April 1889 – 22 February 1983) was an English conductor. Brought up in a prosperous mercantile family, he followed musical studies in England and at Leipzig, Germany, with early conducting work in Londo ...
(London: Faber and Faber, 1967): 230, 233.
Notes
{{reflist
Woodwind instrument parts and accessories