Klarinet Archive - Posting 000621.txt from 2003/07

From: Tony@-----.uk (Tony Pay)
Subj: Re: [kl] basset horn vs. basset clarinet vs. extended clarinet
Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2003 16:42:44 -0400

On Tue, 22 Jul 2003 11:15:18 -0700 (PDT), ormondtoby@-----.net said:

> I presume that I'm not alone in having a weak understanding of these
> three instruments.
>
> Harvard Dictionary says that a basset horn is distinguished by: (a)
> being tuned in F below the 'normal' Bb or A of today; (b) having a
> narrow bore in relation to its length - approximately the same
> diameter as a modern Bb clarinet; and (c) having "three internal bore
> channels" in a box placed between bell and body, and these channels
> are operated with a "basset key" pressed by the right thumb.

Should be, 'basset keys', in the plural.

This description is of the instrument as it was originally made, because
modern basset horns don't have the 'box'.

> Some basset horns were angled or curved, but this doesn't appear to be
> an essential part of a basset horn's definition. By the above
> definition, I assume that 99% of us will never witness a basset horn
> performance?

You're better off dropping the whole idea of 'definition'. The world
doesn't work that way round.

For example, the electron is very different nowadays from how JJ Thomson
might have defined it when he discovered it in 1897. Yet we still call
it an electron. A modern clarinet is very different from Denner's
instrument. Yet we still call it a clarinet.

A 'basset horn' is, and always has been, an extended clarinet -- that
is, it goes down to written low C -- pitched in F.

Period.

Now, the original instruments didn't have a wide bore, and so had a
particular sound quality that attracted Mozart.

Some later instruments, looking for power of delivery, have had widened
bores, losing some of that character. So, some people have been tempted
to say, they 'aren't basset horns'. But I think it's better to say,
they are basset horns, but of a sort that is unsatisfactory for Mozart's
music.

People who have heard Mozart's music played on narrow bore instruments
-- particularly on instruments of the period -- agree that that
particular sound quality is lost on wider bore instruments.

Other modern basset horns have retained the smaller bore, and thus the
particular sound quality, and are therefore what I would want to call
'more satisfactory' basset horns.

The difficulty, of course, is to say what constitutes this 'particular
sound quality'. Defining it entirely by the nature of the instrument
being used has the difficulty that an expert player who understands the
sound quality may be able to produce a very good approximation to it on
an entirely different sort of instrument.

You're better off looking to the wider picture than looking to a
definition.

> Harvard Dictionary does not give a separate definition for "basset
> clarinet". I speculate that difference between the two bassets
> ('horn' and 'clarinet') is that the multi-channel box has been
> replaced by extra length without substantial change to bore, range, or
> tuning?

No, the difference is solely that one is pitched in F, the other in A
(or Bb).

> I speculate that the difference between "basset clarinet" and
> "extended clarinet" is that the 'extended' clarinet is not tuned in F
> and has a larger bore diameter that is closer to the 'modern' ratio of
> bore to length?

No, as I understand it, the term 'extended clarinet' is applied
generally to an instrument of the clarinet family that descends to
written low C. Thus, a basset horn is 'an extended clarinet', and a
basset clarinet is 'an extended clarinet'.

> Many early instruments had fewer keys and hence more difficulty with
> chromatic scales. Does this enter into any of the instrument
> definitions?

No.

> If these definitions are correct and complete (???), which instruments
> do Tony Pay and David Shifrin play when performing K.622?

We both play basset clarinets.

I in fact play two different instruments, according to which group I'm
playing with.

With a modern orchestra, at A=440Hz, I play a basset clarinet which is a
boxwood clarinet of around 1850 by the maker Doelling of Potsdam,
extended to low C by Ted Planas. It used to belong to Alan Hacker, and
there is a picture of it in Brymer's book.

With a period orchestra, at A=430Hz, I play a basset clarinet which was
in 1984 a conjectural reconstruction of Stadler's instrument, based on a
Viennese instrument by Kaspar Tauber in Nick Shackleton's collection.

Nowadays we know that that reconstruction was in error, because a
picture of Stadler's instrument has been discovered. However, I think
that my own instrument is satisfactory, despite not corresponding to
Stadler's, because it does 'the same thing' at the bottom when you
listen to it. (BTW, it's not the instrument I use on the recording with
AAM, because that incarnation of the instrument had a more flared lower
joint.)

David Shifrin plays a modern extended instrument, perhaps by Buffet or
Selmer. (I used to play a modified Selmer until I bought the Doelling.)
But it's still a basset clarinet.

BTW, someone was surprised here that Shifrin was looking to have another
instrument made for K622.

It doesn't surprise me in the least. Whenever any of us find we have
the energy, we try to take on the challenge of whatever we see as 'the
next step'.

That's his.

Tony
--
_________ Tony Pay
|ony:-) 79 Southmoor Rd Tony@-----.uk
| |ay Oxford OX2 6RE http://classicalplus.gmn.com/artists
tel/fax 01865 553339

.... Make like a Dolphin and move with Porpoise.

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