Klarinet Archive - Posting 000053.txt from 2010/06
From: "Forest Aten" <forestaten@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] clarinets in original key
Date: Thu, 03 Jun 2010 18:20:11 -0400
Keith
I believe I once told you this story....I can't remember...
Several years ago, the principal clarinet player in the Dallas Opera was involved in a horrible car accident. She was
out of the orchestra, recovery/rehab for two seasons. She returned....and has been performing for at least five years
since. So where's this story going? :-)
I started playing my C clarinet on all C clarinet parts in the opera orchestra...at least two years before her accident.
She never noticed. The conductor never noticed. After she returned...it was at least three years before she looked down
and said, "hey, what kind of clarinet is that, it's short"? I'm thinking, "Uh oh, what now"! Next thing I hear, "you
can't play that thing, it will sound different"...then, "you can't play C if I don't have one...too". LOL My response to
my colleague, "I've been playing the C clarinet in the orchestra for over five years now". Her response, "oh". End of
story.
I'm still playing the C clarinet on every score calling for the instrument. I have two wonderful C clarinets. This past
season, Ken Krause played principal clarinet in the orchestra. Don Pasquale has a tough C part and he (at my
invitation) opted to play the part on one of my C instruments. We had a great time! He's now shopping....
>From one wimp to another....
Forest
-----Original Message-----
From: Keith Bowen [mailto:keith.bowen@-----.com]
Sent: Wednesday, June 02, 2010 2:54 AM
To: 'The Klarinet Mailing List'
Subject: Re: [kl] clarinets in original key
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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