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Re: The fast switch from B to A Clarinet

Author: Tony Pay ★2017
Date: 2016-09-27 00:00

If we've got to the very low intellectual level of making what some 'famous' orchestras currently do determine what OUR relationship with great composers like Beethoven SHOULD be, then the debate is over.

However, I'm not going to give up. The point is a subtle one.

I have no problem with John Peacock's choice to play the slow movement of op 61 on his A clarinet.

My problem is with his statement: "I don't believe that composers of Beethoven's era wrote for a particular clarinet with a special sound in mind - more for convenience of transposition in an era of primitive keywork. So I don't think we are compelled to use his notated instrument."

Here he uses spurious arguments to justify HIS choice.

I already posted why I think that the bit about "convenience of transposition in an era of primitive keywork" doesn't fly in the case of op 61. And, I gave an argument why Beethoven might very well have wanted the sound of the (period) C clarinet at that point.

John Peacock says later that there are problems to do with keeping the C (or perhaps in his case, Bb) clarinet ready in tune for the slow movement.

But these problems are solvable. (You can keep the instrument under your jacket in the latter parts of the first movement, for example, as I have often done.)

See, it's not that I want to challenge his CHOICE. What I want to challenge is his JUSTIFICATION of that choice.

His 'choice' lives in the world of his performance. Depending on the circumstances, he may very well have done the best he could.

But his 'justification' currently lives in the world of this BBoard. And I won't allow it to stand.

Each of you has to make your own choice, in each circumstance, because some of you may have access to a C clarinet, some of you may have time to find out its qualities, some of you may even have the possibility to have lessons on it, and some of you may not have a hope in Hell of any of that.

Fundamentally, we're all engaging with what Beethoven wrote. I think I've made a case that that wasn't just casual.

Do you know the movie, "The Life of Brian"? In it, there's a scene where a character barters a price for a gourd in a market. Then, someone says, yes, I'll buy another one at that price. NO, says the seller. WE have to start over again.

Tony

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