Klarinet Archive - Posting 000565.txt from 2001/08

From: Nick Shackleton <njs5@-----.uk>
Subj: [kl] which clarinet
Date: Fri, 31 Aug 2001 05:06:54 -0400

Dan wrote:
> I'm not a horn player. I can't comment on the character of the natural
> horn and whether is sounded differently when a different crook was put
> in. I'd like to know the answer to that, but I am not qualified to
> comment on it. Besides, a metal instrument and a wooden instrument
> might not react the same with to being lengthened or shortened.
>
> Can you comment on natural horn characters including the applicability
> of horn crooks?
>
> Dan
The answer does actually shed light on the clarinet question. The sound of
a natural horn varies enormously according to the crook. Any even
moderately competent player can demonstrate this given a natural horn (even
I can demonstrate it and I'm a clarinettist). This explains why long after
valves were invented and added to the horn, horns were being made (and
being composed for) with a range of crooks and with slides on the valves
that allowed them to work with the range of crooks. Objectively one could
argue that it is a far worse crime to use the wrong horn, than the wrong
clarinet, because the difference is so much greater.
The other side of it is that whereas Schubert or Beethoven did have at
least some choice in clarinets - a movement in F could be written either
for the C or the Bflat clarinet, they only had a rather extreme choice for
horns, either F or Bflat (a difference analogous to that between an alto
clarinet and a soprano!). The could not go for a G horn or an Eflat horn
(already very different tonally from the F) because they would not have the
required notes. So if a composer had a musical idea that would jibe best
with the sound of horns in G, the piece would have to be written in G (just
as once Mozart determined that his clarinet concerto would sound best on a
clarinet in A, he had no choice other than to start from the beginning
writing it in A).
Nick

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