Klarinet Archive - Posting 000137.txt from 2011/06

From: "Keith Bowen" <keith.bowen@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] WA Mozart K. Anh 229 Bassett Horn Trios
Date: Thu, 16 Jun 2011 08:38:40 -0400

Peter,

Not sure I totally understand your question, but here is my understanding of
it.

I use the Breitkopf & Haertel edition which I believe is as good as they
get, though as the autograph is lost, there is no Urtext. It is also a good
playing edition for basset horns or clarinets+bassoon.

Div 1 is indeed in the key of C for three basset horns in F. The third part
descends to _written_ C be,ow the bass clef. This sounds the concert F just
below the bass clef. In other words, you need to transpose up a fourth, not
down a fifth, when working out the sounding pitch of basset horn parts
written in the bass clef. Maybe this is the problem?

If you play these on clarinets as they are written, you need a basset
clarinet for the third part, or just play the basset notes an octave higher.
Then the whole thing will sound a fifth higher than originally written. If
you then transpose it down a fifth to go to the "original" pitch. you will
lose still more notes in the third part.

There is, in my view, no great sense in insisting on the "original key" i.e.
pitch, for arrangements, since pitch has varied by at least a fourth over
the years in different places. I think it more important to play in the
right local key for the actual instrument. That is, if Mozart wrote an F
major scale for a basset horn, you should (if no other instruments are
involved, of course) play an F major scale on the Bb instrument.

So yes, if one insists on playing the Mozart concerto on a Bb clarinet, I
would prefer the string parts transposed than have the clarinet play it in B
major. That would have been decidedly illegal in Mozart's time, whereas
scordatura tuning was certainly done (eg in the Sinfonia Concertante the
viola should be cranked up a semitone ... it is effectively for viola in B
and violin).

I hope this at least brings you to a higher level of confusion :)

Keith

-----Original Message-----
From: Peter Gentry [mailto:peter.gentry@-----.uk]
Sent: 16 June 2011 12:41
To: klarinet list
Subject: [kl] WA Mozart K. Anh 229 Bassett Horn Trios

I am slightly bedfuddled..

The basset horn is a transposing instrument in F a written C would sound F.

The scores I have stumbled over for the first Div are all in C but indicate
Oboe or Bflat clarinet. The one recording I have is the basset horn score
played on Bflat instruments. So these are not as originally intended but I
notice that if they are transposed to a written D Major for Bflat clarinets
then the third (bassoon) line is more suited to a Bflat bass (to low Eflat)
as I cannot get to a low C..

Is this a total heresy or does it make sense. After all the version in
written C played on Bflat instruments is not original either.

regards
Peter Gentry

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