Klarinet Archive - Posting 000297.txt from 2010/10

From: "Keith Bowen" <keith.bowen@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] We are missing an instrument
Date: Fri, 29 Oct 2010 04:58:02 -0400

I do have one of these. I bought, many years ago, a collection of clarinets
and bits and pieces dating back to about 1800. One was a Jacques Albert (son
of the inventor of the Albert system) Albert system clarinet in Bb high
pitch, which is pretty closely in B. It's cocus wood, with an original wood
mouthpiece, and plays nicely. This is the same type that the great English
clarinetist Lazarus used.

Now all I need is the call from Covent Garden to play Idomeneo or Cosi.

The LP and HP convention is a British and American thing. HP was used in
British military bands until the 1930s. Continental ones are not so stamped
unless intended for one of those markets. Pitch on the continent varied just
as much. In the 1860s, a Bb clarinet in Paris was an A clarinet in Vienna.
There was even a Royal edict in Bavaria to lower the pitch by about a
semitone during this decade. Instrument makers were very happy about all
these changes, and so are modern museums, since that is where some of the
now-useless instruments ended up. There's even one documented case of
Ottensteiner converting an 'old' A bass clarinet into a 'new' Bb bass, which
would just have required minor retuning.

Keith

-----Original Message-----
From: Dan Leeson [mailto:dnleeson@-----.net]
Sent: 29 October 2010 02:58
To: The Klarinet Mailing List
Subject: Re: [kl] We are missing an instrument

There were two kinds of B-flat clarinets made by the manufacturers. One was
a B-flat clarinet and the other was characterized as a B-flat clarinet HP,
meaning high pitched. The need for both instruments derived from the fact
that when a player was contacted for a job, he invariably asked, "What
pitch?" And depending on the answer to that question, he chose the B-flat
clarinet or the B-flat clarinet HP.

But that is not the same as a clarinet in B-natural, though it might work if

one were required. I once had a guy who brought such a clarinet to my
attention, and I was stupid enough to think that it was just a badly made
instrument. I should have bought it and used it as a clarinet in B-natural.

Dan

----- Original Message -----
From: <kurtheisig@-----.net>
To: "The Klarinet Mailing List" <klarinet@-----.com>
Sent: Thursday, October 28, 2010 6:13 PM
Subject: Re: [kl] We are missing an instrument

>
> Dan,
>
> Many years ago a fellow brought a clarinet into the store.
>
> It appeared to be a high pitched B natural clarinet. I think it was a
> Selmer or Buffet.
>
> Can you tell us anything about that?
>
> Kurt
>
> -----Original Message-----
>>From: Dan Leeson <dnleeson@-----.net>
>>Sent: Oct 28, 2010 2:05 PM
>>To: Klarinet <klarinet@-----.com>
>>Subject: [kl] We are missing an instrument
>>
>>Thus far the list of clarinets and their names has occupied us for some
>>time.
>>
>>But no one has mentioned a clarinet called for by Mozart twice (Idomeneo
>>and Cosi) and which has an unusual pitch.
>>
>>So how come "the clarinet in B-natural" is hidden from view.
>>
>>Dan
>>_______________________________________________
>>Klarinet mailing list
>>Klarinet@-----.com
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>>http://klarinet-list.serve-music.com
>
> _______________________________________________
> Klarinet mailing list
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