Klarinet Archive - Posting 000303.txt from 1994/10

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.EDU>
Subj: Photo of Stadler's basset clarinet
Date: Mon, 24 Oct 1994 22:35:03 -0400

Well, life is not what it should be. What I got (and what I shall send
by FAX to Gary Carp tonight is a 3" x 4" photo of Eric Hoeprich's
basset clarinet which is said to be "the reproduction he made of Anton
Stadler's basset clarinet" and for which he used the same engraving that
Poulin has been reporting on.

For those of you who are unable to get the picture off the World Wide Web, send
me a stamped self-addressed envelope, and I'll send you a copy of the photo
of Hoeprich's instrument.

The program which contains the picture is the Handel and Haydn Society program
booklet for a series of concerts that went under the name "The Mozart
Weekend, Oct. 14-16, 1994 and, among other program notes, it contains the
following in an article by Hoeprich entitled "Mozart and His Music for Wind
Instruments."

... [ lots of stuff left out ] ...

And so we come to the third and most interesting bit of evidence; a program
discovered last year by the musicologist Pamela Poulin in archives in Vilnius,
Lithuania where Stadler played the Mozart clarinet concerto in the early 1790s,
and where an engraving is included in the program depicting an unusally long
and oddly shaped clarinet -- Stadler's basset clarinet. It is known that upon
the completion of the clarinet concerto, Stadler left Vienna, presumably with
the manuscript, on a tour that would last some five years, visiting Prague,
Berlin, the Baltic cities and St. Petersburg before turning southward again.
The shape of the basset clarinet shown in the Vilnius concert program comes
somewhat as a surprise, as the instrument is fitted at the lower end with a
bulbous bell at 90 degrees, similar to that of an oboe d'amore. Since the
clarinet d'amore was a relatively unusual instrument, belonging to the middle
of the 18th century rather than the late 18th century, it is puzzling that Lotz
and Stadler would have come up with this design. However, an instrument in my
own collection (made by Eisenbradt of Gottingen, ca. 1800) is identical to the
instrument in the engraving, which indicates that this shape was not unheard
of. Furthermore, reference to a new type of clarinette d'amour in a letter
written by Stadler in 1795 could only refer to this instrument, and helps
create a compelling case for this being the "correct" design for the basset
clarinet. It is an instrument based on this engraving that are [sic] heard in
the Handel & Haydn Society's performances of the Mozart clarinet quintet, as
part of The Mozart Weekend.

[end of quote]

That is very startling news!!
^^^^

A couple of things about Hoeprich's basset clarinet are that the bell is
bulbous (as mentioned earlier) but it is not like an English horn bell
at all and, though the picture does not show it, it has holes in some
strange places. After the lower joint there appears to be about 2 inches
of wood, a sharp right angle, another 2 inches of wood and then the bulb
of the bell. I can only describe the bulb as the kind of tool that
mechanics use when they are underneath acar and have a light bulb in a
grilled enclosure. Well, this bulb looks like that in shape. It does
not look like an enlarged egg which what I first thought when I heard
that it was bulbous. The barrel has a bend in it almost identical to
today's contemporary basset horns.

Well folks, it looks as if we are going to have to wait until Poulin's
article to see the famous Vilnius engraving. But I know a lot more
now then I did two weeks ago.

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