 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: ClarinetVirtuoso
Date: 2026-06-30 03:35
I was listening to Sabine Meyer’s recording of Carl Stamitz’s Concerto for Basset Horn. Her solo part is very different from the edition I have performed from which is the Amadeus edition. Does anyone here know if Sabine has prepared another edition, and who may publish it?
Thank you in advance for your help.
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Author: Marnix van den Berg
Date: 2026-07-01 11:25
As far as I know it, her edition was never published. Her embellishments were written speficially for her by the composer/scholar Andreas Tarkmann.
When I performed it I transcribed by ear what she was playing, then adapted it to my own ideas.
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Author: Cdh
Date: 2026-07-05 08:25
Hello Clarinetvirtuoso,
I think you will find the edition you are wanting here:
https://tarkmann.com/kategorie&k=59
There are also editions of the the other Tarkmann transcriptions and embellishments commissioned by Sabine Meyer.
Also, if you have not received emails from me over the last two months, check your junk folder, as I have a new email address which may have been filtered.
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Author: Marnix van den Berg
Date: 2026-07-05 10:34
I didn't know Mr. Tarkmann had published the solo parts separately, don't think he had when I performed it, but that sure would have been ncie back then.
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Author: donald
Date: 2026-07-05 16:17
I copied out Sabine Meyer's (rather historically inappropriate) cadenza from the 1st mvt of the Johann Stamitz concerto, I've got it on a hard drive somewhere.... I last played this with an orchestra in 2015 and recall, during the cadenza, looking down the centre isle and seeing the music director of Bach Musica glaring at me from the back of the hall, offended by the historical inappropriateness of the thing. I confess, I enjoyed playing it....
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Author: Cdh
Date: 2026-07-06 14:54
I am with the Bach Musica director! But not Sabine's fault - that was also the work of Mr Tarkmann. I really don't like it either, and not just because it is not "historical". I find the sequence of ideas, i.e. "the story", doesn't work. Each to their own I suppose, but all credit to Sabine for recognising her limitations in that area and commissioning someone else to compose the cadenza for her.
Far worse are the cadenzas provided in the new Henle edition by Nicolai Pfeffer. One would think that in a modern scholarly edition at least one of the suggested cadenzas would be stylistically appropriate for a five key clarinet, even if another, more modern option was offered.
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Author: davyd
Date: 2026-07-06 22:07
What makes a particular cadenza "appropriate"? What "historical" or "stylistic" characteristics should one look for?
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Author: Cdh
Date: 2026-07-07 07:31
You might notice that I used the phrase "stylistically appropriate for a five key clarinet" rather than simply "stylistically appropriate". There are no style police; if you want to paint a moustache on the Mona Lisa it is allowed. We are allowed to please ourselves, and that is exactly what Donald quite rightly did.
"Stylistically appropriate for a five key clarinet" means staying within what it is possible to do on that instrument. Not exceeding the range used by the composer, not venturing into extreme keys, avoiding fast chromatic scales in the low register and using them with restraint in the upper register, keeping most passage work diatonic, noticing that large leaps are not demanded at great speed and that they mostly don't use throat notes (usually start on the lowest notes and spring to somewhere in the upper part of the clarion register).
Beyond that, "being stylistically in keeping with the piece/composer" would mean not using chords or harmonic progressions which the composer didn't use. In the case of Johann Stamitz, this would mean extreme caution with diminished 7th chords. But it might include briefly swapping into the minor mode (tonic minor not relative minor). It would mean observing elements of the melodic style carefully.
Beyond that, "being in keeping with historical examples for wind instruments" would mean keeping it short, with no resting points during the cadenza (or maybe just one), and to consider a a completely unthematic cadenza, or one which starts with material just played.
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Author: brycon
Date: 2026-07-07 20:55
And until Beethoven, cadenzas don't modulate to other keys.
I think two main things that make something sound stylistically appropriate are 1. the grammar of Classical-era tonal music and 2. the surface-level melodic ornamentation (what's called "diminutions").
By grammar, I mean that a cadence, for instance, is a phrase closing (or sometimes an opening, in order to assert the key center). A sequence, by contrast, is an elaboration; it's a phrase middle. If one, then, begins a cadenza directly on a sequence, it might sound odd to someone whose ears are attuned to 18th century tonal music.
Diminutions are the filling out of simple melodic scaffoldings, such as a scale or arpeggiation, with more florid lines, such as a scale in thirds or an arpeggiation with lower neighbors. By sticking with the sorts of diminutions you find in a piece, it'll sound more idiomatic. If, for example, you approach a cadence on scale-degree 5 and encircle it with a turn (5-6-5-#4-5) then jump up to scale-degree 3 and cadence (3-2-1). It's going to sound beautiful. But it's a lick that appears in bel canto opera, not in Stamitz and will therefore make the latter sound anachronistic.
Quote:
Beyond that, "being in keeping with historical examples for wind instruments" would mean keeping it short, with no resting points during the cadenza (or maybe just one), and to consider a a completely unthematic cadenza, or one which starts with material just played.
Are there any examples you could provide of wind cadenzas written by 18th century composers?
When I come up with eingangs or have students come up with them or even cadenzas, I usually use the Barenreiter edition of Mozart's extant eingangs and cadenzas as templates (keeping in mind, of course, that the piano is a contrapuntal instrument and can therefore hold the audience's attention for much longer than a wind instrument can).
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