Klarinet Archive - Posting 000344.txt from 2005/06

From: Joseph Wakeling <joseph.wakeling@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Basset clarinets are regular orchestral instruments
Date: Mon, 20 Jun 2005 05:42:06 -0400

John Dablin wrote:

> Is this true? In Walter Piston's "Orchestration", published 1955, he
> writes "Bass clarinets have been made with a downward range to D,
> sounding C, and modern Russian composers give evidence of in their
> scores of the existence of bass clarinets descending to C, sounding
> B-flat, the range given by Rimsky-Korsakoff, A bass clarinet
> constructed by Rosario Mazzeo, of the Boston Symphony Orchestra,
> provides two further semitones, down to B-flat, sounding A-flat. At
> the present time, however, one cannot with certainty count on having
> sounds lower than C# on the bass clarinet". (I presume he meant C#
> concert). Later he refers to an excerpt from Shostakovitch 7th
> symphony: "the written C# cannot be reached by most instruments". This
> suggests to me that, in the USA at least, low-C basses are a
> relatively recent development.

What Piston writes seems pretty accurate for 1955. I recall reading
about the low C range in the Cambridge Companion to the Clarinet. I
think the story was along the lines that, from late in the 19th century
it became common for the major French manufacturers to supply
instruments descending only to low Eb (for military band use), and to
offer extensions for those who wanted the low C range. (A friend in
London has a beautiful old Selmer bass---with a wooden bell!---that was
extended in this manner.) The actual effect was that the low C range
died a death for quite some time until the demands of, amongst others,
Shostakovich, brought it back as the professional standard.

I don't have my copy of the Companion close to hand (it's currently in a
different country from me) so maybe someone who does could check the
details? I think it's in one of the early paragraphs.

-- Joe

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