Klarinet Archive - Posting 000730.txt from 1998/03

From: ROBERT HOWE <arehow@-----.net>
Subj: Re: Bass in A
Date: Wed, 11 Mar 1998 23:05:34 -0500

I must gently dispute Dan Leeson, the reason composers wrote for Bass in
A is not unknown. It was the same as for soprano in A or piccolo in D,
ie, to provide a comfortable scale for the player working in sharps.
This practice was NOT merely theoretical or such worldly, practical
composers as Strauss, Mahler and Ravel would not have used A bass
clarinet.

Ever played La Valse? I did in 1990, and the bass clarinetist took sick
a night before the concert. I own a bass, so calls were made. You
haven't LIVED until you are asked to cover the bass clarinet solos at
sight at a dress rehearsal, while also ostensibly playing the English
horn part, and find that the major bass parts are for bass in A!

I will look up what Strauss sez about A bass in his revision of Berlioz'
text, but not now, it is late on the East coast and I have surgery
tomorrow.

RObert Howe

   
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