Klarinet Archive - Posting 000576.txt from 2006/03

From: "Don Yungkurth" <chalumeau@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Transposed Parts
Date: Mon, 27 Mar 2006 11:29:39 -0500

Kevin Fay quotes Roger Hewitt:

<<<Someone else pointed to the fact that a C clarinet part is usually for
a period instrument anyway and this will have much more influence on
tone colour than a modern Boehm system "standard" C clarinet. And most
18th century composer would much preferred to use Modern violins,
pianos, valve horns, if only they could have!>>>

Kevin responded:

>>>I thought similarly to this - before I performed a couple of *very* late
Richard Strauss works, the "Happy Workshop" and the "Invalid's Workshop."
Both fantastic works.

The "Happy Workshop" is scored for clarinet in C, two in Bb, basset horn (in
F) and bass. If you've performed it, it's very, very, very clear that he
knew *exactly* what he was doing in scoring for the clarinets in the various
keys.

(................ cut..............)

. . . but Bb and A, while having different timbres, aren't all that
different. Not so a C - it's an entirely different sound.

Composers up through Beethoven may have put clarinets in a specific key to
follow a convention. After the instrument because fully chromatic, though,
I have to think that they knew what they were doing. Certainly Strauss,
Mahler and Dvorak.>>>

I think Kevin is right on the money here and the Strauss works he mentions
are from 1943-45!

I've posted the following quote before, but I think it is worth another
hearing considering the current discussions. It is from Oskar Kroll's book
"The Clarinet", and reports some very strong feelings of Richard Strauss
about using the instruments he specifies:

>>> Before the first performance of "Der Rosenkavalier", Richard Strauss
>>> wrote a letter to the conductor, Ernst von Schuch, in which he said:

"The C clarinets are indispensable, urge you to get some. Transposition
impossible."

But the instruments specifically purchased were never used again because the
players preferred their Bb clarinets. Strauss was furious and wrote quite a
strong letter to the orchestra management in Dresden which "they wouldn't
have liked at all" (Kunitz). Subsequently Strauss repeatedly specified the
C clarinet (Die Frau ohne Schatten, Die Agyptische Helena, Arabella,
Friedenstag, Daphne, Die Lebe der Danae, Capriccio). Where C instruments
are available (good ones!) they should certainly be used. Mahler also
deliberately specified the C clarinet.<<<

These Strauss works are all from the 20th century

We are currently rehearsing an aria from "I Capuleti e i Montacchi" by
Bellini (1830). The clarinet parts are for C clarinet in two flats. If
transposed to play on the Bb clarinet, the parts would be in the key of C.
It is difficult to imagine that Bellini would have specified the C clarinet
unless he wanted the characteristic sound of that instrument.

Don Yungkurth

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