Klarinet Archive - Posting 000093.txt from 1995/06

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.EDU>
Subj: Clarinet usage: why B-flat?
Date: Thu, 8 Jun 1995 06:58:10 -0400

Scott questions why the B-flat clarinet became the one in ascendancy
instead of the A?

Good question. I doubt if anyone can put the nail in the coffin with
an absolute answer, but try this one: the B-flat clarinet is best able
to play in the greatest number of common use keys.

I think I read somewhere that the preponderance of orchestral music
is in flat keys: B-flat, E-flat, and A-flat. Since a clarinet in
B-flat is always written in 2 flats less than the concert key, such
an instrument is invariably written in a less complicated key rather
than a more complicated key.

Take the other case; i.e., sharp keys. As a piece in the concert key
begins to take on more sharps (G major, D major, A major, etc.) the
B-flat clarinet winds up in more complicated keys because one must
add two sharps to play the equivalent sounding key on a B-flat
clarinet. So a 3 sharp concert key is a 5 sharp key for B-flat
clarinet.

So, if the volume of music written is in flat keys, then the B-flat
clarinet is the logical choice of ascendency, all things being equal.
For sharp keys, the A clarinet is the logical choice since it plays
in a written key 3 sharps less than the concert key. So a piece in
6 sharps (concert) becomes 3 sharps on the A clarinet. And that is
why the Mozart concerto is for A clarinet (though that also could
have been a performance practice issue).

This makes it a simple matter of ease of performance.

Probably timbre of the instrument has something to do with it, but that
is a complex area in which hardly anyone (or hardly any composer) has
given us his/her thoughts. So in contemporary music one does not know
if a composer choses an A or B-flat clarinet because of the key in which
the instrument will wind up or because of the character of sound that
will be heard, or even because the A clarinet can play a semi-tone
lower than a B-flat clarinet.

It also seemed to me that Scott said or implied that no one is writing
for A clarinet today. Did I misunderstand him? If not, his statement
is not correct by a country mile. The A clarinet is still a very
popular instrument amongst contemporary composers.

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Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
(leeson@-----.edu)
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