Klarinet Archive - Posting 000208.txt from 1994/10

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.EDU>
Subj: Pamela Poulin's paper
Date: Thu, 20 Oct 1994 13:00:15 -0400

I have received a number of requests for a copy of Pamela Poulin's paper
given in Salzburg in 1991. I think that the easiest thing is simply to
put it into KLARINET and everyone can have a copy. Footnotes will go at the
end. This will be put into KLARINET in a number of parts. This is part 1.

============================================================================

A Report on New Information Regarding Stadler's Concert Tour of Europe and Two
Early Examples of the Basset Clarinet, by Pamela L. Poulin (Cortland)

On the heels of a triumphant second performance in Prague of "La clemenza di
Tito", K. 621, on 30 September 1791, Mozart wrote to Constanze at Baden in a
letter dated 7 October 1791: "... then I told Joseph to get Primus [his
manservant] to fetch me some black coffee, with which I smoked a splendid pipe
of tobacco; and then I orchestrated almost the whole of Stadler's rondo"
(footnote 1). This refers to the last movement of Mozart's Clarinet Concerto,
K. 622 (for which the autograph is now lost), which according to Georg Nikolaus
Nissen (footnote 2), he gave to his friend, the Viennese clarinettist Anton
Stadler [sillhouette of Stadler shown in the paper at this point: Leeson],
along with travelling money for Prague, for the purpose of concertizing. This
was the launching of a concert tour of Europe by Stadler, that was to take
several years and take him as far away as St. Petersburg (footnote 3).

According to police records in Prague located by Rudolph Prochazka (footnote
4), "Anton Stadler, Royal and Imperial Chamber Musician from Vienna, after
payment of two florins into the poor fund, received permission to give a
musical concert on the 16th of October in the Royal Old City Theatre", the
National Theatter in the Old Town, the same theatre in which the first
performance of "La clemenza di Tito" took place (Coronation Day, 6 September
1791) (footnote 5). This October 16th performance could well have been the
premiere of Mozart's Clarinet Concerto, which is now known to have been written
for Stadler's unusual clarinet, the basset clarinet, a clarinet pitched in
B-flat, A, or C, with an extension from written e to small c.(footnote 6)

For January of 1792, Johann Friedrich Reichardt includes mention in his Berlin
"Musikalisches Wochenblatt" (footnote 7) that Stadler was being heard by the
public as well as at Court: "Herr Stadeler [sic], clarinettist from Vienna. A
man of great talent, he is also recognized for this [talent] at Court, where he
has been heard several times already. His playing is brilliant and polished;
he has also acquired a precision which shows his assuredness ... Herr Stadeler
has also added several notes to his instrument by the means of keys ... the
instrument is almost overladen with keys. One is complimented that Herr
Stadeler is now [also] heard in public ..." (footnote 8) The 26 January 1792
issue of the "Spenersch Zeitung", under "Berlinische Nachrichten", announced a
concert to be presented by the "Royal and Imperial Chamber Musician, Anton
Stadler", on 31 January 1792, under the auspices of Friedrich Wilhelm II, on
his "Bass-Klarinette he invented" in the Royal National Theater in Berlin. His
instrument is described as differing "from the usual way not only through its
construction but also by [having] a greater range of lower pitches, a full
sound and a compass of four complete octaves". Another concert, this time on
the Bassethorn, was announced in the same newspaper on 20 March 1792 for the
23rd March, also to be held in the Royal National Theater. By September of
1792, Stadler had travelled to Warsaw and presented a concert on the 11th of
September (footnote 9).

END OF PART 1

=============================================================================
Footnote 1: Emily Anderson, Letters of Mozart and his Family, prepared by
Alexander Hyatt King and Monica Caralcen, vol. 2, London (2nd ed.)/1966, p.
967.

Footnote 2: Georg Nikolaus Nissen, Biographie W. A. Mozarts; Leipzig 1828, p.
684.

Footnote 3: Special thanks to Dr. med. Jan. C. Hummel, clarinettist, Darmstadt;
Dr. Carl Benno Heller, Hissisches Landesmuseum, Darmstadt; Prof. Dr. Heinrich
Sievers, Hannover; Rainer Hering, Staatsarchiv, Senat der Frien und Hansestadt,
Hamburg; Renate Schleth, Bibliothek der Hansestadt Lubeck; Ignace DeKeyser,
Musical Instrument Collection of the Brussels Conservatoire Royale de Musiq;
Prof. Dr. Tomislav Volek, Prague.

Footnote 4: Rudolf Prochazka, Mozart in Prag, Prag 1892, p. 174, note 47. See
also Tomislav Volek, "Uber den Ursprung von Mozarts Oper "La clemenza di Tito",
in MJb 1959, Salzburg 1960, pp. 274-286.

Footnote 5: Also known as the Royal Old City Theater of Nostitz (today The Tyl
or Tylovo Divadlo).

Footnote 6: Not to be confused with the basset horn, an alto-range clarinet
which came in various shapes from sickle-shaped to right and obtuse angled,
pitched in F or G, having also an extended lower range to written c.

Footnote 7: Translation of Johann Friedrich Reichardt and Friedrich Ludwig
Aemilius Kunzen (eds.), Musikalisches Wochenblatt, Berlin 1791-92, p. 41.

Footnote 8 "At court" probably refers to the Court of Frederick the Great's
nephew, Mozart admirer Friedrich Wilhelm II (1744-1897) who reigned 1786-1797,
or possibly to that of his wife Friederike Louise of Hessen-Darmstadt
(1751-1805) whose court is mentioned in the article with reference to "... Herr
[Franza] Tausch [clarinettist], court musician with Herr Majesty the Queen ..."

Footnote 9: Jan Prosnak, Kultura muzyczna Warszawy w XVIII wieku, Warsaw 1955,
pp. 206 and 210.

====================================
Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
(leeson@-----.edu)
(leeson@-----.edu)
(dnl2073@-----.edu)
Any of the above three addresses may be used. Take your pick.
====================================