Klarinet Archive - Posting 000903.txt from 1998/07

From: <EbKlarinet@-----.com>
Subj: [kl] Re: Mozart cl vs bsn concertos
Date: Thu, 23 Jul 1998 22:40:27 -0400

Hi, Ed! Still trying to answer your question...

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> Yes, Ed, I definitely think the bassoon concerto is inferior to the
> clarinet concerto, but that's not to say that it is inferior music.

I'm still having some trouble understanding this. It is inferior, but it
isn't inferior. Something is missing in this equation.
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By inferior music, I meant music that isn't very well crafted. I hesitate to
give you an example of this, for fear of being nit-picked to death by the
list!! <g> The bassoon concerto isn't bad music, but it also isn't as good
music as the clarinet concerto.

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Still when we get to the point that we try to offer something to back up
these often-unsubstantiated opinions, we may find ourselves struggling.......
But, if we want to say that one is greater than the other, we
need to have some substantive argument on which to base our claims.
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I thought the quotes I chose demonstrated my point beautifully. :~) I don't
remember enough of my college music theory [sorry, Dr Eubank!!] to go into
great detail about the compositional elements that make the clarinet concerto
greater music than even the bassoon concerto, but I had hoped that Zaslow's
comments took care of some of that for me. As I mentioned in the previous
post, I have read this same opinion over and over and over again ( in 1991, I
went into Mozart overdrive, devouring eveything I could find on the man--I
must have read a dozen books at least, not to mention all of the articles in
the scholarly magazines), but I don't think any purpose would be served by
quoting them all.

My original point that prompted this discussion was that we clarinetists
benefitted greatly from the fact that composers often got around to writing
for us in their most mature periods. Don't you agree?

I'll just leave you with this thought--if you had a choice between the 2
concerti, which one would you choose?

Sincerely thankful that we clarinetists got the work that we did from our boy
Wolfie,
Elise Curran

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