Klarinet Archive - Posting 001209.txt from 1997/08

From: Roger Garrett <rgarrett@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: Mozart K622
Date: Thu, 28 Aug 1997 15:13:53 -0400

My sincere apologies to Mr. Shackleton! I am what people refer to as,
more than reasonably informed, but not completely informed. It is good to
know of the handbook...I was unaware of it, and will now be referred to as
more than more than reasonably informed on the issue of the basset
clarinet vs. the basset horn! ;)

Regarding the basset clarinet vs. basset horn....the modern basset horn
is, basically, an alto clarinet pitched in the key of F with an extension
to low c. The basset clarinet is as I described earlier - a standard A
clarinet with the lower joint extended to a low c. I do not know the
subtlties of the basset clarinet vs. the basset horn in Mozart's time.

Roger Garrett

On Thu, 28 Aug 1997, Nick Shackleton wrote:

> The words "The theory of course is that" are unnecessary and give the false
> impression (I'm sure not intended) that this is open to question. When
> people like Dan Leeson and I were young it was thought to be open to
> question, but only because we were not familiar with the available
> information. Mozart wrote K 622 for the basset clarinet in A (and if you
> prefer to call it a basset horn in A its all the same to me, and if you're
> interested in what instruments survive look at what Al Rice and I
> contributed to the end of Colin Lawson's handbook to K 622 (Cambridge
> University Press), published prior to Pamela Weston's discovery-see below).
> I'm surprised in the discussions of ornamenting K 622 that people have not
> brought up Pamela Weston's recent edition, which she previewed in Clarinet
> around the beginning of the year. In my view this is essential material for
> anybody trying to decide what she/he is going to do with this piece.
> Nick
> >
> >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
> >
> >
> >
>
>