Klarinet Archive - Posting 000535.txt from 1999/10

From: "Dodgshun family" <dodgshun@-----.nz>
Subj: Re: [kl] Re: Transposing C fakebooks
Date: Mon, 18 Oct 1999 16:46:05 -0400

>> Now I know why clarinets have fallen so out of favor
>>in jazz circles - this transposing thing is a pain in
>>the neck!

>Tell that to a french hornist.

We had a french horn player in our orchestra for a while who had real
problems when she had to transpose, and so she thought everyone else should
have to go through it as well - she threw an absolute fit at me at one
point because I had an A clarinet (oddly, though, I don't remember her
objecting to the trumpeters' C trumpets). I didn't bother arguing with her
or telling her that the piece in question went a semitone too low for Bb
clarinet....I think, though, that horn players expect to transpose
regularly, whereas clarinettists don't have to do it as often. Trumpet
players get some bad ones as well - we're doing Pomp & Circumstance no. 1
right now, and the parts are for two trumpets in F and two cornets in A.
The guys aren't really happy, but they cope. I had to write out my bass
clarinet part for that one - it's b-cl in A, which I can normally cope with,
but it's just too fast and awkward to transpose at sight. I'm now in a
horrendous key, but I have no option, unfortunately! Transposition is
something I've got used to - I find you just have to detach your unconscious
from your fingers and actually think about what you're fingering. Worked
for me for the last two movements of the Berlioz "Symphonie Fantastique",
anyway.

Anna

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