Klarinet Archive - Posting 000104.txt from 1995/06

From: Laura R Bornhoeft <lbornhoe@-----.EDU>
Subj: B-flat vs. A
Date: Thu, 8 Jun 1995 22:04:24 -0400

I was expecting someone to contribute this one, but perhaps one of you
knows the story more exactly, and can quote it.

It seems that Stravinsky was present at a performance of his Three
Pieces in which the performer used the same clarinet for all three.
(They're unaccompanied, what should it matter?) Apparently Stravinsky
made a rather nasty remark about it.

Some composers hear a difference between the two clarinets and insist
that it be honored. On the other hand, I suspect that a lot of composers
just write their music in concert pitch and leave it up to the
orchestrator or copyist to specify a clarinet.

I was studying the score of Debussy's Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun
this spring and my mouth dropped open when I saw that he had given the
first clarinet a big two beats to change instruments, just before a solo
passage. My orchestration professor, Steven Burton (who has told us
stories of some rather prominent pieces he was asked to orchestrate,
including one of Menotti's most recent operas - I can't think of the name
at the moment), wasn't able to shed much light on whether Debussy or some
orchestrator was responsible, and if this person really knew what he was
asking for.

Is this the start of another thread?

Laura Bornhoeft