Klarinet Archive - Posting 000111.txt from 2005/02

From: Tony Pay <tony.p@-----.org>
Subj: RE: [kl] A bassethorn riddle
Date: Fri, 4 Feb 2005 21:45:39 -0500

On 5 Feb, Adam Michlin <amichlin@-----.com> wrote:

> Mendelssohn's reorchestration of Bach's St. Matthew Passion, perhaps?

OK, good, well done.

(Notice that Zelter, who was Mendelssohn's teacher, featured in your other
post. Hence my: "1920s?")

Now, there are both bassethorn parts and alternative clarinet parts in one
number, the particularly striking "Ach, Golgotha".

You might think we should play it on bassethorns, on the assumption that the
clarinet parts were ossias in case you didn't have bassethorns.

But there is another wrinkle.

Both clarinet and bassethorn parts are manuscripts of the period. Yet, a
feature of those parts allowed me to deduce that the original performance of
Mendelssohn's arrangement used clarinets rather than bassethorns -- even
though Mendelssohn probably first thought in terms of bassethorns as
substitutes for Bach's oboes da caccia (also in F).

And that's quite independent of the fact that both I and Jane find it bloody
awkward and unsatisfactory on period bassethorns:-(

Can you guess what the feature was?

Tony
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