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A Short Account of the Clarinet in England during the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries

Author(s): F. Geoffrey RendallSource: Proceedings of the Musical Association, 68th Sess. (1941 - 1942), pp. 55-86Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of the Royal Musical AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/765807 .

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23

APRIL,

1942.

SIR PERCY

BUCK,

D.Mus.,

IN THE

CHAIR.

A

SHORT

ACCOUNT OF

THE CLARINET

IN

ENGLAND DURING THE

EIGHTEENTH

AND

NINETEENTH

CENTURIES.

BY F.

GEOFFREY RENDALL.

(Read

by

CECIL

OLDMAN)

THE

present paper

is

mainly

biographical

in

purpose.

It

is an

attempt,

possibly

a

pioneer

attempt,

to

present

in

some sort of

chronological

sequence

the

story

of

clarinet

playing

in

these

islands. Much

of its

purpose

will

be

achieved

if it

serves

to

rescue

from

possible

oblivion

the

names

and

doings

of some

of

the

earlier

players,

and

more,

if listeners

or readers are

stimulated to

fill

up

some of

the

many gaps in the story.

The

development

of the

mechanism of the instrument

itself

demands a

separate

paper,

and will

only

be dealt

with

here in

so far

as

Englishmen

contributed

to

it

or

availed

themselves

of

successive

improvements

in

its

construction.

A

few

words about

its

development,

however,

are

a

necessary

preliminary.

The

clarinet

was

invented about

the turn

of

the seventeenth

century by

Denner of

Nuremberg.

The

first rude instruments

had

only

two

keys;

by 1750

the

number had been increased

to three or

four, by

Mozart's

time to five or

six,

by

I8o0

to

eight

or

ten,

by

I815

to

thirteen,

and

in

1843

to

seventeen,

with six

ring keys

in

addition. This

very

brief resume will

show

that

for the

first

I20

years

of its

existence,

the

clarinet was

a

very

primitive

instrument

indeed,

capable

of

performance

only

in the

simpler

keys

and

generally

speaking

inferior

to the

contemporary

flute

and

oboe.

The

first

known

part

for

clarinet

occurs

early

in

the

I720's

in

a

five-part

mass

by

J.

A.

J.

Faber,

the MS. of

which

was formerly preserved in Antwerp cathedral. It is a real

clarinet

part

for

clarinet in

C,

supporting

the

contralto

voice

in

Qui

tollis

with

accompaniment

of two

flauti traversi

and

cembalo.

In

England,

Handel

presents

the first

problem.

Did he

use

the clarinet

?

It is

often

said that he

was

a

pioneer

in

orchestration. In

the

operas

he

makes

occasional

use of







The Clarinet

in

England

such

uncommon

instruments

as the bass

flute,

bass

recorder,

flauto piccolo and comet, with an eye to some special effect.

Whether the

presence

of itinerant virtuosi

suggested

their

use to

him,

or

whether

members

of his

orchestra were

expected

to

provide

and

play

them,

cannot

now be ascer-

tained,

but

it

is at

any

rate

to

be

presumed

that

Handel was

keenly

alive to novel

orchestral

effects,

and

would have

used

clarinets without

hesitation,

if

he

had

known about them.

Here

are two

pieces

of evidence

that he did

use

them.

I.

Among

the

Handel

MSS.

in

the

Fitzwilliam Museum

is an Overture in D, in five movements, for two clarinets

in

C,

and

a

Corno di

Caccia.

2. The

song

Par

che

mi

nasca

in Tamerlano

appears

in

the

H.G.

edition

in two

versions,

version A

having

an

accompaniment

of

violins

and

transverse

flute,

version

B of

violins

and two

cornetti.

In

the Granville

MS., however,

the

cornetti

are

replaced

by

Clar.

I?

and

2?.

The

pensive

nature of

this

Larghetta puts

clarini-trumpets-out

of

court,

and there

can be little doubt

that clarinets

were

intended.

Here,

of

course,

the

crucial

question

is the

date

of the MS., and a date is the last thing that you will get

out

of

an

expert.

Balance

of

opinion,

however,

favours

a

date

between

I740

and

I750.

This

squares

with

the

date

1740

suggested

by

Dr.

Mann for

the Fitzwilliam Overture.

The

clarinet

parts,

moreover,

in

the

latter

lie

mainly

in the

middle

register,

and,

the work

being

in

D,

the middle

C#

is

of

frequent

occurrence.

It is doubtful whether

the

special key

for

producing

this

note was

invented

before

I740.

Whether

he used

it

or

not,

Handel had

an

oppor-

tunity of hearing the clarinet during his sojourn in Dublin

in the

spring

of

1742,

since

a

week

or

two

after

the first

performance

of

Messiah

Mr.

Charles,

the

Hungarian,

played

solos

on

the

clarinet

and

Shalamo

'

at

a

public

concert. Mr. Charles

was also

a horn

player

and

played

a

concerto with his

Second

at

one

of

Arne's

concerts

in

Dublin

in the

following year.

He

published

twelve

duettos

for 'French

Horns,

and

appeared

with

his

second

some

years

later in

Edinburgh

as

a

clarinet

player.

More

Shalamo:

plainly

an

anglicisation

of

Chalumeau.

It

is far

from

clear what

instrument

is intended

in

this

instance. Chalumeaux

often

appear

in

Gluck's

scores,

and are

in

his

case

usually

assumed

to

be

clarinets. Handel

writes for

two

Chaloumeaux in

the

song

Quando

non

vedi

in

Riccardo

Primo.

Is

this

another

example

of

his use

of

clarinet

?

Mr.

Charles

may

possibly

be

identified

with

the

composer

of

5

livres

d'Airs

d

chanter

published by

Baillard

of

Paris,

1717-I734.

56







The Clarinet in

England

information

about this

pioneer

of

the clarinet would

be

welcome, since he has not been traced in any musical

dictionary.

The scene shifts

to London. Between

1740

and

I750

the

clarinet

had been

making

its

presence

felt both

in

and

outside

Germany.

There

were two clarinets

at

Frankfurt

in

1739;

two at

the

Abbey

of Kremsmiinster

in

I747;

and

at Paris in

I749

clarinets

were

used in Rameau's

Zoroastre,

and

again

in

I751

in Acante and

Cdphise.

