Klarinet Archive - Posting 000234.txt from 2001/05
From: Daniel Leeson <leeson0@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Swiss clarinet symposium and Hoprich's low B-natural
Date: Wed, 9 May 2001 12:44:00 -0400
I am very grateful to David Glenn for reporting on the clarinet
symposium about which I posted several weeks ago. It was kind of him to
take the time to advise all about the event.
There were many important things about which David spoke, but for me,
the most important was what may be a misunderstanding on his part or
mine about the matter of the Hoprich's low B-natural. I quote his
entire paragraph and will then address it in some detail.
"(After) 11:30 came Eric Hoeprich (from Amsterdam I thought but now I
know he originally comes from California). His lecture was entitled "New
Discoveries About Mozart's Clarinet Concerto KV622. For me, this was the
absolute high point of the day. (In all fairness, I wasn't there for the
following speakers.) Mr. Hoeprich told us of the program which Pamela
Poulin found in Riga which announces Stadler's playing of the Mozart
concerto and shows a drawing of a basset clarinet. On attempting to copy
this instrument in his workshop, Mr. Hoeprich made some startling
discoveries. First of all, the "amour"-shaped bell makes a much
different sound in the low register than the traditional clarinet bell
which he demonstrated for us. Second of all, the bell joint produced not
a low C - but a low B natural until he bored an extra hole (as is also
visible in the program). Why did one writer report that the basset
clarinet had 5 (sic) extra low tones? Well, Mr. Hoeprich bored the hole
and got his low C like that. Then he told us that he had always been
bothered by that passage in the last movement (starting at m.145). If
not for the low B, it could be played down an octave which would seem to
fit better. Well, darn it! What did he do but played it down an octave!!
He got the low B by covering the hole with his knee. I'll have to have
my extended clarinets extended further. Basset clarinet makers, you've
gotten it wrong up until now! We need a low B!"
This is not the way I understand the situation, and I discussed the
matter both with Hoprich (via e-mail) and an Australian player who also
built a basset clarinet based on the discovery by Pamela Poulin of a
picture of Stadler's instrument. I also chatted with Poulin about the
matter in a recent symposium held in Las Vegas but she was not aware of
the matter of the low B-natural so I'll only mention her role in the
discovery of the picture.
First, Poulin found a program from a concert given by Stadler in
Lithuania in 1799 (I think). In that program was a drawing of Stadler's
unique clarinet. Until that moment of discovery, everything about the
basset clarinet of Stadler (and even if he really had one) was
speculation. It was intelligent speculation, to be sure, and it has
turned out to be mostly correct, but there was never any evidence that
Mozart wrote K. 622 with a special clarinet in mind or, for that matter,
that such a thing really did exist. All one could say is that, based on
the evidence of certain compositions, "it had to have existed." But
people say that about the devil, too.
Poulin's finding and publication of that picture was a major revelation,
with more revelations to come.
That picture shows a vent hole roughly at the point where the instrument
makes a radical 90 degree angle at the point where the lower joint joins
the bell. Of far greater importance than the vent hole (at least
initially) was the shape and placement of the bell. It's more like an
egg-shaped English horn bell than the flared clarinet bell.
On the basis of that picture, Hoprich built such an instrument and he
included the vent hole. According to the email conversations I had with
him, the low C existed and the air column for that note came out of the
vent hole. So it is not correct to suggest that Stadler's instrument
did not have the low C.
Hoprich's later discovery, and I believe it was by accident, came about
when he closed the vent hole with his leg or calf. It was not
deliberate but perhaps I misunderstood him. In any event, he closed it
with some part of his lower leg and he then got a low B-natural.
It is because the vent hole has no cover on it that this peculiar way of
covering it was needed. It's not unique in music to do such things to
instruments to make them play beyond their normal range. Nielsson did
it for the bassoon in the quintet, and players who do that work keep a
cardboard roll to insert in the bell so as to achieve the low C. I did
it on my A clarinet to get a low D.
But the most important thing that Hoprich did was to conclude that
Mozart may have wanted that note at the place he specified (and later at
a parallel passage). NOW THAT'S NEWS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I apologize to David if he gets the impression that I am arguing with
him. On the contrary, I suggest that it may be me who misunderstands
the matter, but when I checked all of this analysis with the Australian
clarinetist who also had a basset clarinet built in the same way that
Hoprich built his, he agreed completely with the vent hole's role in the
low C and the bell's role in the low B-natural.
And I make a big deal out of this for two reason: (1) it is a big deal;
i.e., the idea that Stadler's instrument could possibly have gone that
low is, from a clarinet historical point of view, a significant
revelation and requires some substantial rethinking of the whole
question of the text of both K. 622 and 581 (and maybe other works,
too); (2) when things start to get twisted at the beginning of the study
period, they almost never get untwisted if one waits a long while to
raise your hand and say, "It ain't so." So I'm trying to get this thing
untwisted before it is lost beyond repair.
--
***************************
** Dan Leeson **
** leeson0@-----.net **
***************************
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