Klarinet Archive - Posting 000924.txt from 2000/04

From: peter.stoll@-----.ca
Subj: [kl] Bass Clarinets in A
Date: Sat, 22 Apr 2000 08:03:58 -0400

Re: Gary's post:

There was an article by Dan Leeson in a "Clarinet" magazine a few years
ago about the travails he went through special-ordering one from Selmer
(came late and banged up and the company wouldn't reimburse his $5OO
repair bill, but sent him a nice T-shirt! Really!!) Anyway, having played
the bass part to Bartok's Dance Suite this year, I keep wondering; since A
bass parts are so common in opera (Puccini) and symphonic writing (Wagner,
Bartok, Ravel) what's the deal? Were there tons of these things floating
around Europe at one point? How come we never see them in used
instrument sales? Otherwise, what would make composers write so freely for
this? In "La Boheme" the bass switches with the clarinet section from Bb
to A, but in the Bartok it switches independently. Did many symphonic bass
players actually have 2 instruments side-by-side as with the soprano
clarinets? Dan Leeson I think also wrote an article in a "Clarinet"
advocating not only using an A bass for the actual A parts, but also
switching onto it for things awkward for the Bb. (to which Ed Palanker of
Baltimore I think wrote back saying no thanks). Anyway, I'm not aware of
many of these horns in common usage, does anyone know the history?

Peter Stoll
University of Toronto
Toronto Philharmonia
Continuum
ERGO ensemble

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