Klarinet Archive - Posting 000956.txt from 2002/06

From: Daniel Leeson <leeson0@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] New Thing
Date: Wed, 26 Jun 2002 15:32:45 -0400

Joe is quite correct and one could spend considerable time writing about
compositions in which color differences are exploited.

Besides the unamed work of Strauss (which happens to be Elektra and in
which Strauss uses 2 B-flats, 2-A-s), he also wrote both of his opus
posthumous wind pieces to include either 2-Bflats and a separate C part
or else 2 As and a separate C part. There is also a quotation from
Strauss in which he explicitly states that B-flat clarinets are not a
viable substitute for C's, though he was making reference to a specific
work, the Alpine Symphony, and not necessarily a general statement
(though I think it may have been intended to be one).

The very idea of color being ignored in the selection of the clarinet
type is one of the most depressing and unmusical practices that
clarinetists take part in. Furthermore, a Mahler symphony, but which
one slips my mind, uses both bass clarinets in B-flat and A, with lots
of time for changing before and after their use, and he explicitly
changes from bass in B-flat to bass in A and goes to a key (for the A
bass) that would have been much simpler and easier on the B-flat bass
whose use he rejects. There is no way to understand this change unless
one presumes that color interested him. [P.S. I used "color" because Joe
did, but I think "character" is a better word.]

I think it is the fourth symphony and in the final movement.

Dan

Joseph Wakeling wrote:
>
> Jim Franklin wrote:
>
> << My impression is that they specified Bb or A or C clarinets merely to
> facilitate playing in certain keys (especially with the limited clarinets
> available in Mozart's or Shubert's or Brahms's day). >>
>
> And Dan Leeson replied:
>
> << Absolutely not!! While it is partially true to suggest that clarinets of
> a certain pitch were selected because of key complexities, it is equally
> true to suggest that, once chosen, the characteristic sound of that
> instrument was exploited by the composer. >>
>
> To add to what Dan has said: I understand that R. Strauss (at least) once
> used A and Bb clarinets together in a piece because of the colour difference
> he perceived. Berlioz is another for whom choice of clarinet was incredibly
> important (the choice of C clarinet in the Symphonie Fantastique, for
> example), and there are the Stravinsky Three Pieces which specify A for the
> first two and Bb for the third (for a solo piece). And when Mueller
> presented his "fully chromatic" clarinet key system (which he claimed would
> make A and C clarinets obsolete) one of the reasons for rejecting this
> solution was because it would deny the composers the different colours
> provided by the different-pitched instruments.
>
> -- Joe
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------

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