Klarinet Archive - Posting 000387.txt from 1997/09

From: njs5@-----.uk (Nick Shackleton)
Subj: RE: C clarinet
Date: Mon, 8 Sep 1997 17:49:14 -0400

There is one point that is often brought up in this discussion of using the
specified clarinet: either "I" or "The Composer" can't/couldn't tell the
difference between the A / Bflat / C / any other clarinet. In the ensuing
discussion there is an aspect that I don't believe Dan has brought up though
he could have. Regardless of whether or not YOU/I can tell the difference,
and regardless of whether the composer could truly tell the difference, the
composer almost certainly expected a difference and had learned what was the
difference that he was aiming for. Ever since the first instructions to
those composing for the clarinet were published (Valentin Roeser, 1764, the
topic with which Al Rice burst on the international academic scene)
composers have been told of the difference in tone between the different
keyed clarinets. As Dan pointed out recently, composers at the same time
learned which keys it was possible to play clarinets in, so that they were
obliged to accept that if they composed in Bflat they couldn't use the tone
of an A clarinet. But a (properly educated) composer would never write for a
C clarinet in ignorance of the fact that he/she was writing for an
instrument that would sound different from an A clarinet (even if he/she
wished it were possible...). And later composers were ALSO taught these
differences in tone, but were NOT any longer told they had to write for the
clarinet in a limited range of keys. So I would suspect that composers
always expected tonal differences, even though they may have failed to
perceive them when we clowns played their music.
Nick

   
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