Klarinet Archive - Posting 000359.txt from 2000/10

From: Daniel Leeson <leeson0@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] All keys are not the same
Date: Sat, 7 Oct 2000 19:13:14 -0400

Karl, your point is a valid one and I have thought about this matter,
literally, for years. I hope that I'm not so frozen in my thinking as
to stick with a point simply because I said so that way in the past.

First, I believe that the selection of an instrument's pitch is done for
key signature considerations, not for character of instrumental sound.
But in saying that, I do not simultaneously state that no difference in
sound character exits. A C clarinet, for example, has a very
distinctive character and I can tell which instrument the player is
using on, for example, the first piano concerto of Beethoven. But that
proves nothing.

Now since I am of the opinion that clarinet pitch is selected for
reasons other than sound character, I still simultaneously believe that,
once the clarinet pitch IS selected, the composer may exploit that
particular clarinet's unique properties by creating music that is
particularly idiomatic for that instrument. So I still hold fast to the
position that the clarinetist is duty bound to use the clarinet
specified by the composer.

My interesting conversations with Bill Wright did not touch on this
matter, I don't think. Bill suggested that the selection of a clarinet
of specific pitch was made BECAUSE of sound character; that is, before
the fact sound character is the motivating influence.

I on the other hand think that sound character has almost no influence
on which clarinet is chosen, but one the selection is made, THEN there
may be an effort on the part of the composer to exploit that clarinet's
idiomatic sound.

I admit to a few, very few, exceptions such as Strauss' use of mixed
clarinets in B-flat and C at the same time, coupled with his own
statements that assert the selection to be made precisely because of
sound character. But those cases are very, very few.

Karl Krelove wrote:
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Daniel Leeson [mailto:leeson0@-----.net]
> >
> > I suspect our egos want us to believe that composers select this or that
> > clarinet for sound character -- though in a few cases they do -- but the
> > fact is that 99% of it is done because it makes the part easier to play,
> > and the other 1/2% is due to mistakes on the part of the publishers.
> > (snip)
> > 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.
> >
> I'm hesitant to reopen a thread that I remember generated a great deal of
> heat a few years ago when I first joined Klarinet, but your last couple of
> posts have intrigued me to the point of risking it. Have you changed your
> mind (even a little) about the importance of playing on the clarinet
> specified by the composer? As I remember it, your argument was that
> composers choose the instrument for a variety of reasons, including (but not
> necessarily) the technical convenience of the resulting key. Once chosen,
> however, he/she then made compositional decisions based on that choice that
> included timbral qualities of the instrument he had chosen. So, a composer
> might choose a C clarinet because the piece is in C major, but once he's
> chosen it he writes with consideration for its unique characteristics, tone
> color (timbre) among them. Transposing to a different clarinet in
> performance confounds those considerations and is therefore a serious
> infidelity to the composer's intent.
>
> Putting the two paragraphs I've quoted above seems to suggest the
> possibility that it might not matter if I play a few bars of A clarinet
> music on a Bb to avoid an instrument change that I can't make without
> serious risk of missing an entrance.
>
> I'm not trying to corner or trap you. I am really curious, with all possible
> respect, about whether you've changed your mind about this in the couple of
> years since it was last discussed here. Or have I misunderstood your recent
> exchange of posts with Bill Wright?
>
> Karl Krelove
>
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--
***************************
** Dan Leeson **
** leeson0@-----.net **
***************************

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