Klarinet Archive - Posting 000312.txt from 2008/01

From: "Daniel Leeson" <dnleeson@-----.net>
Subj: RE: [kl] Mendelssohn and C clarinets
Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2008 15:01:31 -0500

I thank Mike for giving his experience with C clarinets, which I believe to
be absolutely accurate. About 15 years ago, I played basset horn in a
performance of Richard Strauss' "Happy Workshop." The piece calls for 5
clarinet players, 2 of whom play B-flat clarinet, 1 who plays C clarinet,
plus basset horn and bass clarinet (separate players). Wonderful piece.

At the first rehearsal (to which I had brought my C clarinet knowing that an
opportunity was likely to arise), the fine first player of the St. Louis
Symphony played the C clarinet part on a B-flat clarinet transposing it. At
the first break, I asked him if he would like to play the part on my C, and
he was very hesitant saying that he had never found one that played well,
and he didn't like them, etc.

Still I suggested that he might try it, and perhaps to get me off his back,
he agreed. Except at rehearsals, I never saw the C clarinet for several
days. He had so fallen in love with the instrument's timbre, and the sound
of the Strauss was so much improved by the instrument, that he would not
give the instrument back to me until after the gig was over. We played that
at the Summer Music program in Santa Barbara, so there was a lot of going to
the beach. He even played my C on the beach. (I'd like to say that girls
came around to frolic to the sound of C clarinet, but it didn't happen.)

Two years later we played the other Strauss work called, "The Invalid's
Workshop," a much more difficult work using A clarinets and an A bass. I
still played basset horn. But the players changed, and the person who had
the C clarinet part wouldn't hear of playing it on a C. And no amount of
discussion caused him/her (I forget which) to chage the mind. The piece
suffered badly because the wind voicings just didn't work.

There was a lesson in there and even though I no longer play,I have not
forgotten it to this day.

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

-----Original Message-----
From: Mike Vaccaro [mailto:mike@-----.com]
Sent: Monday, January 28, 2008 11:04 AM
To: klarinet@-----.org
Subject: Re: [kl] Mendelssohn and C clarinets

I have transposed C clarinet parts many times. Having the advantage of
owning a C clarinet with a good mouthpiece I can tell you when the whole
section is playing on a C clarinet for a written C clarinet part it is quite
a unique sound. I must believe that some composers actually wanted that
sound. I have recorded the Caprice for C Clarinet and can say that the sound
is worth the work of maintaining another instrument.

Mike Vaccaro
www.MikeVaccaro.Com
www.VaccaroandStevensWoodwinds.Com
www.MamdMMouthpieces.Com

----- Original Message -----
From: "Daniel Leeson" <dnleeson@-----.net>
To: <klarinet@-----.org>
Sent: Monday, January 28, 2008 9:38 AM
Subject: RE: [kl] Mendelssohn and C clarinets

> That depends on both the publisher and the date of the publication. C
> clarinets were in common use all the way through the last half of the 19th
> century and into the 20th. I don't know when publishers started
> transposing
> clarinet parts for the convenience of those who could not transpose, but I
> suspect it is a 20th century practice, say from the 1930's. But that is a
> guess.
>
> Dan Leeson
> dnleeson@-----.net
> SKYPE: dnleeson
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Joseph H. Fasel [mailto:jhf@-----.gov]
> Sent: Monday, January 28, 2008 8:30 AM
> To: klarinet@-----.org
> Subject: RE: [kl] Mendelssohn and C clarinets
>
>
> Hi Dan,
>
> That occurred to me (that the printed parts don't necessarily reflect
> the composer's intent), but I would say that the presence of any C-
> clarinet movements at all argues against that.
>
> Cheers,
> --Joe
>
>
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