Klarinet Archive - Posting 000332.txt from 2010/10

From: Simon Aldrich <simonaldrich@-----.ca>
Subj: [kl] Sopranino in Ab
Date: Sat, 30 Oct 2010 16:45:42 -0400

I wrote:
>> In the recent Montreal Opera production of Verdi's Rigoletto, there
>> was an offstage banda part for high clarinet in Ab. Luckily it came
>> with the Ab clarinet part tranposed for Eb clarinet (written a forth
>> higher than the written Ab part).

Tony replied:
> But listen, Simon; that transposed part might have stopped him
> trying to get the right instrument for the job.
> When I had to play one, I found one.
> (I didn't notice your player asking here, for example.)
> Now, I know you have a theory that composers don't care much what
> instrument is used.
> But perhaps Verdi did.

I consulted the conductor's score, knowing that with Verdi, some of
the differing scores are not authoritative in the least. According to
the score that happened to be on the conductor's stand, the two
offstage cl parts were for two Eb cls, not two Ab cls. We had parts
for a first and second Ab cl, each part "transposed" for both Eb and Bb.
Every Verdi conductor we have complains about the various Verdi
editions being dogs' breakfasts. So I consulted the WGV (the Works of
Giuseppe Verdi), the critical edition of Verdi's works that was a
joint project between University of Chicago Press and Ricordi.
Documentation pertaining to certain Verdi works is extensive. In the
case of Rigoletto, not only do they know what instruments were played,
they know the musicians' names and how much they were paid(!).
In the case of Rigoletto, for the offstage banda the score calls for
one one quartino and one Bb cl. An article in Jstor states that,
according to the La Scala library, the Italian name for the Eb cl is
quartino.
So the inclusion of two Ab cl banda parts was inauthentic, as was the
2nd Eb cl banda part and the 1st Bb cl banda part.

On the subject of Verdi banda parts, the editor of the WGV states in
the introduction that for Verdi operas there are many erroneous
offstage banda parts that circulate, including parts for instruments
that did not exist at the time of the opera's composition (in the case
of Rigoletto, 1850). (I am not implying that the Ab clarinet did not
exist in 1850.)

Simon
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