Cambridge Companions to Music The Cambridge Companion to the Clarinet The Cambridge Companions to Music Instruments The Cambridge Companion to Brass Instruments Edited by Trevor Herbert and John Wallace The Cambridge Companion to the Cello Edited by Robin Stowell The Cambridge Companion to the Clarinet Edited by Colin Lawson The Cambridge Companion to the Organ Edited by Nicholas Thistlethwaite and Geoffrey Webber The Cambridge Companion to the Piano Edited by David Rowland The Cambridge Companion to the Recorder Edited by John Mansfield Thomson The Cambridge Companion to the Saxophone Edited by Richard Ingham The Cambridge Companion to Singing Edited by John Potter The Cambridge Companion to the Violin Edited by Robin Stowell The Cambridge Companion to the Clarinet Edited by COLIN LAWSON University of Sheffield 11 CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS PUBLISHED BY THE PRESS SYNDICATE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, United Kingdom CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 2RU, UK 40 West 20th Street, New York, NY 10011-4211, USA 10 Stamford Road, Oakleigh, VIC 3166, Australia Ruiz de Alarcon 13, 28014 Madrid, Spain Dock House, The Waterfront, Cape Town 8001, South Africa http: //www. Cambridge, org © Cambridge University Press 1995 This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 1995 Reprinted 1997, 1998, 1999, 2001 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data The Cambridge companion to the clarinet/edited by Colin Lawson. p. cm. - (Cambridge companions to music) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0 521 47066 8 (hardback) - ISBN 0 521 47668 2 (paperback) 1. Clarinet. I. Lawson, Colin (Colin James) II. Series. ML945.C36 1995 788.6'2-dc20 94-47624 CIP MN ISBN 0 521 47066 8 hardback ISBN 0 521 47668 2 paperback Transferred to digital printing 2003 CE Contents List of illustrations page vii Notes on the contributors ix Preface xiii Acknowledgements xv List of abbreviations, fingering and notation xvi 1 Single reeds before 1750 1 COLIN LAWSON 2 The development of the clarinet 16 NICHOLAS SHACKLETON 3 The clarinet family Introduction: clarinets in B\> and A 33 The C clarinet 38 COLIN LAWSON The high clarinets 43 BASIL TSCHAIKOV The basset horn 57 GEORGINA DOBREE The bass clarinet 66 MICHAEL HARRIS 4 The development of the clarinet repertoire 75 JO REES-DAVIES vi Contents 5 Players and composers 92 PAMELA WESTON 6 The mechanics of playing the clarinet 107 ANTONY PAY 7 Teaching the clarinet 123 PAUL HARRIS 8 Playing historical clarinets 134 COLIN LAWSON 9 The professional clarinettist 150 NICHOLAS COX 10 The contemporary clarinet 163 ROGER HEATON 11 The clarinet in jazz 184 JOHN ROBERT BROWN 12 The clarinet on record 199 MICHAEL BRYANT Notes 213 Appendices Sources and tutors for the early clarinet in modern edition or facsimile 219 2 A select list of tutors 219 3 Recommended studies 220 4 Orchestral excerpts and studies 220 Select bibliography 222 Index 230 Illustrations 1.1 Tenor chalumeau by Johann Christoph Denner page 5 1.2 Two-keyed D clarinet by Jacob Denner 7 1.3 Title page and excerpt from the chalumeau part of Dittersdorf s Divertimento Notturno 9 1.4 Opening page of the solo part of the chalumeau concerto by Johann Friedrich Fasch 11 2.1 Two-keyed D clarinet by J. G. Zencker 18 2.2 Clarinets 20 (a) in C by Heinrich Grenser, Dresden, c. 1810 (b) in Bl> by Heinrich Grenser, Dresden, c. 1810 (c) in Bl> by Jacques Frangois Simiot, Lyons, c. 1815 2.3 Clarinets 21 (a) in B\> by Frangois Lefevre, Paris, c. 1835 (b) in A by Eugene Albert, Brussels, c. 1860 (c) in A by Wilhelm Hess junior, Munich, c. 1870 2.4 Clarinet in A with alternative joint in Bl> by Johann Baptist Merklein, Vienna, c. 1810 22 2.5 Clarinets 23 [a] in A by Godfridus Adrianus Rottenburgh, Brussels, c. 1760 [b] in B!> by Stephan Koch, Vienna, c. 1825 [c] in B!> by Richard Bilton, London, c. 1840 (of) in A by Oskar Oehler, Berlin, c. 1935 (e) in C by Auguste Buffet jeune, Paris, c. 1850 2.6 Bore characteristics of some representative clarinets 29 3.1 Members of the modern clarinet family: sopranino in El>; German-system soprano in Bl>; sopranos in B\> and A; alto in E\>; basset horn in F; bass in Bl»; contrabass in B\> 35—6 3.2 Allegro moderato from the first sonata from Methode de Clarinette (Paris, 1802) by J. X. Lefevre 40 3.3 Henri and Alexandre Selmer testing clarinets at the Selmer (Paris) factory, c. 1932 67 viii Illustrations 5.1 Richard Miihlfeld with Johannes Brahms, Berchtesgaden, 1894 98 5.2 Alois Haba with Josef Horak and Emma Kovarnova, Prague, 1971 101 5.3 Benny Goodman with Paul Hindemith, 1947 103 5.4 Suzanne Stephens with Karlheinz Stockhausen, London, 1985 105 6.1 Exercise for the control of dynamic and timbral variation 113 6.2 Schematic representation of articulation 115 7.1 Weekly practice schedule 132 8.1 Diagram of the component parts of the clarinet, from Lefevre's Methode de Clarinette 138 8.2 The method of holding the clarinet; lithograph of