Klarinet Archive - Posting 000386.txt from 1994/02

From: "Roger J. Shilcock" <mlfl@-----.UK>
Subj: Mozart
Date: Sat, 26 Feb 1994 06:59:29 -0500

Perhaps the debate on possible register changes in various areas of K.622
should also consider whether the known orchestration is actually "wrong" - as
far as I know, it isn't <<known>> to be Mozart's, so considerations of hiding
flute passages (for example) may be quite irrelevant. Does anyone actually know
that Mozart wanted flutes in the orchestra? He is known to have had a
considerable antipathy towards them, possibly because in his day there were
many bad players around of what were frequently bad instruments. To point out
just one problem, Rockstro (I
think) claimed that boxwood was a better material for making a hygrometer out
of than a musical instrument; I suspect that flutes (and anything else made of
this wood) intended for the "gentleman amateur" of the day were not good
things to listen to.
Roger Shilcock [MLFL, Oxford, U.K.]