 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: jez
Date: 2002-03-22 12:38
Stephan's earlier thread reminds me of something.
I recently took part in a concert performance of excerpts from Strauss's opera Salome, in which he uses 6 clarinets, 2 A, 2 Bb an Eb picc. and a bass.
Firstly, it's interesting to think that Strauss had such a finely developed ear that he chose to write for the Bb & A as separate instruments. The A is given preference.
Secondly; I was playing Eb. There is quite an exposed passage which finishes on a bottom E flat. (I stuck a slightly conical tube of card in the end for this) Now, was it originally written for the D picc. (I know he has written for this elsewhere) It was a printed, old part so I don't think so. Or did he know players who had this note? Maybe he just made a mistake. Plenty of more modern composers have.
Anyone know the story behind this?
jez
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Author: Joseph O'Kelly
Date: 2002-03-22 13:03
Yah, one of my band director made the same mistake. He recently wrote a piece and overlooked the fact that the second clarinets had a low Eb written. I gave him one solution which was have them stick some string down their bore, I think they'll just play the note an octave up. He gave the first part a nasty third space Bb to fourth line D tremillo. I figured out a nifty fingering but that's another story.
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Author: Ken Shaw
Date: 2002-03-22 16:16
The Schoenberg Theme and Variations for Band (written before he adopted the serial method, and quite a nice piece) has low Eb written in either the 2nd or 3rd clarinet part. It's been years since I played it, but I think it may even have a low D. As I recall, the part is doubled on alto or bass clarinet, so we just left the note out.
I heard the late John Denman bend a low E down to an Eb, but he was playing a jazz setup. I've never had any luck trying it. On the Eb clarinet, it shouldn't be hard to block the bell against your knee.
Best regards.
Ken Shaw
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Author: rmk
Date: 2002-03-22 17:27
I believe the reason that Strauss wrote the Eb was for musical reasons, so the player could see how the phrase ended. He also does this in the second violins, writing down to an E below the open G string. Strauss of course was aware of the ranges of the various instruments; it just made more (musical) sense to have a note rather than a rest.
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Author: Wes
Date: 2002-03-22 17:59
At a garage sale, a few years ago, I bought a Japanese-made Eb clarinet with a full Boehm system including a low Eb. Since it also has the famous "donut key" for LH forked Eb/Bb, it may have been copied from the old Buffet Bb with the same keys. After an overhaul and some tuning, it plays quite well.
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Author: Al
Date: 2002-03-22 20:00
I've asked the clarinetists at the Met why Strauss wrote for both the A and Bb instruments.
The guys who were there 20 years ago had no ideas.
(Blayman, Hiller, Armato,etc.).
Today's guys still don't know the answer.
(Morales,Rabbai, Ognibene,etc.).
There's no real reason that anyone can discern. It's not a question of the extra low semitone and it's certainly not a timbre thing.
It's a good question with no good answer.
Al
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Author: diz
Date: 2002-03-26 03:21
Strauss also wrote some interesting things for viola - in particular the solo in Don Quixote requires the lead of the violas to tune the C string down to a B. This is fine, in theory, but it tends to put the rest of the instrument out of tune and it's not like you can quietly keep retuning the strings in mid performance. When I played this work with the ABC Sinfonia years ago, I had my "second" viola with the lower tuning and picked it up for the solos.
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