Klarinet Archive - Posting 000260.txt from 1993/12

From: Cary Karp <nrm-karp@-----.SE>
Subj: Re: More questions on key issues
Date: Fri, 24 Dec 1993 12:39:02 -0500

From my previous message on the subject:

> In fact, the original clarinets were in D precisely because the
> trumpets of that day were in G. (The upper registers of the two
> instruments match -- remember the origin of the term "clarinet".)

Stoopid slip -- that's supposed to be D clarinets and D trumpets.

From Jay Heiser's response to that message:

> Were these original clarinets considered transposing instruments? Did the
> music assume that they were in D or G or C?

The surviving instruments are in D and they were written for as such.
I'd have to check to see whether transposition was commonly notated, or
whether it was left to the performer.

> When did the Bb clarinet become established?

Larger clarinets just sort of crept in like crooks in a trumpet case. By
the mid-18th century there were commonly D, C, B, Bb and A instruments
and it is sometimes assumed that the full range might have been from F to G.
The D lost significance with the acceptance of the A and was later
replaced by the Eb, quite probably due to the ascendency of the Bb. The C
didn't even start receding until the start of the present century and, as
has been pointed out on this list before, is easy enough to find in current
production.

>> One way or the other, the D is the "authentic" instrument for most of the
>> real early clarinet literature. Anybody use one?
>
> Which 'D'? You mean the 'D' that was standard for that time, correct? Not
> what we consider concert 'D'. An 'original' clarinet in the key of D would
> be quite a bit different from a contemporary clarinet in D, correct?

I mean the little guy right between the Eb and C instruments. The
early 18th century instrument differs from its modern counterpart the
same way the other 18th century clarinets differ from their present-day
counterparts. If you think Selmer's A clarinet is the right instrument for
Mozart's A clarinet stuff, then Selmer's D clarinet is the right instrument
for Vivaldi's D clarinet stuff.