Klarinet Archive - Posting 000024.txt from 1994/07

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.EDU>
Subj: The C clarinet
Date: Fri, 1 Jul 1994 18:48:16 -0400

Adam has fallen in love with the C clarinet. Smart person!!

All the manufacturers still make C clarinets. They run about 15%
higher than B-flat instruments. You don't appreciate how wonderful
they are until you play the Strauss Happy Workshop. There Strauss
calls for 1 C, 2 B-flats, 1 basset horn, and 1 bass clarinet. What
a sound!!! In the second Strauss work for large wind group, he
calls for the same thing except the B-flat clarinets are replaced
by A clarinets. So it is for sure that he wants a C clarinet sound
since he explicitly requests the instrument to be played simultaneously
with the other soprano clarinets.

This also happens in his opera "Frau Ohne Schatten" where the basset
horn plays most of the opera on b.h. and then changes to C clarinet
at the end while the rest of the clarinet section plays on B-flats
and A, all simultaneously.

Smart guy, Adam. Wait till you play the Beethoven 1st piano concerto
with a C. Why the instrument became unpopular has always puzzled me.

See your local Buffet or Selmer dealer, wave some money at them and
you will have a C clarinet faster than boiled asparagus!!

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