Klarinet Archive - Posting 000498.txt from 1996/03

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.EDU>
Subj: Music for odd clarinet types
Date: Tue, 19 Mar 1996 13:19:56 -0500

Nick Shackleton mentions a stack of pop music found in Nyack, NY (I
used to live very close to there) in which D clarinet parts were found.
I thought I would add to that by mentioning the following.

Ethel Merman, the American singer who was in every major musical in NY
from the 1920s or so and how had an enormous voice, was of the opinion
that her voice blended best with a basset horn. So almost all the
shows she was in during the 1930s to the 1950s had a basset horn part
of some prominence in it. The original parts contain the instrument,
but later versions made for touring companies took it out and used
something else.

But somewhere in some NY wharehouse there is a ton of pop music for
basset horn, but it needs Ethel Merman to make it work!! <grin>

For those too young to remember Ethel Merman, think of tunes like
"There's No Business Like Show Business." You need a fog horn
to get through that instrumentation.

====================================
Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
(leeson@-----.edu)
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