Klarinet Archive - Posting 000958.txt from 2002/06

From: "Feodor" <feodor@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] New Thing
Date: Wed, 26 Jun 2002 15:32:47 -0400

Just to add my two kopecks: Take a look at Nutcracker. Tchaikovsky uses both
basses, changing them all the time and writing in a "wrong" keys (like a Bb
bass in orchestral key of three sharps). It's not a low range issue since
none of them goes even to low E.
The "colour" is the only possible explanation I can see...

Feodor Tereshchenko

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

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