Klarinet Archive - Posting 000159.txt from 2007/12

From: "Daniel Leeson" <dnleeson@-----.net>
Subj: RE: [kl] Mendelssohn Reformation Symphony
Date: Mon, 24 Dec 2007 19:22:16 -0500

Robert, I agree with your point about the importance of playing C clarinet
music on C clarinet. Playing the same music on a B-flat or even A clarinet
assumes that the only thing the composer is interested in is the pitch of
the notes. In my opinion, the pitch being preserved while the timbre is
changed is a violation of what was in the composer's head at the time the
piece was composed. I think you said that, and it is that philosophical
point with which I am in agreement.

It is shocking that so many clarinet players feel that they are authorized
to play their music on any clarinet they wish to use. It is an arrogance
that only clarinet players have because we are the only woodwind players who
have to deal with such a variety of transposing instrument. (I admit there
is a similar but by no means identical problem for flutes, oboes, and
bassoons. But with the clarinet family it is different by an order of
magnitude.)

But I think that you go too far when you suggest that "Mendelssohn would
have used A clarinets
in the fourth movement (D major) if his choice of instrument was based on
facility. Clearly he wanted a brighter sound in the two outer movements." I
don't know that to be true, and you don't either.

The idea that a particularly pitched clarinet was used because the composer
wanted a certain character of sound, is based entirely on opinion. It's the
kind of statement that sounds quite reasonable, but the choice of which
clarinet to use (at least until the first half of the 19th century) has an
entirely different reason. The composer was obliged to use a C, or B-flat,
or A clarinet because of the rules of composition as taught to him by his
teachers.

Composers taught that one MUST use a B-flat clarinet (for example) if the
concert key was in B-flat or E-flat. No reason was given, only the rule.
Mozart, for example, had a student whose composition book has survived. And
in it one finds Mozart writing (in English, too) about using clarinets of
this or that key when playing in music in certain keys. While the technical
reason for doing that pretty much died out by 1850, composers were still
being taught about the use of an A clarinet (for example) when certain keys
were used. You can find the restriction of this clarinet for that key in
books about composition all the way up to 1900.

But whatever the reason underlying the choice of clarinets, it is reasonable
to presume that the composer had a good enough ear to take advantage of the
clarinet that he was obliged to use. The clarinet solo in the Beethoven 1st
piano concerto has a definite character related to the timbre of the C
clarinet, a timbre which is very much missing when using a B-flat clarinet.

Dan Leeson
dnleeson@-----.net
SKYPE: dnleeson

-----Original Message-----
From: Robert Howe [mailto:arehow@-----.net]
Sent: Monday, December 24, 2007 3:34 PM
To: Klarinet
Subject: [kl] Mendelssohn Reformation Symphony

IF I recall correctly, the first and fourth movements of the Reformation
call for C clarinet, the middle two for Bb. With all due respect to the
gentleman who started this thread, here is no need to buy a transposed part.
It takes 20 minutes to learn how to read a C part at sight. This is a
rudimentary skill which I learned at age 13; any player who cannot do this
has no right to call himself a "clarinetist". Once you learn the skill, you
have it forever.

What is unsaid in all of this (or if it has been said, I missed it) is that
the substitution of Bb for C clarinet here is musically invalid. The fact
that people do it all the time does not make it right; people run stop
signs, cheat on their wives, and understate their taxable income, too.
Combinations involving middle of the staff B and C# were awkward on the 13
key clarinet of Mendelssohn's day; Mendelssohn would have used A clarinets
in the fourth movement (D major) if his choice of instrument was based on
facility. Clearly he wanted a brighter sound in the two outer movements.

Clarinet players should be willing to have the instrument to give it to
him--and to Strauss, and to Mahler, and to Brahms, and to the wealth of
European composers on the 19th and early 20th centuries who requested C
clarinets.

Oboe players buy a $7500 oboe d'amore for Bach. Clarinet players should buy
a $2000 C clarinet for Mahler, Beethoven, J. Strauss, R. Strauss, Schubert,
Mozart, Mendelssohn, Berlioz, Haydn...I think I've made my point!

Best Christmas wishes to all,

Robert Howe

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