Klarinet Archive - Posting 000201.txt from 1996/03

From: Donald Yungkurth <DYungkurth@-----.COM>
Subj: C Clarinets and transposition
Date: Thu, 7 Mar 1996 11:06:31 -0500

Dan Leeson and Jacqueline G Eastwood have gotten the discussion of C
clarinets going again. To some extent, this exchange seems to be from a
professional standpoint, i. e., what is acceptable for a professional
clarinetist when the composer specifies C clarinet? I follow these topics
with interest although, without a C clarinet, I know what my solution will
be!

At the amateur level, in community orchestras, the standards and goals may
need to be bent a bit more, because of availabilty of instruments and the
ability of performers. Jacqueline says, for example:

>1) Assuming there are two clarinet parts, both players >really need to use
the same pitch horn or it just won't >work.

At a rehearsal of a Strauss waltz, written for C clarinet, I was playing the
2nd part on my Bb and thinking that the 1st and I were sounding quite well
together and playing in tune etc. I was particularly intent on listening and
blending well, since I hadn't played with this person before.

The next work we rehearsed called for the A clarinet. As I was changing
instruments, I realized the other player *wasn't* changing to the A, because
he had played the Strauss on the A. He said he routinely played C parts on
the A, because he found the transposition easier that way.

Does anyone else play C parts on the A clarinet?

Don Yungkurth (DYungkurth@-----.com)

   
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