Klarinet Archive - Posting 000631.txt from 1998/07

From: merlinw@-----.ca
Subj: Re: [kl]Mozart concerto & pitch
Date: Mon, 20 Jul 1998 23:27:41 -0400

On 07/20/98 23:07:19 you wrote:
>
>At 08:50 AM 7/20/98 EDT, Dan Leeson wrote:
>>A fourth consideration is that the Bellison edition is for B-flat clarinet.
>>And if I were judging anyone's play of the work, I would be very harsh if
>>they played it in the wrong key, which is what you must to in the Bellison
>>edition. It winds up in concert B-flat instead of concert A.
>>
>Although we may have been through this before, I cannot for the life of me
>see how (except, of course, to those with perfect pitch) this could
>possibly make even the slightest bit of difference to 99.999% of the
>population. And it has the decided advantage of making the piece
>accessible, with normal fingerings, to those of us who do not have access
>to an A clarinet, much less a basset clarinet.

In addition, let's not forget that pitch standards have changed a lot since the piece was written. While I'm not sure what pitch was commonly used at the time and place that the concerto was first performed, it's probably not anywhere near A@-----.

Merlin Williams
merlinw@-----.ca
http://www.netcom.ca/~merlinw
(A member of the Sax Ring!)

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