Klarinet Archive - Posting 000004.txt from 2010/06

From: "Keith Bowen" <keith.bowen@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] clarinets in original key
Date: Wed, 02 Jun 2010 03:54:07 -0400

Quite so.

The argument is overlaid by the feeling that it is macho to transpose and
wimpy to use a clarinet in C (for example).

Keith

-----Original Message-----
From: Robert Howe [mailto:arehow@-----.net]
Sent: 02 June 2010 01:58
To: The Klarinet Mailing List
Subject: Re: [kl] clarinets in original key

Why not just own a set of clarinets and play what is requested unless
there is some over arching technical problem? A set of clarinets in
A, Bb and C is no more expensive than an oboe and English horn. And
we oboists use the oboe d'amore for Bach.

Cheers

RH

On May 27, 2010, at 5:51 AM, Colin Touchin wrote:

> Hi Keith - I agree with all you write (and did indeed enjoy your
> C's in the
> Beethoven 5!). What I was implying in my post was that as the
> thread had
> been extended (from a useful discussion on using the original
> instrument in
> D or Eb to using instruments of the appropriate timbre/country of
> origin,
> etc.) there seems a lot we clarinettists talk about that fascinates
> us and
> genuinely improves and develops our understanding of our instrument
> and
> its repertoire, but unless all other members of the orchestra (chamber
> ensemble with piano, strings, other) we're in are doing the same
> relative to
> their history and timbre we run the risk of being the only, or one
> of the few,
> aiming to play with such an approach, which may not aurally ring
> well with
> other players and so might be less effective as an interpretation
> (we'd be
> the ones out of step).
> (For example, isn't the wind quintet odd? - flute, oboe and usually
> bassoon
> use a fair bit of vibrato, but most clarinets and horns don't - how
> could a
> string ensemble ever work that way?)
> That's not to say we shouldn't consider and develop the lineage of our
> sounds, but we have to be realistic and also 21st-century about
> this. A
> present-day ensemble is made up of players of modern instruments
> playing, with modern ears and understanding and training, a
> repertoire that
> was previously played by differently-manufactured instruments - we are
> doing something up-to-date, something only we now can do, and the
> interpretations of conductors and players cannot help but be as
> contemporary as possible, with all the knowledge we have of the
> past and
> all the availability of modern-made instruments in whatever keys.
> But do
> we see/hear trumpeters and hornists with this variety of kit we
> clarinettists
> like to explore, who have similar numbers of keys to play in,
> transposed or
> not. Their timbral ranges are inevitably more limited nowadays due
> to the
> one-tube-with-valves-fits-all music, where previously changing
> tubes for
> different keys inevitably created different timbres in different
> registers.
> I also agree that using the composer's chosen instrument is better
> than not,
> because the choice may have been specific for reasons we either can
> fathom out or never will understand. But it's not always certain -
> as I
> mentioned on the list a few years back, Stravinsky allowed
> clarinettists in
> the late 30's to play Bb on A or A on Bb to help fingering if the
> player chose
> in Petroushka (story from Antony Baines); yet noone could play his
> Three
> Pieces other than on the instruments he specified and we all work
> hard in
> timbral control to prove the value of that distinction..
> What works in the end then is the total sound of the whole ensemble
> - if
> your C's were helpfully enveloped by understanding and responsive
> players
> our Beethoven 5 would/should have felt/sounded a little different from
> many 20th-century performances both sides of the podium. If a
> conductor
> or the clarinet section insists in Strauss on all the right tunings
> being
> employed, the whole orchestra needs to be told to listen, to
> adjust, to make
> those considerations musically valuable in the performance the
> audience
> shares (and it would be good if we could find out from them who
> know the
> repertoire well if they noticed a difference, enough of a
> difference to
> warrant the use, even a better difference from previous accounts!)
> Of course .. we could all simply aim to sound more German in that
> repertoire whatever tubes we blow!! Cheers, Colin.
> _______________________________________________
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> Klarinet@-----.com
> http://klarinet-list.serve-music.com

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