Klarinet Archive - Posting 000202.txt from 2007/06
From: "dnleeson" <dnleeson@-----.net>
Subj: RE: [kl] Accidental Usage Question
Date: Fri, 29 Jun 2007 17:31:23 -0400
In Mozart manuscripts, he uses a notation that is so unusual that
editors have to clean up his accidentals while editing his works.
If a note appears with an accidental in a particular measure and
for a particular instrument, he will often indicate a
cancellation of that note's altered pitch for an entirely
different instrument in a later measure.
Thus if he writes e-flat (when the key signature does not call
for it) in a clarinet part, the next occurence of this pitch in
another instrument (for the next few measures, after which he
forgets about it) he uses a natural sign to indicate cancellation
of the accidental even though it is NOT needed for that
instrument at that point.
This results in a little confusion. If one is looking at, for
example, a oboe part and finds that the note "c" has an unneeded
natural sign, one looks backwards to see where the note was
previously given otherwise. But often, you won't find it because
the natural sign was put on a "d" for a B-flat clarinet. And
until I figured out what he did, it drove me crazy.
But what it says is that Mozart thought in concert pitch, which
was a revelation to me; i.e., he marks a clarinet part as d-flat,
and then later marks an oboe part as c-natural. It almost always
happens when the two measures are adjascent, but by the time 4 or
5 measures have passed, he no longer uses this strange notation.
Dan Leeson
DNLeeson@-----.net
-----Original Message-----
From: Bill Daniluk [mailto:bdaniluk@-----.net]
Sent: Friday, June 29, 2007 12:08 PM
To: klarinet@-----.org
Subject: FW: [kl] Accidental Usage Question
It appears to be common knowledge but not necessarily commonly
correct;
most of the written citations I've seen say that an accidental
affects ONLY
THE OCTAVE FOR WHICH IT'S WRITTEN, while most of my musician
colleagues
insist that it carries for ALL OCTAVES. If you credit Wikipedia,
it
suggests the former:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accidental_%28music%29
BD
-----Original Message-----
From: Audrey Travis [mailto:clr91nt@-----.ca]
Sent: Friday, June 29, 2007 1:47 PM
To: klarinet@-----.org
Subject: Re: [kl] Accidental Usage Question
I've been wrong before. I stand corrected. I was indeed
thinking of music
before 1900.
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