Klarinet Archive - Posting 000234.txt from 1994/10

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.EDU>
Subj: David Lechner's questions
Date: Fri, 21 Oct 1994 10:19:34 -0400

David, you hit the nail on the head. A basset horn (pitched in F) was the
first attempt towarads the bass clarinet though it is a long way off from
being such an animal. It really is a soprano instrument that has low notes.
In Mozart's Requiem, it is the first basset horn that plays a great deal of
the soprano music, the 2nd b.h playing the alto music, the 1st bassoon playing
the tenor music, the 2nd bassoon playing the bass music.

A basset clarinet is simply a clarinet of extended lower compass. In 1790 the
very few examples (maybe on one owner, Anton Stadler himself) went down to
low written C below today's general lowest note of E. They were made in
B-flat, A, and C.

The excitement caused by all this mail is that until Poulin discovered a
picture of Stadler's instrument (none of which any of us has yet seen),
it was presumed that no pictures of it existed. In the absence of
information, contemporary basset horns have been built but with a lot of
guesswork, particularly with respect to bore size, bell flare, key
mechanisms, etc., etc.

You won't find much in the traditional texts such as Rendall because the
existence of the basset clarinet was not even suggested until 1939 and
all knowledge of the instrument had vanished after around 1815, maybe even
earlier.

Today, a basset clarinet in A is available for sale from the big three,
but not a basset clarinet in B-flat. I tried to buy a pair to use as
my regular orchestral clarinets but had no success talking the
manufacturers into it. Their response was "What do you want that for?"

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