Klarinet Archive - Posting 000244.txt from 2004/03

From: BEresman@------.com
Subj: Re: [kl] reasons for basset clarinets
Date: Thu, 4 Mar 2004 13:16:52 -0500


My reason for asking is not so much that i am concerned that the long "B"
sounds *better* or not on a basset instrument, but that it sounds
different. If a composer had the sound of a certain clarinet in mind,
should it not be that instrument on which it is played? I don't mean
maker, of course, or even necessarily fingering system, although there are
certainly those who consider the latter to be important. But if Berlioz
wrote a C clarinet part in his fantastic symphony, should it not be played
on a C clarinet? My understanding of an argument you have previously made
is that he had in mind a certain sound which is produced by that
instrument, and to use another instrument is to undermine his intent as
composer and compromise the result of his creative genius.

Is it not the same thing to use a C basset clarinet, which sounds different
from a "standard" clarinet, for the same part? How is this not equally
wrong?

Brent Eresman
YSI Precision Temperature