Klarinet Archive - Posting 000368.txt from 2000/03

From: Daniel Leeson <leeson0@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] re A Clarinet Question
Date: Sat, 11 Mar 2000 11:47:11 -0500

I think my exhaustion caused me to read "IF" certain works required A
clarinet to be "WHY" certain works so required them. So I wrote half a
doctoral dissertation in response and realized a half hour later that
that was not the quesiton.

I'm going back to sleep.

Daniel Leeson wrote:
>
> KJF asked why both a Dvorak and a Sibelius work called for A clarinets.
>
> Although I am not at all certain why those specific works call for
> clarinets in A, I'd like to offer a general solution to the problem of
> why any particular clarinet is called for, though one can find many
> compositions that do not comply with it.
>
> Mostly, it depends on the book(s) of orchestration that were studied
> during the composer's formative years. Such books, particularly during
> the period of time when both Dvorak and Sibelius were students, were
> very clear about which clarinet should be used under which
> circumstance. They generally said that flat keys should use clarinets
> in B-flat, and sharp keys use clarinets in A. Keys with neither sharps
> nor flats should use clarinets in C. The reasons why this advice were
> given can be dated back to the late 1700s and were given long after the
> origins for these constraints were established in the first place.
>
> You will still find some contemporary texts on orchestration suggesting
> this very thing, and some student somewhere will write a composition 50
> years from now calling for a clarinet in A only because his
> orchestration text told him so.
>
> Now a lot of these suggestions had simply been carried down from earlier
> books on orchestration, and clearly the suggestions were violated very
> frequently, but as a general rule that was what was taught from ca. 1780
> to about 1900.
>
> The theory that the selection of a particular clarinet type was based on
> the instrument's characteristic sound does not have much evidence to
> support it, though once selected, a particular clarinet pitch's
> distinctive sound did add its color to the overall orchestral palette of
> sound. This is why I suggest that the instrument called for should be
> used and not arbitrarily changed by the local player.
>
> Dan Leeson
>
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--
***************************
** Dan Leeson **
** leeson0@-----.net **
***************************

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