 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: michael hartley
Date: 2002-08-06 16:26
can anyone tell me if the e flat alto clarinet plays on a treble clef or a bass clef and if there is a good volume of music out there for it. also, would it be a good instrument to go with saxaphones as i play my b flat clarinet in a group with a tenor and an alto sax. could i perhaps use the e flat music of the sax?
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Author: javier garcia
Date: 2002-08-06 16:32
It plays on the treble clef. you can use the Eb alto sax music as alto clarinet's range covers the alto sax.
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Author: diz
Date: 2002-08-07 00:56
Michael - playing alto sax music on an alto clarinet (whilst perfectly "possible") ignores the lovely chalemeau range of the instrument.
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Author: Patrick
Date: 2002-08-07 04:46
Michael,
I agree with Diz. No sense ignoring any of the wonderful capabilities of the alto clarinet!
Alto saxophone parts, while certainly playable by the alto clarinet, focus most on the octave between the written fourth line d and the altissimo d. This is the clarion register of the alto clarinet. It is great for solo passages, but in ensemble music, the chalumeau of the alto clarinet is arguably more useful...and that range corresponds to the most useful range of the TENOR saxophone. While the range of the alto clarinet extends from a major second below the lowest note of the tenor saxophone through the highest notes available on the alto saxophone, tenor saxophone parts are more likely to exercise the "extended chalumeau" capability of the alto clarinet.
With some practice, parts written for the tenor saxophone can be sight-transposed by the alto clarinet player.
You may have heard that the alto clarinet is really a tenor clarinet that was misnamed (the Bb clarinet plays both soprano and alto roles; the bass clarinet should be called the baritone clarinet, and the Eb contrabass is the true bass clarinet!). Keeping this in mind, the doubling of tenor saxophone and alto clarinet makes sense.
With all of that, I do not discourage you from playing alto saxphone parts, or in general from playing in the clarion or altissimo ranges of the alto clarinet. As a contra clarinet player, I have flinched so often when persons who probably never heard the contra clarinets played competently in their higher registers weigh in with their "expert" opinions to the effect that the altissimo "should be avoided" etc. Yet laypeople who have heard me play my Leblanc paperclip contra alto clarinet have commented on the particularly resonant and rich higher registers of that instrument. Playing the left hand piano part of Debussy's Reverie, from the concert Eb four ledger bars below the bass clef staff, all the way up to the concert A three ledger bars above, is a real gas on the contra alto. No less than three saxophones would be required to cover this range...the EEb contrabass, the Bb bass, and the Eb baritone! You will find similar gratification from any of the low clarinets.
Good luck, Michael.
Patrick
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