Klarinet Archive - Posting 000786.txt from 1996/02

From: R Adelson <R.Adelson@-----.EDU>
Subj: Re: 18th century clarinet tutors
Date: Mon, 26 Feb 1996 11:19:13 -0500

Dear Mr. Leeson:

With regard to your inquiry about early clarinet tutors, the most
complete list I have seen is in: Jo Rees-Davies, BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE
EARLY CLARINET. She lists close to one hundred tutors from 1732-1845.
Of course some of these are nothing more than fingering charts, but
perhaps these would interest you as well, since they frequently show
different fingerings for f# and gb, etc.

You might also want to look at Eugene E. Rousseau, CLARINET INSTRUCTIONAL
MATERIALS FROM 1732 TO CA. 1825 (Ph.D. Dis., University of Iowa, 1962).
[Try your Interlibrary Loan service--I know that the University of
Colorado at Boulder has a microfilm of this). Rousseau's dissertation is
particularly good as one of his appendices is an English translation of
an important tutor by Joseph Frolich (1810-11).

Important tutors that are available in facsimile reprints are:

Valentin Roeser, ESSAI D'INSTRUCTION A L'USAGE DE CEUX QUI COMPOSENT POUR
LA CLARINETTE ET LE COR (Paris, 1769)

Amand Vanderhagen, METHODE NOUVELLE ET RAISONEE POUR LA CLARINETTE (1785)

{THE ROESER AND VANDERHAGEN METHODS ARE PUBLISHED TOGETHER IN A FACSIMILE
VOLUME BY MINKOFF REPRINTS, GENEVA}

Xavier Le Fevre, METHODE DE CLARINETTE (1802) {ALSO AVAILABLE IN A
MINKOFF REPRINT}

Yes, much can be learned from these tutors, on subjects ranging from
reedmaking to musicianship to phrasing to ornamentation, etc...
A quick glance at my copy of Lefevre shows that most of the excercises go
through two flats/sharps--I saw just a couple in three flats. I use
Lefevre, and other tutors, when I practice my period clarinets, and I can
tell you that these studies are quite difficult. Most tutors I have seen
do have an introductory section on theory which quite clearly states that
one uses appropriately pitched clarinets for playing in keys beyond one
(or perhaps two) sharps/flats. Owning many clarinets would have been
expensive (as it is today!), but a compromise could be achieved by the
use of a 'corps de rechange'--an alternate middle joint which lowers the
pitch of the instrument by a semitone. These were in common use in
orchestral playing well into the 19th century. I have replicas of 18th
century clarinets with a 'corps de rechange', and the intonation is quite
good on them.
Lefevre writes of the reason for only taking the student through the keys of
two sharps/flats:

"Formerly, one used seven different clarinets in order to play in
orchestras. Today, two suffice, with the 'corps de rechange,' in order
to play in all the keys. The first is the clarinet in C, its 'corps de
rechange' is in B major; the second is the clarinet in B-flat, its 'corps
de rechange ' is in A major." [Quoted in Rousseau, 151)

Nothing I know has been written on the subject you mentioned. There are
some good articles on articulation and reed position I can recommend:

David Charlton, "Classical clarinet technique: documentary approaches"
EARLY MUSIC (August, 1988)

T.Eric Hoeprich, "Clarinet reed position in the 18th century" EARLY MUSIC
(February, 1984)

These articles draw on early tutors, and demonstrate (among other things)
that the clarinet was not usually played with the reed facing up, as many
people seem to think. There were, rather, many regional schools with
divergent opinions.

Good luck on the research!

Robert Adelson
University of Utah, Salt Lake City
R.Adelson@-----.edu
---------------------------------

On Sun, 25 Feb 1996, Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.edu wrote:

> For a research project I am working on, I need access to clarinet tutors
> of the 18th century, roughly 1760-1800 and even into 1830 but no further.
> Among those who, supposedly, created such tutors wereJ.G.H. Backhofen.
> There are probably a ton of others.
>
> Does anyone out there know of such things, where they might be located
> (i.e., in which library), etc?
>
> While today such things may be examined with awe, they were probably no
> more (or less) special than today's Rubank method for clarinet or
> Langenus books. They were the books for clarinet players of the times.
> But they also served an important historical purpose. Composers would
> use these book to learn what was possible (and/or impossible) on these
> then relatively new instruments.
>
> For example, if 150 years from now someone wanted to know the kinds of
> things that could be accomplished on a 20th clarinet, he or she could do
> a lot worse than to find a copy of the Rose or Kroepsch studies and
> examine them to find out keys that were typical, intervals that were
> avoided, etc.
>
> Mostly I am interested in studying those tutors to find out something
> about the key signatures used by 18th century composers (and early
> 19th century composers too).
>
> Any help available?
>
>
>
>
> ====================================
> Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
> (leeson@-----.edu)
> ====================================
>