Klarinet Archive - Posting 000065.txt from 2008/12

From: Joseph Wakeling <joseph.wakeling@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Gran Partitta, again
Date: Wed, 17 Dec 2008 17:11:39 -0500

Dan Leeson wrote:
> More important than your Mea Culpa is for you to know exactly what
> Mozart specified.
>
> The autograph reads "Contra Basso" and even if the instrument were not
> specifically identified on the first page of each of the 7 movements,
> there are several cases of "pizzicato" and "arco," which implicitly
> states that the 16 foot bass is a string bass not a wind bass.
>
> I don't object when someone prefers to use a contrabassoon. What I do
> object to are statements that maintain the instrumental substitution was
> Mozart's idea.

According to the Henle Urtext edition I have with me right now,

[The autograph] refers to the bottom stave as Contra | Baßo,
although its ambitus extends to C. [The first edition] prefers
the term Grand Basson ou Basse.

I understand notes below low E weren't unheard of in double bass parts
in the classical era, but I'm curious to know what performance practice was.

The first edition dates from 1803 ...

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