In December

of

the same

year,

1751,

the clarinet

appears

in London, a clarinette concerto figuring in a grand

concert

of vocal and instrumental

music

by gentlemen

at

the

New Theatre in the

Haymarket.

This

may

not be

its

first

appearance

in

London;

a

diligent

search of

news-

papers

might

well

provide

earlier

examples

of

its

use,

but

it is

at

present

the

first

I

have

noticed.

The

players

in

Paris were

apparently

mainly

Germans,

so

it will

occasion

no

surprise

to hear

of a

German

advertising

in the

mid

1750's

great

concerts

with

clarinets,

French

horns

and

kettledrums

at

the Little

Theatre in

the

Haymarket.

This was Carl Barbandt, a Southern German, who came to

London about

I750,

and was

apparently

an

oboist,

as well

as

composer

and

organist.

He

is

a

shadowy

figure,

but

it

is

often

assumed that

like

other

oboists of the

period

he

played

the

clarinet as

well.

Or,

if

he did

not

play

himself,

he

could no

doubt

avail

himself

of

the

services of

the

Messieurs

Charles.

During

its

struggle

to obtain

a

footing

in the

concert

room,

the

clarinet was

constantly

associated

with

the horn.

Handel's Overture to which allusion has already been

made

is

probably

the earliest

example

of

a

partnership

which was

apparently

popular

both in

concert room and

pleasure garden.

Both

instruments were at

this

date

essentially

imperfect-the

clarinet

could

hardly

play

a

diatonic

scale m

the

simplest key

in

tune-but both

were

essentially

romantic,

and

even if

their

music

were

limited to

the

simplest

hunting

calls

and

echo

effects

the

blend of tones

was

found to

be

charming,

more

especially

in

the

open

air.

The

researches

of Mr.

Carse

have

recently

revealed

the

names of some of these early clarinettists and cornists.

Thus

in

I766

at

Marylebone

Gardens Choice

pieces

on

the

Clarinets and

French

Horns

were

played

by

Messrs.

Frickler,

Henniz,

Seipts

and

Rathyen.

The

two instruments

were

no

less

popular

at

Ranelagh

during

the

I760's

and

'70's

and

are

constantly

advertised to

play

favourite

pieces

in

the

Chinese

Temple.

57







58

The

Clarinet in

England

In

November,

I760,

the

combination of horns

and

clarinets made its appearance at Covent Garden in Arne's

Thomas

and

Sally,

providing

the

opening

symphony

and

accompaniment

for

the chorus of

huntsmen.

Clarinets

appear

again

in Arne's

Artaxerxes,

first

produced

in

I762,

occasionally

replacing

flutes and

oboes,

and

being

selected

to

accompany

Miss Brent and later

Tenducci in the

famous

Water

parted

from

the

Sea.

The

parts

for

clarinet

in

C

are written

mainly

in

the clarinet

register;

the

dull

and

rather

toneless chalumeau

notes of the

primitive

instrument

being

avoided

as

far

as

possible.

The

performance

must

have been

fairly

adequate

in tone and tune or

these

famous

singers

would

hardly

have tolerated

such

an

accompani-

ment.

In

the same

year J.

C.

Bach

used

D

and

Bb

clarinets

in

his

Orione,

and

from now

on

clarinets

may

be

assumed

to have

been

available

in London when

wanted.

Mozart

may

have

heard

them for the

first time when

he

came

to

London in

1764.

In

1763

clarinets

were introduced into

the

festival

orchestra

at

Gloucester. The

principal

was

Carl

Weichsel,

a Saxon, who seems to have been at first an oboist, but

later a

convert

to

the

clarinet,

and

possibly

the

first

specialist

in

this

instrument.

He

played

in the orchestra

of the

King's

Theatre,

Haymarket,

and

was

apparently

in

addition

a

musician

in one

of the

regiments

of

Footguards.

He

played

again

at

Gloucester

in

I769.

After

this

date

we

hear

little of him.

Parke,

himself an

outstanding

oboist,

describes

him

as

a

clarinet

player

of eminence.

His

wife,

a

pupil

of

J.

C.

Bach,

was

a

well-known

public

singer

at

Vauxhall and elsewhere, and his daughter, Mrs. Billington,

the

most

accomplished

singer

ever

produced

by

this

country.

It

has

been

suggested

that

Bach

may

have

written

his

clarinet

parts

especially

for

his friend's benefit.

A

word or

two

must be

said

about

military

bands,

which

played

an

important

part

in

popularising

the

clarinet

during

the

last

decades of

the

eighteenth

century.

These

assumed

a

definite form

only

after

the

Peace of

1763.

The

norm

adopted

by

Frederick

the

Great

was

usually

followed,

i.e.,

two

oboes,

two

clarinets,

two

horns,

two

bassoons,

an

enlarge-

ment in fact of the old clarinet and French horn alliance.

The

players

were at

first

invariably

foreigners-civilians-

and

only

rather

later

attested

soldiers.

In

the

I780's

the

numbers

were

increased

by

the

addition

of

trumpets,

serpents,

flutes,

and

percussion.

Occasionally

oboes

gave

way

to

additional

clarinets.

Thus

in

1783

the

H.A.C.

band

consisted of

four

clarinets,

two

horns,

two

bassoons,

one







The

Clarinet

in

England

trumpet.

At

first

carinets

were

mainly

pitched

in

C,

or

very occasionally in D, but towards the turn of the century

the

clarinet

in

Bb

becomes

the normal

military

instrument

as

it

is of

course

to-day;

in

fact,

Dr.

Busby

whose

military

music

was

issued

as

a

supplement

to the

British

Military

Library

of

I798-9

writes for

no

other.

His

simpler

scores

are

written

for

clarinets,

horns and

bassoons,

the

more

elaborate

demand the

addition

of

flutes,

trumpet

and

serpent.

At

first

only

the

footguards,

Royal

Artillery,

and

some

other

corps

d'dlite

appear

to have

possessed

bands,

but

in

the last

years

of

the

century

the

numbers

were

very

largely

increased. This is shown

by

the number of extant

instruments.

To

the best of

my knowledge

no

clarinet

of

English

manufacture exists

which

can

be dated

before

I775;

there are

very

few

belonging

to the

period

I775-85,

but

after

this

date

numbers of

five

and

six-keyed

instru-

ments

survive.

