Klarinet Archive - Posting 000045.txt from 2009/11

From: "Keith Bowen" <bowenk@-----.com>
Subj: RE: [kl] Interesting C clarinet part
Date: Sat, 07 Nov 2009 18:11:56 -0500

I am less convinced, unless the composer was a real tyro, since they will
surely have studied manuals of orchestration at any college/conservatoire.
Berlioz' superb manual, published in 1845, has ten pages on the harp, its
range and how to write for it (as well as accurate information on the
clarinets). There are plenty of other competent manuals, and plenty of band
orchestration manuals with accurate information, from 1854 onwards (a
reference that I got from your paper on the bass clarinet in A, Dan!).

Low D on a bass clarinet in Bb existed since 1793 and was normal on
bassoon-form instruments, which it is conceivable were used in Sousa's band.
They were made certainly into the last quarter of the nineteenth century,
and there is a strong American tradition as well as European. The 'straight'
bass in Bb descending to C was much less usual, but there is a fine example
by Nechwalsky of Vienna in the Smithsonian.

I haven't made a close study of Sousa but I did have occasion to use an
original score of his for an arrangement of Liberty Bell. I was impressed by
how carefully it was orchestrated (especially in contrast to the versions we
generally get nowadays).

Keith Bowen

-----Original Message-----
From: Dan Leeson [mailto:dnleeson@-----.net]
Sent: 07 November 2009 19:47
To: klarinet@-----.org
Subject: Re: [kl] Interesting C clarinet part

That is probably true. Even the best of us would find it difficult to
create a usable harp part. And clarinets are particularly bummered up
because of the added complexity of being a transposing instrument.

I once played a Sousa piece (don't remember which one, but it was a suite of

some sort) that called for a low D on the bass clarinet. It was a perfectly

good note, but I think that Sousa may have been uncertain about the lower
limits of a clarinet.

Dan Leeson
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Vaccaro" <mike@-----.com>
To: <Klarinet@-----.org>
Sent: Saturday, November 07, 2009 11:12 AM
Subject: Re: [kl] Interesting C clarinet part

>I think that many times orchestrators and composers don't know what our
>instruments do or sometimes even the range. I run across this quite often
>even with fine composer/orchestrators.
> Mike Vaccaro
>
>
>
> This e-mail may contain information that is privileged or confidential.
> If you are not the intended recipient, please delete the e-mail and any
> attachments and notify us immediately.
>
> --------------------------------------------------
> From: "Clark Fobes" <claroneman@-----.net>
> Sent: Friday, November 06, 2009 3:09 PM
> To: <Klarinet@-----.org>
> Subject: [kl] Interesting C clarinet part
>
>>
>>
>> I was subbing for a rehearsal of Othello with the SF Opera a few days ago
>> and was very interested to see a written low D in the 2nd clarinet part
>> which in that section was for C clarinet. I wonder if Verdi was writing
>> for
>> a specific instrument or if he just did not know that the soprano
>> clarinets
>> did not go that low? Verdi was such a wonderful orchestrator by the time
>> he
>> got to his late Operas that you would think he would be aware of the
>> range
>> of all of the woodwinds.
>>
>> Clark W Fobes
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------
>

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

__________ Information from ESET Smart Security, version of virus signature
database 4582 (20091107) __________

The message was checked by ESET Smart Security.

http://www.eset.com

__________ Information from ESET Smart Security, version of virus signature
database 4582 (20091107) __________

The message was checked by ESET Smart Security.

http://www.eset.com

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