Klarinet Archive - Posting 001201.txt from 1997/08

From: Roger Garrett <rgarrett@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: Bass clar. price and more
Date: Thu, 28 Aug 1997 09:48:51 -0400

The person who is probably most qualified to answer questions regarding
the basset horn, its appearance, shape, size, history, and the Mozart
Concerto K.622 is Dan Leeson (don't call him Dr. however!).
But...regarding the recording....most of the recordings today are made
with a basset clarinet rather than a basset horn. That is, an A clarinet
with a lower joint that has been extended to a range of low C below low E.
The theory of course is that the concerto was written for a basset horn
(clarinet?) in A, of which no such instrument exists today. Many scholars
have reconstructed the concerto so that the lower ocatave is present in
the melodic lines. However, there is quite a bit of controversy regarding
the authenticity of the different reconstructions. In any event, the
recordings of Anthony Pay and David Shifrin are excellent. Shifrin's was
nominated for a Grammy, and he was the first person to begin touring with
an extended A clarinet back in 1981 or so (hand built lower joint!).

Roger Garrett
Illinois Wesleyan University

On Wed, 27 Aug 1997, Tahna Britton wrote:
[snip]

> A friend of mine has a recording of Mozart's clarinet concerto played by
> a basset horn. He said that Mozart wrote the concerto for a basset
> horn. My questions are these (even though I should probably know this
> by now!): What does a basset horn look like? I've never seen one, I've
> only heard one once. Is a basset horn an earlier form of the modern
> clarinet? Also, I once read somewhere that Mozart only wrote the 1st
> movement for basset horn and then wrote the rest for clarinet, but I
> can't remember where I read that and it doesn't make a lot of sense to
> me

   
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