Klarinet Archive - Posting 000381.txt from 2004/03

From: ormondtoby@------.net (Ormondtoby Montoya)
Subj: Re: [kl] reasons for basset clarinets
Date: Sat, 6 Mar 2004 15:10:02 -0500

Dan Leeson wrote:

> When Mozart or Beethoven and even
> Schubert (up to Mendelssohn) chose a
> particular clarinet pitch, they did so because
> they were required to do so by the rules of
> composition and the restrictions of writing for
> the clarinet as evidenced by every single
> clarinet tutor in use between 1750 and 1850.

Was any portion of this because certain notes, even if playable, were
more "stuffy" or badly intoned on instruments of those days than they
are nowadays? Or was it completely a matter of mental inertia, left
over from the days when clarinets/chalumeaus/etc were not fully
transposable?