Klarinet Archive - Posting 000731.txt from 1998/07

From: "Steven J Goldman, MD" <gpsc@-----.com>
Subj: RE: [kl] About the Mozart concerto on B-flat clarinet
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1998 01:17:12 -0400

While the composers choice of key should be followed, I think it has lost
some of its punch because of changes in the instruments.

The key of a piece in the 18th century was much more important than it is
today. Different keys were thought to have different affects. Part of this
was overactive imagination on the part of some theorists; however, much had
to do with the technology of the available instruments and their tunings.
Keyboard instruments were not tuned to our equal tempered scale, and
different keys gave a different feel to the piece. Flutes sounded best in D,
oboes (I think)in C. Clarinet technology was such that it was best to use
different instruments for different keys (poor cross finger intonation in
the low register). Trumpets were most commonly available in D, etc, etc,
etc. The more remote the key, the harder it was to keep in tune. And since
the winds hit accidentals by cross fingering which caused some notes to be
"covered" (i.e. duller) different keys really did have different sounds.
Thus an 18th C. composer choice of key was influenced by the sound he wanted
and what was technically possible. Most of the work on winds has been to
make them more consistent from key to key as well as more in tune.
(Interestingly there was a school of German flute players who only gave up
the 5-8 keyed conical flute this century because they preferred the subtle
differences between keys and were opposed to the uniformity of the modern
cylindrical flute!) So technical "improvements" in instruments has made much
(but not all) of the original composer's choice of key moot, as much of
difference they heard (whatever concert pitch was in the area) just isn't
there any more. (I've left out the strings where the acoustic difference
between keys is more subtle, but has remained unchanged).

Steven Goldman
Glenview, IL 60025

sjgoldman@-----.com

[Dan Leeson has written a good article on the why clarinets come in
different keys which is available on the web sight.]

-----Original Message-----
From: leeson@-----.edu]On Behalf Of
Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.edu
Subject: [kl] About the Mozart concerto on B-flat clarinet

Someone took exception to someone's view (maybe mine) that playing the
Mozart concerto on a B-flat clarinet was not necessarily the best thing
to do for the work. And the reaction was that pitch standards have
changed so much that it doesn't really matter that much......

A work of music is not a collection of notes. It is a collection of
specific notes in a context, one of whose elements, at least for music
of the 18th century, is the key of the piece. Another is the instrument
on which the work is executed. Another is one's demeanor while playing
it. Executing the Mozart concerto naked and while standing on one's
head would alter the context of the work substantially.

Such a work is the sum of its constituent parts and, if one should
remove one of those parts (such as substituting a flute for a clarinet),
then the context of the work changes. I think that should matter to
clarinet players and it saddens me to hear people suggest that these
elements are not important.

I can't do much about it but express that sadness, so I do so now.

=======================================
Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
Rosanne Leeson, Los Altos, California
leeson@-----.edu
=======================================

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