Thomas Willman from his A Complete Instruction Book for the Clarinet (London, c. 1825) 141 8.3 Willman's profile view of the clarinet; lithograph 142 8.4 Lefevre's chromatic fingering chart 144 8.5 Handbill for a Vienna concert by Anton Stadler, 20 February 1788 148 9.1 An alternative fingering system for cf" to e'" 158 10.1 Notation by Hans Joachim Hespos 171 10.2 Fingering notation 173 10.3 High notes for B^ clarinet 174 10.4 'Short lip' 175 10.5 Notation for quarter-tone and eighth-tone scales 175 10.6 Quarter-tone fingerings for Bl> clarinet 177-9 10.7 Multiphonic fingerings for Bl> clarinet 180 10.8 High notes for bass clarinet 183 11.1 Eddie Daniels 189 11.2 Transcription of Artie Shaw's version of Vernon Duke's April in Paris 196 The contributors JOHN ROBERT BROWN is a member of staff at Leeds College of Music, where he is currently Postgraduate Course Leader and Head of the External Relations Unit. His published transcriptions include Jazz Clarinet 1 and 2, Pure Wynton Marsalis, Pure David Sanborn and Pure Courtney Pine. His published compositions include Quintet for Brass (1994). MICHAEL BRYANT trained as a metallurgist, but switched to broadcast engineering and has worked for the BBC World Service for over twenty-five years. Having taken a special interest in rediscovering forgotten and unpublished chamber music for the clarinet, basset horn and bass clarinet, he has provided advice on rare repertoire and research methods to students, collectors and professional players. NICHOLAS COX is Principal Clarinet of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. As a soloist he has appeared at Britain's most important festivals and concert halls, and several composers have written him commissions, including Hugh Wood, Richard Rodney Bennett, Jo- nathan Lloyd and Andrey Eshpay. Solo tours and masterclasses have taken him to Europe, the Far East and Russia. GEORGINA DOBREE From early in her career, Georgina Dobree took an interest in the more unusual members of the clarinet family, and in 1951 the firm of Henri Selmer undertook to make a basset horn especially for her. This instrument accompanied her summer visits to Darmstadt, where for almost ten years from 1953 she gave perfor- mances of new music. In recent years the repertoire written especially for her has increasingly been specifically for the basset horn and has been premiered in Britain, the USA and what is now the Czech Republic. x Contributors MICHAEL HARRIS is principal bass clarinet with the Philharmonia Orchestra. He also pursues a vigorous freelance career in orchestral and chamber music, appearing regularly with groups such as the Nash Ensemble, the London Sinfonietta and London Winds. He has devel- oped a keen interest in early clarinets and is professor of classical clarinet at the Royal College of Music. PAUL HARRIS studied clarinet, composition and conducting at the Royal Academy of Music and music education at the University of London. He has now established a reputation as a teacher, composer, writer, performer, examiner and adjudicator, with well over one hundred publications to his name, many of which deal primarily with stimu- lating and helping young players to develop their musical skills. Paul Harris has also undertaken research into specialist music education for the highly talented — an interest that has taken him to many musical institutions around the world. ROGER HEATON has worked closely with many leading composers, including Feldman, Bryars, Volans, Ferneyhough and Henze, and has performed with the Arditti and Balanescu Quartets, Ensemble Modern, the London Sinfonietta, the Gavin Bryars Ensemble and many other groups. Since 1982 he has been Clarinet Professor at the Darmstadt Ferienkurse fur Neue Musik and was Music Director of Rambert Dance Company, 1988-93. COLIN LAWSON has played principal clarinet with most of Britain's leading period orchestras, notably The English Concert, The Hanover Band and the London Classical Players. He has given period perfor- mances of concertos by Mozart, Weber and Spohr at a number of international venues, including Carnegie Hall and the Lincoln Center, New York; he has also published widely on various aspects of historical performance practice. His writings on the history of the clarinet include The Chalumeau in Eighteenth-Century Music. He is currently senior lecturer in music at the University of Sheffield. JO REES-DAVlES's life has been fairly equally divided between the worlds of libraries and of music, the latter as performer and teacher. She has been librarian of the Clarinet & Saxophone Society of Great Britain since 1984 and is currently editor of the society's quarterly magazine. Her clarinet repertoire lists, translations and compilations cover most of the countries in Europe. ANTONY PAY was born in London, studied at the Royal Academy of Music and read Mathematics at Cambridge University. He has been principal clarinet of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the London