Klarinet Archive - Posting 000099.txt from 1995/06

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.EDU>
Subj: Scott's comments on the B-flat clarinet
Date: Thu, 8 Jun 1995 16:40:12 -0400

Scott, I think you have a wrong springboard for you thinking about
the development and eventual rise to power of the B-flat clarinet.
Music was not developed in flat keys because the B-flat clarinet was
around, not was the B-flat clarinet developed because lots of flat
key music was being written. Neither phenomemon is what happened.

What did happen was that the C clarinet was the prominant instrument.
It played very nicely in concert keys of C, F, and G. But when the
concert keys varied from this, either the instrument became clumsy
to manage or else the scales could not be accomplished and thus it
became necessary to solve the problem.

There are two ways to solve that problem and one of them requires some
heavy duty engineering; i.e., you make a more advanced instrument with
lots more keys on it and it can play in more complicated keys. That
was not possible in the late 18th century because the industrial
revolution was not in full swing and the kinds of tools needed were
not yet around.

The other way is to make exactly the same clarinet except a little
longer. One plays the same notes. One fingers the same fingerings.
But the pitch coming out is a full tone down. That is the B-flat
clarinet and its raison d'etre.

Instead of raising the bridge, you lower the ship. So to allow
a clarinet to play in concert A major, you give the person a clarinet
that is long enough that for that player, playing in A major requires
the music to be written in C major. And you call that an A clarinet.

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