Klarinet Archive - Posting 000112.txt from 1995/06

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.EDU>
Subj: B-flat vs A
Date: Fri, 9 Jun 1995 09:16:06 -0400

Laura Bornhoeft and Scott McChesney are having a fascinating conversation
about the the differences in the characters of clarinets pitched in B-flat
and A. Laura suggested "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."

Scott zapped back that he doubted it and "can't imagine any composer worth
his salt letting the orchestrator choose between the two tone colors for him."

Personally I don't see where Laura gets her information from, though it
probably does happen from time to time. Strauss often wrote (in the
manuscript) for 5 different clarinet types all at once. In Elektra he
writes for E-flat clarinet, 2 B-flats and 2 A simultaneously, 2 basset
horns, and bass clarinet sometimes in B-flat, sometimes in A. It is normative
practice to do exactly that and only the few who are uncomfortable with
transposing instruments do not.

I played a concert this season (or maybe last season) that had the bass
clarinet part in C in the bass clef, and that is not a transposition that
I know. The composer was there at the dress rehearsal and the concerts.
So I asked him why he did such a thing (I was very politic and didn't say
"such a dumb thing") and he was shocked at my question. "Didn't the
publisher transpose that?," he said, which supports Laura's view but there
are too many who are like Strauss to accept her statement as fact.

But Scott who "can't imagine any composer worth his sale letting the
orchestrator choose between the two tone colors for him" is perhaps
not aware of the fact that Bernstein (for example) was one of many
composers who only composed in piano-reduced form and then turned over
the material to an orchestor. Hershey Kay did most of Bernstein's
works and I am not referring to On The Town, or West Side Story, but
to the Kaddish Symphony or the Age of Anxiety and even Mass.

Robert Russel Bennet made a handsome living on Broadway doing the
orchestrations for everyone in sight, many very competent composers.

And Gershwin's use of orchestrators is well known. Only towards the
end of his composing life was Gershwin doing his own orchestrations
and even then he consulted with several leading NY arrangers about
how to achieve effects.

So I am afraid that I have a "plague on both your houses" view of
the positions of Laura and Scott. The truth lies a good deal between
their positions.

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