Klarinet Archive - Posting 000241.txt from 1997/06

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.edu>
Subj: RE: Use of different pitch clarinets
Date: Mon, 16 Jun 1997 19:59:12 -0400

> From: MX%"klarinet@-----.70
> Subj: Use of different pitch clarinets

> Hello all;
> Please forgive me in advance for the question which I am about to pose.
> Thanks in no small part to the list, my curiosity is just beginning to
> peak in clarinet history. Since I have done little to no research so far
> (consider that my confession), maybe someone can clear this up for me. Was
> it common for players in the time of Mozart, etc to own all of the
> different pitch clarinets or did performers specialize in two or three
> pitches? It would seem that we have digressed if this is the case. The
> people I have known may have a few, but certainly not the entire clarinet
> family. Since there is so much transposing and instrument substitution
> going on now, I just became curious as to the answerto this question.
> Thanks for tolerating.
> Lynnette

Wonderful question Lynnette. The answer is that we just don't know
what the average workaday clarinet player of Mozart's era owned.
Stadler is known to have had three differently pitched basset clarinets,
one in C, one in B-flat, and one in A, and I have always presumed
that he owned three non-basset clarinet instruments, too. But the
fact is I really don't know that at all. I also do not know what
he did when, playing Cosi fan Tutte, Mozart asked him to change to
clarinet in B-natural! I have opinions, of course, but I don't
really know. I have always presumed that Mozart selected clarinets
because he knew that they were available, but that is also a
presumption on my part.

In my own case, when I was playing, I owned everything but a clarinet
in B-natural, a bass clarinet in C, and a basset horn in G. I only
once came across a b.c. part in C and that I had to transpose. I never
was asked to play a b.h. in G or a clarinet in B-natural. In Mahler
symphonies, I used both a b.c. in B-flat and one in A. I also did
not own or play a clarinet in A-flat or a soprano clarinet in G, though
I could have bought one of the latter in Athens where they are as
common as chick peas.

It is not that I am trying to be purer than Caeser's wife. I did not
criticize my colleagues who did not do that. That was their
decision. I thought it was a wrong one, but I never commented on
it unless I were asked. That was simply the way I chose to behave
while on the orchestral stage. If others did not do this, it was,
to be blunt, none of my damn business.

But since we are on this list and discussing the matter, I don't
think it to be inappropriate to give my opinion on the matter.

I became interested in the subject of arbitrary substitution of
one clarinet for another when I began to see how pervasive it
was in the industry, and how thoughtlessly it was being done.
That has led to several years worth of various discussions on the
subject, and you happened to fall into the most recent one.

> --
> Todd & Lynnette Staley
> email: nette@-----.net
=======================================
Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
Rosanne Leeson, Los Altos, California
leeson@-----.edu
=======================================

   
     Copyright © Woodwind.Org, Inc. All Rights Reserved    Privacy Policy    Contact charette@woodwind.org