Klarinet Archive - Posting 000028.txt from 2002/11

From: <guiomarks@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Re: reverse Mozart
Date: Fri, 1 Nov 2002 12:23:09 -0500

Has there been any effort in modern times to reintroduce/recreate the clarinet
in B-natural? It seems that this would be a logical step for the period
instruments community.

David Oakley

On Fri, 01 Nov 2002 07:20:29 -0800 Daniel Leeson <leeson0@-----.net>
wrote:

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