Klarinet Archive - Posting 000441.txt from 2005/06

From: "Keith" <100012.1302@-----.com>
Subj: [kl] OKlahoma Symposium
Date: Thu, 23 Jun 2005 19:59:07 -0400

Dan ... Mixing up your emails ...

> -----Original Message-----
> From:
> klarinet-digest-return-83272-100012.1302=compuserve.com@woodwi
> nd.org
> [mailto:klarinet-digest-return-83272-100012.1302=compuserve.co
> m@-----.org
> Sent: 23 June 2005 22:01
> To: klarinet@-----.org
> Date: Thu, 23 Jun 2005 13:41:45 -0700
> To: <klarinet@-----.org>
> From: "dnleeson" <dnleeson@-----.net>
> Subject: RE: [kl] OKlahoma Symposium
> Message-ID: <FJEKIMDEOJFJPBKBMDOPKEABDIAA.dnleeson@-----.net>
>
> things. Now, it seems that the conductor of the Philadephia
> orchestra is planning on a recording of all the Mozart wind
> concerti and then we'll have a chance to listen to his
> recording of the K. 622. Please don't tell me that he does
> not have a basset clarinet in A.
>
He does.

> Unless I am seriously out of the mainstream, I don't think
> there exists a published edition of K. 581 to be played by
> basset clarinet. If that is a true statement, it would seem
> to leave any player who attempted the work on basset clarinet
> to create his/her own edition. "Look ma. We can use the
> basset notes here and here and just about every other measure."
>
> I wonder why 581 has been of less interest to players than
> 622 for which a half dozen reconstructions for basset horn exist.
>
> Any ideas on the subject?
>

I have just done a rehearsal on K581 for performing on Saturday in Oxford. I
don't know of a published edition either - I use one done by Steve Fox (you
have to buy his basset joint to get it...), in which I entered the phrasing
articulation from the NMA Barenreiter edition. In fact there are not so many
opportunities to use basset notes as in K622 but the relatively few places
are very effective. They are (bar/measure numbers as in Barenreiter):

Movement 1: bar 41: the scale runs down to the bottom C. This is probably
the single most effective use. Some recordings I have heard do a diminuendo
in the usual rising scale in 41. This is daft because the string parts
remain forte. With the basset there is no temptation to do anything but
crescendo to the lowest note, and you, Dan, know how good that sounds and
feels. The first time I played that I just sat back stunned.

Movement 1 development: bars 99 to 110: the broken chords start on the
lowest notes in their chords, eg the first A minor chord sarts on the low C
and rises to the A above the stave rather than to E; lowered by a sixth cf
the usual version. The next (A major) starts on low D#, the next D minor one
on D etc. So some of the non-basset notes are altered, the effect being
continuous arcs from low to high and back. The highest note in the sequence
is the B at bar 106 rather than the usual E at bar 100. The cello is at all
times below the clarinet, so it does not alter the basic harmony or the
inversions. This is I suppose the most "daring" of the changes - I have to
say I like it though it is harder to play.

Movement 1: bars 185 and 187: the broken chords start on the low C instead
of reversing direction, which seems eminently sensible.

Movement 1: bar 197 is changed from the somewhat clumsy EGCGCG ... To CEGEC
etc with the last half of the bar and the final bar lowered an octave.

In the Larghetto the basset notes are not used at all except for a
suggestion, which I do not follow except as a decoration second occurence,
of going to bottom C at the beginning of bar 18 and 68.

In the minuet and trio the only suggestions are at bar 8 and 43 to replace
the triple with a duplet D-F starting on the low D.

In the finale there are bigger leaps in Var 1, essentially taking the lowest
parts of the broken chords in the same harmony. Low Cs and Ds in several
places. Great fun.

Then Variation 4 starts the broken chords on the low C so that they are
continuous arcs, and the Alberto bass on C in 3/4 is taken down an octave.

In the Adagio bars 8 and 10 start on D so that they are V chords in both
halves, rather than V7/V.

And the last bar is taken down an octave.

-------------------

Of course I would love to know what others do (Tony?) or for any comments on
the above. They all seem musically sensible, and in accordance with the
arguments and suggestions made by Jiri Kratochvil and George Dazeley in
their articles in 1956 and 1948, quoted in the NMA preface. I am also
baffled why it has not received more attention.

And I do think that the work benefits from the browner chocolate fudge tone
of the basset instrument on non-basset notes ....

Oh I tried out the basset notes with the register key pressed to see what
clarion Bb, A, Ab and G sounded like, in answer to the query earlier this
week. Even the first violin commented "that's a funny sound". They were
stable enough and easy to speak, but are sharp and sound a bit like a
bagpipe. You could use the Bb in a turn but that's about it.

Keith Bowen
-------------------

> Dan Leeson
> DNLeeson@-----.net
>
> ------------------------------
>
> End of klarinet Digest
> ***********************************
>

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