 The Clarinet BBoard
|
Author: Mike Gee
Date: 2002-02-26 16:43
I just posted one it didn't show. So let me ask the question again
I know that the C note on Bb clarinet is same as the Bb note on piano. Questions are:
1. Mozart clarinet concerto in A. What is that mean. Is that mean the Bb clarinet plays the A key or the string part of the orchestra plays the A key.
2. What is A440 pitch clarinet means ? which note of the Bb clarinet is 400 pitch?
Thanks
-mg
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: William
Date: 2002-02-26 17:29
The Mozart Clarinet Concerto is played on an A clarinet (reading key of C) with the orchestral acc. in A major. (although a piano acc. is published in Bb major so that you can play the Concerto on your Bb for practice and for fun)
The note on your Bb that sounds the A=440 is B. A=440 is a pitch standard that many ensembles aspire to play at. Get with a tuning meter and Good Clarineting!!!!!!!
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: diz
Date: 2002-02-26 20:56
Yes, indeed and the purists amongst us (myself included) much prefer the piano to be in A so we can play on our A clarinets.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Ken Shaw
Date: 2002-02-26 22:01
Mike -
When you play a C on your Bb clarinet, the note that comes out is Bb (on a piano). The pitch of the piano is called "concert pitch," and instruments that don't sound the concert pitch when the player plays a note are called "transposing instruments," with the name of the concert pitch that comes out when you finger C. That's why they call the standard clarinet a Bb instrument.
The Mozart Clarinet Concerto is written for a clarinet in A, which is a separate instrument about an inch and a half longer than the Bb, with everthing stretched out a little. When you play C on an A clarinet, the note that comes out is "concert A."
Pitch has changed over the years. The standard pitch (or at least what everyone hopes for) today is when A is at 440 Hz (vibrations per second). Since your clarinet is in Bb, a step below concert pitch, when you finger an A, it sound concert G. Thus, to play concert A, you have to finger B natural, which is a step higher.
Flutes an oboes are in C. When they play C, the instrument sounds concert C. Most trumpets are in Bb, like clarinets. Beginning French horns are mostly in and F, but sometimes in Eb or even Bb.
You may wonder why clarinets aren't made in C. The answer is that they are, but for reasons that are historically unclear, the Bb clarinet is universally used. I think it's probably because the C clarinet has a very bright sound, and the Bb blends with the other instruments better. When you play an A clarinet, you'll find that the sound is less bright than the Bb.
Best regards.
Ken Shaw
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: jez
Date: 2002-02-27 12:26
Ken writes "the standard pitch (or at least what everyone hopes for) today is when A is at 440 Hz"
It would make life very much easier if everyone would stick to this principle, but sadly it is no longer the case. Many European orchestras tend to play much sharper, so problems arise when people travel around. I remember hearing Sabine Meyer struggling to get down to A 440 when playing with a British orchestra and when they travel abroad they struggle to play with pianos tuned to 444.
The only U.S. orchestra I have played with was in San Francisco, where they told me they aim at 443.
What are the manufacturers and players supposed to do?
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Don Poulsen
Date: 2002-02-27 13:18
To add to Jez's question, how do orchestras that use a pitch other than A 440 reconcile their tuning to fixed-pitch instruments such as chimes, xylophones, celestes, etc.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Stephane
Date: 2002-02-27 14:12
Jez, this is a never ending story that goes for a long time. Concert pitch in France is A442 (this is how French clarinets are tuned) and A440 in the US. But back to Mozart's time, the concert pitch was around A430 Hz, it then gradually evolved towards A440/A443 today to accomodate people's taste for brighter and sharper sound. Who knows where concert pitch will evolve in the future?
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Ken Shaw
Date: 2002-02-27 15:43
One of the most dramatic examples of the problem of orchestras tuning sharp (and going sharper as they play louder) is the opening of Strauss' Also Sprach Zarathustra. The orchestra makes a series of huge crescendoes, augmented by a pipe organ. By the the last one, even if the pitch started out at 440, it's approaching 450. When the last blast cuts off, it leaves the organ playing alone, always forlornly sounding nearly a quarter tone flat.
In Respghi's Gli Ucelli (The Birds), the first movement starts out with celeste, which is always lovely. The last movement builds up to fortissimo, and at the end the celeste plays the opening bars again. Usually it's flat enough to make your hair curl.
Ken Shaw
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: JMcAulay
Date: 2002-02-27 17:23
Not yet mentioned is the early 20th century "High Pitch," mercifully abandoned a lot of years ago. It is ironically amusing to me that purists frown on transposition of Clarinet parts in A or C to a B-flat Clarinet, because it isn't "the composer's original intent of tone shading" or some such. Good grief, almost 200 years ago the French Academy condemned Iwan Müller's instrument that could be played reasonably in any key for just that reason. Meanwhile, pitch-wise, entire orchestras are taking off to the moon. Nobody ever said the world has to make sense.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Sally Gardens
Date: 2002-02-28 01:32
Well, it's news to me that one "must" play the Mozart in A, and only A. People transpose music all the time: to different keys, to different clarinets, to altogether different instruments. From the audience's POV, all that matters is that it sounds good and it makes music. They're not there to have a Historically Correct Experience; they're there to be caught up for a while in the music.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: diz
Date: 2002-02-28 01:41
Ken - my hair would curl if I had enough of it left!
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
The Clarinet Pages
|
 |
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
