Klarinet Archive - Posting 000367.txt from 1997/09

From: Ken Bryson <kbryson@-----.com>
Subj: Well, here we go again
Date: Mon, 8 Sep 1997 14:00:26 -0400

O.K., O.K., I'm persuaded! A part for "Clarinet in C" should really be
played on a C Clarinet! Don't hit me!

But here is my real-world dilemma: in something under 3 weeks I will
play a concert in which one piece (an overture by the other
Mendelssohn--Fanny) calls for Clarinet in C and (you guessed it) I do
not own a C Clarinet. I thought I was doing my best by writing out a
careful transposition (to avoid stupid panic-induced errors during the
performance) and playing it on my B flat instrument. But now I live in
dread that Dan Leeson, the avenging angel of the clarinet version of the
ACLU, will suddenly appear at the concert, pull me out of the wind
section midway through the overture, slam me up against the wall, and
bellow "Schmuck! Do you know what the hell it is you are doing?"

I thought it was incumbent upon me to spend all of my available time
between now and the concert working out some tricky finger moves in the
Ginastera "Estancia" so that they would flow cleanly the night of the
concert, but now I see that my time would be better spent looking for
two C Clarinets that I could beg, borrow, or steal for the concert to
maintain the integrity of the orchestral palette of sound (two because I
don't want to see the other clarinettist slammed into a wall either, and
I expect our sounds will blend better if we are both playing C
Clarinets). I appeal to the list--Help!