 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Alphie
Date: 2000-04-03 00:39
Eoin McAuley wrote:
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My music dictionary (Percy Scholes) claims the Basset Horn is a type of clarinet called a Basset (a small bass) invented by a German inventor called Horn. I don't believe this.
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Get another dictionary! The Basset-horn is supposed to be the invention of Mayrhofer of Passau, Germany c.1770. The pitch was in G or F. The original type was "sickle-shaped", like a half-moon similar to the Corno da Caccia that became the English Horn. The shape gave it it's name "horn". Basset comes from italian "Basetto", a small bass. A slightly later model had a knee-joint in the middel that made it angular. It is not clear who first made this model. Rendall suggests that it could have been Theodor Lotz, Anton Stadlers instrument-maker.
It's true that the original horns had a narrow bore, similar to the clarinet. The wrong relation between the length and the size of the bore gave it it's special character.
The Basset-horn was a favorite instrument of Mozart's. You can tell from the way he used it. His music for the instrument is in my own and many others opinion some of the most beautiful music that he wrote. Take the 25 pieces for Bassethorn-trio, also called Five Divertimenti. The Requiem, the aria "Non più di fiore" from Titus, the "Gran Partita" among others. Keep in mind that all we have left of the original score of the Mozart-concerto is the first 199 bars scored for a basset-horn in G. For some unclear reason he changed it to basset-clarinet in A.
In my humble opinion the actual concept of the BH is lost on modern instruments. At least the french instruments since the bore is usually way too wide to be called a BH. Only the makes that you can play with a normal clarinet-mouthpiece, like the Selmer, come close. The rest are just in my opinion alto-clarinets in F with extention to low C.
The Alto-clarinet in Eb doesn't have a history of it's own like the Basset-horn. It's just another instrument of the clarinet-family to fill up the gap between the soprano-clarinets and the Bass. Just like the Contra-alto just fills up the gap between the Bass and the Bb-contra. These instruments are only used in windbands and clarinet-choirs.
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Author: beejay
Date: 2000-04-03 10:28
Alphie,
Thanks for that. You have answered the question I was posing in an exchange a few threads back.
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Author: Alphie
Date: 2000-04-03 16:10
As curiosity information I can mention that "English horn" is called what it is because of a mistake in the translation from french "anglé"(angled), and "anglais"(english). In french it should have been called "Cor Anglé", Angle-horn, instead it became "Cor Anglais", English-horn. Funny, isn't it!!! This is of cause because of the "knee-joint" that both late 18th century english horns and basset horns had in the middel that gave them the angular shape.
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2000-04-03 17:50
Many thanks from me also, Alphie, and for others-yet-to-read. Your "dissertations" in the style of Rendall, Brymer and Bate [I loaned my "The Oboe", and didnt get it back, dern it], is clear, informative and interesting as well. My B H experience was with a Selmer, using my good Wells sop. mp which made it very pleasant playing a couple of those great Mozarts. I copied off the above for myself and for my cohorts here and in Tulsa, and suggest that others do the same. Robert Howe, on "Early Clarinet" is considering rental of a LeBlanc B H. Again, I suggest contact by "we cl'ists who revere the past". Don
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Author: Alphie
Date: 2000-04-03 23:12
Thanks Don! There are people out there who have a much much greater knowledge about these things than I do. I'm not a musicologist, I'm just one of the lucky bastards who can survive doing what I love the most, (besides family and friends that is) music and my tools for music-making, the clarinets. I have had the pleasure of having performed in concerts and recordings on period- and modern instruments from practically every period of the history of the clarinet. From the soprano chalumeau (Gluck's Orfeus, Vienna version) to Bb-Contra (Corigliano's 1st symphony), and heeps of things in between, including practically all the music by Mozart for clarinet and basset-horn. Symphonies, operas and chamber-works and for every production that I have participated in I have tried to educate myself on what I'm doing for the moment out of pure interest. A lot of information that I've come across stuck to my brain and can be used whenever needed. It doesn't hurt. Since four years I have a permanent job in a philharmonic orchestra so the period instrument business is getting less and less. Occasionally people still call and ask me to play though and I try to never say no.
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