Klarinet Archive - Posting 000338.txt from 1996/06

From: Neil Leupold <nleupold@-----.EDU>
Subj: Re: Bass Clarinet & clefs?
Date: Fri, 21 Jun 1996 11:53:55 -0400

Don Carroll (when's the last time you spoke to Don, Dan Leeson? How's he
doing?), bass clarinet with the San Francsico Symphony for the past 30 years
or so, actually once said to me in a lesson on "Sorcerer's Apprentice" that
the key to understanding the register scheme of a piece which mixes clefs on
bass clarinet is "common sense." In this piece, by Dukas (French), bass and
treble clefs are freely mixed and transitions occur from one to the other
quite often. The rule to begin with is that all parts, both bass and treble,
are to be played an octave higher than written. But then there are those
cases where the bass line is ascending into its upper limits, at which point
the clef suddenly switches. To the eye, and based on the "octave-up" rule,
it appears that one is suddenly being called upon to continue that bass line
an octave higher because that is how it is written in the treble clef. In
actuality, one is supposed to continue the line in the same register, whereby
you would play the treble clef _as written_.

A counter-example is Mahler 4 (German composer this time), where the
entire part, both in the treble and bass clefs, is to be played as
written -- no octave displacement. At no point in this long and
beautiful work is the bass clarinet part to be played in a different
register from what is shown on the page. Again, the clefs are freely
mixed (not as much as the Dukas), but there are no instances where one
would be in doubt that one should play the ink.

The Wagner is yet a different example. I've never played it, but I
suspect it handles this problem differently again and one must simply
acquire the rote knowledge to know the idiosycrasies of a composer's
intentions from one piece to the next.

Neil

On Fri, 21 Jun 1996, Daniel A. Paprocki wrote:

> Someone clear up the differences in French and German music and the use of
> bass and treble clefs in bass clarinet parts. I thought I was clear on
> this until yesterday. I'm doing the "Der Ritt der Walkuren" by Wagner and
> am not clear what octive I'm suppose to be in when in treble clef. What is
> the rule?
>
> Dan
>
> ******************************************************************************
>
> Daniel A. Paprocki
> dap@-----.us
>
> ******************************************************************************
>