Klarinet Archive - Posting 000797.txt from 1997/05

From: Stephen Froehlich <shorthnd@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: A clarinet
Date: Fri, 30 May 1997 09:23:44 -0400

On Wed, 28 May 1997, Edwin V. Lacy wrote:

> Now, Dan, are you very sure of that? Were the composers of the 19th
> century so myopic and ignorant that they were totally unaware of what
> every 20th century clarinetist knows about changing clarinets for
> technical reasons? Can we say with certainty that when a composer such
> as Mozart wrote for the C, the Bb or the A clarinet, that he did so
> exclusively because of the differences in the tone of the instruments, and
> that it had nothing to do with availability of instruments, the key of the
> work in question, or technical considerations for the performer?

Are you trying to say that older clarinets didn't have the the
debatable benefit of equal tuning, but were actually made to be tuned to
their native scale? I would assume that this is a safe assumption (grin).
This would call in to question just how much composers composed for the
subtle differences between clarinets of different tunings. Instead it
might seem that the many clarinets were a necessity of intonation.
On a similar note, do contemporary composers often or ever compose
for any clarinets that aren't in Eb or Bb? If so or not, why?

Thanks,
Stephen Froehlich