Klarinet Archive - Posting 001402.txt from 1998/03

From: avrahm galper <agalper@-----.com>
Subj: THE USE OF the A and Bb CLARINETS (1)
Date: Mon, 30 Mar 1998 14:27:12 -0500

Augustin Duques THE USE OF THE A and Bb CLARINETS

This article was written by one of the foremost professional clarinet
players in NY at the time.
These words will again raise the question of "Pitch versus Timbre"
All these arguments are to no avail. Professional clarinet players will
continue to the play clarinets of their choice in the solos of their
choice and none the conductor will be wiser.
(I'm sure the composers won't mind)
It has often been said that players will sound like themselves no matter
what equipment is used.
The same can be said for choice of clarinets to express the various
solos in the orchestra.
The good pro will invariably make the solo sound the way it should in
the piece.
One more thought: think of all the tens of thousands of clarinet players
who won't be able to, because they don't, and will never have, an A
clarinet to play the Mozart concerto. AG

Meyerbeer once stopped a rehearsal he was conducting and asked the
clarinet player which clarinet he was using.
The player answered that he was transposing the part, playing it on the
Bb rather than the A clarinet.
Meyerbeer remarked that he had written for the A instrument because he
had that tone in mind and he would be obliged if the player would play
it on the clarinet designated.
The player laid the Bb down and removed the mouthpiece. But he picked up
the same Bb instrument, blew into it before replacing the mouthpiece,
pretended to warm it and then played the passage over again. Meyerbeer
again stopped the orchestra but this time he smiled and
exclaimed,"Wonderful! That is the tone I wanted."

A similar happening took place at the rehearsal for the Paris premiere
of the Stravinsky's Histoire du Soldat in 1923 which I played with Jose
Iturbi and the French violinist Benedetti.
I was also to play Stravinsky 's Three Pieces for Clarinet at that
concert (the second performance of the work), the first having been
given a short time before in Zurich,Switzerland by Edmond Allegra,the
well known clarinetist of the Boston Symphony.
For those unfamiliar with the work, it should be mentioned that the
first two movements are for A and the third for the Bb.
Since the pieces are unaccompanied, I decided to play them on the Bb
without transposing.
I had played only a few bars when Stravinsky's shrilled from the back of
the hall-would I please play the number on the A clarinet as indicated.
To this day I am undecided as to whether it was the tone or the pitch of
the clarinet that made Stravinsky ask me to change instruments.

There are very few conductors or composers whose hearing is so acute
that they can detect the difference in sound between the A and Bb
instruments.
An experienced clarinet player can tell much of the time because he
"feels" the fingering that is being played.
Very few clarinet players could mistake the sound of a throat A# for
the rich sounding B of an A clarinet
With few exceptions, however, it is simply the key that determines which
clarinet the composer or arranger designates.
It would be asking too much of them to know the instrument as thoroughly
as an experienced player, and because it's the players responsibility to
make the part sound well, no matter what the difficulty may be, a
practice of using other-than-designated clarinets in some numbers has
grown to such extent that it promises to become a tradition
Perhaps it will benefit younger symphonic players to be advised of a few
such places in the standard repertoire, and it may produce a chuckle
from some colleages to tell how the writer maneuvers to make life a
little more comfortable in some cases. (to be continued)

Avrahm Galper

THE UPBEAT BAERMANN MELODIC SCALE STUDIES
http://www.sneezy.org/avrahm_galper/index.html