Klarinet Archive - Posting 000101.txt from 2008/03
From: "Curtis Bennett" <curtis.bennett@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Key signatures for clarinets
Date: Thu, 13 Mar 2008 15:41:10 -0400
That's fascinating. I wonder if it could have been something about the
way the instrument was created during that time? A peculiarity of its
design, perhaps?
Or maybe, since these guys didn't play the instrument themselves, they
simply went on some [false] past wisdom that said "don't score sharps
for clarinets" and so that's what they did, thinking they were doing
it right?
That's really weird.
On Thu, Mar 13, 2008 at 2:37 PM, Daniel Leeson <dnleeson@-----.net> wrote:
> I cannot tell you what was going on in Mozart's head when he did these things, but only tell you that they are there. And it is quite surreal, just as if he were trying to hide something (which is exactly what he was doing). One of the best known works in the Mozart repertoire for clarinets is the c minor wind serenade, K. 388.
>
> In the last movement, which is a set of various in c minor, everything is hunky dorey until the coda at the end of the movement. Suddently Mozart changes from c minor to c major. And that is the trigger for this peculiar thing. Specifically the clarinets (in B-flat) change from concert c minor (which requires 3 flats for the oboes and bassoons, but only one for the clarinets) to c major. But this places the clarinets in the key of written D major, which requires 2 sharps, and there is insufficient time for the players to get the directive to change to C clarinets.
>
> So what does Mozart do? He ignores the needed key signature for clarinets and tells the players to continue in the written key of one flat. How does that work? Well, he simply puts in a sharp symbol for every F and C, and natural signs for every B. You don't notice this until the peculiarity is shoved right in your face.
>
> When I became aware of this wierd thing, I searched the entire repertoire of Mozart's clarinet music to see how frequently it occurred. I think I found 9 cases where he deliberately wrote in the wrong key for clarinets, with the biggest (or most extensive example) being the Don Giovanni overture. The problem is caused, of course, by the fact that there is insufficient time to change clarinets in the works involved. So he is forced to use the wrong clarinet and accomodates this by writing in the wrong key signature. Strange arithmetic.
>
> That was the rule for clarinet writing all the way up to and including Mendelssohn, and probably later, too. Don't shoot the messenger. He did it, not me.
>
>
> Dan Leeson
> dnleeson@-----.net
> SKYPE: dnleeson
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Joseph Wakeling [mailto:joseph.wakeling@-----.net]
> Sent: Thursday, March 13, 2008 12:03 PM
> To: klarinet@-----.org
> Subject: Re: [kl] Key signatures for clarinets
>
>
>
>
> Daniel Leeson wrote:
> > The rule was this: clarinets should not be written in sharp keys. Mozart, in
> > a lesson book used by one of this theory and composition students wrote (in
> > English, too) that "the clarinet should only be written in the keys of C and
> > F. What that meant was that the clarinet pitch selected by the composer was
> > for the sole purpose of restricting the clarinet part to those keys. And
> > that rule was in effect when Mendelssohn wrote his Italian symphony.
> >
> > Since the concert key of the Italian symphony is A major, clarinets in both
> > C and B-flat were not to be used; i.e., the C would have to play in 3
> > sharps, and the B-flat would have to play in 5 sharps. Instead clarinets in
> > A were appropriate because in the concert pitch of A major, the A clarinet
> > plays in written C major; i.e., NO SHARPS IN THE KEY SIGNATURE FOR CLARINET
> > PLAYERS.
> >
> > Mozart himself chose to get around this constraint by writing clarinet parts
> > in the WRONG KEY so that the instrument would not, in theory at least, be
> > playing in a written key with sharps. Most of the overture to Don Giovanni
> > has the clarinet deliberately written in the wrong key particularly at the
> > point where the key of the overture goes from d minor to d major.
>
> This seems a quite surreal situation. Presumably the clarinet _could_
> actually play in the real key, otherwise Mozart could not have written
> those parts. So why write the wrong key? Why bow in this strange way
> to what was obviously only a theoretical restriction?
>
>
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--
Curtis Bennett
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