Klarinet Archive - Posting 000145.txt from 1997/06

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: Mozart concerto/concerti
Date: Fri, 13 Jun 1997 12:02:49 -0400

> From: MX%"klarinet@-----.51
> Subj: Re: Mozart concerto/concerti

> It is not strictly valid to say that K.622 was "written for basset
> clarinet", as no autograph exists of a version for this instrument. K.621b
> is around 199 bars of ms. including a solo part for G basset horn and (I
> think - no books with me) a sketch of an accompaniment. I think this lives
> somewhere in Switzerland; Dan Leeson (and others) will know just where.
> It is strongly *inferred* that the lost predecessor of K.622 was written
> for basset clarinet in A, from:
> 1) Stadler had at least one such instrument (and probably a B flat
> example too), which he was well known for using;
> 2) Several peculiar awkwardnesses of the solo part in K.622 could be
> explained if the passages had been written an octave lower, for an
> instrument with an extension to written low C.
> (and probably other stuff too).
> Dan Leeson of course knows much more than this. Try to get hold of the
> Cambridge Companion to the Mozart Clarinet Concerto.
> (It's time I re-read my copy, I think ...)
> Roger Shilcock
>
>
Roger is absolutely correct to say that we should be cautious about
stating that K. 622 was written for basset clarinet. While all
the evidence points in that direction, without an autograph to
confirm our informed speculations, it is impossible to tell what
he really did.

Roger correctly points out that Stadler had a basset clarinet in
A, but he also had one in B-flat and one in C as well. I tried
to get a pair made for me in B-flat and A to use as my regular
orchestral instruments when I was playing, but no manufacturer
would agree to that. Several of the representatives to whom I
spoke told me that I didn't need one in B-flat since nothing was
ever written for that instrument.

You all would have been very proud of me for not stabbing those
individuals in the heart with a bayonet.

>
>
>
> On Fri, 13 Jun 1997, Bill Edinger wrote:
>
> > Date: Fri, 13 Jun 1997 08:25:49 -0400
> > From: Bill Edinger <wde1@-----.edu>
> > Reply-To: klarinet@-----.us
> > To: Klarinet list <klarinet@-----.us>
> > Subject: Mozart concerto/concerti
> >
> > Could someone please clear up a point of confusion that has developed for
> > me on the Mozart "Concerto?" Is the one he wrote for Basset clarinet (K
> > 622, which is the familiar one) the same as, similar to, or completely
> > different from the concerto for basset horn (which Dan Leeson noted as
> > being K 621b)? Was one an earlier version of the other? Thanks,
> >
> > Bill Edinger
> >
> >
> >
>
=======================================
Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
Rosanne Leeson, Los Altos, California
leeson@-----.edu
=======================================