In

addition

to

popularising

the

clarinet,

military

bands

discharged

two

other

important

functions.

They

provided

a

valuable

training

school for

players

and a reservoir of

trained performers. The Footguards, in particular the

Coldstreams,

Eley's

East

India

Company's

Volunteer

Band,

as

well

as the

numerous militia

bands,

were

pre-eminent

in

this

respect,

and

many

of

the

clarinettists

with

whom

we

shall

presently

deal received

their

training

as

military

musicians.

So

far

our

clarinettists have

been

Germans,

double-

handed

performers,

or

at

best

converted

oboists.

We now

have

to

deal

with two British

born

musicians,

professional

clarinettists in the moder sense of the word. They are

John

and

William

Mahon,

members of

a

remarkably gifted

family,

resident

in

Oxford

in

the latter

half

of the

eighteenth

century.

The

parents

must

have

had

some

close

connection

with

the

Music

Room,

as

the

whole

family

seems

to have

taken

part

in

the

performances

held

therein. In

addition

to

John

and

William

(born

in

1746

and

1750)

there

were

five

daughters,

all

gifted

with

exceptional

voices.

At

least

two

of

them,

Mrs.

Ambrose

and

Mrs.

Second,

attained

considerable

eminence

as

public

singers,

and a

niece,

Mrs.

Munday, afterwards Mrs. Salmon, won enormous success

as a

festival

and

oratorio

singer

in

the

first

quarter

of

the

nineteenth

century.

From

November,

I772,

down

to

the

summer

of

1784

clarinet

concertos

figured

frequently

in

Oxford

programmes,

and in

1774

we

hear

of

a

symphony

with

clarinets

by

Gossec. It

is

unfortunately

quite

impossible

to

disentangle

the

activities

of the

brothers.

59







The Clarinet in

England

From

1773

to I81I or

later a Mr.

Mahon

took

part

in

the Three Choirs Festival; from I778 to I823 in the

Birmingham

and

other

provincial

festivals.

William Mahon

died

in

i816,

aged

65.

The Gentleman's

Magazine

speaks

of

him

as an

ornament

to the musical

profession,

as

leader of

the

concerts

in

Salisbury

for

thirty

years,

and esteemed

the

first

performer

on

the

clarinet

in

England.

He

played

at

the

Opera

House

and,

apparently,

in

the Philharmonic

Orchestra

for

the

first

three

years

of

its

existence.

He

was

also

a

fine

violinist. His

brother

John

survived

till

I834,

his last years being spent in Dublin. He was no doubt a

fine

player

and

a

good

musician,

a

composer

too,

for

a

song

Hope,

Thou

Cheerful

Ray

of

Light

was

introduced

by

him

into Shield's

opera

The

Woodman

at

Covent Garden

in

I796

and

sung by

Mrs.

Second,

his

sister. The feature

of

it

was

a

clarinet

obbligato

and no doubt he was

the

Mr.

Mahon

who,

according

to

Parke,

played

it

so

finely.

In

1803

he

compiled

a

New and

Complete Preceptor

for

the

Clarinet.2 This

was

not

the first

English

tutor,

for

several

had

appeared

during

the

last

twenty years

of

the

previous

century. These were, however, jejune, anonymous affairs,

collections

of

easy

tunes,

only

redeemed

from

insignificance

by

their

engraved frontispieces.

Mahon's

was

a

more

ambitious

work,

a

quarto

of

more

than

sixty

pages.

In

it

he

gives

tables

of

fingerings

for

the

five-keyed

clarinet,

which

presumably

he

played

himself,

and for

a

seven-keyed

Clara Voce

or Corno Bassetta.

The basset horn

is

of

the double-curved

variety,

which

was

in

vogue

both here

and on

the

continent

till

the

nineteenth

century

was well

advanced. He gives, too, transposition tables for clarinets

in

D,

which he

describes

as

good

for

noisy

music,

C,

B

, Bb,

and

A.

Longman

&

Broderip's

Clarinet

Instructor

of circa

I780

and Bland

& Weller's

New and

Compleat

Instructions

of

I798 give

tables

for

C and

Bb

clarinets

only.

The

opening

years

of

the

nineteenth

century

call

for

little comment.

The

clarinet

was

strengthening

its

position

2

This tutor

only

came

to the

notice of

the writer

after

this

paper

had been read; its existence was entirely unknown. The publishers

were

Goulding,

Phipps

and

D'Almaine.

The

basset

horn

was,

like

the

early

cor

anglais,

bent

in the middle for convenience

in

playing.

A

good specimen

of this

model

by

Cramer of

London

may

be seen in the

Victoria

and Albert

Museum.

A

later

specimen

by

Key

in the

writer's

possession,

made

between

I825-40,

is

entirely

straight

except

for

a

slightly

bent

crook

to

carry

the

mouthpiece.

Mahon's corno

bassetta

descended

to

low C

sounding

F,

but

lacked

the two

lowest

semitones

Eb

and

Db.

6o







The

Clarinet in

England

as

a member

of

the

orchestra,

and more

players

were

becoming available. The leading professionals were still

the

Mahons,

John

and

William.

Both

were connected

with

Covent

Garden,

and William

was

occasionally

called

on

for

a

concerto

between

the acts

of a Lenten

oratorio.

A

Mahon

too,

as

we

have

seen,

was

usually

found as

principal

in

the

orchestras

at

provincial

festivals,

the number

of

which

was

increasing.

A

curious

feature

of

the

orchestra

at

Covent

Garden

in

I8oI

was

the

presence

of two corni

di

bassetto.

They

appeared

not

only

in

the first

performance

of

Mozart's

Requiem,

but

also

in

Acis

and

Galatea,

Messiah

and the Creation.

They

were

played

by

Munro and Leffler

junior.

It was

not

the

first

appearance

of the

basset

horn

in

London,

for in

I789

Messrs.

David and

Springer,

two

well-known

itinerant

virtuosi had

given

most

finished

performances

upon

them.

They

were then described

as

novel

instruments to

this

country.

The

programme

of

the

Salomon

concert of

April

ist,

I791,

also contained a

concerto for corno

di

bassetto. The

player

of

it

is unknown.

The

clarinettists

at

Covent

Garden

during

the

early

I8oo's were Leffler and Gwillam. Subsequently Edward

Hopkins

became

principal.

