Klarinet Archive - Posting 000247.txt from 1999/05

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: [kl] C Clarinets
Date: Sat, 8 May 1999 19:26:31 -0400

> From: MX%"klarinet@-----.79
> Subj: Re: [kl] C Clarinets

> At 06:49 AM 5/8/99 -1300, Dan Leeson wrote:
> >And in my experience, most composers have a specific reasons for requesting
> >a particular clarinet type which is very much independent of how flaky
> >they are, and it does not matter if they can or cannot guess which
> >clarinet type was being played on.
> >
> Ah, but that is EXACTLY the point! If the composer cannot HEAR the
> difference, HOW (or even WHY) would he SPECIFY it?

Bill, I spent a great deal of time explaining exactly why composers
up to about 1850 would specify a particular clarinet type. I suspect
that it was a note you missed. Let let me give you the brief explanation:

It was a rule in clarinet playing that the instrument could
only execute in the written keys of C, F, and less frequently
G. Mozart taught his students never to write for clarinets
in anything but C and F, though he later relented to allow for
written G.

The clarinet type was selected that enabled the clarinet player
to play in these non restricted keys no matter what the concert
pitch was.

So given a concert key of say A major, a clarinet was selected
that would put its written key in C, F, or G, in this case either
the A or the B-natural clarinet.

If you want to know where these rules were cited, I'll give you chapter
and verse. In effect, the choice of clarinet was independent of its
sound. But once that choice was made, the composer would very well
take advantage of its particular character.

After 1850, this factor entered less and less into how composers
wrote for clarinet. Mostly it was a matter of key, but it was also
become more and more a question of character.

I'm not making this up, and, furthermore, this is a big technical
paper on this very subject awaiting publication in the Mozart Jahrbuch
(1998-99 edition). The evidence for this is overwhelming.

>
>
>
> Bill Hausmann bhausman@-----.com
> 451 Old Orchard Drive http://www.concentric.net/~bhausman
> Essexville, MI 48732 http://members.wbs.net/homepages/z/o/o/zoot14.html
> ICQ UIN 4862265
>
> If you have to mic a saxophone, the rest of the band is too loud.
>
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=======================================
Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
leeson@-----.edu
=======================================

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