Klarinet Archive - Posting 000024.txt from 2008/08

From: Simeon Loring <sloring1@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Mendelssohn
Date: Wed, 06 Aug 2008 09:49:41 -0400

Or reading the alto clef, when all are reading as written, is easy if
you have a few things in mind:
1 read one note up as if it is clarinet in C, don't change the key.
2 read the result an octave lower.
Yes, we do lose the third from e down to c, but it is a small price
to pay as we get to play some of the finest quartets ever written.
Simeon
On Aug 6, 2008, at 9:25 AM, Joseph H. Fasel wrote:

> 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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