Hopkins (I778-1869)

was

bandmaster

of the

Scots

Guards and

went

with

them

to

Paris in

I8I

5.

He

was

one

of the

greatest

players

of the

day,

and,

in

addition

to other

duties,

was

musical

director

of

Vauxhall.

Like

many

early

clarinettists he excelled

in

obbligati

and

accompanied

Catalani in

Guglielmi's

Gratias

Agimus

and

Braham

in

Mozart's

Parto. He was

the father

of

three

musicians

and

grandfather

of Edward

Lloyd,

the

famous tenor.

For

the

purpose

of our

chronicle

the nineteenth

century

divides

itself

very

roughly

into

two

periods,

fifty

years

of

progress,

fifty

years

of

comparative

stagnation,

with

a

brief

revival

of

interest

in the

clarinet in

the

'go's.

The

years

I

8oo

to

I850

were

the

golden

age

of wind

instrument

playing.

A

concert,

whether

metropolitan

or

provincial,

was

not

con-

sidered

complete

without

some

form

of

wind

music;

if

not

a

concerto,

then

an

obbligato

to

support

a

fashionable

soprano,

preferably

with

a

double

cadenza.

It

was

also

an

age of itinerant virtuosi; Europe seemed to provide an

unlimited

supply

of

flautists,

oboists,

fagottists,

basset

hornists

and

clarinettists,

and

these

musicians were

listened

to

as

attentively

and

criticised

as

thoroughly

as

contemporary

singers,

pianists

and

violinists.

In

the

'fifties

the interest

seems

already

on

the

wane;

wind

concertos vanish from

programmes;

obbligati

get

fewer

and

fewer

and

eventually







The Clarinet

in

England

disappear,

and

the

wind

player

is

relegated

to the

position

of inferiority in public estimation he has occupied till quite

recently.

And

now

a

few

words about

the

clarinet

itself

to fill

out

the

very

brief

account

already

given.

In

80ooit

was still

a

very

primitive

instrument

in

spite

of

the

eight

or ten

keys

it

had

acquired.

This was

due to

the

clumsiness

and

unreliability

of

the

mechanism.

In

I8I2

Iwan

Miiller

an

itinerant

Russian

virtuoso,

entirely

remodelled

the instru-

ment with

the

help

of

the

Paris

maker, Gentellet,

raising

the number of keys to thirteen. Theoretically, the clarinet

was

now

much

improved,

even

omnitonique,

but

practically

the

mechanism

was

still

defective,

and

some

thirty

years

or

more

had still

to

elapse

before

it

could be considered

reliable.

This

reliability

coupled

with

general

excellence

of

workmanship

was contributed

by

E.

Albert of

Brussels,

and

his instruments

were those

specially

favoured

by

English

players

during

the

second

half

of

the

century.

During

the

first

half-century

London makers3

supplied

the

English

market,

thirteen-keyed

clarinets

for

soloists,

six to

ten-keyed instruments for the bulk of regimental and

militia

bands,

and

church musicians.

They

were

small-

bored,

slender

instruments of

yellow

boxwood,

with

thin

tapering

mouthpieces.

The

reed,

attached

by

twine,

was

little

more than

half

the

size of

the

modern

reed

and

rested

against

the

upper

lip

in

playing.4

The tone

in the

bottom

register

was

weak

and

unresonant,

but not

unpleasing

in

the

upper

from treble C

up.

Till the time of

Albert the

intonation

was

very

defective,

but

again

better

in the

upper

than in the lower register. The general appearance of the

early

instrument

is

shown

fairly clearly

in

Zoffany's

picture

of

the

Sharp family.

It

is

regrettable

to have

to

add

that

English

makers

contributed little

or

nothing

to

the

3The

best-known London makers

were:

I775-I8oo,

Collier,

Miller,

Cahusac;

i800-5o,

Key,

Cramer,

James

and

George

Wood,

Bilton,

Monzani,

Clementi,

Prowse,

Ward.

Mahillon

f Brussels

lso

supplied

many

instrumentso the

English

market.

His instruments

wereconsidered

ittle

inferior o

these

of

Albert,

and weremuch

used

by militarymusicians.

4

It

is

difficult

o

say

when

the

practice

f

resting

he

reed

against

the

upper ip

was discontinued

n

England.

John

Hopkinson

n his

New and

Complete receptoror

the

Clarinet,

ublished

n the

I840's,

states:

Foreigners

lay

with

it

[the

reed]

downwards,

he

contrary

is

practised

n

England.

Fetis

ascribedhe

superiority

n

tone of the

German chool

over

the

French

o

the German

ractice

f

playing

with

the reed

downwards. Berr

introduced

he

German

method nto the

Paris

Conservatoire n

I831.

62







The

Clarinet

in

England

amelioration

of the clarinet.

One

Gutteridge,5

a

retired

bandmaster

of

Cork,

contrived

an

ingenious system

in

the

1820's,

but it came to nothing, being too advanced for the

makers and

players

of

the

day.

I843

is

an

important

date

in clarinet

history.

In

this

year

some of

Boehm's

ideas,

already

applied

to the

flute,

were

applied

to the

clarinet

by

the

French

virtuoso

Klose,

and

the

Paris

maker,

Buffet.

The

mechanism

of the

new

instrument

was

so

ingeniously

contrived

that it has

survived

without

any

major

alteration

to

the

present day. To-day

it

is

used

by

the

majority

of

players,

and its use

is

all

but

obligatory

in

colleges

of

music.

It

is

satisfactory to be able to record that British makers after a

long period

of

somnolence at

last awoke to its

advantages,

and

at

the

present

time

make

this

model

better

than

any-

body

else.

It

was,

however,

not

till the

I890's

that

the

advantages

of the

Boehm

system

began

to

be

recognised

in

this

country.

This was

due in

no

small

measure

to

the

excellence of

Albert's

Belgian

instruments,

although

the

innate

conservatism of

wind

players

must also

be taken

into

account.

Tonally

there

has been

less

change

than

might

have been

expected. A general widening of the bore and an increase

in

the

dimensions of

the reed

and

mouthpiece

have

made

the tone

of the

chalumeau

fuller

and

freer,

but

have effected

the

upper

registers

considerably

less.

