Klarinet Archive - Posting 000077.txt from 1994/12

From: "Roger J. Shilcock" <mlfl@-----.UK>
Subj: Clarinetes in C & Dan Leeson's curse
Date: Wed, 7 Dec 1994 03:53:49 -0500

Dan L.:
I don't have children to be fungus-stricken, etc..... I can't believe that
Beethoven, Schubert and Mendelssohn (to give the obvious examples) asked for
the C clarinet for any other reason than that the key of the piece seemed to
make it desirable. There are two facts here (if they are facts - someone may
shoot me down with some new piece of research) which are clearly relevant: the
normal basic equipment for a clarinettist in the late 18th & very early 19th
centuries was a B flat instrument and a C instrument; A clarinets were less
common, and there was the deplorable (?) custom of using pieces de rechange to
convert a B flat to an A. It must have been rather a good thing that A
clarinets were more or less commonplace by the time Schubert's "Unfinished"
actually got performed. .....
Roger Shilcock