Klarinet Archive - Posting 000007.txt from 2010/06

From: Martin Baxter <martinbaxter1@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] clarinets in original key
Date: Wed, 02 Jun 2010 15:09:26 -0400

Think what a half way decent contrabassoon costs & you can add a basset horn and bass clarinet as well!
Martin
On 2 Jun 2010, at 01:57, Robert Howe wrote:

> 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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