Klarinet Archive - Posting 000099.txt from 1993/12

From: "David L. Shea" <DSHEA@-----.EDU>
Subj: Re: Schubert, Strauss and the C clarinet
Date: Tue, 7 Dec 1993 16:20:07 -0500

I can't disagree with you Dan on Schubert's perception of the different
clarinets. You may have more insight on this issue than I, in fact, I am
sure you do. There is just something that bothers me about Schubert in
particular. He devoted most of his efforts to the vocal repertoire and
had a significant output of orchestral and string chamber music. With only
handful of clarinet pieces being written, I still have a hard time believing
that Schubert would give so much thought and effort into understanding the
subtleties of clarinet tone color for such a tiny portion of his creative out-
put. I think that composers chose the clarinet for a particular instrumental
color and wrote for it effectively. Any further intentions for tonal color
just doesn't seem right to me. This is just gut instinct on my part, plus
as you probably can tell, I quite enjoy throwing some differing perspectives
into these discussions. It makes us all think about the issues as we tend
to agree or disagree with various arguments. On this subject in particular
I realize that I am not relying on scholarly research, so the best I can really
expect is that I will enhance our thoughts on the matter.

David L. Shea
Indiana University
dshea@-----.edu