Klarinet Archive - Posting 000409.txt from 1996/03

From: Jacqueline G Eastwood <eastwooj@-----.EDU>
Subj: Re: Steve Prescott's suggestion about clarinet development
Date: Fri, 15 Mar 1996 14:42:38 -0500

Dan,

To add just a bit to your post, the best source I have found for
explaining the development of different sized clarinets and how they were
deployed is the book "The Clarinet" by F. Geoffrey Rendall. It's more
long-winded than the Brymer book's explanation, but also more thorough.

Jacqueline Eastwood
University of Arizona/Arizona Opera Orchestra
eastwooj@-----.edu

On
Fri, 15 Mar 1996, Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.edu wrote:

> 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)
> ====================================
>