Klarinet Archive - Posting 000216.txt from 2011/03

From: Tom Bassett <bassettt1@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Basset Horn Question
Date: Thu, 24 Mar 2011 10:28:54 -0400


Danyel,

I understand what you are saying now. Basically, it seems that clarinet is something really important to you and you just want to see it done "right" as far as what you beleive to be right. I can understand that.

Our opinions are much different though. I'm not opposed to you telling me this at all becuase you might be speaking for a percentage of the population but even if you aren't it's not something that would hurt to consider. I actually don't care much about individual timbres at all. What I mean by that is, just what the overall sound is when you step back. So if its a piece with multiple instruments and solos I would think as I am writing .. "are there varied sounds there" NOT "what specific clarinet sound is there" I'm so unconcerned with a specific timbre that really the only reason I put different instruments in is just for variety and because if I write something orchestral I like to make it playable by any orchestra (if someone ever plays it). So I just put in the standard instrumentation. I guess what all this is trying to say is.. I only care about the notes not the instruments. I write music for its melodies, harmonies, rythms, etc.. but not for its timbres. The exception would be if I'm writing a concerto then I'd like to hear that 1 solo instrument.

When I decided to write this clarinet quartet what I really decided was to write a quartet. I just picked clarinets becuase I enjoy playing quartets, I never wrote a clarinet quartet before, and because I think theres always room for some more clarinet quartets in the world. The sound played a small factor becuase I know what it sounds like and I am happy with that sound and feel comfortable writing for it, but beyond that I didn't consider it. I varied the important parts throughout each clarinet to make it interesting for the player and the listener but not becuase I wanted that certain timbre on a certain phrase. So I recognize there are different timbres and will utilize them but it wouldn't matter if 1st clarinet or bass clarinet played any given phrase if someone wanted to switch something up, just as long as where I moved a part that it does get moved to somewhere different but I don't care how its different.

I will say though, one timbre I am completely obsessed with is the combo of cello, bass, bassoon, and harpsichord. I think the bassoon and harpsichord are my favorite instruments but I'm not positive yet.

Tom

> From: rab@-----.de
> Date: Thu, 24 Mar 2011 13:20:14 +0100
> To: klarinet@-----.com
> Subject: Re: [kl] Basset Horn Question
>
> Hi Tom,
>
> Sorry, of cause actually to play the clarinet is ideal. It just so happens that no great composer ever was a clarinetist, though I am rather fond of some things C. Baermann wrote, and R. Starck, I. Mueller and even Lazarus, if it was for the virtue of clarinettistic writing alone. I am a composer-clarinetist myself and I dismiss all my early writing for the clarinet as incompetent. It is getting better but still a long way to go. I still feel (after almost 30 years) I am just entering the mysterious realm of the clarinet sound. How Brahms and Mendelssohn grasped that essence without playing themselves is beyond me, but they came closer to it than anybody else I know (just an opinion though). It is like the clarinet plays itself, like a strange and rare animal singing. That cannot be achieved by consulting some fingering charts and knowing the range of an instrument or any other superficial knowledge. That is my experience. I played many an awful clarinet part by some modern, ignorant composer and have piles of opera parts that are clearly conceived for something in between a flute and a violin with occasional hues of trumpet. Sadly, all these people had and still have no use for what Mozart established as the most accomplished and even somehow transcendental wind instrument. Again, just an opinion, though based on experience and saturated with thought.
>
> The basset horn proper has a very peculiar character in sound, quite different from any sort of regular clarinet. Hence I don't think knowing the fingerings alone suffices to write a good basset part. To me, timbre and "character" is pivotal in the invention of music. I might be accused of being some sort of fundamentalist, I am afraid.
>
> Best wishes
> danyel
>
>
>
>
>
> Am 22.03.2011 um 21:42 schrieb Tom Bassett:
>
> >
> >
> > Danyel,
> >
> > To my knowledge, (correct me if I'm wrong) the Bassett horn is the same fingerings as every other clarinet. Since I play clarinet I don't see how I would write incorrectly for the bassett horn. What I understood you to mean was... I would write better for clarinet if I had a friend that was a virtuoso but I wouldn't write well for it if I actually play it myself which is the case. I know there is a difference in timbre but I don't see how that could effect how well the notes lay on the instrument or how it could effect my ability to imagine how it would sound with the other clarinets. I could kind of see your point if you were talking to a brand new composition student just writing their very first pieces and did not know anything about any clarinet in which case I would say stick with what you know to start. I'm not professional but I'm not a beginner either. I guess I just dont quite understand your thinking on this subject.
> >
> > Tom
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