Klarinet Archive - Posting 000741.txt from 2000/03

From: Daniel Leeson <leeson0@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Wagner
Date: Fri, 24 Mar 2000 09:20:23 -0500

Jonathan, the general feeling about musical misinformation is that, once
it enters into the body of knowledge and by whatever method it got there
and no matter how wrongheaded it is and no matter what proofs are given
to show that it is full of doo-doo, no power on earth can ever get it
out.

It is like a cancer that infects the history of whatever it is the
cancer has attached itself to. Five hundred years from now, some poor,
benighted student will play a concert at which the Wagner Adagio will be
the centerpiece.

There is nothing you can do about it, either.

Have a nice day.

Dan

Jonathan Cohler wrote:
>
> It's amazing how long the mis-information on this piece has persisted and
> been passed along. I remember seeing a performance of this work with
> Harold Wright about fifteen years ago, which was already a good fifty years
> after it was known that the work is by Heinrich Joseph Bärmann. Here are
> the program notes from my recording "Cohler on Clarinet" (Ongaku 024-101 -
> http://www.ongaku-records.com/ ). I hope these are helpful:
>
> ----------------
> Jonathan Cohler
>
> Adagio from Quintet in No. 3 in E-flat Major, Op. 23 (1820-1821)
> ----------------------------------------------------------------
> This piece has been a victim of musicological negligence for more than 160
> years! Bärmann was the famous clarinetist for whom Weber wrote most of his
> clarinet music. Unfortunately for Bärmann, Weber wrote his last clarinet
> piece in 1816 (the Grand Duo Concertant on this recording), and Bärmann
> still needed fresh pieces for his concerts. This Adagio is the slow
> movement from one of three clarinet quintets for clarinet and string
> quartet that Bärmann himself composed between 1820 and 1821.
>
> Shortly after Bärmann's death, the music to this piece seems to have
> disappeared. In 1926, the slow movement was discovered, but the copy had
> no name on it. For some strange reason, musicologists and the publishers
> decided to attribute this work to Richard Wagner, one of the later great
> Romantic composers. If you are willing to forget that it sounds nothing
> like Wagner, and that Wagner wrote no solo works for the clarinet, then
> this attribution might be reasonable. Otherwise, it is quite a leap of
> faith.
>
> Interestingly, in the earlier part of this century, some musicologists
> discovered the error, but the attribution continued until as recently as
> ten or fifteen years ago. Fortunately, the entire quintet has been
> properly rediscovered and it is published by Musica Rara.
>
> At 4:37 AM -0500 3/24/0, Roger Shilcock wrote:
> >This could be because it's not by Wagner. It's by one of the Baermanns -
> >Heinrich, I think - and comes from a chamber music piece; I don't have any
> >sources of info. to hand, but I think it's (before rearrangement!) the
> >second movement of a clarinet quartet.
> >Roger S
> >
> >
> >On Thu, 23 Mar 2000, bob and deborah shaw wrote:
> >
> >> Date: Thu, 23 Mar 2000 16:46:59 -0600
> >> From: bob and deborah shaw <theshaws@-----.com>
> >> Reply-To: klarinet@-----.org
> >> To: Klarinet <klarinet@-----.org>
> >> Subject: [kl] Wagner
> >>
> >> I have fallen in love with the Wagner Adagio and decided to do some
> >> research on the piece. So far I have found tons of info on Wagner's
> >> operas, but cannot find anything on the the Adagio for clarinet. Can
> >> anyone steer me in the right direction. Do you know of sources where I
> >> can find info on this piece of music? Thanks so much,
> >>
> >> Deborah
> >>
> >>
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> >
> >
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--
***************************
** Dan Leeson **
** leeson0@-----.net **
***************************

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