Klarinet Archive - Posting 000423.txt from 2003/04

From: Robert Howe <arehow@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Re: bass clarinet notation
Date: Sat, 26 Apr 2003 00:35:59 -0400

on 4/11/03 4:15 PM, klarinet-digest-help@-----.org at
klarinet-digest-help@-----.org wrote:
> It would make a fascinating and valuable study to find out why the
> notation for bass clarinets is so screwed up. The Germans do it one
> way, the French another, the English a third, and Wagner, all by
> himself, yet a fourth way (sometimes). Occasionally the ambiguities
> make it unclear in which register one is to execute the notes.
>
> Now that's a doctoral dissertation subject if there ever was one.
>
> Dan

An observation I have made over the years is that composers tend to write
for the bass clarinet in such a manner that the notes center on the staff.
That is to say, the bass clarient part for (for example) Ein Heldenleben,
which is in treble clef, centers around 6 finger D. There are few notes
very very low, and about as many high D's as low G's. The part for the
opera Tristan und Isolde, notated in bass clef, centers around the 2 finger
D. Very few notes in the upper register (although a double Ab is called for
at one climax!), mostly very deep writing. Same instrument, same school of
composition, same country, same epoch; but the parts lie, for the most part,
in different octaves.

Writing in clefs (Soprano alto tenor bass) was standard at the time of Bach,
to avoid using ledger lines in the part, with their attendant diffficulties
for printers of the day. For a late 19 century composer, this was no longer
relevant, but writing in bass or treble clef would still minimize the number
of ledger lines needed in the MS.

So my question is, did various composers choose treble versus bass clef for
bass clarinet to fit the range of a pre-conceived part; or did Wagner sit
down, draw a bass clef on his music paper, and then write the part as simply
as possible, with fewer ledger lines? Does the notation determine the part,
or does the part determine the notation? Which came first, the clef or the
playing range called for?

I suspect we can never know.

Ciao,

Robert Howe

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