 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Danny
Date: 2000-06-02 16:50
I'm really interested in why the B flat rather than the A became the standard instrument, since the first major composer(Mozart) to feature clarinet in his compositions wrote them in A. Is it because most of the other wind instruments(saxes, trumpets, english and french horn) also transpose in flat keys? Is it because it's lighter/shorter, keeping costs down?
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Author: AL
Date: 2000-06-02 18:48
Good question.
I suspect that it has something to do with band music. If the orchestras were primarily in sharp keys, the A clarinet was a neccesity.
However, since the end of the 19th century, bands became big. Probably because of the open( no valves) Bb concert on most all of the brass instruments,compositions tended toward the flat keys. That would require the Bb clarinet.
In addition, many transcriptions of orchestral works were transposed to accomodate the clarinet section; the"violins" of the band. This is probably the closest to the reason for Bb clarinets. An orchestral work in the key of, say, A major would put Bb clarinets in the key of B major,
(5 sharps). The transcription would be probably in Bb major, putting theBb clarinets in C .
I guess it's a little of both of my suspicions.
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2000-06-02 21:40
I agree with your suspicions, Al, I might add that its has the most pleasing balance of bright/dark tonal character, IMHO. Our "good books" re: history should discuss this. Don
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Author: Nick Conner
Date: 2000-06-03 21:29
I agree with Don's statement. I did a research paper on the clarinet, and found that the Bb clarinet sounds the best out of all of them. The A is the second best, but it isn't as bright as the Bb. Some people used to use a clarinet in C way back towards the beginning of the invention of the instrument, but it had a poor tone, and was replaced by the Bb and A.
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2000-06-03 21:43
Nick Conner wrote:
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I agree with Don's statement. I did a research paper on the clarinet, and found that the Bb clarinet sounds the best out of all of them. The A is the second best, but it isn't as bright as the Bb. Some people used to use a clarinet in C way back towards the beginning of the invention of the instrument, but it had a poor tone, and was replaced by the Bb and A.
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That's an interesting premise. Could you go back to your research paper and give me the bibliographic references?
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Author: Alphie
Date: 2000-06-04 00:17
In the first half of the 18th century, the most common clarinets were in C and D. Vivaldi and Händel wrote their pieces for C-cl. Molter, his concertos for D-cl. The first known concerto written for Bb-cl. as far as we know is by Johann Stamitz, written before 1757. Johann Stamitz was the leader of the Elector's orchestra in Mannheim, the first orchestra to employ clarinets. Most composers of the Mannheim school, like K.Stamitz (son), Beer, Dimler, Tauch a.o. all seemed to prefer the B flat. Exactly why, is very difficult to find out, but Rendall suggests that it was considered the "virtuoso" instrument and more mellow in tone and with more character than the C-cl. It was first with Mozart and the quintett K.581 that the A-cl. became a solo instrument. Before that, in the classical period, it had only served as an instrument used in sharp keys, like A, D and E.
I guess that's where the tradition started.
Alphie
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