Klarinet Archive - Posting 000342.txt from 2001/04

From: Daniel Leeson <leeson0@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Eric and his Harmoniemusik
Date: Mon, 16 Apr 2001 12:17:16 -0400

Eric, I read your description of the problems inherent in the particular
Harmoniemusik arrangement on which you are working. What you have
described is the condition of almost every Harmonie arrangement ever
done by any of the roughly one dozen arrangers who did this sort of
stuff; i.e., Wendt, Heydenreich, etc.

Your arrangement is said by you to be from the end of the 18th century,
which is exactly what it should be. By the time of Napolean's invasion
of Austria in 1803, the Harmoniemusik movement was all over because the
nobility could no longer afford the luxury. It was sort of like what
happened to the dance band on Dec. 7, 1941. It was all over except for
a few that hung on for nostalgic purposes.

I presume that you have a set of parts, not a score. Every set of parts
of Harmoniemusik is full of errors, and all fall into the categories you
describe. Blame that on the copyist, not necessarily on the arranger.
And no matter what the condition of those parts, your obligation is
unchanged; i.e., you must do your best to make a silk purse out of a
sow's ear.

The fact that what you have is an arrangement (and I'll bet 10-1 that it
is a collection of arias from an opera or two, because that was the bulk
of Harmoniemusik forms) has absolutely nothing to do with the selection
of clarinet types. That was determined by the practices of the times.

Those practices could be summed up in the following way. Clarinets
should play only in C or in F. It is the duty of the composer (or the
arranger) to select the clarinet pitch that enables it to play in C or
F. So if the key of the piece is C or F concert, you use a C clarinet.
If the key of the piece is B-flat or E-flat concert, you use a B-flat
clarinet. And if the key of the piece is A or D, you use an A clarinet.

>>From that combination of instruments you got an orchestral pallette of
color. Can you change any of the instruments as the arranger? Of
course you can, but you change the orchestral pallette of color. Use
tenor saxes in place of horns and you get the same music in a different
character. Use flutes in place of oboes and you get the same music in a
different character.

How important is character to you? If you arrange K. 622 for tenor sax
accompanied by an orchestra of flutes, you will get the K. 622 music in
a different character. If you like that character, be my guest.

But you are a prisoner to character. Harmoniemusik was characterized by
the sound produced by pairs of oboes, clarinets, horns, and bassoons.
It was also a defective ensemble because it had no true bass, so
doubling of the 2nd bassoon by a contra instrument became standard
practice. That is the instrumentation with which you are to work if you
wish to retain the character of Harmoniemusik. If that is not important
to you, do as you wish, but don't expect reviewers to hug and kiss you.
You will probably get killed for that.

But you have another constraint within which you need to work if you
chose to retain that character, namely the pitch of the instruments
selected to play the work. If you change the pitch of the clarinets,
then that character changes to some degree. And you must ask yourself,
how important that character is to your sales, your market, your ear,
the player's ears, reviewer's opinions, etc.
--
***************************
** Dan Leeson **
** leeson0@-----.net **
***************************

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