Klarinet Archive - Posting 000397.txt from 1994/02

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.EDU>
Subj: Roger Shilcock's comments about the Mozart concerto
Date: Sat, 26 Feb 1994 11:28:47 -0500

Roger makes a good addition to the discussion on changing the solo
text of the Mozart concerto. He asks about the authority of the
orchestral parts and inquires about how much they can be trusted.

Good point, Roger, but, except for minor details, they
represent exactly what Mozart had in mind, both in terms of the
instrumentation and the voicing. Let me say why this is the case.

Mozart kept a little notebook into which he entered the details
of many, though not all, of his compositions as he finished them.
The penultimate entry reads (and I am looking at a facsimile of
this very page as I write), "A concerto for klarinet: 2 violins,
viola, 2 flutes, 2 bassoons, 2 horns and bass." And on the
opposite side of the page is the incipit of 4 measures which identifies
the work as the concerto of which we know.

But how do we know that his orchestral setting is the same one
from which we play? Answer is: we don't but the evidence is
very strong that it is. The concerto was printed for the
first time in 1803 and the publication consisted of both solo
part and orchestral accompaniment. A piano reduction was unknown
at that time so when you bought it, you got it all. This is the
edition from which we play today, give or take various editorial
views.

A review of this publication appeared in the Viennese newspaper,
the Wiener Zeitung and it described how the editor of the
publication had to change the solo clarinet line in order to make
the work performable on what was even then a regular clarinet
with extension down only to low written e. Therefore, we have
to presume that the editor worked from the original, either the
autograph score itself or else the manuscript set of orchestral
parts that existed,if indeed any did exist.

Bottom line is that no one will accept the thesis that the
orchestral accompaniment is other than that which Mozart
explicitly intended and any assertion to the contrary has
no evidence to support it. The fact that Mozart did not like
flutes is not meaningful. He used them all the time and even
wrote an opera which has the instrument as a key element of the
plot. (Personally I think the opera would have been better if
it were called, "The Magic Basset Horn!!".)

So I think you would pursue a blind alley were you to go after
this one, Roger.

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