Klarinet Archive - Posting 000024.txt from 2002/11

From: Daniel Leeson <leeson0@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Re: reverse Mozart
Date: Fri, 1 Nov 2002 12:23:05 -0500

WILLIAM SEMPLE wrote:
> Did Mozart selected the key of A because that was what the early instruments
> were tuned to? Was the key of Bb a more modern invention?
>

I'm not sure I understand your question, but I think you are asking why
Mozart requested a clarinet in A for the concerto rather than a clarinet
in B-flat. If that is not what you meant, I apologize for wasting your time.

He had a choice of four clarinet pitches he could have used because
there were four kinds of clarinets in use in Austria at tha time he was
writing. They were pitched in A, B-flat, B-natural, and C, though the
B-natural clarinet was used far more rarely. All were effectively
contemporaenous with each other and he could have used whichever one he
preferred.

However, if he decided to write the concerto in the key of A major (for
whatever reason), then he was stuck with the A clarinet because that is
the only one that would have a written key that was appropriate to the
music of the era.

Alternatively, there is the faint possibility that he chose the A
clarinet (and thus, the concert key of A major) because he was enamored
of the character of sound produced by an A clarinet.

Finally, there is the possibility that Stadler, for whom he was writing
the concerto and who had three basset clarinets, one in A, one in
B-flat, and one in C (according to the article on clarinets in new
Groves), requested that he use the A clarinet for any of several
reasons. Perhaps it tuned best. Perhaps it played best. Perhaps the
low basset notes were more reliable on that particular instrument.

There is also the very remote possibility that the concerto was
scheduled for a particular concert and, in that case, Mozart would have
chosen his key of concert A major so as not to clash with the other
works to be played on the same concert.

But you must discount the idea expressed in your question that clarinets
in various pitches were invented or available sequentially in time.
They were, effectively, all available at the same time, the first
probably being the clarinet in C.

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