Klarinet Archive - Posting 000316.txt from 1998/09

From: jvarineau@-----. Varineau)
Subj: [kl] Quote without comment
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1998 21:52:02 -0400

Apropos of the discussion over pitch standards, the following almost
leapt off the page while I was browsing through F. Geoffrey Rendall's THE
CLARINET (I was actually doing some reading on Benedetto Carulli):
"As a clarinetist he (Richard Muhlfeld) was self-taught, and was
perhaps the better for it; for he played less as a clarinetist than as a
fine and sensitive musician who, excelling in artistic phrasing and in
the finer points of style, had chosen the clarinet as his means of
expression. Technically he was no doubt inferior to some of his
contemporaries. Opinions of his tone and intonation vary. Some
competent critics found him deficient in both; others praised the velvet
quality of his lower register. In England he met with special
acclamation, but it should be remembered that the pitch at the time of
his first visits had not been lowered. To ears attuned to this higher
pitch his flat-pitched A clarinet would have sounded as soft and mellow
as a basset-horn."
Rendall, F. Geoffrey. The Clarinet, Some Notes upon its History
and Construction. 3rd ed. London: Ernst Benn Limited. New edition
revised by Philip Bate. 1971. page 113.

Muhlfeld was the clarinetist whose playing coaxed Brahms out of
retirement. Brahms then wrote the Trio opus 114, the Quintet opus 115 and
the two clarinet sonatas op 120.

John P. Varineau
Associate Conductor, Grand Rapids Symphony

You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail.
Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com
Or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]

-------------------------------------------------------------------------