Klarinet Archive - Posting 001149.txt from 1998/07

From: Mitch Bassman <mbassman@-----.com>
Subj: RE: [kl] Mozart's choice of instruments
Date: Tue, 28 Jul 1998 01:24:45 -0400

Just to set the record straight,

At 10:02 AM 7/26/98 EDT, Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.edu wrote:
>Several things speak against it. For example, when Mozart used
>a French horn (or horns) in a prominent position, the piece generally
>wound up in E-flat because that was the best tuning crook for horns.
>For example, the wind octets K. 375 and K. 388 (in c minor which is
>essentially E-flat major since it is the relative minor of E-flat
>major), the piano wind quintet, K. 452, and all four horn concerti.

I agree with everything you said in this message, Dan, except for the final
four words of the cited paragraph. My memory may be wrong (I'm in my office
without access to my music library), but years of listening to my brother
play Mozart on his horn during the early 1960s make me reasonably certain
that the Number 1 horn concerto is in D Major. Numbers 2, 3, and 4, plus
the Concert Rondo are in E-flat. Perhaps Mozart learned something after he
wrote No. 1 in D. Nu?

Mitch Bassman
Burke, Virginia, USA

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