Klarinet Archive - Posting 000463.txt from 2005/06

From: "dnleeson" <dnleeson@-----.net>
Subj: RE: [kl] K. 581
Date: Fri, 24 Jun 2005 12:00:40 -0400

Emily, I don't think that anyone suggested that the kinds of
experimentation you have pointed out to us is not appropriate.
You may not have meant to sound defensive, but that's the way it
came out; i.e., as if someone were blaming Hacker for his work.
The problem with 581, like 622, is that we have no source of any
kind on which to base our judgements.

Hacker's perspective on which low notes to play and where are
probably as intelligent as one will find anywhere, but statements
such as "crying out for alteration" do not constitute authority.
Instead it is a synonym for guesswork, intelligent guesswork to
be sure, but guesswork nevertheless.

I had originally asked if there was a published edition of 581
for basset clarinet, and I've come to learn (or to have
confirmed) that there is not. Instead, a number of talented
players have developed their own approach, and thus we are partly
on the road to a somewhat chaotic situation. Obviously, all
cannot be right in their judgement of where to play basset notes.
In fact, it cannot be established that any are right, even if
each represents the thoughtful approach of an intelligent and
well-educated player. In effect, the problem is not solveable.

Here we are less than 60 years after Dazeley's monumental paper
posing the hypothesis that the clarinet for which Mozart wrote
581 and 622 were not like those of today (i.e., written in 1948).
And since that time, so very many competent thinkers have
produced a number of different completions of 622 and have
published them. Each has its merits. But the fact is that they
don't agree, which says one important thing: the use of personal
judgement about what to do in these circumstances is certainly
not infallible.

That does not mean that we should cease our investigations of
such situations, only that they cannot be put forward as
authoritative (as the Barenreiter edition of 622 states on the
front page) or "Urtext" as the Henle edition states, and which is
a contradiction of terms, "Urtext" meaning "from the source," not
from an editor who has no source.

We have come a long way with 622, and most of it is very
positive. But contrasting that progress with 581, allows one to
conclude that the quintet has fallen far behind in an approach to
how it might be played on a basset clarinet; i.e., not one single
published edition for basset clarinet but instead allowing each
player to do his/her thing. That's neither an efficient nor a
terribly good situation either.

Dan Leeson
DNLeeson@-----.net

-----Original Message-----
From: Emily Claire Worthington [mailto:eworthington@-----.uk]
Sent: Friday, June 24, 2005 8:25 AM
To: klarinet@-----.org
Subject: RE: [kl] K. 581

I know that Alan Hacker prepared a version with basset notes in
the 1st, 3rd and 4th movements: I'm not sure if it was published
but I think it is availible from him. He certainly performs the
work with basset notes (see his recording on the Amon Ra label).

He also helped me prepare a performance of the work on on period
basset - his justification for altering the part was based
largely on aesthetic and musical reasons and his own
understanding of Mozart's style (eg areas such as the descending
triplet upbeat in the second trio are in his view crying out for
alteration) but also on a facimile fragment of an early edition
of the work that he posesses that shows the final note of the
first movement notated in 'horn notation' (i.e. in the bass clef,
8ve below sounding pitch) which was the standard notaton for
basset notes. He believed this to be an overlooked throwback to
the original version by a careless copyist.

I certainly found the work more satisfying on a basset
instrument, and I don't think that the lack of 'proof' to suggest
that it originally contained basset notes should stop us from
experimenting - after all, the absence of evidence for a
hypothesis does not amount to proof that the contrary is true!

Best wishes

Emily

-----Original Message-----
From: dnleeson [mailto:dnleeson@-----.net]
Sent: 23 June 2005 22:00
To: klarinet@-----. org
Subject: [kl] K. 581

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?

Dan Leeson
DNLeeson@-----.net

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