Klarinet Archive - Posting 000648.txt from 2004/08

From: "dnleeson" <dnleeson@-----.net>
Subj: RE: [kl] FW: 1896 Selmer Basset Horn
Date: Mon, 23 Aug 2004 11:50:51 -0400

The basset horn was the first attempt to create a bass instrument
so that the clarinet section would have a choir. It was, in
effect, an early bass clarinet. Its failure to really be
involved with the evolving clarinet section was due to
difficulties in creating basset horns that would not squeak so
much, that would play in tune, and that would not be so
resistant. I suspect, but do not know, that the narrow boreed
basset horn had a plethora of such problems. They still do.

Dan Leeson
DNLeeson@-----.net

-----Original Message-----
From: Roger Shilcock
[mailto:roger.shilcock@-----.uk]
Sent: Monday, August 23, 2004 7:50 AM
To: klarinet@-----.org
Subject: Re: [kl] FW: 1896 Selmer Basset Horn

The first basset-horn *may* have resulted from an attempt to
produce a horn-like
sound from a reed instrument, but horns in the mid-eighteenth
century were
played with all sorts of crooks - I think D was far more common
than F.
Hence, it not likely to have been intended that it should play
existing horn
parts -still less so, given the musical content of such parts.
Roger S.

In message <000201c488f0$b46baaa0$334bddd5@oemcomputer>
klarinet@-----.org
writes:
> I thought that was pretty much the definition of a basset horn.
The first
> basset horns, made by the Mayrhofer brothers around 1750 (in
wich respect
> the Selmer in question is of cause an early "retro"-horn) had a
low C
> instead of a low E (jumping from C to F which makes me believe
that the
> early basset horns were actually meant to play french horn
parts) and the
> rest was filled in in the course of time, first diatonical, the
last
> chromatic steps (Db) very late, shortly before the instrument
died out. For
> what purpose the French late 19th c. instruments were made,
whether to play
> Mozart, Mendelssohn or Strauss or whatever is unclear, but the
German
> retro-basset horns of that time, made for R. Strauss (who used
it a great
> deal) were more like large bore modern alto clarinets with
extension. I
> would assume the "H. Wood" Selmer to be like this, namely as no
French maker
> even until now seems to have bothered to recreate anything like
a proper
> bassett horn, apt to play historic parts (or modern ones that
expect the
> subtle and discrete sound of the original instruments).
> Best wishes,
> danyel
>
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: dnleeson
> To: klarinet@-----.org
> Sent: Saturday, August 21, 2004 9:38 PM
> Subject: RE: [kl] FW: 1896 Selmer Basset Horn
>
>
> Basset horns from 1900 and even earlier have the low C. There
is
> nothing special about it.
>
> Dan Leeson
> DNLeeson@-----.net
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Larisa Duffy and David Dow
[mailto:duffyl@-----.ca]
> Sent: Sunday, August 22, 2004 12:28 PM
> To: klarinet@-----.org
> Subject: Re: [kl] FW: 1896 Selmer Basset Horn
>
>
>
> ---It may be better if one simply gets the serial no. or even
the
> Brevette.
> design that is used for an insignia... There are a good deal
of
> older
> instruments....some are not the age that the seller advertises
as
> well.
>
> As to instrument it looks pretty new to be of that age...maybe
e
> mail the
> seller and ask specific questions...I notice it has a low C
> mechanism...this
> may not be normal for a F Basset of such early make. I now
> wonder what this
> really is...?
>
>
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> Klarinet is a service of Woodwind.Org, Inc.
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http://www.woodwind.org
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>

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