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The Earliest Clarinet Works (c1690-1786), Pieces Written Specifically for the Clarinet Post-Chalumeau and Pre-Mozart


DonRocks

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We have been enjoying the Young Concert Artists, a concert series held at the Kennedy Center (as well as in NYC) which features up-and-coming classical musicians.  Artists are chosen via an international audition and are provided with recitals, educational, and management opportunities.

The DC performances are held at the Kennedy Center's Terrace Theater, usually on a Monday or Tuesday night (when much of the Center is quiet).  The artists usually perform 4 or 5 pieces, some solo but often accompanied by piano or violin.

Last night featured 19 year old French clarinetist Raphaí«l Sévère (yes, an evening of classical music devoted to the clarinet!).  And he was wonderful.  Last night he performed:

Johannes Brahms - Sonata for clarinet in E-flat major, Op. 120, No. 2

Pierre Boulez - Domaines for solo clarinet

Sylvain Picart - Fantasy on Themes by John Williams

Igor Stravinsky - L'Histoire du Soldat for clarinet, violin, and piano

Francis Poulenc - Sonata for clarinet and piano

Next performance is Bulgarian-American violinist Bella Hristova on Tuesday April 28.

It's a lovely way to spend an evening at the Kennedy Center.

Drat! My son is on Spring Break this week, and would have *loved* to see this program last night - I didn't know it existed. Sévère is playing in New York City on April 7th, but that's next week during school, so it will be next to impossible.

Well, as his birthday present, I bought him and his friends four tickets to the Mozart Clarinet Concerto K622 on April 16th (Isn't that a cool gift? No parents allowed. And I'm buying them dinner there, too.) But still, I *know* he would have loved going to this performance.

I also have a CD of the Brahms Clarinet Sonatas Op 120 #s 1 and 2 in my car as I type this (it was the first-ever Sonata written for Clarinet and Piano, I believe - there was precious little clarinet repertoire written before the end of the 19th century).e

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Both Mendelssohn and Schumann wrote pieces for piano and clarinet. Check out Schumann's Opus 73 (1849), which is quite lovely.

 

This is interesting (well, to me), and I appreciate you posting it. I wrote what I did because awhile back - maybe a year ago - I Googled something like "first clarinet sonata," and got something resembling this:

post-2-0-95579900-1427859741_thumb.png

and bought Richard Stoltzman's recording of Brahms Opus 120 because of the Google result.

Correct me if I'm mistaken, but it looks like Google got this one wrong: Mendelssohn wrote (in 1824) what looks like a legitimate clarinet sonata fully 70 years before the Brahms work (1894), and not just in form, but in name as well - I had no idea. Obviously, there had been music written for clarinet earlier still (after all, Mozart died in 1791), but I'm wondering now if Mendelssohn's is the first-ever clarinet sonata.

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Note to all: In Classical Music, the difference between a "sonata" and a "concerto" is that a "sonata" is the instrument being highlighted, paired with the piano unless specified otherwise (*); a "concerto" is the instrument being highlighted, paired with an entire orchestra. So if you hear the term "violin sonata," it almost always means, by default, "violin and piano"; if you hear the term "violin concerto," it means "violin and orchestra." Modern times have brought about exceptions, but in 19th-century music, things were pretty rigidly defined. I suspect a lot of people might not know the precise meanings of these words (which are, after all, classical-music jargon), and I hope this helps clarify things.

(*) And, in a classic example of reduction, if you hear the term "piano sonata," it means *just* the piano (a sonata traditionally has a type of structure as well, so this actually makes some modicum of sense).

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A further dissection: Early Clarinet Sonatas.

Mary, I believe you've struck paydirt - the only unresolved things are:

1) When were these written (everyone in your article has been tagged, and the more-famous, later composers have been jettisoned.

2) Was the clarinet the modern clarinet we know today? This is key, and I know one person who will know the answer - I will ask him this evening.

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2) Was the clarinet the modern clarinet we know today? This is key, and I know one person who will know the answer - I will ask him this evening.

Having played myself, and being somewhat only a surface geek on instruments, I recall (vaguely) that my reading on this subject would answer "no." The B-flat clarinet (the now common one) came into existence, according to 1 website, around late 1700s. I remember reading that the A clarinet was more common back then, but the history is best described on this site.

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Having played myself, and being somewhat only a surface geek on instruments, I recall (vaguely) that my reading on this subject would answer "no." The B-flat clarinet (the now common one) came into existence, according to 1 website, around late 1700s. I remember reading that the A clarinet was more common back then, but the history is best described on this site.

I believe Mary is correct.  There was also a clarinet in C; a change in barrel allows a B-flat clarinet to be played as a C clarinet, iirc.  I think I had to do sight-transcription once, playing what was written in A on a B-flat.  That was tricky.  Oh, and there was music written for E-flat soprano as well as E-flat alto clarinets...  And there are bass and contrabass clarinets, too.

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