Klarinet Archive - Posting 000182.txt from 2000/06

From: Tony@-----.uk (Tony Pay)
Subj: Re: [kl] K. 622 reconstruction
Date: Wed, 7 Jun 2000 14:03:14 -0400

On Wed, 7 Jun 2000 09:08:49 -0400, dnietham@-----.edu said:

> on 6/6/00 2:52 PM, Dan Leeson wrote:
>
> > But if you look at Hacker's edition, it's quite different. And I
> > read a scholarly paper by some guy from Boston that fairly much said
> > neither man had gone far enough.
>
> There's also an article in "The Clarinet" by John Newhill, from about
> the time of Hacker's edition, that claims Hacker did too much. The
> general gist of the article was "just because you *can* play it in the
> lower octave doesn't mean you *should*." As I recall, there are a few
> examples cited of this alleged overdose of lower chalumeau.
>
> Of course, as Dan points out, until we find the ms, it's all
> speculation.

For a long time, in the last movement, I played bars 146 with upbeat to
149 fifth quaver, an octave higher than printed in NMA, to include the
implied B in the last half of 147.

But then I remembered that someone once showed me an edition for normal
clarinet with F-F D D-D D written, not taking the lower B which is of
course available in that octave on the ordinary clarinet.

This would seem to imply that Mozart actually wrote it in the lower
ocatve, and didn't mind that the B was unavailable. (No-one would make
this change unless they had been exposed to a source that contained
'basset' notes.)

Does this occur in any of the 1803 editions, does anyone know? I don't
have them available, I'm ashamed to say.

With regard to 'how far one should go': as Dan says, a performer can do
what he/she likes in this piece. Finding out 'what you like', as in
'The Neverending Story', is of course less simple than it seems.

Looking at K621b (the Winterthur fragment) is an enormous psychological
help, I'd say.

An *editor*, on the other hand, has a bigger responsibility. Changes of
octave can easily be modified on a printed clarinet part. Changes of
articulation and dynamic are more insidious, because less ignorable.

I *hate* it that you can't recommend to students Hacker's, or Meyer^2's
(Breitkopf) editions without having them white out the stupid printed
opinions of the editors about the dynamics and articulation.

Therefore, the NMA is the only option.

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

... Plasma is another matter.

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