The

foundation of

the

Philharmonic

Society

in

I8I3

may

be

taken to mark

roughly

the

end

of

the

primitive

and

beginning

of

the

middle

period

in

British

clarinet

playing.

It

marks, too,

the

beginning

of

a

higher

standard

of

music

performed.

The

concertos

performed

by

the

Mahons

were no doubt of their own composing, but soon the works

of

Mozart, Weber,

and

Spohr

were

to

have

a

hearing.

The

clarinettists

of

the new

Society

were

Mahon,

Oliver

and

Kramer.

Histories

and

programmes

of

the

Society supply

no

christian

name for

Mahon,

but as

he did

not

play

after

the

I815

season,

it

may

have

been

William,

who died

as we

know

in I816.

Christian

Kramer

was

a

well-known

player,

more

celebrated

possibly

as

master

of

George

IV's

private

band

than as

a

soloist.

He

was

capable

of

playing

all

the

instruments

himself

and

brought

his team

of

forty-two

to

5

William

Gutteridge

was

bandmaster

of

the

Wiltshire

Regiment.

He

proposed

his

modifications as

early

as I

813,

but the

execution

of

them

was

delayed

by

the

ordering

of

his

regiment

to

Spain.

He

wrote

a

tutor

for

his

patent

clarinet

in

1824.

His

improved

instruments

were

made

by

Clementi. A

specimen

is

preserved

at

the

Royal

College

of

Music.

6

Vol. 68

63







The

Clarinet in

England

a

state cf

the

greatest

perfection.6

Why

the other Mahon

was not brought in we cannot say. Possibly he was already

too old. The wind

players

got

quickly

off the

mark,

per-

forming

in the first

season

alone

a

serenade,

a

notturno,

and

a

full

piece

of

Mozart,

and

Beethoven's

Septet.

In

the

latter

Kramer

took

the

clarinet

part.

In

I8I6

the

name

of Iwan

Muller

appears, playing

in

Beethoven's

Septet,

an

octet

by

Ries,

and

a

quartet

of his

own

composition.

This

was the Russian

virtuoso

already

alluded to

as

an

improver

of

the

clarinet,

who

spent

half his

life

touring

Europe.

He

was a fine player no doubt, but probably inferior in taste

and

style

to

Barmann who

followed

him

some two

years

later.

To-day

he

is

remembered

only

for his reformation

of the clarinet.

Whether

the Philharmonic

engaged

him

for

the

season while

searching

for

a

permanent

player

is not

clear. In

I819

came

Heinrich

Barmann of

Munich,

the

close friend of

Weber,

who

described

him

a

truly

great

artist

and

a

glorious

man,

of

Meyerbeer

and

of

Mendelssohn.

He

played

a

fantasia of his own

composing

and

took

part

in

a

septet

also

of his own for

clarinet,

strings

and

horns.

He played, too, at the Lenten oratorios at Covent Garden.

But

evidently

his

reception

in

London

was less cordial

than

in

Paris

and his

influence

correspondingly

less. His com-

positions,

like

Muller's,

have more

educative value than

interest,

and

no doubt some

Weber7

would

have

pleased

his

audiences better.

Evidently

Willman did not

shrink

from

comparison

with

him,

since

we find him

some

weeks

later

at the

Philharmonic

playing

in

Beethoven's

Septet

and wind

Quintet.

It

is time to

say something

about

this

great English player.

To

say

Willman

was

the first

great English

clarinettist

is

possibly

unfair

to

the

Mahons,

but

of his

remarkable

talents

there

is no

doubt.

Obscurity

surrounds

the date

and

place

of

his birth.

He was

according

to Grove

the

son of

a

German

who settled

in

England

in

the second half of the

eighteenth

century

and

became

a

bandmaster.

Possibly

the father

is

to be

identified

with

the

John

Willman

who

composed

songs

6

The band numbered forty-two musicians; two corni di bassetto,

two

serpents

and

four bass trombones

were

included.

Eisert was

a

brilliant first clarinet.

7

Stohwasser

played

Weber's Concertino at

the

Reading

Festival in

this

year.

It

was

written

for

Barmann

in

I8I1

.

A

Stohwasser

preceded

Willman

as

professor

of the

clarinet

at the

Royal

Academy.

The

Concertino

is

still

one of the

most effective items

in the

clarinettist's

repertoire,

and has been

brilliantly

recorded

by

Charles

Draper,

Reginald

Kell,

and several

others.

64







The

Clarinet

in

England

for Irish Volunteers

in the

I780's

and described

himself as

of

the 4th Horse. The son, Thomas Lindsay, was probably

born

early

in the

I780's,

and no doubt studied at

first

under

his father.

Subsequently

he became a

pupil

of

the

famous

Christopher

Eley,

who came

to

England

about

1783

in

charge

of

a

regularly

attested band of

twelve

musicians,

recruited

in Hanover

for the Coldstream Guards.

Eley

was also bandmaster

of

the East

India

Company's

Volunteer

Band

and

it was

probably

in

this once

famous

organisation

that

Willman,

together

with

Harper

the

trumpeter, gained

his

experience.

In

1817

he

became

principal

in the

Philharmonic,

holding

the

post

till

I839,

and

dying

in

the

following

year.

He

was also bandmaster

of

the

Coldstreams,

resigning, possibly

owing

to

pressure

of

work,

in

1825.

He was

principal

clarinet

at the

King's

Theatre

and at

every

provincial

musical

festival

large

or

small

ranging

from

Edinburgh

and

Dublin to Bristol.

He

was,

with Robert

Lindley,

the

cellist,

Dragonetti,

the

bassist,

and

Harper

the

trumpeter,

one

of the

draws of

the

festivals,

and

bitter

complaints

were

expressed

in the

musical press when local patriotism displaced him one

year

at

Hereford and

parsimony

another

at

Norwich.

He

excelled in concerto

and

obbligato

playing.

During

his

twenty-three

years

with the

Philharmonic he

appeared

ten

times as

soloist,

twenty-two

times

in

obbligati

and

thirty

times

in

chamber

music,

then

permitted

at

these concerts.

He

played

in

addition

to

some

humdrum

compositions

by

Barmann,

concertos

by

Weber,

Spohr

(No.

i)

and Mozart.

The

latter,

played

in

I838,

it

is

interesting

to

note,

was

regarded

as

a

trivial

work, possibly spurious,

and

a

product

of

the

laboratory

of Mr.

