Klarinet Archive - Posting 000145.txt from 1999/05

From: Tony@-----.uk (Tony Pay)
Subj: Re: [kl] C Clarinets (was Orchestral Rep Question)
Date: Thu, 6 May 1999 20:24:14 -0400

On Thu, 6 May 1999 13:46:28 -0700 , kevinfay@-----.com said:

> I suppose that it's possible that Beethoven and others of his age put
> parts in C as a random exercise--but it's very clear to me that
> Strauss, writing this in 1944-45, definitely wanted the brighter
> sound. Probably ditto with Mahler and the other late Romantic works
> using the smaller instrument. (So I read Tony Pay's anecdote about
> using it being Schubert's decision with a grin.)

A good example of the deliberate use of the C clarinet by Beethoven, I
would say, is the slow movement of the violin concerto. Most modern
players will play this movement on the A clarinet, in order to avoid
changing, and it goes OK on the period A clarinet too. (In a way,
better technically on the A, because you don't have a good low B natural
on the 5-key C clarinet.)

But the sound is different, the C clarinet being more suitable to my
mind for the duet with the solo violin. (Like the Missa Solemnis, with
solo orchestral violin and 2! C clarinets. Sophisticated mathematical
pun in there:-)

In Schubert's case too, the slow movement of the Great C major changes
clarinet, this time in the opposite direction! The A clarinet is used
in C minor, rather than the C clarinet in A minor, with some quite
tricky passages on the period instrument.

By the way, I'm looking forward to the discussion to come, when the
Pamela Weston version (Universal Edition) of the Mozart concerto arrives
in the US. Blood on the walls isn't in it.

I won't spoil it for you by saying more. (Ready, Dan?-)

Tony
--
_________ Tony Pay
|ony:-) 79 Southmoor Rd Tony@-----.uk
| |ay Oxford OX2 6RE GMN family artist: www.gmn.com
tel/fax 01865 553339

...Life is boring without scapegoats. I blame the scapegoats for this.

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