Klarinet Archive - Posting 000148.txt from 2000/09

From: Bilwright@-----.net (William Wright)
Subj: [kl] The true history
Date: Tue, 5 Sep 2000 10:57:05 -0400

<><> Neil wrote:
There's very little cut & dried. What is the origin of this expression?

Neil, this expression is an excellent example of how the clarinet
has affected human history, and the irony is that history appears to
have ignored its own outcome.

"Cut and dried" began with Mozart, believe it or not. When he
wrote some music that couldn't be played on the clarinet as it existed
back then, and he asked Stadler to play it anyway, Stadler was late for
the dress rehearsal because (as we all know) he had done major surgery
to his instrument and then glued the pieces back together. In those
days, there were no fast-setting epoxy adhesives.
So everyone at the theater was in a dither..."How can we play
this!? What will we do!?? Amadeus will be furious!!!"... when Stadler
came running down the aisle with clarinet in hand and he called out to
everyone: "We can play it as written. It's cut and dried now!"
The irony is that, to this day, musicologists still argue as to what
Mozart really wrote, despite the fact that Stadler declared the issue
"cut and dried" more than a hundred years ago.

Anything else you'd like to know, Neil?

Cheers,
-Bill

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