Klarinet Archive - Posting 000202.txt from 2010/05

From: "Lelia Loban" <lelialoban@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Clarinets for Stravinsky and DeFalla?
Date: Fri, 21 May 2010 15:51:40 -0400

I asked about the clarinets required in the first editions of Manuel
DeFalla's Ritual Fire Dance (from El Amor Brujo) and in Igor Stravinsky's
Firebird. The Library of Congress couldn't help me on this one -- no first
editions or early editions in the collection. Thanks very much to Michael
Nichols, Clinton F. Nieweg, Gary Van Cott, Claudia Zornow and Steve Hartman
for your helpful replies, especially re. Stravinsky.

Thanks to information from you all, I've now been able to see the 1910 full
ballet score and verify that (before revision) it calls for three clarinets
in A and one bass clarinet in B-flat. The bass clarinet stays on bass
throughout. The third clarinet in A doubles on soprano clarinet in D,
specified as such in changeover instruction in the first movement and then
abbreviated in the instrument lists on the subsequent pages as "Cl. p." for
piccolo clarinet. (I underdstand from your messages that this piccolo
clarinet part is now generally transcribed for clarinet in E-flat.) The
third clarinet makes this switch to clarinet in D on p. 7 of the conductor's
full score, stays on that piccolo clarinet until "The Firebird's
Supplications," switches very briefly to clarinet in A, then goes right back
to clarinet in D during the same movement and stays on the D through the
rest of the ballet. Thus third clarinet is essentially clarinet in D (now
E-flat). It's an important, challenging part that requires the same skills
as the first clarinet. The first and second clarinets in A also switch
instruments, but not for long. The second clarinet in A goes briefly to
clarinet in B-flat during the "dialogue of Kastchei and Prince Ivan," a bit
more than halfway through the ballet, then soon switches back to clarinet in
A in the "Infernal Dance of All Kastchei's Subjects." Midway through that
dance (marked "Allegro feroce," quarter note = 168), the first clarinet
switches briefly to clarinet in B-flat, then back again to clarinet in A in
the Piu mosso at the end of that movement. I haven't seen the revised
versions of the full ballet score or the suite.

Thank you again. What a great resource this list is.

Lelia Loban
http://members.sibeliusmusic.com/Lelia_Loban

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