Klarinet Archive - Posting 000088.txt from 2011/08

From: Finn Jespersen <fj4800@-----.dk>
Subj: Re: [kl] Basset clarinet
Date: Sun, 14 Aug 2011 16:33:09 -0400


Thank YOU, Simon! b.w. Finn

> From: simonaldrich@-----.ca
> To: klarinet@-----.com
> Date: Sun, 14 Aug 2011 15:49:57 -0400
> Subject: [kl] Basset clarinet
>
> "Your last sentences made me curious, Keith! A"basset joint"! Is this a sort of a prolongation for an ordinary clarinet - to get ekstra deep tones?"
>
> Finn - To learn more about the basset clarinet and in particular, Stadler's basset clarinet as made by Theodore Lotz, a good place to start is Pamela Poulin's Eastman thesis, "The Basset Clarinet of Anton Stadler and its Music". You can download this paper (in two parts) at:
> https://urresearch.rochester.edu/fileDownloadForInstitutionalItem.action?itemId=5327&itemFileId=8221
> (Dan Leeson is acknowledged in the preface as being a scholar of great service to the author.)
>
> The thesis is a good representation of what was known about the basset clarinet at the time of the paper's writing (1976).
> There is an interesting chapter, with photos, on the earliest *modern* basset clarinets, from the first one in 1950 (an extension added to a Selmer A clarinet) to Stalder's 1968 extension made by Eubel and Alan Hacker's 1969 instrument (a 19th-century Boehm Albert A clarinet modified by Ed Planas).
> Another interesting chapter is the one in which Poulin provides a hand-drawn hypothetical proposition of what Stadler's basset clarinet might have looked like. Compared with what we now know (based on the drawing of Stadler's basset clarinet on the program cover for a concert in Riga) she wasn't far off. One supposition that turned out to be inaccurate was that she presumed the lower part of the basset clarinet would feature a kasten, since most extant basset horns had a kasten (a box which houses the lower part of the instrument "folding over on itself" to avoid excessive length).
>
> There is also an interesting chapter in which she wonders if Stadler used an instrument with more that the minimum number of keys (5 keys plus the low 4 basset keys).
> She writes, "The clarinet of Mozart's time was the five keyed clarinet. It had also been assumed that Stadler also used a five keyed clarinet. However Stadler's instrument has been described as "overladen with keys" as well as possessing numerous improvements, suggesting more key additions besides those notes of the lower extension."
> Based on the Riga program drawing she was perhaps not entirely wrong (the drawing can de seen at http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/download.html?1,181/stbc01tg.gif). In the Riga drawing, one of the keys that is most clearly-renderd by the artist is a key that is in the position of a B key (B just below middle C, on the lower joint, played by the right hand). This would make it a "sixth key" or a tenth key with the 4 basset keys. Some makers of historical reproduction clarinets point out the presence of this key in the Riga drawing but not all include it on their basset clarinet reproductions. As one maker said to me, "what else could this key be, other than a B key?".
>
> Keith Bowen is right that Steve Fox's work is excellent, from his historical reproduction instruments to his hyper-modern Bohlen-Pierce clarinets.
> Keith wrote, "There is no problem getting Steve to make you a basset extension - just tell him the make and model of your clarinet. It will fit and work."
> An option to having Steve make you an extension is to send him a lower joint that you know fits your clarinet. He will, in effect, cut off the lower part of the joint and add an extension with the added four low notes and when you attach the new, extended lower joint to your existing upper joint, voila, you have a basset clarinet. This is what I had Steve do for me about 10 years ago. I found an A clarinet that had problems with its upper joint and was unsalable, bought it for much less than it would have cost had its upper joint been good (knowing that its lower joint matched my upper joint) and sent the lower joint to Steve. When I play the Mozart Concerto with orchestra (which I might do again with my orchestra the season after next) I play it on Steve's basset clarinet.
> My preoccupation at the moment however is finding an orchestra in this area with which to play the Concerto on the reproduction of the Stadler/Lotz 10-key basset clarinet !!!!
> (To see a Stadler/Lotz reproduction basset clarinet in action (a 9-key version), see Lorenzo Coppola's wonderful version at:
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbXnIBzxsEA)
>
> Regarding the Bb basset clarinet, the same Fox Bb basset clarinet (modified Buffet) comes up from time to time on eBay but to my knowledge never sells.
> The fragment of the Allegro from Mozart's Clarinet Quintet in Bb K516c (pg 41 of the NMA volume "Quintets with woodwind instruments") does indeed include basset notes, so ideally requires a basset clarinet in Bb.
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> Simon Aldrich
>
> Clarinet Faculty - McGill University
> Principal Clarinet - Orchestre Metropolitain de Montreal
> Principal Clarinet - Orchestre de l'Opera de Montreal
> Artistic Director - Jeffery Summer Concerts
> Clarinet - Nouvel Ensemble Moderne
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