Klarinet Archive - Posting 000198.txt from 1994/02

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.EDU>
Subj: Voice and clarinet
Date: Wed, 16 Feb 1994 09:43:20 -0500

Both Jim Langdell and Ron Monson have been speaking about
works with clarinet and voice. The clarinet teacher at
the University of No. Texas in Denham (just outside of
Dallas), and who is the editor of the Clarinet magazine,
specialized in this repertoire. And not only did he dig
up a ton of this music -- far more than I ever thought
to exist -- he established the fact that it was a sociological
phenomenon in Victorian England, particularly with respect
to the female voice. That is to say, in the absence of
other entertainment such as TV and movies, the recital of
music consisting of clarinet, voice, and piano played a
large role in the social and musical life of England.

He recorded a dozen or more of these quite unknown works
(I think with his wife as the singer) and they were charming.
Mostly they dealt with unrequited love, or shepherds on
a hillside, or young damsels who loved from afar, but that
was Victorian England.

Today we play perhaps a half dozen such works in this
combination almost none of which are from this era. We
do the Schubert (although there are three Schuberts), a
piano reduction of the Mozart Titus aria (although there
is another one transcribed for clarinet), the Meyerbeer,
and a few others. There are many, many others. Too bad
they don't get played often.

====================================
Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
(leeson@-----.edu)
====================================