Klarinet Archive - Posting 000073.txt from 2003/05

From: Oliver Seely <oseely@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: [kl] Molter concertos
Date: Sun, 4 May 2003 19:01:26 -0400

The biography of Molter in Grove is lengthy, but here is an interesting
paragraph which describes his experimentation with "new" instruments like
the clarinet:

"Although the occasional dullness of invention, the generally small
dimensions and the routine, schematic use of familiar models show the hand
of a minor master, that is not the entire story. His interest in
sonorities, and thus in instruments and their acoustic and technical
possibilities, is particularly notable; he followed attempted advances in
this direction, for example (like Graupner and Endler) using five timpani
instead of the usual two. He also experimented on his own account. He not
only used familiar instruments in new ways (among them the trumpet and the
horn) but also gave preference to new or unusual instruments like the
clarinet, the chalumeau, the flauto d'amore, the flauto cornetto and the
harp. He combined the most diverse instruments and put them to singular
uses with great taste, particularly showing a feeling for wind instruments.
Timbre gradually became a structural element in his music. The combination
of this understanding of instrumentation with a marked melodic gift
produced some charming chamber works -- he called them 'concertinos' --
whose small dimensions give them the character of miniatures. His clarinet
concertos also owe their existence to his interest in instrumental
problems, and have more than once been assigned a special historical
importance: but they were written less because of Molter's desire to
experiment than to provide a repertory for the Karlsruhe musician Johann
Jacob Hengel."

His works include six concertos for clarinet and orchestra.

Oliver

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