Klarinet Archive - Posting 000019.txt from 1994/02

From: James Langdell <James.Langdell@-----.COM>
Subj: Re: Naming Yost trios
Date: Tue, 1 Feb 1994 19:13:19 -0500

Ron Monsen (RPMONS00@-----.EDU) asks:
>But how does one list a trio in F major performed in Eb on a program?

You could say "Yost's F Major Trio in Eb"--a dodge similar
to saying "Purcell's Trumpet Vollentary by Jerimiah Clarke."

This does raise another question of refering to keys in the title
of a piece played solely by transposing instruments, such
as one or more Bb clarinets. If you performed this trio with two
Bb soprano clarinets and a Bb bass clarinet, and read the F major
parts straight off the page, would you bill the piece as being in F
(the way it felt to every performer's eyes and fingers) or
in Eb (the way it would sound during the performance only to someone
with present-day absolute pitch)?

Perhaps you should come up with a title that uses some characteristic
other than key to distinguish this composition from similar trios by
Yost. Perhaps include the number of measures as part of the title?
Or use Ives' "Three Page Sonata" as a model for titling. Or name
each of them after different animals--a service some unknown hands
provided for several Haydn symphonies well after they were composed.
Yost's "Gila Monster" Trio?

Excuse me, I think I'm ceasing to be entirely serious about this subject.
I must go now.

--James Langdell jamesc@-----.com
Sun Microsystems Mountain View, Calif.