Klarinet Archive - Posting 000405.txt from 2000/10

From: Roger Shilcock <roger.shilcock@-----.uk>
Subj: Re: [kl] All keys are not the same
Date: Mon, 9 Oct 2000 04:12:41 -0400

Dan L.,
You mean you had never had to play a bassoon part on the bass clar because
no bassoon turned up? I didn't think my experience could ever go beyond
yours.......
Was this composer just ignorant, or did he think he had an agreement with
the publisher about this?
Yours,
Roger S.

On Sat, 7 Oct 2000, Daniel Leeson wrote:

> Date: Sat, 07 Oct 2000 11:25:19 -0700
> From: Daniel Leeson <leeson0@-----.net>
> Reply-To: klarinet@-----.org
> To: klarinet@-----.org
> Subject: Re: [kl] All keys are not the same
>
> Perhaps we are drawing more closely together, and that is a good thing.
> But I still suggest that sound character of the instrument has almost
> nothing to do with its selection. I used to think quite the opposite
> but the more I study the problem, the less sound character gets
> involved, though I admit there to be a few exceptions such as in the
> case of Richard Strauss' simultaneous use of A and B-flat clarinets, as
> well as his own statements about the use of C clarinets.
>
> In the next issue of the Mozart Jahrbuch, there is a very long article
> by Bob Levin and me on exactly what the technical reasons were (in the
> 1780s) for the selection of a particular clarinet type, and how those
> reasons have impacted the writing style of clarinet music both then and
> now. There is also some discussion of this subject in an article I did
> a number of years ago for The Clarinet called "Mozart and the Clarinet
> in B-natural."
>
> 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.
>
> Once I played a work for bass clarinet in C in the bass clef. It was
> not a transpostion I knew because I had never had to do that one before.
> Fortunately, the composer was there on the night of the performance and
> I cornered him and ask why he had done such a cumbersome thing. What
> was he trying to accomplish? And his answer was, "You mean that the
> publisher didn't tranpose the part for B-flat bass clarinet??? I wrote
> everything for instruments in C because I don't handle transposing
> instruments very well." That's the 1/2%.
>
> Dan Leeson
>
> William Wright wrote:
> >
> > <><> Dan Leeson wrote:
> > 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.
> >
> > With the exception that "selection is made" should be replaced by
> > "selection can be made", this is what I meant. I agree that there are
> > other criteria besides tone or sound character.
> >
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> --
> ***************************
> ** Dan Leeson **
> ** leeson0@-----.net **
> ***************************
>
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>

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