Klarinet Archive - Posting 000348.txt from 2000/10

From: Daniel Leeson <leeson0@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] All keys are not the same
Date: Sat, 7 Oct 2000 14:40:24 -0400

That's a very interesting point and probably true. In tuning keyboard
instruments before the tempered scale, some keys were better than others
(and could even be called "sweeter") because they were in better tune.
That could be the reason why some key were said to be happier than
others, though that idea is still foreign to me.

However, I think we have clarified that the discussion is about the use
of pitched clarinets, not key signatures. It may also be about key
signatures too, but my objections were about clarinet pitches.

On that, let me tell a story. A clarinetist was taking an audition with
"a local symphony" and he had only one clarinet with him, a B-flat. The
conductor asked him to play something from the slow movement of the
Mozart concerto, and the player did so, very beautifully, too. The
conductor thanked and excused him saying later that he wouldn't hire
anyone who played K. 622 on a B-flat clarinet. I think that this was
social pressure demonstrated by the conductor, not fact.

It would probably really bother only someone with perfect pitch because
he was hearing something in the wrong key, but not necessarily that the
B-flat clarinet character was so wrong-headed as to damage K. 622. I
suspect that most of us would be unable to tell if K. 622 was played on
a B-flat instrument with transposed parts for the orchestra.

Bill Hausmann wrote:
>
> At 10:55 AM 10/7/2000 -0700, Dan Leeson wrote:
> >Sorry Neil, but I reread the original memo to assure that I did not
> >misunderstand it and, in my opinion, what I suggested he said is exactly
> >what he said. It may be a sidebar issue, but that the assertion was
> >made appears to me to be unequivocal, namely that clarinet selection is
> >made on the basis of sound character. Written keys were not part of the
> >assertion, only the pitch of the clarinet.
> >
> I got the impression that the main thrust was the difference in sound
> between say, C major and D major and the "sweetness" of the music as played
> in these keys. Back in the days before the tempered scale, when the actual
> intervals between notes in different keys was substantial, were there not
> significant differences between keys, perhaps almost as great as between
> major and minor keys, which also alter the intervals between scale pitches?
> This could be the reason the idea persists even to this day.
>
> Bill Hausmann bhausmann1@-----.com
> 451 Old Orchard Drive http://homepages.go.com/~zoot14/zoot14.html
> Essexville, MI 48732 ICQ UIN 4862265
>
> If you have to mic a saxophone, the rest of the band is too loud.
>
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--
***************************
** Dan Leeson **
** leeson0@-----.net **
***************************

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