 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Frank
Date: 2002-12-19 19:25
I've been listening to a recording of Mendelssohn's Duo Concerto for clarinet and basset horn. I have heard of basset horns, of course, but thought of them as historical curiosities...sort of a step in clarinet evolution, and never really heard their sound til recently....all I can say is they've got a great sound...upper register is almost indistinguishable from a Bb clarinet, and the lower register has that beautiful warm bass clarinet sort of sound. They must have a heck of a range. I've never heard one in the flesh ( so to speak) and have never played one....in fact I've never even seen one. I'd love to get my hands on one. In my high school and college days I've seen and heard Eb altos, but I don't remember them as sounding as nice as this basset horn does on the recording. I assume there is more of a difference than just the key it's pitched in. I wonder why the basset horn isn't more popular?
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Author: ken
Date: 2002-12-19 23:18
I wouldn't use anything "but" an F basset on the 2nd parts of both Concertpieces, in place of an alto on ALL band works or anything else I could get away with. v/r KEN
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Author: John J. Moses
Date: 2002-12-20 04:30
"I'd love to get my hands on one."
Be careful what you wish for, you might wind up having to play one someday. I done lots of concerts and a few recordings on Basset, and they are a difficult beast to tame!
Good luck finding one,
JJM
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Author: Alphie
Date: 2002-12-20 09:05
I've had a lot of things to say about Bassethorns in the past on this BB so I'm not gonna repeat myself on this subject.
However, this week in my orchestra RSPhO we played Stravinsky: "Symphony for winds" (Original version from 1920) where he writes for Alto clarinet in F. It's obvious that he means basset horn since the range of the piece goes down to a low Db several times.
Does anybody know anything about Stravinsky's relation to basset horns and why he made this mistake in the scoring of this piece?
I want to take the oportunity to point out that there is no historical relation between Basset horn and Alto clarinet by definition but they are very different instruments.
My earlier posts on this subject:
http://www.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/read.html?f=1&i=19876&t=19876
http://www.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/read.html?f=1&i=44537&t=44492
Alphie
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Author: beejay
Date: 2002-12-20 12:01
I play basset horn and love it. It is a quirky beast, but it has the most soft and sweet tone that you can imagine. The sound is sui generis -- it cannot be compared in any way with an alto clarinet.
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2002-12-20 17:27
I had a brief acquaintance with a pair of Selmer [modern] Basset Horns, very interesting, for a Mozart trio. My two sop cl-playing friends had some difficulties with them, more so than I, prob. since I have fair facility with my Selmer Alto, a smaller bore size than others. My conclusions were that the highly characteristic B H sound was/is? due to the even smaller bore and use of Bb cl mps, maybe the length? Saw [museum] and would sure like to try to play the "square" B H shown and discussed in some of our good [historic} books, a real challenge. Don
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Author: Wes
Date: 2002-12-20 17:49
The Series 9 Selmer basset horn that was on ebay a couple of years ago ended up with me after nobody bid on it. No one seemed to know what it was, certainly not the seller. After I overhauled it, it is quite easy to play, looks like new, and sounds great. Since these are plateau and not open hole instruments, it is quite difficult to eliminate all leaks. They are often difficult to play because of these leaks. Unfortunately, I haven't had the time to pursue playing opportunities if there are any.
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