Klarinet Archive - Posting 000035.txt from 2004/09

From: "dnleeson" <dnleeson@-----.net>
Subj: RE: [kl] A bass clarinet
Date: Thu, 2 Sep 2004 14:05:51 -0400

Interesting that you should mention the clarinet in H. I did
speak about Mozart's two uses of the clarinet in B-natural and
pointed out that a high-pitched clarinet in B-flat would probably
work for. I remind the list that in the 1920s, when one got a
gig, the first quesiton asked was "Is it for low pitch or high
pitch?" And when you bought a clarinet, you had to specifiy
which of the two pitches you had in mind. Well, the high pitched
clarinet in B-flat is very close to a clarinet in B-natural,
though I never made a technical examination of the pitch to any
serious degree.

One day I got a phone call from a person I did not know. I was
told that this person (a man) had a girlfriend with a very
valuable clarinet. Would I be interested in seeing it, playing
it, and maybe buying it. So I gave him my address and he came
over the next day.

The first thing I did was play the instrument and it felt very
strange; i.e., much more like a C clarinet than a B-flat
instrument. So I tested the pitch using my piano which was in
tune. And what I found out was that the instrument was a full
half-tone higher. The concert pitch note of B-natural was
obtained by fingering and playing a C on this instrument.

A closer physical examination of the instrument found the letters
"HP" on the body (though not on either the barrel or the bell).
It was when I asked about the price of the instrument (which was
not at all in very good shape), that I got shocked. The owner
had told her boyfriend that she would not accept less than
several thousand dollars for it. And he adamantaly insisted on
that price, namely $3,000. I thanked him for the opportunity to
play the instrument, told him what I thought he had, pointed out
that it required an extensive overhaul to make it playable,
probably wasn't worth more than $200, if that much, and would not
be of much value except as an interesting but not very useful
historical item. He felt that I was trying to steal it from him,
left, and I never heard from him again.

It was that experience that allowed me to hypothesize that a high
pitch B-flat clarinet might work as a B-natural clarinet.

Dan Leeson
DNLeeson@-----.net

-----Original Message-----
From: Tereshchenko, Feodor
[mailto:Feodor.Tereshchenko@-----.com]
Sent: Thursday, September 02, 2004 10:18 AM
To: 'klarinet@-----.org'
Subject: RE: [kl] A bass clarinet

What about parts for H clarinet (American B-natural)? Nobody
seems eager to
revive this instrument...

Feodor

-----Original Message-----
From: Matthew Lloyd [mailto:matthew@-----.uk]
Sent: 2 ÓÅÎÔÑÂÒÑ 2004 Ç. 13:15
To: klarinet@-----.org
Subject: RE: [kl] A bass clarinet

Isn't it at least two works for the basset? And then at least one
(Cosi?
Tito?) for the basset in Bb?

Matthew

-----Original Message-----
From: klarinette@-----.net]
Sent: 02 September 2004 15:50
To: klarinet@-----.org
Subject: Re: [kl] A bass clarinet

So now I can buy a low C basset clarinet in A from the dominant
manufacturers (Buffet, Leblanc, and Selmer), which has only one
piece of
music written for it, however I cannot buy a bass clarinet in A
at all which
has a significant (Not that K.622 isn't significant.) repertoire
written for
it. Considering the current emphasis on period/original
instrument
performance practice this seems a little strange. Has anyone
called any non
dominant manufacturer to inform them of the gap in the market? I
was
thinking Wurlitzer would be a good option.

Laurence E. Young

-----Original Message-----
From: "Mark H. Weinstein" <mark.weinstein@-----.edu>
Sent: Aug 17, 2004 5:51 PM
To: klarinet@-----.org
Subject: Re: [kl] A bass clarinet

Selmer no longer makes an A Bass clarinet, not even on special
order, so
it now bewcomes impossible to purchase one new. Mark

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