Klarinet Archive - Posting 000421.txt from 1996/05

From: C&K Hill <hutchill@-----.AU>
Subj: Seeking Stamitz..found but still lost
Date: Sun, 19 May 1996 07:40:09 -0400

Hi to clarinet playing collegues everywhere!

A week or so ago I posted a message trying to locate quartets for clarinet
in A and string trio by Stamitz. I must say the response was underwhelming.

Anyway for the record:

Two quartets are published by McGinnes & Marx, New York in an edition for
flute/violin/ oboe/clarinet in A/clarinet in Bb with string trio. It is
based on a single known set of parts for this work which is held at the
Library of Congress which were published by Sieber in Paris in about 1800.
The first part is labelled "violino, oboe, flauto, clarinetto solo". This
led the editor of the edition, Josef Marx who was writing in 1947, to
conclude that " that the absence of a separate clarinet part as well as the
keys indicate in all likelihood that Stamitz had the C clarinet in mind."

These quartets are in the keys of D major and A major and are therefore
totally unsuited to either the C or Bb clarinets. Transposition for the A
clarinet(into F major and C major) renders the range too high for comfort on
either a modern or period clarinet, while completely neglecting the low
register. It would be quite a task to adapt them for use on the clarinet(and
not worth the effort in my opinion). Moreover, the style is quite unlike any
of the genuine clarinet works by Stamitz.

Conclusion: these quartets cannot be regarded as for clarinet in their
present form. The style and key relationships within the movements also
suggest that the clarinet was never intended as an alternative by the composer.

Craig Hill
Melbourne, Australia
...Still seeeking eighteeenth century chamber works for A clarinet.