Klarinet Archive - Posting 000446.txt from 1998/12

From: Yitzchok Gurevitz <yitzg@-----.com>
Subj: [kl] Berlioz on Bb vs. A clarinets
Date: Wed, 9 Dec 1998 22:20:39 -0500

There have been many discussions on this list about substituting the
B-flat clarinet for the A and vice-versa. Here is what Hector Berlioz
writes in an article titled "On Conducting":

"It is also the conductor's duty to see to it that clarinetists do not
always use the same instrument (usually the clarinet in B-flat) without
regard to the author's indications, as if the different clarinets,
especially those in A and D, did not have their own individual character,
whose special value is well known to the intelligent composer. Moreover,
the clarinet in A reaches a semitone lower than the one in B-flat, namely
to C# (diagram), which is of excellent effect. This C# represents the
actual sound of the written note E (diagram), which on the clarinet in
B-flat produces D (diagram)."

So there you have it. This is from "The Conductor's Art, Carl Bamberger,
Editor." I don't know if more can be added to this (very
informative) discussion than what there already is in the archives, but I
did not see this quote there.

--Yitzchok Gurevitz

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