Klarinet Archive - Posting 000023.txt from 2008/08

From: X-CTN-5-MailScanner-jhf@-----.gov
Subj: Re: [kl] Mendelssohn
Date: Wed, 06 Aug 2008 09:25:58 -0400

You can read (alto-clef) viola parts at concert pitch on a Bb clarinet
by pretending it's bass clef and adjusting the key signature (e.g., you
read the middle-line C as D in an F clef). The only problem is that
the viola has a pitch range that goes just a little below that of the Bb
clarinet. I suppose a basset clarinet in Bb would be ideal!

I learned this trick from Lori Lovato.

Cheers,
--Joe

On Tue, 2008-08-05 at 15:58 -0700, Daniel Leeson wrote:
> 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.

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