Klarinet Archive - Posting 001192.txt from 1998/07

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.edu>
Subj: RE: [kl] Mozart and the right clarinet
Date: Tue, 28 Jul 1998 22:42:39 -0400

> From: MX%"klarinet@-----.23
> Subj: RE: [kl] Mozart and the right clarinet

> On Sat, 25 Jul 1998, Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.edu wrote:
>
> > On the bottom level, I think that Mozart's ear was so refined that he
> > heard a difference in character between an A clarinet and a B-flat
> > clarinet in his head, something that ordinary mortals have difficulty
> > doing in a real live situation. For you and I (I should really speak
> > only for myself), hearing quality at that level is beyond us.
>
> Dan, for about four years I've been reading and carefully considering your
> arguments in favor of this position, keeping an open mind, hoping to be
> convinced, but so far I'm afraid that the intellectual exercise, while an
> interesting one, has failed to bring me around to your way of thinking.

Either I have said it badly or you got it backwards some other way. I
have never suggested for one instant that Mozart selected keys based
on his choice of clarinets. It is exactly the other way round. He
selected keys for his works (for whatever reason) and then, as a
consequence of the key that he had ordained, was then mandated to
use a specificly pitched clarinet, one that would enable the written
key signature of the clarinet chosen to execute in less than 2 sharps.

With trumpets, it may be a different story. When he chose to
write a religious work, for example, probably one of the first
questions he asked was, "Are there going to be trumpets?" If yes,
he would never select A major but rather D major and almost every
Sanctus or Gloria that he wrote using trumpets was in that key.

If no, then the choice of key was not important trumpetwise. But
when clarinets were used at all, their character of sound did not
affect the choice of instrument up front. The choice of key
determined the choice of clarinet pitch. But once chosen, the
clarinet he employed was used very idiomatically, I think we both
agree; that is, whatever sound quality was inherent in the selected
instrument, then that sound quality affected the way he wrote.
For example, I find C clarinet music much more shrill than A
clarinet music.

>
> Isn't it a rather egocentric view that Mozart would have made his choices
> of keys for his symphonies based either on what would be convenient for
> the clarinet or on a decidedly subtle difference in the tone quality of
> clarinets in differing keys? What about the convenience of the much
> larger string section, or the brass?
>
> Mozart could hear the difference in the tone of the A and the Bb clarinet?
> I don't doubt it for a minute. I'm thoroughly convinced that he could.
> But, when he wrote for the clarinet, was he interested in the sound of the
> clarinet, or the sound of the A or the Bb clarinet in particular? Wasn't
> he interested in the totality of the musical effect? Exclusive of
> technical considerations, would it change the overall musical effect to
> play the clarinet part on an instrument in a different key? Think of the
> differences in aesthetic stance of the last two symphonies, in G Minor and
> D Major. Would these not still be the same works that they are no matter
> what clarinet (within reason) the clarinetists might choose to use?

I think that it does change the overall effect, even if I havedifficulty
being precise about it. The color of the specific clarinets he chose
had some effect on the palette of total orchestral sound. Now you will
agree, I am sure, that if he used accordions instead of clarinets in
B-flat, that change in sonic palette would be noticeable to anyone. I
suggest that to his ear, if not to ours, a change in sonic palette is
equally noticeable should a B-flat clarinet be used in place of an
A. I don't know this to be true, of course, and it may be that the
differences between clarinets are far too subtle to achieve a distinction.
But I don't want to take a chance.

>
> Isn't it true that if you hear either of these symphonies ten times by ten
> different orchestras, you will hear a range of clarinet sound which varies
> more widely than does the difference in sound achieved by a single player
> on a Bb and then an A clarinet? Doesn't every other section of the
> orchestra exhibit the same characteristic of varying tone qualities?
>
I am trying to fight one holy war at a time. I don't know if what you
say is true. It may be. I haven't thought about it enough. But one
step at a time. The subject is clarinets and the specifics have to do
with change of sound with clarinet substitutions. Maybe in 10 years
I'll be ready to think about other phenomena.

> I really would like to be convinced of your position. It would make life
> simpler. And I promise I am not deliberately trying to be obtuse. Try
> again, Dan. Open up with your big guns, or your big arguments. On this
> question, I am the "tabla rasa" - the blank slate.
>
> Ed Lacy
>
> P.S.: But I won't have access to my e-mail account for the next few days.
> Eventually I will answer any messages on the topic.
>
> *****************************************************************
> Dr. Edwin Lacy University of Evansville
> Professor of Music 1800 Lincoln Avenue
> Evansville, IN 47722
> el2@-----.edu (812)479-2754
> *****************************************************************
>
>
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
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Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
Rosanne Leeson, Los Altos, California
leeson@-----.edu
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