Klarinet Archive - Posting 000021.txt from 2009/09

From: Mark Thiel <mark.thiel@-----.com>
Subj: [kl] Mozart Bassethorn trios - key?
Date: Tue, 08 Sep 2009 19:56:06 -0400


The subject of Mozart's trios=2C K 439b or KA 229 -- depending on your favo=
rite Koechel version=2C has come up a few times=2C notably:

http://test.woodwind.org/Databases/Klarinet/2003/04/001190.txt

For those not familiar=2C I'll provide a summary from
http://www.mozartforum.com :

"Composed supposedly in 1783 in Vienna=3B
but time determination not certain=3B . . . No doubt written
originally for 3 Bthns=2C but early publications for various instruments fo=
r
performer preference=3B division of pieces into 5 Divertimenti no doubt put
together by Simrock in publication around 1806=3B originally 25 individual =
mvmts=3B origin time undetermined but probably later in Vienna perhaps 1787=
=20
or 1788 (Flothuis-MJB 1973/74)."

In all the versions I've seen=2C most of the movements are in the written k=
ey of
C (except of course the bassoon part in the 2 clarinet & bassoon version).=
=20
The reconstructions for 3 basset horns=2C by Trio di Clarone and others can=
be
played by 3 basset horns=2C if you have them=3B 3 bass clarinets=2C with on=
e to low
C=3B or any 3 like clarinets if one goes to low C. You can play it with 2
Bb clarinets and a bass to low C=2C and in fact the version by Alea press (
http://www.bassclarinet.org/alea/ ) labels the parts that way=2C though to =
my
mind/ear it puts the rumbly bass along way below the other 2 parts.

OK so now (finally) a question: Why not play the trios on 2 Bb plus bass
(no extension needed) at what we think is the original pitch? So it would
be mostly in written G=2C the 2 Bb clarinets would play a fourth lower than=
the
written bassethorn parts and the bass play a fifth higher than the 3rd
basset horn part. Has anyone tried this? It would have the
advantage of being at original (probably) pitch=2C always a plus to purists=
and
keep things not too squeaky and not too rumbly. Oliver Seely's site

( http://www.csudh.edu/oliver/clarmusi/clarmusi.htm ) has the trios and I
would try this myself but I'm a Sibelius guy and can't read his version of
Finale.

=20

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