Klarinet Archive - Posting 000462.txt from 1998/02

From: Roger Garrett <rgarrett@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: Naive question
Date: Tue, 10 Feb 1998 13:52:46 -0500

On Mon, 9 Feb 1998, Jacqueline Eastwood wrote:
> When the clarinet was first developed, it was more rudimentary in terms of
> keywork and mechanism; the full chromatic scale which we can play on a
> modern Boehm system clarinet was not available to Classical era players.
>
> Composers knew this, of course, and based their choice of clarinet on the
> key signature of the work. The point was to eliminate as many accidentals
> as possible, because of the limitations of chromatic notes available on
> the clarinet.

I would welcome some comment from Dan as well...for this description would
then disagree with the idea that we need to play them on C, Eb, and D when
the parts call for them now.....playing in chromatic keys is not as
difficult with modern instruments now as it was then. Or.....did the
tonal colors associated with the C clarinet have an impact on the compser?
We know that the 32 key clarinet/Boehm system was available for Mahler's
works...yet he wrote for C, Bb, and A clarinets.

This kind of stuff is so interesting.

Roger Garrett