Klarinet Archive - Posting 000542.txt from 2006/03

From: Joseph Wakeling <joseph.wakeling@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Transposed Parts
Date: Sun, 26 Mar 2006 11:44:20 -0500

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Adam Michlin wrote:
> I'd be curious to see the original source of the first statement
> regarding the Paris Conservatoire. Even so, I do not believe it speaks
> to the intention of composers throughout the European Continent. I'm
> happy to be corrected.

I don't have the reference to hand, but it's mentioned in the Cambridge
Companion to the Clarinet among other sources.

> perhaps even Berlioz, but that might be a stretch

"As a general rule players should only use the instruments specified by
the composer. Since each of these instruments has its own special
character it is at least likely that the composer chose one rather
another because he preferred this particular timbre, and not through any
caprice." ---Hector Berlioz, /Grand Trait=C3=A9 d=E2=80=99Instrumentatio=
n et
d=E2=80=99Orchestration Modernes/.

> I'll keep the rest of the pre-20th century composers and could argue
> that Strauss was as much, if not more, a 20th century composer than a
> 19th century composer. And by keeping the rest of the pre-20th century
> composers, I mean I will maintain that we don't know to what degree
> they wrote for individual tone colors of pitched clarinets. This does
> not mean they didn't, just that to suggest they did is speculation.

I don't have references to hand, but I think you'll find that the
clarinet treatises of the time note the colour differences.

> We do know, very clearly, the key related rules behind choosing
> pitched clarinets in the 19th century. This is not speculation.

Yes. But it *is* speculation to suppose that this was the *only* factor
they considered.

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