 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: karlbonner82
Date: 2010-11-13 09:56
Go to the Buffet-Crampon site and look at the RC Prestige models. They advertise a D clarinet there. Now I can understand why some composers and musicians might want a D instrument; it would complement the eefer on the sharp keys. Without it, composers would have to call for an eefer - and that means during sharp key passages they'd try to avoid too many black notes.
Still, it's interesting to look at how many keys clarinets come in: Ab piccolo, F high soprano, Eb high soprano, D high soprano, C soprano, Bb low soprano, A low soprano, basset horn in F, everything lower in Eb or Bb. About the only that's kinda-sorta missing is the G mezzo soprano, given how rare it truly is.
Do recorders come in seven different keys (don't I wish)? What about flutes? Oboes? Saxophones? Modern trumpets? Trombones?
The only parallel I can think of is the natural horn, which typically comes with about 8 crooks if you don't count octave doublings. If you get rid of the E crook and replace it with Ab, you have the same set of keys as you do with the clarinet!
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2010-11-13 11:33
Buffet, Leblanc and Selmer have produced included D clarinets in their lineup for a long time. Richard Strauss scored for D clarinet in 'Till Eulenspiegel', though it's mostly played on an Eb which puts it in a better key for the player.
Recorders only come in keys of C and F (in various temperments, though usually 415Hz and 440Hz), though the F instruments don't use transposed fingerings but do use actual pitch fingerings (like the lower register on the clarinet).
Flutes come in a variety of keys - Db piccolo, G and Eb treble flutes, Bb and A flutes d'amore, G alto flute and C bass flute, oboes have the F and Eb musettes, oboe d'amore in A, cor anglais in F and bass/baritone oboe in C, saxes are usually pitched in Eb and Bb, though you will find F altos and C Melodies.
Modern trumpets are usually Bb/A piccolo, Eb/D, C/Bb convertible, C, Bb, Bb/A and possibly low F or Eb.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2010-11-13 12:18
It's convenient that we've got standardized fingerings, so that the instrument does the transposing. That's not the case on recorder, where we have to use different fingerings on the F instruments and the C instruments. Imagine if we had to learn separate fingerings for all these clarinets!
Lelia
http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/Lelia_Loban
To hear the audio, click on the "Scorch Plug-In" box above the score.
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Author: kdk
Date: 2010-11-13 13:01
D clarinets were among the earliest clarinets made. Witness the four Molter concerti.
Karl
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Author: Caroline Smale
Date: 2010-11-13 16:03
Some years ago I briefly had chance to play on Buffet Eb and D clarinets (R13 I think).
I was surprised by the difference in response between them, the D was much sweeter and smoother than the Eb. Much greater difference than between A/Bb models.
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Author: karlbonner82
Date: 2010-11-15 07:30
The fact that recorder music doesn't transpose by key would make it difficult to come up with a notation if oblique keys like Bb, A, G, Eb and D were introduced somehow. It would be a pain to keep written music at concert pitch so some transposition is necessary.
Each size should have its lowest note written as C or F. But the question is: which keys should use which? This would be a completely arbitrary answer for the most part, and it might make sense to transpose all of them to conform to only C fingerings or only F fingerings. But then you end up using one scheme for all but one of the keys, and the other scheme for that one. And that's hard to justify!
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Author: Simon Aldrich
Date: 2010-11-15 15:17
"the D was much sweeter and smoother than the Eb. Much greater difference than between A/Bb models."
This is true. One of the pieces that best demonstrates the surprising difference in timbre between the Eb and D clarinet, is Schoenberg's op. 9 Chamber Symphony. Since the orchestration is sparse (15 players, one on a part), the difference in timbre between Eb and D clarinet is more remarkable than in a large orchestra context. When I play the Eb/D part in this piece, I look forward to the switch to D clarinet because the instrument's more downy, pliant voice quality offers a better sonic fit in the chamber ensemble.
"Witness the four Molter concerti."
Better yet, witness the 6 Molter D clarinet concerti, with more D clarinet concerti (or at least one more) hidden somewhere in the belly of the Landesbibliothek in Karlsruhe.
Simon
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Author: Frightful
Date: 2010-11-16 02:36
I had always wondered, how to trumpet and horn players deal with all these keys? I've seen some scores calling for horn in almost every key - A, F, E, C, D, Eb, Bb; the same with trumpets. How do these brass players manage this? It seems ridiculous to have so many of the same instrument in different keys, especially when they're obscure ones. And the parts are given with no key; any changes are all written as accidentals. It seems extremely expensive to play horn or trumpet.
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2010-11-16 18:06
Horn and trumpet players usually have to transpose the parts written for instruments in different pitches at sight.
Unless trumpet players have to specifically play a D or Eb trumpet (as would be specified in the score), they'd most likely do everything on a Bb or C trumpet and transpose at sight.
Horn players learn what the transposition is and play everything on their full double horn, transposing everything at sight to an instrument pitched in F (even when playing on the Bb side, they're still playing as though they're in F).
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: Alphie
Date: 2010-11-16 22:42
Once I came across a piece written for E-clarinet by one of the Strauss family. For a rehearsal I tried to use an old high pitched Eb.clarinet in my posession but ended up transposing on D.
Alphie
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