Andre. The

obbligati

played

were those

to

Parto and Non

piu

di

fiori

by

Mozart,

both

sung

many

times,

and to

works

by

Paer and

Sacchini.

The

chamber

music included

the

Septet

of

Beethoven,

the

Octet

and Nonet of

Spohr,

the

Mozart wind and

clarinet

quintets.

At

provincial

musical

festivals the standard

of

music

was

lower,

and

here

Willman did

not

disdain to

play

down to

his

audience

in

such items

as

Bochsa's

Variations on

Cease

your

Funning

for basset

horn,

and

in

the

celebrated

accom-

paniment to Guglielmi's Gratias Agimus. No festival for

some

thirty

or

forty

years

was

complete

without

this

piece

of

bravura. And what

sort of

player

was

he

we

may

ask.

A

very

fine

one,

if we

may

trust the

critics

of the

Harmonicon,

Musical

World

and

Atheneum,

who are

invariably

almost

fulsome

in

their

praise.

His

special

virtues would

seem

to

have been

charm

of

style,

a

fine

tone,

65







See

p.

65,

et

seq.







66

The

Clarinet

in

England

and

great

expressiveness,

especially

in

obbligati.

Not

infrequently the singer-and singers could sing in those

days-is

condemned

in

no measured

terms,

while

the

accompanist,

in

contrast,

is

handsomely

complimented.

No

doubt Willman

was

a

popular

idol,

and

we

might

suspect

the

critics of

partiality

or

insular

prejudice

were

it not

for

the

testimony

of two

foreign

musicians,

Fetis

and Mendels-

sohn.

Fetis

spent

three

months

in

England

in

I828

and

criticised

English

musicians

with

considerable

severity.

Of

the wind

players

Willman

almost alone is

praised

unreservedly by Fetis who admitted he had never heard an

equivocal

sound issue

from

his clarinet.

Then

Mendelssohn

in

a

letter

to

his

old

friend Heinrich

Barmann,

possibly

contemplating

another visit

to

England,

warns

him

of the

popularity

of

Willman,

who is all

in

all to

his

English

audiences.

Again,

would

singers

of

the eminence

of

Catalani,

Sontag,

Malibran, Grisi,

Mrs. Salmon

and

the

rest

have tolerated

anything

but

a

highly

skilled

and

artistic

accompaniment

to

their roulades

?

His

associa-

tion with Mrs.

Salmon8 was

specially

successful.

This

lady

was the leading English soprano of the period. According

to

the

singer

Henry

Phillips

her voice

was

rich

and

full

like

the

clarinet,

and when

Willman

accompanied

her

it was

difficult

at times to

distinguish

the voice from

the

instru-

ment.

Is it fanciful to

suppose

that

the

quality

of

her

voice

was

influenced

by

the

clarinets

of

her

two

uncles,

the

Mahons

?

Another successful

association

was

with

Malibran

whom

he

accompanied

many

times

in her

favourite

Non

piu

di

fiori.

In addition to the clarinet and basset horn, Willman also

played

the bass

clarinet,

and was

possibly

the

first

English-

man

to do

so.

George

Wood,

one of the cleverer

London

makers,

had

produced

such an instrument in

I833.

He

accompanied

Mrs. Shaw

in a

solo

specially

written

by

the

Chevalier

Neukomm

for her and for

his

bass

clarone,

as

the

instrument

was

then

called,

several

times

in

1836.

I

have

stressed

the

popularity

of clarinet

obbligati

to

draw

attention

to their entire

neglect

in the

present day.

How often does a present day audience hear those two fine

arias

Parto

or Non

piu

di

fiori,

or

Schubert's

Der

Hirt

auf

dem

8

Eliza Salmon,

nde

Munday

(1784?-I849)

made her

debut

in

I803

and

retired

in

i825.

One of her aunts,

Mrs.

Second,

according

to

Parke,

sang

up

to

F

in alt with ease,

and was considered

inferior

only

to

Mrs.

Billington.

Another,

Mrs. Ambrose,

sang

at the Three

Choirs

and

other

festivals.

Three others

also had

fine

voices.







The

Clarinet

in

England

Felsen

?

The clarinet

never

shows to

better

advantage

than

in accompanying a first rate singer.9 It is not suggested

that the

modern

composer

should

turn

to

obbligato writing,

but the occasional

performance

of

some

of

the old

favourites

might

not

come

amiss;

and

for

students,

both

singers

and

clarinettists,

I

cannot

imagine

a

better

or

more

salutary

discipline.

Of Willman

as an orchestral

player

we

have

less informa-

tion.

He

shone

especially,

as

might

be

expected,

in

Mozart's

EF

Symphony,

where he

introduced the

practice

of

playing

the

first

time of the

trio of the minuet forte, the repeat

double

piano.

As

a

bandmaster

his influence was

very

great.

An

anonymous

writer

some

forty

or

more

years

ago

asserted

that clarinet

tone

was in

general goosey

-an

ominous

word-at

this

period,

but

that

the

tone

of

the

Coldstreams

was

true and

refined. A modern

historian of

this band

writes:

With

the

appointment

of

the latter

[Willman]

the

Coldstreams

began

to

lay

the foundation of

their

fame

.

.

.

Under

him

the band

became

a

veritable

school

for clarinet

playing.

Out of

it came

Henry

Lazarus,

the famous clarinet virtuoso. Even to-day this band is

noted

for its fine

clarinet

playing;

indeed

it

would

seem

that

the

hand of Willman

is

still

upon

it.

Eminent

per-

formers

like

Pollard,

Maycock,

Burton

and

Thomas

were

all

Coldstreamers. Of the

players

mentioned we

shall

.notice

Lazarus

and

Maycock

presently.

A tribute is

due,

I

think,

to

the

toughness

of these

early

wind

instrumentalists.

To

play

a

concerto on the

clarinet

is

even

to-day

a

ticklish

job,

as so

many

small

mechanical

troubles may supervene. To play it on the primitive instru-

ment

then available after a

fatiguing

and

occasionally

dangerous

coach

journey

of

many

hours

must

have

required

nerve and

courage

of

a

high

order.

During

the

festival

season in the autumn

of

each

year

the

leading

London

pro-

fessionals

formed

a

sort of

travelling

circus,

travelling

from

city

to

city, staying

four

days

in

each,

and

giving

seven

lengthy

concerts

in

cathedral

and shire

hall.

