Klarinet Archive - Posting 000103.txt from 2008/03
From: "Daniel Leeson" <dnleeson@-----.net>
Subj: RE: [kl] Key signatures for clarinets
Date: Thu, 13 Mar 2008 16:05:58 -0400
There are parts of the problem that I understand but not all of it.
The issue centers around the fact that the clarinet overblows a 12th, and
while we don't think much about this phenomenon, it had extraordinary
infleunce on the development of the instrument. Specifically, during the
formative years of clarinet development it was VERY difficult to add a note
that would be in tune in both registers. This was not true for the oboe;
i.e., you added a hole and using it produced a note that was either great in
both registers or lousy in both registers.
This condition inhibited the addition of lots of keys and holes to the
clarinet so as to permit performance in all keys. But the original clarinet
was so primitive that it had only two scales, one in F and one in C
(corresponding to the same finger positions occuring in both registers).
So unlike other woodwinds that tolerated the addition of keys and holes, the
clarinet compensated for this deficiencey by having the player change
instruments to allow performance in a variety of keys. Using the C, B-flat,
and A clarinets, and being able to play in written C and F in each of the
three, gave the players a lot of flexibility to accomodate various concert
key signatures.
And let's not forget the clarinet in B-natural, used twice by Mozart when
the concert key was B-major. Switich to a B-natural clarinet and play the
piece in written C major.
The next question is why did this phenomenon continue to perpetuate itself?
Today the engineering of a clarinet should, in theory, eliminate the need
for multiple clarinet. But it did not happen.
Dan Leeson
dnleeson@-----.net
SKYPE: dnleeson
-----Original Message-----
From: Curtis Bennett [mailto:curtis.bennett@-----.com]
Sent: Thursday, March 13, 2008 12:41 PM
To: klarinet@-----.org
Subject: Re: [kl] Key signatures for clarinets
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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