Klarinet Archive - Posting 000957.txt from 2000/10
From: Daniel Leeson <leeson0@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Mozart and high notes
Date: Tue, 17 Oct 2000 19:09:38 -0400
David, your note is fantastically interesting but I just don't know how
to deal with it. It shows a great love of the subject and a desire to
do right and that's terrific. But what it says is "he could have," or
"he should have," or "he might have" or "he probably did." And those
things don't get us anywhere.
You don't even have some important facts on your side. Stadler had his
basset clarinet as early as 1789, and very possibly earlier but that's
hard to prove. K. 581 dates from this time and since it is written for
basset clarinet (and Stadler) we have to presume that he had the
instrument. Yet nowhere in what we play is there any evidence of high
notes above D.
And this fact weighs very heavily against the argument that in 1791
Mozart might have put in high notes. If he wanted to put in high notes
then he could have done it in 1789, and he did not.
Your note reads as if, suddenly, in 1791 Mozart writes for this brand
new instrument and this is simply not the case. He used it in 1789 in
K. 581, he used it in Cosi (which I think is 1790), and he used it in
Titus which is 1791. No high notes! And for Cosi and Titus we have the
autographs to confirm what he wanted, though in neither case is there a
place where he could have used such notes, so maybe they don't count.
In light of this, you just don't have a leg to stand on (other than your
wanting very much to do something) when you start with the "he could
have," or "he might have," or blah, blah, blah.
Now, if you say, "I don't give a damn that there is no hard evidence for
it, I am going to do it and if you don't like it, stick it high up where
it's red," there is nothing I can do about it. Be my guest.
But you are not going to get where you want to go by bending history to
give it the direction that you want it to take.
Your very first statement below about the altissimo register not being
unknown in the classic period is an example of your attempt to fit a
round peg in a square hole. In Mozart's music the altissimo register is
absolutely unknown, and if someone else used it, they should be healthy
and live well, but it means very little.
Dan Leeson
David Glenn wrote:
>
> Sorry to be so late with this one. I'm trying to catch up a bit after a
> hefty week/week-end and today a crown on one tooth....
>
> The altissimo register was not unknown in the classic period. Alan
> Hacker once showed me a manuscript - it must've been 25 years ago - it
> was a solo piece for clarinet which went up to c'''' - I'm "sort of
> sure" it was by Anton Stadler. Am I right or did I get it mixed up with
> another composer (Hoffmeister???)
>
> If he did write it, then he surely could play it. In which case he
> probably *did* play it. Can anybody help my feeble old grey cells here?
>
> Another point is that the invention of the basset clarinet by no means
> only extended the range downwards! I had my Uebel clarinets for several
> months before having them bassetized by Brian Ackermann/Ted Planas.
> After bassetization they played a lot more easily in the altissimo
> register. Maybe Stadler had the same experience though I can't say how
> it is on the old boxwood clainets.
>
> Nevertheless, I tend to agree with you, Dan, that Mozart avoided the
> high notes above D. But not entirely!
>
> Dan, do you have a solution for measure 142 in the first mvt. which
> avoids the high F? I always did feel a bit uncomfortable there. On the
> other hand I wouldn't want to miss the high E's and the D# in bar 222/3
> or the high E in bar 338. Also wonderfully effective is the dramatic
> jump to the top Eb in the last movement, bar 111.
>
> David
>
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** Dan Leeson **
** leeson0@-----.net **
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