Klarinet Archive - Posting 000392.txt from 1996/03

From: "John H. Morrison" <JOHN@-----.EDU>
Subj: Choice of Clarinet
Date: Thu, 14 Mar 1996 18:54:41 -0500

Hello

I've been reading the fl--- excuse me, debate on whether to respect the
composer's choice of instruments. I was reminded of a couple things.
When we performed Gilbert and Sullivan's "The Sorcerer" last fall (I
didn't play clarinet in it; I was on stage) one musical number was in
the concert key of Db. So of course, they wrote the part for A clarinet,
with eight flats, or rather six flats and one double-flat, in the key
signature. Fortunately, the publisher had printed an alternative part
for Bb clarinet with only three flats, and the clarinetists used that.
It may be reasonable to insist that part be played on an A clarinet,
but why didn't the composer (or orchestrator) write it in E instead of
(shudders!) Fb?

Also, a couple years ago the MIT Concert Band performed Andrew Kazden's
"Prelude and Happy Dance." Nominally it's in the key of D for the
clarinet, but one lively passage -- one of Kazden's little woodwind
devils -- is effectively in C# due to all the accidentals. I took the
liberty of rewriting the 1st clarinet part for A clarinet. I didn't
actually play it that way, because I lent my A clarinet out for another
performance. The director told us that he once conducted the piece with
a band of professional players, and the professional clarinetists (who
may have been sightreading) performed that passage badly.

I think that if we take the position that we should respect the choice
of instrument (A vs. Bb vs. C vs. etc.) that the composers decided upon
in the eighteenth or early nineteenth century, it is even more important
to use the type of instrument that they wrote for. Clearly it's more of
a distortion to play an eighteenth century piece on a modern clarinet than
to play a part written for C clarinet on a Bb or A clarinet.

-- John Morrison