Klarinet Archive - Posting 000016.txt from 2005/09
From: "dnleeson" <dnleeson@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Krommer editions.
Date: Fri, 02 Sep 2005 11:59:31 -0400
That is a really terrific story that Tony has told. I'd like to
add to it with some information about Krommer editions.
Though I am no Krommer expert, there was a time that I owned
about 15 of his wind octets. I got some from Dave Whitwell and
some from Chris Weait and a few from here and there. They were
all first editions and none of them were particularly well done
editions. I think that the music was far better than the
publications themselves.
Every edition of any of the Krommer octets is derived in one way
or another from those first editions, and most of them contain
the same errors found in the first editions. Krommer followed
the same conventions for clarinet selection as Mozart did. Thus
if the piece is in concert B-flat or E-flat, you will see the
B-flat clarinet employed. But if the piece is in concert C or G
the original was almost certainly for C clarinet, though
contemporary editions substitute B-flat clarinets, compounding an
already troblesome situation by putting the B-flat clarinets in a
key that may not be as agile as the original for C clarinet.
I don't think I ever remember seeing a first edition of a Krommer
with an A clarinet, but it is possible the some contemporary
edition used one in place of a B-flat clarinet (already a
substitution for a C) in A major.
The bottom line, is that there are (or were) no trustworthy
editions for these wonderful octets of Krommer (though I find
they do not work without a 16-foot wind bass, and a string bass
is not a satisfactory substitute -- personal opinion). It's best
if the contrabassoon clanks a lot.
I no long know the status of the publications of the Krommer
octets. I suspect that some are not published in contemporary
editions at all, and others have had the optional trumpet parts
eliminated. Maybe the situation is better now than when I last
played the Krommer octets at least 15 years ago.
I played one with Larry Combs and he was so enchanted with the
bubbling music that he coined the phrase "cooking music." And
another old friend, Barry Benjamin, formerly the hornist with the
Dorian Wind Quintet, fell so much in love with the dance
movements that he kept referring to them with the entirely
invented terms "a chalieki," which he swore was an old Hungarian
dance. So we would play a Krommer octet and when we came to
those movements, we were told by Barry to play it, "in tempo di
chalieki." One or two of the players not in on Barry's humor
would ask, "What is a chalieki?" and Barry would respond with a
straight face saying that "it was a Hungarian or gypsy dance done
in the woods naked at midnight by the fireside. My gypsy
grandmother used to dance the chalieki but she never taught me
the steps. It is a lost secret."
We'd get some very strange looks. Once in a while when we had a
chamber music party, those in the know would get up and start to
undress when we came to the "chalieki" movements. But it never
went very far. And those in the know would all yell "CHALIEKI!!!"
when those movements were played.
I enjoyed the Krommer octets (really nonets and some with
trumpets are for 11 players) as well if not more than the Mozart
octets.
Dan Leeson
DNLeeson@-----.net
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