Klarinet Archive - Posting 000567.txt from 2001/11

From: Daniel Leeson <leeson0@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Concerning the death of Marius Flothuis
Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2001 18:38:11 -0500

While most clarinetists don't realize it, Flothuis made a major
discovery relative to what was, up to his research, thought of as a work
for English horn.

A draft of a composition for four unidentified instruments was floating
around the world of Mozart scholarship for almost 2 centuries. Because
someone had written the word "Cornu [sic] Inglese" in the upper margin
of the paper, the work became known as the "Adagio for English horn."

The problem was that no matter what the other three instruments were
presumed to be, there were serious technical and acoustical problems
that caused almost any combination of accompanying instrument to fail to
work satisfactorily. The work was published by several publishers and
all in different instrumentations.

One version was for English horn, 2 violins and cello, another for
English horn, 2 French horns, and bassoon. They were all acoustically
weird and none of them worked because the instrumental combinations
selected invariably went beyond the lower ranges of one or more of the
chosen accompanying instruments.

In the early 1960s, Flothuis put forward a very solid argument that the
work was for B-flat clarinet and three basset horns in F (or much less
likely C clarinet and three basset horns in G). In 1972 Barenreiter
asked me to include the draft in the appendix to my volume of the wind
Serenades and I did, accepting Flothuis' analysis, crediting him with
the discovery, and labeling the instruments as he had suggested.

You can hear the work (completed by someone) on the Chicago recording of
"Music For Basset Horn" with the players of the Chicago Symphony.

It is quite an addition to the repertoire of Mozart's clarinet music.
Flothuis was also the editor of the volume of the basset horn trios
attributed to Mozart.

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** Dan Leeson **
** leeson0@-----.net **
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