Klarinet Archive - Posting 000166.txt from 2000/01

From: "Michael Bryant" <michael@-----.uk>
Subj: Re: [kl] recorders
Date: Thu, 6 Jan 2000 15:04:51 -0500

BTW Colin Lawson is now at Goldsmith's College,
London University

MB

-----Original Message-----
Leilia and Dee Hays wrote 06 January 2000 19:35 recorders

Snip

He is senior lecturer in music at the University of Sheffield
and has played principal clarinet with The English
>Concert, The Hanover Band and the London Classical Players. He has written
a
>number of articles about the history of the clarinet, along with a book,
_The
>Chalumeau in Eighteenth- Century Music_.
>
>Some reference sources, such as Robert Willaman's book, _The Clarinet and
>Clarinet Playing_ (New York: Carl Fischer, 1954 and 1959), call the
clarinet
>an improvement on the chalumeau and more or less leave it at that. David
>Pino's book with the same title, _The Clarinet and Clarinet Playing_ (New
>York: Scribner's, 1980), states unequivocally, "The chalumeau was the
direct
>ancestor of the modern clarinet" (p. 194), though he goes on, over several
>pages, to make clear that the evolution is less simple and linear than that
>statement sounds. (Caveat: Pino did serious research, but the reader must
>beware of his post hoc reasoning and his questionable deductions made from
>ambiguous or insufficient evidence.)
>
>Lawson's essay, however, is the best I've seen on the origin of the
clarinet
>and the chalumeau. He says that medieval writers used "chalumeau" loosely
>and inconsistently, to refer to various types of simple pipe instruments.
>However, before the paragraph I quote below, Lawson explains that he refers
>here to the later, 18th century chalumeaux.
>
>Lawton says (p. 3), "Musical sources indicate that Majer's four chalumeaux
>corresponded in size to sopranino, descant, treble and tenor recorders,
>though sounding an octave lower on account of the acoustical properties of
>the cylindrical stopped pipe. Majer notes that the fingerings closely
>resemble those of the recorder, though its range is not much more than one
>octave; if one can play the recorder, the chalumeau is quite easy. Such
>comparisons of the two instruments, as well as their physical similarity,
>lend credence to the hypothesis that the chalumeau derived from the
recorder,
>perhaps during attempts to increase its dynamic range." The range of a
>recorder of that era (as today), is two octaves, or a bit more for a
skilled
>player. In that sense, the chalumeau represented a step backwards.
>
>Lawton describes many correspondences between 18th century chalumeaux and
the
>clarinet that Johann Christoph Denner and some unknown, slightly earlier
>inventor (of the clarinet known as the "mock trumpet") designed along
similar
>general lines. Lawton disagrees with F. G. Rendell that "chalumeau" and
>"clarinet" were synonyms in the 18th century (though some writers
unfamiliar
>with the distinctions ignorantly used the two words as synonyms). He cites
>persuasive evidence that they were different instruments from the beginning
>of the history of the clarinet. The 18th century chalumeau and the
clarinet
>co-existed for many years of their development. Lawton regards the
clarinet,
>not as a twin of the chalumeau or a child of the chalumeau, so much as a
>slightly younger sibling. In other words, the clarinet's evolution is not
>linear. The clarinet is inbred. Think of a horse breeder "breeding back"
a
>mare to her grandsire, in turn the progeny of his own grandsire's
>half-brother.
>
>Denner didn't just take a chalumeau, alter the mouthpiece and add a
register
>hole. He seems to have started over from the recorder, with its superior
>range, then incorporated features of the chalumeau, which already included
>some features of the recorder combined with some features of the older
>idioglot pipes and other instruments. The mouthpiece with the single free
>reed derives in part from the idioglot reed, but it's a huge improvement to
>be able to replace a free reed, which is fairly simple to manufacture,
while
>keeping the more durable mouthpiece, which is a lot more trouble to
>manufacture.
>
>See also the entry under "Clarinet: History" in Vol. 2 of _Grove's
Dictionary
>of Music and Musicians_, fifth edition (St. Martin's Press, 1959), which
>notes (p. 321) that, "The primitive 2- key instrument by J. C. Denner
>resembles externally a recorder." In addition to other similarities,
>Denner's clarinet "narrows towards the lower end" like a recorder. That is
a
>really striking difference between the Denner clarinet and our modern
>clarinet. Our flared bell is a later addition. "Denner's vital discovery
was
>the speaker hole, making available the series of twelfths." However, as
Colin
>Lawton points out, that register break of a twelfth also had a predecessor,
>in an ancient Greek wind instrument.
>
>As is apparent from the pictures in both Lawton and Grove's, the early
Denner
>clarinet looks like a recorder except for the mouthpiece. As Lawton
>observes, though the head joints or mouthpieces of these instruments differ
>considerably, the basic fingering systems of simple flutes (whistles),
>idioglot reed pipes, fipple flutes, chalumeaux and clarinets are so similar
>that a person who plays one can quickly learn the fingering for all. Even
>today, after all those keys added to the modern clarinet, most of the
>naturals (as written on a treble staff) on a C-pitched recorder are
fingered
>the same as those (written) notes in the clarinet clarino register from
>mid-staff C up to the first A above the staff. (Here I rely on personal
>experience, not research, since I've played the recorder since 1962 and the
>clarinet since 1957.) The F# on the top line of the staff is also fingered
>the same. Even the first B and C above the staff are technically playable
on
>a recorder with the same fingerings as on a clarinet, though they're
>dreadful, off-pitch notes, better fingered otherwise. Similarly, it's
>possible, though rarely the best choice, to use several of the recorder's
>forked fingerings as alternate fingerings for sharps and flats on clarinet.
>
>Lelia
>"Being absolutely positive is nothing but being wrong at the top of your
>lungs."
>--Dad
>
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