Klarinet Archive - Posting 000016.txt from 2008/08

From: "Daniel Leeson" <dnleeson@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Mendelssohn
Date: Tue, 05 Aug 2008 18:58:18 -0400

According to a letter written in Munich by Felix Mendelssoh on Oct. 6,
1831, he mentiones a performance of an arrangement he had apparently made
of the Beethoven string quartet (Opus 18, number 1), for 2 clarinets, a
bassett horn, and a bassoon. Baermann was playing first clarinet, and I
interpret that to mean the father Baermann.

I have played several Beethoven string quartets in a group that used 2
clarinets, 1 basset horn, and 1 bass clarinet, but we just sight read the
music as is. I played the viola part on a basset horn, and Jack Kreiselman
played the bass clarinet. However, these were not arrangements by
Mendelssohn. Furthermore, if you play the string quartets that way, they do
not sound in concert pitch. For that everone has to transpose as if you were
reading a C clarinet part on a B-flat clarinet. It's a pain in the neck but
you get the concert pitch of the work that way.

If you just play the piece as it is written, you are actually changing the
concert pitch down a second. Playing it on basset horn drove me crazy until
I finally was able to get my head shaped right. We once tried by having the
clarinetists play on A clarinet, and that was a nightmare for me, at least.

Dan Leeson
dnleeson@-----.net
SKYPE: dnleeson

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