Klarinet Archive - Posting 000523.txt from 2000/01

From: Tony@-----.uk (Tony Pay)
Subj: Re: [kl] Bb Clarinet part for Mozart clarinet quintet?
Date: Sun, 16 Jan 2000 17:52:50 -0500

On Sun, 16 Jan 2000 17:19:40 EST, DPhilpot@-----.com said:

> Since we are guessing as to why Muehlfeld used the Bb for a bit of the
> Brahms quintet, let me add my guess: it was not so much about
> fingering as it was about response. There is the possibility that the
> A did not respond quickly and cleanly in the "melismatic" outbursts of
> the second movement, and Muehlfeld chose the Bb instrument for the
> better effect he was able to achieve. On either clarinet he
> supposedly created a very strong sound so it was not for penetrating
> sound but clarity that better matched the strings that he chose the
> Bb. Again, just my guess....nothing else. Doug P.

Well, when I wrote 'bring off' I was including the idea of quick and
clean response. Indeed, in my view there's not an intelligible notion
of 'fingering' that doesn't include such cleanliness. A 'fingering'
that doesn't produce such a result *isn't a fingering*.

What I was saying was that the F# minor fingering is more viable in
precisely the sense you indicate on the copy of Muehlfeld's instrument
that I have. And though it's just a copy, I've also played it on an
antique Ottensteiner belonging to Nick Shackleton, on which exactly the
same observation holds good.

Who was it, by the way, who reported a contemporary English musician
saying that, in his view, Muehlfeld's sound wasn't particularly strong?
I seem to remember that being published in the Clarinet and Saxophone
magazine.

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

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