Klarinet Archive - Posting 000014.txt from 2003/11
From: Dan Leeson <leeson0@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Mozart Kyrie in D minor K. 341 - A or Bb parts?
Date: Sun, 2 Nov 2003 15:19:26 -0500
David Glenn wrote:
> Hi again, Here's a question (for Dan if he's still on the list). I'm
> playing the Mozart Requiem on the 22nd and 23rd in Breisach in the
> Münster (Cathedral). The conductor is adding the Kyrie in D
> minor K.341 to the programm as he finds it too short otherwise. He
> asked me if he should send me A or Bb clarinet parts. I asked which
> was original and he said the A parts were original. But when it
> arrived (I could have worked it out sooner if I'd known the key) the
> A clarinet part had four flats in the key signature! Thanks to Dan
> Leeson, I know that that is highly unlikely if not impossible. I
> called up the conductor and explained this but the conductor said
> that in his score (which is handwritten) it calls for A clarinets.
> Dan, how would you put it?: does that dog bark? Might it be possible
> that some copyist somewhere along the line added two flats to the key
> signature?? Or changed it from Bb to A?? I would like to play it on
> the correct clarinet since I know that Dan has a house only a few
> miles from Breisach and that therefor my life would otherwise be
> jeopardized ;-). I'm hoping to find out what is what here. By the
> way, I did check the archives and found only reference to the
> Requiem. I believe we will be playing with a normal trumpet and not a
> "soprano trombone". Apparently the horns will be coming only for the
> Kyrie... Greeetings, David
>
I know the piece and I know the problem. When I was in Salzburg last, I
examined a microfilm of the original source material. The Mozart
manuscript is lost or destroyed, but the copy that is the source
material asserts that it is a copy of the Mozart manuscript. I
have no choice but to presume that is correct.
I also was unhappy about the written key of 4 flats for A clarinet, but
there is precedent for clarinets and basset horns to play 4 flats, and
in Mozart's own handwriting too. Both one aria in his arrangement of
Handel's Alexander's Feast (for clarinets) and the 4th variation in the
Gran Partitta's 6th movement (for basset horns) are in 4 flats.
It seems that while clarinet-type instruments were permitted to play up
to 4 flats, it was absolutely forbidden to play in more than 1 sharp.
In that case, were B-flat clarinets used, they would be required to play
in the key of 1 sharp which, while rare, was used by Mozart on about 9
occasions so that choice is open to you.
Bottom line - either instrument could have been used, the B-flat
clarinets in one written sharp (e minor) or the A clarinets in four
written flats (f minor).
Take your pick. The editor of the d minor Kyrie (341/368a) chose A
clarinet in 4 flats but that is because he used the source I mentioned
above.
End of the answer to your question. Now a question of my own to the
conductor. In what way in the Requiem too short, and where will he put
the d minor Kyrie into the Requiem and not create the anomaly of a
requiem with two Kyries? Architecturally, he is creating a building
with two front entrances.
As for the length of the Requiem. It is like speaking about how long a
man's legs should be. They should be long enough to reach the ground.
The Mozart Requiem, in its context as a liturgical work and not a
concert decoration, is exactly as long as it need to be. It's legs reach
the ground quite nicely without your conductor's help, thank you.
Finally this: you misunderstood my message about the slide trumpet being
used in the Requiem. That work has 3 trombones and 2 trumpets. What I
suggested was that the possibility exists that the Requiem should have 4
trombones and 2 trumptes. The 4th trombone part would be executed by a
slide trumpet which is another name for a soprano trombone.
And the d minor Kyrie you are doing has an instrumentation that is
seriously at odds with that of the Requiem. The Kyrie calls for
strings, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2
trumpets, tympani.
The Requiem calls for strings, 2 bassets, 2 bassoons, 3 (or possibly 4)
trombones, 2 trumpets, timpany. The sound character of these two quite
differently orchestrated compositions will abrade each other like Brillo
on silk.
Dan
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**Dan Leeson **
**leeson0@-----.net **
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