Klarinet Archive - Posting 000152.txt from 2008/05

From: "Daniel" <dnleeson@-----.net>
Subj: RE: [kl] Clarinet transposition
Date: Sat, 24 May 2008 10:17:38 -0400

Nitai, if you live near a university that has a good music library, visit
them and ask if they have copies of the "Mozart Janrbuch." It is
publication of the Salzburg Mozarteum and you want to see the 1998 issue.
In that volume, which contains all the technical artices and papers issued
in 1998, you will find an article authored by Robert Levin and myself
entitled, "Mozart's Deliberate Use of Incorrect Key Signatures for
Clarinets."

If you take the time to read that article thoroughly, you will understand
how and under what circumstances the clarinet became a transposing
instrument.

If you do not leave near a large, good quality music library, you may have
to ask help to get the volume on Inter Library Loan. If that does not work,
contact me directly and I will make a copy of the article for you, though it
will not be free.

Dan Leeson
dnleeson@-----.net

-----Original Message-----
From: clarni bass [mailto:clarnibass@-----.com]
Sent: Saturday, May 24, 2008 4:01 AM
To: klarinet@-----.org
Subject: [kl] Clarinet transposition

Hello

I'm interested to know why/how, historically, the
clarinet became a transposed instrument (the regular
Bb soprano clarinet).

Since I have no idea really I am guessing either the
first was in C, and because there is a family of
instrument others are necessarily transposed, and the
Bb for some reason "survived" the most.

Or the first was already transposed, and was decided
to be this way because of the keys most common in that
time compared with the fingerings?

Or maybe some other reason I haven't considered, but
I'm pretty sure it had to be a concious decision at
some point.

Thanks!

Nitai

------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------------------