Klarinet Archive - Posting 000345.txt from 2005/06

From: "Dan Leeson" <dnleeson@-----.net>
Subj: RE: [kl] Basset clarinets are regular orchestral instruments
Date: Mon, 20 Jun 2005 08:26:31 -0400

I ask Andrew to place the compositions about which he speaks (namely lots of
use of bass clarinet with notes below the low E-flat in band music) in
chrononological order. I also have noticed that low D is a requirement on
at least one Sousa march, but I suspect that his claim of lots of low D,
D-flat, and C in his contemporary band concerts may include recently written
repertoire; i.e. since ca. 1960 or even later. And if that is true, then it
seems that composers writing for a low C bass is a recent development, one
that arose only when the low C bass became more common.

I bought my low C bass in Paris when I lived there (paid $250 for it with
case but no mouthpiece). But those instruments were not yet off the shelf.
Ordinary bass clarinets were, but low C basses were a special order with a
few months wait. That was in 1963.

Without having done the research to sustain this point, I question the
ordinary use of what are now low C bass clarinet notes, before ca. 1950.

DNL

-----Original Message-----
From: Andrew Grenci [mailto:agrenci@-----.com]
Sent: Sunday, June 19, 2005 8:06 PM
To: klarinet@-----.org
Subject: Re: [kl] Basset clarinets are regular orchestral instruments

Of course, the problem with this logic is that the lowest notes on bass
clarinet are not used "rarely", but rather quite often. Few orchestra
or band concerts go by went I do not need to play a low D, Db or C.
And much of the solo rep requires these pitches as well.

On the other hand, in more than two decades of professional clarinet
playing I have never even once been asked to play a orchestral or band
clarinet part which included basset clarinet notes. Not once. Now
THAT is rare.

Dan should be venting his wrath on the true villain here - Beethoven.
If he had taken up where Mozart left off then others (Schubert, Brahms,
etc., etc.) may have followed his lead and the whole history of the
clarinet might have been different.

Andy

Andrew Grenci
Bass Clarinet, U.S. Coast Guard Band
New Haven Symphony Orchestra

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Klarinet is a service of Woodwind.Org, Inc. http://www.woodwind.org