Klarinet Archive - Posting 000110.txt from 1998/09

From: Lee Hickling <hickling@-----.Net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Basset Clarinet
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 1998 18:49:10 -0400

Fred Jacobowitz' reply to Antoine Clark, about the difficulty in playing
the bassett horn part in Mendelssohn Concertpiece for Bb Clarinet and
Basset horn #2, made me think of a line attributed to Beethoven. Fred said:

> Sorry, but there is simply no good place to put the breaths in the
>slow section. If you have superb breath control you CAN do it with a
>minimum of breaths (2-3, I think). One option is to leave out a note here
>and there, such as the 'e' after the low c. I don't know what Mendelssohn
>was thinking when he wrote that part (yes, it is originally for this
>instrumentation) but he really didn't do us any favors.

I don't remember where I read it; it may have been in Harold Schoenberg's
book The Great Pianists; but Ludwig Van is said to have told his piano
students, "Do not be the prisoner of the score!" Si non e vero, e ben trovato.

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