Klarinet Archive - Posting 000126.txt from 2001/04

From: rgarrett@-----.edu
Subj: Re: [kl] And furthermore...
Date: Sat, 7 Apr 2001 00:00:42 -0400

At 07:44 AM 4/6/01 -0800, you wrote:
>"I have no disagreemnet with you regarding what one of M=FChlfeld's=20
>relatives might have written. My statement above however does not=20
>generalize - it just says that what Dan Leeson posted regarding comments=20
>made in a treatise regarding vocal vibrato does not support the use of=20
>vibrato for clarinet in the 18th or 19th centuries as a common (or=20
>uncommon) performance practice for that time period."
>
>Unfortunately, history is not with you Roger. To suggest that, ca. 1800,=
=20
>performance practices of one class of musicians did not affect all classes=
=20
>is not the case. What singers did, instrumentalists did, and=20
>occasionally vice versa.

Well gee whiz, I'm all for seeing where your post presented evidence that=20
specifically supported vibrato as a performing practice on the clarinet=20
during Mozart's time............

Do I think vibrato was used? How can I make up my mind pro or con? There=
=20
is nothing that says it was. Would Mozart have approved of the=20
contrabassoon used in place of the double bass in the Gran Partitta? How=20
the heck do I know......? If he spoke against substitutions for=20
instruments he wrote for - then that helps support the notion that he=20
didn't - but again, if he didn't speak or write against it - then it is=20
pure conjecture......

And so it goes with vibrato.

All of course which has nothing to do with the here and now and if we like=
=20
it or don't like it. People had opinions then - as they do now - and what=
=20
one did, another probably did not.......

Ah well........

Best wishes,
Roger Garrett

>The world of performers in the pre-classic, classic, and immediate
>post-classic eras did not live in isolation, each chosing a set of
>practices unique to their particular instrument or voice character. It
>was one big barrel, and often for vary practical reasons. A
>clarinetist, for example, often played both flute and oboe as well as
>clarinet, and he/she did not turn off a set of practices when going from
>instrument to instrument.
>
>There are even cases of women singers who also played the clarinet and
>who might accompany themselves in doing shepher's songs. You can find
>several spoken of the three books of clarinet player's history (by the
>English clarinetist whose name escapes me -- a senior moment).
>
>Only the contemporary performer is as specialized as your note infers.
>Thus is it not uncommon for a clarinetist to chose not to improvise
>while an oboist choses to do exactly the opposite.
>--
>***************************
>** Dan Leeson **
>** leeson0@-----.net **
>***************************
>
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Roger Garrett
Clarinet Professor
Director, Symphonic Winds
Advisor, Recording Services
Illinois Wesleyan University
School of Music
Bloomington, IL 61702-2900
(309) 556-3268

"A man never discloses his own character so clearly as when he describes=20
another's."
Jean Paul Richter (1763-1825)

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