From: roger@crux.Princeton.EDU ()
Subject: Re: clarinet arcana and transposition
Originator: news@nimaster
Organization: Princeton University
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1992 03:47:40 GMT

In article <1992Aug26.022235.10818@ccu1.aukuni.ac.nz> comjohn@ccu1.aukuni.ac.nz (Mr. John T Jensen) writes:
>haynes@cats.ucsc.edu (Jim Haynes) writes:

>>In article <1992Aug25.225722.21384@ccu1.aukuni.ac.nz> comjohn@ccu1.aukuni.ac.nz (Mr. John T Jensen) writes:
>>>dgolber@aero.org (Dave Golber) writes:

>>>>Take a piece whose key signature has no sharps or flats, as written
>>>>for A clarinet.  This means that when I play it on A clarinet, I have
>>>>a (comparatively) easy time of it.  If I transpose it to play on Bb
>>>>clarinet, I end up with a key signature full of flats ... lots of them.
>>>>[Actually, it may be full of sharps ... I forget which ... I'm a humble 
>>>>folk musician these days, and I don't do this kind of stuff.]
>>>>As a result, the damn thing has become much harder to play.

>>>I dunno, this just sounds like saying what the prevous writer suggested:
>>>that clarinets in keys a semitone or tone apart are to avoid the effort of
>>>transposition, which we horn players have to do all the time.  Seems fairly
>>>extreme to have to own two expensive instruments in order to avoid adding
>>>five sharps (B-flat to A).  We horn players have to transpose all sorts of
>>>rot.

(I should point out around now that clarinetists play rot that horn 
players wouldn't dream of trying.)

>>I think dgolber has a plausible explanation, which I hadn't thought of.
>>What you're trying to avoid is not the transposition of the printed
>>music; rather it is that the instrument is harder to play when there
>>are lots of sharps and flats.  Maybe this doesn't apply to the horn,
>>where you just have three valves anyway.  As a former high school
>>clarinet blower myself I can testify that the sharps and flats tend
>>to have more awkward fingerings than the naturals.  To get from C
>>natural to D natural you move only one finger; to get from C# to D#
>>you have to move three fingers.

>Actually, to go from C# to D# on the horn I only have to move two fingers
>(pointer up, ring finger down).  But ...

>Yes, well, perhaps it is a LITTLE more awkward to play accidentals on the
>clarinet than natural notes.  

A lot more.  Clarinet fingering is based on a diatonic scale; it is the 
written F scale in the lower register, C in the upper.  Make that G and 
D on German clarinets.  That is, raising your fingers one at a time gets you
that scale.  The further you diverge from those base-scales, the harder 
the fingerings get.

Now, go back in history.  The *intonation* of clarinets was not as good
as it is today; and it was best when closest to the base scales.  The
odd acoustics of the clarinet make it hard to keep in tune (being a 
closed cylinder, it overblows at hte 12th, not the octave), too.

>I play the recorder a bit and the fingering
>principles are similar, so I know what you mean.  But he cites piano which
>he thinks is less of a problem.  I don't see why it should be.  One is still
>doing transposition.  And arguably black notes are a teeny bit harder, at
>least for a relatively beginning player, than white notes.  But they don't
>make B pianos :-) !  You just practise more.

Or something.  But clarinet doesn't have the same kind of keys as piano.
And playing in B on a recorder is really tough.

>Common sense says that there MUST be a reason for A clarinets other than
>just the avoidance of transposition, but I can't see what it is.  I mean,
>doesn't it seem like overkill to buy another maybe $500-$1000 instrument
>just to avoid a little mental gymnastics?

a) It's history.  Used to be, you needed both.

b) It's tradition.  Clarinet pedagogy, while including all scales, does
not include transposition.

c) It's notation.  Clarinet parts aren't notated that way, and redoing
all the orchestral scores and parts is expensive, or was until recently.

d) It's at least a weensy bit of tone color, too.  The A clarinet is
a little darker.  Mozart liked it more than the B flat, as the Quintet,
Concerto, A major piano concerto, etc., demonstrate.

e) Many clarinetists can transpose, too, thank you.

>Certainly transposition is commonly required of horn players, because
>pre-valve horns they changed the KEY of the instrument by sticking a crook
>in to lengthen it.  Double horns have a shorting tube to raise it from F to
>B-flat, but this is to make high notes easier to play.  One doesn't use the
>thumb valve to transpose.  It actually is an extra job for horn players, as
>you learn a different set of fingerings for the B-flat horn and play it with
>F-music (or whatever, but I am always playing at mentally in F).

Again, that's history, tradition, notation.

>Near transpositions, like dropping a semitone or a tone, are, in my
>experience, quite simple, as you are just looking up or down a space or a
>line on the music (and adjusting the key signature appropriately).  Far
>ones, like a fourth or a fifth, are a bit tricker.  Effectively, I suppose,
>I actually do them by treating the music as written in a different clef, and
>learn the clefs as I need to.  I'm pretty good at music written in C
>(usually played down a fourth) and D (down a third), because I happen to
>have had to play music written like that.

But there are still limits on the instrument's agility, and that's no insult.
The extreme agility of the clarinet is the reason why it's the standard
choice for a wind instrument (or 2 or 3) in 20th century pieces from 
Pierrot Lunaire onward.

>Dunno.  Why DO they make clarinets in A and C??

All of the above.  They don't make many C clarinets, though ,and they
*do* sound different.  Less wood to resonate.

Roger (Note new address)