Klarinet Archive - Posting 000039.txt from 2005/06

From: Gary Smith <gary622@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Bb versus C Clarinet?
Date: Wed, 01 Jun 2005 23:16:18 -0400

If this has been succinctly stated already, my apologies. Sidestepping
(at least somewhat) the philosophy of transposing that Dan is very
passionate about, but in reference to the basic question of whether
some keys are still considered harder to play on one vs. the other -
my answer is "of course." I think it's a vast oversimplification, and
one not borne out by experience, to blithely say "Well, the clarinet
can play in any key now because the keywork's so good, so we could get
by without the C/do without the A/whatever." This is kind of true at
the "armchair level," but not necessarily in the pit or on the stage.

In practicality, playing on the remote keys that you get into when,
for example, some arranger has assumed you don't own an A clarinet and
thoughtfully provided a "Bb part" (as your only option) is HORRIBLE. I
consider myself a strong amateur player, but I've sat down next to
pros who have been just as horrified at the prospect. It seems stupid
to learn how to "transpose a transposed A part back to A from Bb"
(i.e. raise everything a half-step, usually to a natural, when you're
swimming in a sea of sharps), but I've been confronted with this
enough that I may have to.

And consider the situation when reading a Beethoven C clarinet part on
a Bb clarinet. Dan's weighed in on the implications of this for
timbre, etc - I'm just going to comment on the practical problems.
Assuming the piece itself is in C, you're now reading the key of D. 2
sharps - easy key, right? Well, in a way, but somehow in the very kind
of classical literature that you find C clarinet parts in, I find the
runs, ornamentation, and the ways you end up around the breaks just
get messy. They turn stuff you normally could sightread and at least
get the notes right into situations where you have to improvise
fingerings and practice, practice, practice on runs. And that's
assuming the arranger, again, assumed you're on a Bb and you're not
having to tranpose on the fly. Yes, you should know how to transpose.
But let's face it, it does add another complication to your life.

"Classic" (in more ways than one) example - a simple one-octave run
that was intended to be a C scale running from the mid-staff C to the
high C is now a D scale that requires you to cross the upper "break"
into the sopranino C#, then D. Impossible? Not hardly, but I can tell
you which one I'd rather do (again, throw ornamentation into the mix
and things quickly get much worse), and at least in this case,
alluding to Dan's argument, you have to concede it ends up sounding
noticably different.

The orchestra I play in does a lot of Beethoven and other older
repertoire, and while I currently play 3rd/bass and so the issue
hasn't become acute for me, if I make it to 2nd chair one of these
days I consider that I'll have to invest in a C clarinet.

On 6/1/05, willy kostucki <wk@-----.be> wrote:
> Hello Dan,
> Thanks for this answer.
> If I understood correctly there was an inability (you mean
> technical?) to play in keys other than C and F. But is this still
> true today with our modern C clarinets? Is it still easier to play
> some keys on a Bb versus C?

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