Klarinet Archive - Posting 000351.txt from 2000/10

From: Bill Hausmann <bhausmann1@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] All keys are not the same
Date: Sat, 7 Oct 2000 16:14:50 -0400

At 11:40 AM 10/7/2000 -0700, Dan Leeson wrote:
>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.

A piece played on an A clarinet in the key of C or the same tune played on
a Bb clarinet in the key of B (Did I do that right? I mean same concert
pitch.) should theoretically sound VERY much alike, and with properly
matched instruments essentially identical. On the whole, though, I'd
rather play it in C!

>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.

I agree.

>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.

And that is the real point. There may in fact be a difference, but without
direct A-B comparison, VERY few would know. I have for a long time used an
adjustable turntable to change the pitch of my Music Minus One record of
the Mozart Quintet so I could play it on my Bb. I never noticed the
accompaniment sounding the least bit "off." Now I have an A and don't have
to do that any more, which also makes the tempos easier!

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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