Klarinet Archive - Posting 000090.txt from 1995/06

From: SCOTT MCCHESNEY <scmcchesney@-----.NET>
Subj: Re: D Clarinet
Date: Thu, 8 Jun 1995 03:08:17 -0400

>Incidentally, Strauss himself admitted that the e-flat, not the d,
>should have been used in Till, Why force yourself to play high a-flats
>exposed if you can avoid it?

I am the one who "started" this thing, so to speak, all based upon the
wonder at why, with almost every other size of clarinet "matched" in keys (Bb/A
for the most part), the D Clarinet did not survive to "match" the Eb.
And here I see the most famous example of symphonic D work that I know
of (which doesn't cover much literature, I'll admit) beign referenced to by the
COMPOSER who says the choice of D was wrong. If that was the case, why even
use the D in the first place?
Now I know you can get a D Clarinet - for a price (quite a high one, as
it looks). But why? If it's never used (and it seems that it isn't, or VERY
rarely), why offer it? And why did it go by the wayside in the first place?
I have to admit, I never understood why the Bb became the "default"
choice for sopranos. And, the "A side", if you will, is never written for
anymore - at least, not that I know of. It's kept because a large portion of
older literature has parts for an A, so people get an A to go along with their
Bb. But why did the A become the "extra"? Why not the other way around?
A very confused man in the cornfields...

-- Scott