Klarinet Archive - Posting 000212.txt from 2010/05

From: "Dan Leeson" <dnleeson@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Clarinets for Stravinsky and DeFalla?
Date: Sat, 22 May 2010 11:18:51 -0400

I know I can always count on you for precision, Keith. However, did you use
the printed score or did you investigate the original manuscript in
Stravinksy's hand? It is not uncommon that the publisher will change the
instrumentation under the presumption that the practical issues have to be
considered even above the composer's directive.

It is not unheard of for the composer to write for a specific instrument in
a specific key and then have the publisher change the key of the instrument
under the assumption that they know better what is out there.

Dan

----- Original Message -----
From: "Keith Bowen" <keith.bowen@-----.com>
To: "'The Klarinet Mailing List'" <klarinet@-----.com>
Sent: Saturday, May 22, 2010 1:16 AM
Subject: Re: [kl] Clarinets for Stravinsky and DeFalla?

> Dan
>
> Of course not. I checked the original score of the first edition, in the
> Bodleian Library.
>
> Keith
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Dan Leeson [mailto:dnleeson@-----.net]
> Sent: 22 May 2010 06:05
> To: The Klarinet Mailing List
> Subject: Re: [kl] Clarinets for Stravinsky and DeFalla?
>
> While I have played the bass part in Rite of Spring on several occasions,
> I
> have no idea what Stravinsky requested in the autograph score. The part
> was
>
> always in B-flat, but that may have been a transposition made by the
> publisher.
>
> One can draw no conclusions about what the composer wrote from the
> performance parts.
>
> Dan
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Keith Bowen" <keith.bowen@-----.com>
> To: "'The Klarinet Mailing List'" <klarinet@-----.com>
> Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 3:45 PM
> Subject: Re: [kl] Clarinets for Stravinsky and DeFalla?
>
>
>> Dan,
>>
>> You are of course correct. However, Stravinsky did call for the bass in A
>> once, in the Rite of Spring (1913), three years after Firebird, so he at
>> least knew by then. I didn't discover any other Stravinsky uses.
>>
>> It's likely that Stravinsky would have known the Berlioz orchestration
>> manual in the Strauss revision of 1904. Strauss says: "The new clarinets
>> in
>> Bb and bass clarinets have a C# key [written Eb]. Bass clarinets in A
>> are
>> now used very rarely; one frequently has to transcribe them in Bb."
>> However,
>> they appear in many instrument manufacturers' catalogues until the 1950s,
>> and were quite readily available till the 1930s (how often they were
>> actually made is another question).
>>
>> Strauss' mixture of clarinets is indeed confusing but I think the
>> evidence
>> in the scores is that he selected exactly the ones that he wanted. My
>> hypothesis is that as well as the timbre, the 'local' key in which an
>> instrument was played was a significant factor to some composers. It's a
>> topic I hope to return to one day.
>>
>> Keith
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Dan Leeson [mailto:dnleeson@-----.net]
>> Sent: 21 May 2010 23:03
>> To: The Klarinet Mailing List
>> Subject: Re: [kl] Clarinets for Stravinsky and DeFalla?
>>
>> I thank Lelia for summarizing the clarinet requirements of both the De
>> Falla
>>
>> and the Stavinsky work. I want to comment on the Stravinsky.
>>
>> She is correct in reporting the three clarinets in A plus a bass clarinet
>> in
>>
>> B-flat. That is exactly the kind of instrumentation that calls for a
>> bass
>> clarinet in A, which allows all four players to be in the same key,
>> thereby
>> uncomplicating the task of the composer.
>>
>> I suspect that Stravinskyh requested the bass clarinet in B-flat because
>> he
>> probably believed that either there was no such instrument or else that
>> it
>> was unlikely to find a player who owned one.
>>
>> Keith Bowen, who recently did a Master's dissertation on the bass
>> clarinet
>> in A, probably realizes this anomaly better than I, Yet at the same
>> time,
>> and in defense of Stravinsky, Strauss will, on occasion, have six
>> clarinets
>> playing in three different keys, for example 1 in D and E-flat, 2 in
>> B-flat,
>>
>> 2 in A, and a bass in both B-flat and A.
>>
>> Makes life difficult for the composer and somewhat confusing for the
>> players.
>>
>> Dan Leeson
>>
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