Klarinet Archive - Posting 000089.txt from 2011/08

From: "Keith Bowen" <keith.bowen@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Basset clarinet
Date: Sun, 14 Aug 2011 16:43:10 -0400

My thanks too, Simon!

Keith

-----Original Message-----
From: simonaldrich@-----.ca] =

Sent: 14 August 2011 20:50
To: klarinet@-----.com
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?ite
mId=3D5327&itemFileId=3D8221
(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=A0him 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,=A0voila,=A0you have a basset clarinet. This is what I had Steve do f=
or 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=3DRbXnIBzxsEA)

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=A0K516c=A0=
(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 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0

Clarinet Faculty - McGill University
Principal Clarinet =A0- Orchestre Metropolitain de Montreal
Principal Clarinet =A0- Orchestre de l'Opera de Montreal
Artistic Director - Jeffery Summer Concerts
Clarinet - Nouvel Ensemble Moderne
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