 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Simon Aldrich
Date: 2009-02-03 04:37
I am playing the Brahms Quintet in an upcoming concert.
The violist in my group owns a set of string parts that is transposed up a semitone into C minor, the rationale being the piece is less beastly for the strings in C minor than B minor. The clarinetist plays the same clarinet part (same printed notes) but on Bb clarinet.
The arrangement is by a P.X. Laube, copyright 1942 by Cundy-Bettoney.
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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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Author: marshall
Date: 2009-02-03 07:22
don't strings play better in sharp keys? I thought that was the main reason A clarinet really even still existed in the orchestral world. Also, wouldn't the fact(s) that B minor has two sharps and C minor has three flats make the original B minor arrangement A) better for strings and B) easier on the altered pitches? I'd think the transcription would just exist for the sake of playing on a Bb as opposed to an A...like the Bb transcriptions of the Mozart concerto.
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Author: davyd
Date: 2009-02-03 13:54
Looking at the sections in B major, I can see the logic in moving everything up a semitone. I'm sure it's jolly hard either way.
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Author: Ed Palanker
Date: 2009-02-04 00:34
That makes no sense to me at all. Having to come in on a cold clarinet in a brighter clarinet and key. I think Brahms knew what he wanted, he was a viola player as well as a pianist and always played viola in string quartets. I have to assume there was a reason he wrote it in the key he did. Go with the original, any professional strings quartet can handle it just fine, the way Brahms wanted it. ESP
www.peabody.jhu.edu/457
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Author: gwie
Date: 2009-02-05 05:22
The strings don't care what key it's in. Excessive sharps and flats are problematic for string students because of a *mental* issue in comprehending the spacing of whole and half steps, not because they're necessarily hard to play on the instruments themselves.
Changing the key of the piece changes the mood and character irrevocably...especially where string instruments are concerned; they have a different sound when open strings are used (thus the popularity of D major/minor for many of the major concertos like Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Sibelius, etc).
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