Klarinet Archive - Posting 000384.txt from 2004/03

From: Dan Leeson <leeson0@------.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] reasons for basset clarinets
Date: Sat, 6 Mar 2004 16:46:30 -0500

Ormondtoby Montoya wrote:
> 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?

I can tell you what the rules were, but I would only be speculating if I
were to make a stab at why those rules were put in place. However, I do
not believe that stuffyness or mental inertia had anything to do with
it, and certainly the suggestion that this was a case of mental intertia
is not consistent with the cleverness and ingenuity of the clarinet
makers who kept coming up with news clarinet pitches.

The probable cause was due to the fact that the early clarinet could
play effectively in only two keys, F major and C major. So if you
wanted to play in any key other than those two, you switched clarinets.

Dan

>
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> klarinet-digest-unsubscribe@------.org if you get the digest.
> Klarinet is a service of Woodwind.Org, Inc. http://www.------.org
>
>

--
Dan Leeson
leeson0@------.net