Mrs.

Salmon

sometimes travelled

300

to

400

miles

in

a

week

giving

a

concert

every evening.

And

accidents were

not

unknown.

9

GeorgeHogarthwriting

n the

MusicalWorld

bout

Willman,

ays

He

peculiarly

xcels

in

playing

obligato

accompaniments

.

.

and

those who

have listened with

delight

to

Gratias

agimus,

Parto,

Non

piu

di

fiori sung

by

one

of

our

first

vocalists,

and

accompanied

y

him,

cannotbut have remarked

he

exquisite

skill

withwhich

he

develops

the beauties

f

hisown

nstrument,

hile,

at

the

same

ime,

he

strengthens

instead

of

impairing,

he

expression

nd

effectof the

voice.

67







The

Clarinet

in

England

Lindley

was

once

at

least

thrown out of

his

coach,

cello

and

all. Harper, the trumpeter, was severely injured in the leg

when

the

express

coach

Mazeppa

overturned

when

taking

him

to the Gloucester

Festival. He was

not,

how-

ever,

to be

deterred

from

playing

his famous

obbligato

to

Let

the

bright

Seraphim

with

his usual brilliance.

In

the

concert

hall itself

things

were

not

always

what

they

should

have

been.

Readers of

Spohr's

Autobiography

will

no

doubt

remember

the concert hall at

Glogau,

the basement

a

shambles,

and the first floor

a

theatre;

they

will

remember,

too, the showers of dust, cherry stones, and apple peelings

which

descended

on the musicians and audience

beneath,

when

a

trap

door

in the

ceiling

of the

concert

hall

was

inadvertently

opened.

They may

remember,

too,

his

account

of

a

nightmare

concert near

Hamburg.

Here

is

an

excerpt

from

it,

describing

a

mishap

to

a

clarinet

concerto,

only

one

of several

untoward

incidents,

and not made

the

less

vivid

by

the

naive

language

of

the

German translator:

Hermstedtlo

now followed

with a

difficult

composition

of

mine.

He,

emboldened

now to

rashness

by

the fumes

of

the champaign [sic] had screwed on a new and untried

plate

[reed]

to

the

mouthpiece

of

his

clarinet,

and

even

spoke

vauntingly

of

it

to

me

as

I

mounted

the

platform.

I

immediately anticipated

no

good

from

it. The solo of

my

composition

began

with a

long

sustained

note,

which

Hermstedt

pitched

almost

inaudibly

and

by degrees

increased

to enormous

power.

This

time he

began

also

in

the

same

way,

but

just

as he

was about

to increase

to

the

highest power,

the

plate

twisted

and

gave

out

a

mis-tone,

resembling the shrill cry of a goose. The public laughed,

and

the now

suddenly

sobered virtuoso

turned

deadly

pale

with horror. He nevertheless soon

recovered

himself,

and

executed

the

remainder

with his

accustomed

brilliancy.

And

then

there is

Berlioz's

story

of

la

grande

clarinette,

W.

and his

unfinished

concerto.

I will

not

bore

you

by quoting

from

it,

but

would

recommend

those unfamiliar with

the

story

to

read it in the

racy

original

of

Les

Grotesques

de

la

Musique.

So much

by way

of

interlude.

Far

be it from

me to

suggest that such incidents were of frequent occurrence,

but

curious

things

could

happen

in

concert halls even

in

this

country.

At

one Norwich Festival

Lindley played

a

cello

o?Johann

Simon

Hermstedt

(I778-I846)

was

Kapellmeister

of

the

Ducal

Orchestra

at

Sondershausen. He was

a

personal

friend

of

Spohr

who wrote four

concertos

for him.

68







The

Clarinet

in

England

concerto

with

an

umbrella

held

over

his

head to

protect

him from the rain pouring through the roof of St. Andrew's

Hall. But the

extravagant

fees

demanded

by

foreign

singers,

their

vanity,

their

greed

for

applause,

their

unpunctuality

in

fulfilling

engagements,

their

fondness

for

unmeaning

cadenzas

and

ornaments,

are

among

the

chief

subjects

of criticism. The

instrumentalist as

a

rule

gets

away

with

it.

Willman,

as we have

seen,

was

acquitted

by

Fetis of

emitting

sons

douteux,

equivocal

sounds

as

his

translator

euphemistically

renders

it,

and

only

his

execution

comes in

for

occasional

criticism.

Thus

he

appears

to

have

found

Spohr's

first concerto

heavy

going,

and the

high

Ab

in the

Romanza

of

Weber's

second

a

definite

poser,

but

here

his

kindly

critic

finds

an excuse

in

the

heat

of

the

concert room.

Again,

this

is what

he

says

of

Willman's

playing

of

Beer's

Fantasia

at

the Norwich

Festival

of

1836:

The

performance

could not fail to

captivate

the

least

cultivated

admirer of

the

art;

and

such

are

the

languishing

and

voluptuous

tones which

this

fine

player

produces

that

we

can

readily

give

credence to the

observation

attributed

to Spohr-that he devoutly wished he had studied the

clarinet

in

preference

to the violin.

The

concerto

was,

however,

better

played

at the

rehearsal;

so

much

depends

upon

the

reed,

the

temperature

of

the

room,

and

the

ease

and

repose

of the

performer,

that

this

is

a

circumstance,

which,

with

us,

excited no

surprise.

An

unusually

kindly

critic

for

the

period.

Willman

died late in

I840,

his end

accelerated

by

his

exertions

at the numerous

autumn

festivals.

In

preparing

its readers for

the inevitable

demise of their favourite the

Musical World

points

out that

there are

now

other

talented

performers

available,

among

them

the

Messrs.

Williams,

Bowley,

Dean,

and Lazarus. Of

these

Williams,

and

Lazarus

in

particular,

merit

more

extended

notice.

Before

passing

on, however,

it

may

be as well

to

glance

very

briefly

at

the

provinces.

Oxford,

as

we have

seen,

was

a

centre of

clarinet

playing

in

the last

quarter

of

the

eighteenth

century,

and not an

isolated

centre,

since

we

find

a Mr.

