Klarinet Archive - Posting 000562.txt from 2005/06

From: "dnleeson" <dnleeson@-----.net>
Subj: RE: [kl] Buffet catalog
Date: Mon, 27 Jun 2005 21:15:50 -0400

What you say makes some sense, but overall Buffet has created a
catalog pair (presuming that there really is another catalog)
that complicates a situation that did not need to be complicated
(and wasn't) when they had a single catalog.

As for your comments about the basset horn and its position in
the family of instruments, another way of looking at it is how
composers write for it. In the case of Mozart, he writes for it
as a soprano instrument far more often than other way. For
example, in the Requiem, the first basset horn acts as a double
for the soprano voices, while the 2nd basset horn acts as a
double for the female mezzo voices.

Dan Leeson
DNLeeson@-----.net

-----Original Message-----
From: Joseph Wakeling [mailto:joseph.wakeling@-----.net]
Sent: Monday, June 27, 2005 5:41 PM
To: klarinet@-----.org
Subject: Re: [kl] Buffet catalog

dnleeson wrote:

> The basset clarinet is a think wanted by a person who needs a
soprano
> clarinet in A with basset notes, so where, logically, would
such a
> person look for that instrument?

In fairness to Buffet, I think their catalogue really divides
along the
lines of the price tag. The soprano clarinet catalogue covers
the
clarinets for beginners (Bb, A, Eb, C) and their
professional-quality
equivalents. By contrast the catalogue which I described as the
"low
clarinets" could just as well be called the catalogue for "really
bloody
expensive clarinets which mostly only pros will be interested
in". It's
just incidental that most (not all) of these happen to be bigger.
:-)

> By the way, the same argument can be made for a basset horn. It
is not
> an alto clarinet pitched in F, but can be strongly argued to be
a
> soprano clarinet pitched in F that happens to have some low
note in it.

I'm familiar with your argument and agree to a large extent.
However I
think I'd like to phrase it slightly differently and say
something like:
"The basset horn's range makes it an alto member of the clarinet
family,
but its character is in very different to the modern instrument
that
actually bears the name of 'alto clarinet'. Whereas the latter
has a
character rather like a small bass clarinet, the basset horn
feels and
sounds closer to the soprano instruments of the clarinet family."

... What do you reckon?

Incidentally I think the alto clarinet/basset horn divide wasn't
so
clear about 150 years ago. The first alto clarinets were simply
basset
horns without the extra low notes (built by Müller as an
"improvement"
on the traditional basset horn, I believe), with otherwise
similar
characteristics (bore, mouthpiece etc.). So when Stravinsky
calls for
an "Alto Clarinet in F", playing it on the basset horn is
actually quite
all right. In fact it's a bit like using a basset clarinet in a
regular
orchestral setting. :-)

-- Joe

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