Klarinet Archive - Posting 000662.txt from 1998/05

From: Jack Kissinger <kissingerjn@-----.EDU>
Subj: Re: [kl] A new concept in orchestral clarinets
Date: Wed, 13 May 1998 09:59:10 -0400

GTGallant wrote:

> I totally agree that manufacturers lack marketing vision most of the time, but
> a set of bassetts for modern playing? The basset clarinet is a great
> instrument and deserves the right to be manufactured for PERIOD performances.
> I think using bassets every day would be a little tiring. There is little
> music written for them outside of Mozart, so all the extra notes/weight/keys
> are useless. Manufactures also reflect the times and current trends...how
> else could you describe the Greenline! The basset clarinet was great in its
> day but somehow fell out of favor with composers. You would have a wonderful
> point if the basset was is favor today and nobody was willing to build it, but
> that is not the case. For the money it would cost to buy a set of A, Bb, and
> C bassets, you could easily have a craftsman build extensions for the "normal"
> instruments at a lower cost. This whole subject is irrelevant since the 19th
> century.

It seems to me that there is a little circularity in this scenario. Theorists
publish orchestration texts with charts that indicate that the lowest note in the
soprano clarinet's range is low E. Composers read these texts and, not wanting to
be thought stupid, do not write soprano clarinet parts extending below that
range. Manufacturers see the music being written and decide, "What's the point
of making clarinets whose range extends below E. No one writes for them and
musicians will not be willing to bear the extra cost." They then manufacture
clarinets whose range extends to low E. Then theorists writing the next round of
orchestration texts observe that manufactured clarinets have a range to low E and
include charts in their texts stating that the range of the clarinet is low E.
And so on, ad infinitum ...

But what little evidence there is indicates that "if you build it" (a low-C
clarinet), they (compositions) will come. Consider music written for bass
clarinet where the standard range of the professional instrument is, indeed low
C. Also, Harrison Birtwhistle (whose music is not likely to be confused with
Sussmayr's) has written a piece ("Linoi") for basset clarinet so its repertoire is
not strictly limited to the 18th century.

Did the basset clarinet "die out" ... or was it smothered at birth. How common
was the basset clarinet in the 18th century. Did it die out even though it was
common because composers decided not to use its extra range? Or was it so rare
that most composers never knew it existed and hence never wrote for it? Dan?

Best regards,
Jack Kissinger
St. Louis

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