Klarinet Archive - Posting 000085.txt from 2008/04

From: Joseph Wakeling <joseph.wakeling@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Altissimo
Date: Tue, 15 Apr 2008 15:35:14 -0400

Curtis Bennett wrote:
> How often do these kinds of notes come up in a piece of music? I
> think the highest note I've ever seen is an A above high G. And that
> was like one time. What kind of music calls for these kinds of notes?

The Copland concerto goes up to altissimo B (or Bb, I forget...) and
there are altissimo C's in literature dating back to the classical
period (in fact there's a concertante work by Sussmayr for basset
clarinet that includes a four-octave C major scale).

Up to altissimo C is standard now in the contemporary repertoire and
plenty of works go higher -- Birtwistle's 'Linoi' adds a semitone to
Sussmayr's range, taking the basset clarinet to altissimo C#, Peter
Maxwell Davies' 'Hymnos' reaches its summit (quite literally) on
altissimo E and I think the Cowie concerto goes up to altissimo G (the
highest note in the Sim book).

I know there are other works which go even higher, sometimes with
techniques like teeth-on-reed -- and this is just the soprano clarinet
repertoire (the larger clarinets have even more scope to extend the
written upward range).

-- Joe

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