Klarinet Archive - Posting 000128.txt from 2005/11

From: "dnleeson" <dnleeson@-----.net>
Subj: RE: [kl] Tchaikovsky 6th bass clarinet in 1st movement?
Date: Tue, 08 Nov 2005 20:12:11 -0500

The first clarinet player absolutely cannot play that bc part.
He or she has been playing the bloodcurdling solo and has begun a
descent. It keeps getting lower and lower until the clarinet can
go almost no lower. It is at that point that another instrument
must come in an connect the line to get it an octave lower. Yes.
The second player can play it, but there are often contract
problems if that happens.

The practice is generally mindless. Somebody, somewhere began
using a bc instead the bassoon called for in the score. Now it is
very easy to justify the bc. Once can give a half dozen arguments
that all rational; i.e., the sound characters blend better (to
whom?); if Tchaikovsky were alive today, he would agree with this
change (who says so?); the conductor likes it that way (and
doesn't know any better in any case); that's the way it always
was played in the Ellis Island symphony orchestra (really?).

But if you are going to play it, it is not at all difficult
except that it must be very, very, very soft. I think it is only
5 notes but I always came in one note early so that the
connection with the clarinet would be seamless.

The problem with the part is that you have to sit around all
evening after playing that tiny solo.

I'm curious to find out if there is any historical justification
for playing the bassoon solo on a clarinet. Not technical
justification. Anybody can do that. I'm talking historical
justification, such as Tchaikovsky suggesting it under certain
well-known and confirmable circumstances.

Dan Leeson
DNLeeson@-----.net

-----Original Message-----
From: Gary Smith [mailto:gary622@-----.com]
Sent: Tuesday, November 08, 2005 4:32 PM
To: klarinet@-----.org
Subject: [kl] Tchaikovsky 6th bass clarinet in 1st movement?

Our SO is going to play this later this season. In the
Tchaikovsky 6th
symphony, there is a passage scored to have the bassoon play a
low
line in the 1st movement. My conductor (himself a bassoonist!)
asked
me to look into how this is done when the bass clarinet
substitutes,
as is commonly done. I'm frankly unfamiliar with this music -
I've
heard it, but I've never read it. Anyone ever played it this way,
and
can it be pulled off with a total of 2 clarinets in the section,
i.e.
can the 2nd (or the 1st, for that matter) pick up a BBb and play
it,
or are all 3 clarinets employed at that moment?

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