Klarinet Archive - Posting 000369.txt from 2003/12

From: Tony@-----.demon.co.uk (Tony Pay)
Subj: Re: [kl] RE: Original Instruments
Date: Wed, 17 Dec 2003 16:46:55 -0500

On Tue, 16 Dec 2003 13:15:34 -0500, nebuckman@-----.edu said:

> Tony,
>
> If I were to come upon some old clarinet and could put it in playing
> condition, would I be able to teach myself to play it or do I need a
> fingering chart for it?

Well, perhaps it helps to have an idea of what the 'standard' fingerings are;
but they're basically just recorder fingerings, and frankly, instruments
differ so much that you very quickly start to modify those standard
fingerings in order to find ones that are better in tune.

In fact, one of the advantages that the simpler instruments have over modern
ones is that for example, you can put an extra finger down to flatten a
sharpish note. Things are so linked up on a Boehm instrument that that's
rarely possible.

> Also, how do I decide what music is appropriate for it other than figuring
> out when it was made and playing music from that period? I know I could
> always use trial and error, but will I be wasting my time that way?

Roughly speaking, 5-key instruments count as 'classical', and are appropriate
for Mozart. Through Beethoven up to and including Weber, up to 11 keys are
suitable. But of course, at any one time, players were using a variety of
solutions; and so Cavallini, for all the complexity of his studies,
apparently only needed a 5-key clarinet. (And Verdi wrote specially for him
on a couple of occasions -- 'Alzira', for example.)

My own recommendation is just to get hold of an early instrument of any sort
and fool about with it, playing music that you like best to play. Consider
-- the people that played them played *only* them, as their day-to-day
musical tool. We can't approach that degree of dedication, so it's best to
be quite light about it, at least to start with.

You might find in the process that what you *really* want to do is play
classical music exclusively on a 5-key clarinet. On the whole, I'd say
that's unlikely; but you never know!

Something to consider is that oldish instruments sometimes have deformed
bores. These can be reamed out so that they approximate what they were when
they were constructed, but naturally you need to know what you're doing. I'd
recommend the Early Clarinet List as a point of departure for information
about that, but modern technicians understand what's needed too.

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

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