Klarinet Archive - Posting 000122.txt from 2008/03
From: "Doug Sears" <dsears@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] key signatures on clarinet/mouthpieces
Date: Fri, 14 Mar 2008 23:38:04 -0400
Think of playing the scales:
Ab scale, you go from C to Db to Eb (not hard, right?)
D scale, you go from B to C# (harder, I think)
I'm guessing here. I don't have any actual experience with a 5-key
clarinet.
--Doug Sears
----- Original Message -----
From: "Keith Bowen" <bowenk@-----.com>
To: <klarinet@-----.org>
Sent: Friday, March 14, 2008 3:04 PM
Subject: RE: [kl] key signatures on clarinet/mouthpieces
Could it be something to do with the fact that C# and D flat were perceived
as different notes, with different fingerings given in eg Quantz's
(baroque)
flute tutor? D flat was sharper than C#.
Keith Bowen
-----Original Message-----
From: klarinet-return-93048-bowenk=compuserve.com@-----.org
[mailto:klarinet-return-93048-bowenk=compuserve.com@-----.org] On Behalf
Of Daniel Leeson
Sent: 14 March 2008 15:30
To: klarinet@-----.org
Subject: RE: [kl] key signatures on clarinet/mouthpieces
Good comment Margaret, but I want to clarify a point regarding key
signatures. For a reason that surpasses all attempts at understanding, the
key restriction for clarinets in the 18th century was for sharp keys, not
for flat keys.
Mozart wrote for 4 flats on several occasions including the basset horns in
one of the variations of the Gran Partitta, and the clarinets in one of his
choral works. He also wrote for clarinets in 2 flats on several occasions.
It was the sharp keys where the contraint existed, and I have to conclude
that it was a function of playing the note c-sharp. Why d-flat was OK, but
c-sharp was not, surpasses my understanding of the problem.
Dan Leeson
dnleeson@-----.net
SKYPE: dnleeson
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