Klarinet Archive - Posting 000401.txt from 1996/03
From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.EDU>
Subj: Steve Prescott's suggestion about clarinet development
Date: Fri, 15 Mar 1996 11:22:09 -0500
I read Steve's note with considerable care. He is a person who knows
a great deal and his notes deserve attention.
His suggestion is that the development of clarinets of varying lengths
was in satisfaction of the need for the instrument to play in
a variety of keys. Well, yes and no, but I think we are in agreement.
I think he meant "in satisfaction of the need for the instrument to
play in a variety of CONCERT keys" (though I am not quoting Steve).
Early clarinets generally played in only one of two keys: C and F. To
a much smaller extent one finds a clarinet here and there in G, but it
is rare. Mozart used it only once or twice if my memory serves me
correctly. Beethoven, less than a half-dozen times. Scubert, too.
There seems to have been much less concern about flat keys. One finds
up to 4 flats in Mozart's music, but the occasions are very rare.
Now when the concert key changed, the clarinet had to change too so that
it could still function in written C or F. It is not that early composers
did not use all the notes of the diatonic scale, it is that they didn't
use complicated key signatures. One finds C#, D#, G#, even A# in Mozart
manuscripts, but in those cases the notes were sharped where they stood,
not in the key signature.
Well, if all of this is the case, why are there not oboes in B-flat and
oboes in A, bassoons in B-flat and bassoons in A? Why does only the
clarinet have the peculiar situation of having to change instruments
to play in complicated keys?
And it was Nick Shacklton of the UK who helped me out in this arena.
Nick suggests that instruments that overblow an octave can accomodate
additional keys put on the instrument for additional fingerings and
still remain well in tune. But that (in the 18th and 19th centuries)
an instrument that overblew a 12-th was much more difficult to keep in
tune while adding alternate fingerings.
So I think that Steve and I are in agreement on this matter but I felt
that it needed some clarification. I hope Steve does not mind me
signing his name to my speculations.
However, once additional clarinets were in existence, it is my suggestion
that composers used the added color palette donated by the instruments
of various lengths. Perhaps "used" is not the right word and I should
say "took advantageof" but I am not really sure. It is rather that,
as Mozart wrote a work and heard it in his head (to whatever extent he
did), and he was using a clarinet in C (or B-flat or A or B-natural),
then inside his head he heard the orchestral palette including the
sound of a particular clarinet, and he used that clarinet to its
best advantage considering its contribution to the palette.
So when he writes a sustained G (just above the staff) in one of
the symphonies (and for clarinet in B-flat), that G is heard not only
as a note for 5 or 6 measures, but as a note with a certain character,
name the note G as it is played on an instrument of a certain length,
with that length being partly or mostly responsible for the character.
If you play that note in a C or A clarinet (and transpose, of course),
you get that note to be sure. But you get that note with a different
character. I, for one, am not going to say that my ear is as good
as Mozart's and, therefore, since I don't hear a difference in character
when playing, then it does not matter which clarinet is used.
As you all know, I think it matters very much. David Neithamer
of Richmond added a very thoughtful which said (correctly) that
my interpretation of the matter is literal and his is more
practical. He is right of course. But I am not such a virgin as
I give the appearence of being. In my last performance of Mahler
5, I did not buy a D clarinet for the half dozen notes that are
required to be executed on that instrument. Even as neurotic as
I am about authenticity, I could not justify the expense knowing
that I was retiring as a player shortly. But 20 years ago, I would
have gone out and bought one. I was a professional. It was equipment
needed to do my job.
I see clarinet players buying a new B-flat every 5 years or so under
the assumption that the one they have is worn out, whether or not it
is. With that attitude, they should buy a D, a C, and anything
else needed to execute in the most professional fashion.
====================================
Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
(leeson@-----.edu)
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