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Mozart-Clarinet Quintet

  Mozart loved the Clarinet, which was invented during his lifetime.  Many of his Symphonies and Piano Concertos exist in versions with and without clarinets, because the instrument was so new that many orchestras of the time didn’t have players.

  Mozart wrote his three works featuring the instrument for one of his friends and drinking buddies.  The guy actually played a basset clarinet, which has an ugly looking appendage that is cumbersome to hold and completely spoils the looks of the elegant clarinet that we know.  It fell out of favor but importantly for Mozart’s pieces, it could go an octave lower than the traditional instrument.  The Basset Clarinet was resurrected by the Historically Informed crowd, and many passages that sound awkward on regular clarinets suddenly make sense on the basset.

  The Quintet shows Mozart’s love of instrumental color.  He frequently mutes the strings and has the clarinet playing ghostly harmonies against ethereal strings.  Those passages alternate with sprightly dance like passages.  I love this piece and it is one of the most popular chamber music works.

  My first recording featured Harold Wright, former Boston SO Principal, with assorted greats from the Marlboro Festival in Vermont.  My second and all time favorite is the Academy of Ancient Music Chamber Music Players.  I have several others and in general I prefer the ones with the Basset Clarinet.  
  Also check out the. Mozart Clarinet Concerto and the Skittles Trio

mahler123
mahler123 OP
3,999 posts
 

Between @twoleftears ​​​​@frogman  my knowledge of the Clarinet has increased several fold.  Thank you both

twoleftears's avatar
twoleftears
5,360 posts
 

 

The modern clarinet is usually thought of as having three registers, the chalumeau (with a more woody tone), the clarion (with a brighter tone), and the altissimo, which gets you into some serious harmonics.  The "octave key" (which isn't actually an octave, it's more, though it is an octave on the saxophone) on the underside of the instrument gets you from the chalumeau to the clarion.

frogman
7,596 posts
 

Nice demo, thanks!

The “octave key”, also and more accurately referred to as register key overblows a 12th (one octave and a fifth).  This is a function of the fact that the clarinet has a tubular bore, as opposed to the saxophone’s conical bore . The saxophone’s bore (internal dimensions of the tube) is a cone, varying continuously from one end to the other.  The clarinet’s, except for the bell, does not.  

mahler123 OP
3,999 posts
 

Of course we know that Hector Berlioz conceived the idea for the saxophone and then conveyed that idea to instrument make Adolphe Saxe.  Berlioz wanted the new instrument to be known as the "Berliozophone", but Saxe apparently had other ideas...

frogman
7,596 posts
 

…. and speaking of clarinets and Adolph Sax, Sax was also the inventor of the modern bass clarinet which he patented in the late 1830’s or so; before (!) he patented his Saxophone. Earlier bass clarinets predated Sax’s instrument, but they used a design more akin to that of the bassoons of that time. Sax collaborated with another instrument maker Louis Buffet. Buffet, of course is the brand that would become the most popular clarinet brand.

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