Wright

playing

a

clarinet

concerto

at

Durham

in I792, and at Cambridge Pieter Hellendaal made fairly

frequent

appearances

as

a

clarinet

virtuoso

just

before

and

just

after

the

turn of

the

century.

An

intensive

search

of

local

newspapers

might

reveal other

such

examples.

The

general

tendency

was, however,

for

provincial players

of

real

talent to

migrate

to

London.

This was the

case

with

the

Mahons

of

Oxford and

with

Joseph

Williams

of

69







The Clarinet

in

England

Hereford,

whom

we

shall

presently

consider.

As a

general

rule London provided the principals for local festivals.

For

the first

forty

years

of

the

nineteenth

century

these

were

the

Mahons,

John

and

William,

Willman and

Powell,

occasionally

Williams

and

Egerton

Senior,

to

be

followed

later

by

Lazarus,

Maycock

and

Julian

Egerton.

The

principals

were

on

occasion

supplemented

to

the

number

of

four

or six

at

big

festivals

by

local

talent.

Thus

at

Derby

in

I83I

Willman

and Powell had

Irving

and

Woodward

as

colleagues,

and

at Dublin

in the

same

year

Willman

was

supported by

three

Dubliners in

Halliday,

Norton

and

Tighe.

Occasionally

the

great

men are

dispensed

with

entirely.

Thus

at

Reading

in

I819

the

clarinets

were

Stohwasser,

who

played

the

Weber

Concertino,

and

Pickworth.

A

year

or

two

later

Willman

was called in

as

principal,

but

is

replaced

by

Middleton,

a

local

player,

at

a

later

festival.

This, however,

is

exceptional,

and

may

have been

done

to save

money.

Other

well-known

local

players

were

Hervey

of

Bath and

Bristol

and Leonard

of

Liverpool,

both

considered

little inferior

to

Willman.

Manchester seems to have been self-supporting from about

I850.

At

the

festival of

I836

Willman

and-Powell have two

local

players

in

Blomiley

and

Glover

to

support

them.

Rather

later

H. P.

Sorge

takes

his

place

as

a

prominent player

and

soloist;

he

in turn

yields

to a

German,

F.

W.

Grosse,

who

settled

in

Manchester

in

the

early

I850's, becoming

principal

in

the

Halle orchestra

in

1858,

a

position

he held

till

his

death

in

1887.

In

i855

there

was

a

contest for

clarionet

bands

at Belle

Vue,

when

eight

bands

com-

peted.

The test

pieces

were

Semiramide

Overture and

the

finale of Beethoven's C minor

Symphony.

The

experiment

was

not

apparently

repeated,

and,

although

the

North has

produced

some

fine

clarinettists,

interest

has

for

long

been

mainly

centred

in

brass bands.

Joseph

Williams was

a

younger

contemporary

of

Willman.

A

native

of

Hereford,

he

was born in

I795

and

died

in

I875.

He was

a violinist

and

pianist,

as

well

as

clarinettist and

composer.

In

1837

he

was

appointed

leader

of the

Queen's

Private

Band,

with

the

veteran

Eisert as

second,

and

became subsequently a director of the Philharmonic. His

earlier

career

appears

to

have

been

rather

overshadowed

by

the

superior

popularity

of

Willman,

whom he

occasionally

replaced

at festivals

much to the

indignation

of

the

critics,

his later

career

by

the brilliance of

Lazarus and

of

various

foreign

virtuosi.

He succeeded

Willman as

principal

at

the

Philharmonic

in

I840,

and

appeared

fairly frequently

when

70







The Clarinet

in

England

basset

horn

and clarinet

obbligati

were

needed,

also in

wind

chamber music. The critic of the Musical World comparing

a Paris

performance

of the Mozart

Eb

Symphony

in

I852

with

that

of

the Philharmonic

speaks

of the

exquisite

playing

of Williams and

Lazarus. He was

not

without

merit

as

a

composer.

He

played

a

concerto of

his own

at

the Hereford

festival

in

I819,

and

was the

compiler

of

the

first

satisfactory

tutor

for

his instrument

to

be

published

in

this

country.

According

to

the

Musical World

he

had

the

parts

of

the

Mozart

clarinet concerto

in

his

possession

for

twenty years

before Willman

played

it in

I838.Before

passing

on to Lazarus it

may

be as well to notice

some of

the

foreign

virtuosi

who

visited

England

between

I836

and

1850.

Here

are

some

of

them.

Liverani,

Itjen,

Blaes,

Beerhalter,

Cavallini,

Meyer,

Belletti.

The

number

of them

indicates the

popularity

of

the clarinet

at

this

period.

Only

two

of

them,

Blaes and

Cavallini,

merit attention.

Joseph

Blaes

paid

two

visits,

in

I841

and

I845.

He was

a

pupil

of

Bachmann

at the

Brussels conservatoire

and from

all

accounts

a

most

finished and

artistic

player.

Whether

he had any influence cannot now be determined, but any

influence

he

exerted would

have been for

good,

since his

principal

characteristic was

delicacy

of

style.

He

played

a

concerto

by

Hanssens at the

Philharmonic,

poor

stuff

according

to the

critics.

Cavallini

was

a

player

of

an

entirely

different

type,

bold,

impetuous

and

dashing.

His

volubility

was

such that he

was

at

once known

as the

Paganini

of

the

clarinet. But

he had

few

gifts

apart

from

prodigious

execution. He

played

on

an

instrument

primitive

even

for

those

days,

and

was

in

consequence vastly

inferior

in tone

and intonation to the best

English

players.

He

played

twice at

the

Philharmonic

in

I842

and

I845,

choosing

fantasias

of

his

own

composition.

Objections

were

raised

by

the

Directors to

his

choice,

but

he declined

with

spirit

to

play

anything

else and

in

the

end

won the

day.

The

probability

is

that

the

bulk

of these

foreign

artists

were in

no

respect

superior

to

their

English contemporaries,

certainly

not

to Lazarus.

That

is

if we are to believe

the

critics;

for

the

curious

English

habit

of self

depreciation

had not yet come into vogue. To most music lovers,

certainly

to those

of

a

past

generation,

Henry

Lazarus

was

the

clarinettist

par

excellence.

His

special importance

lies,

Written

before

Mahon's

tutor

came to

the writer's

notice.

Williams's

work

is

of

a

more

substantial

and

modern

nature and

incor-

porates

many

exercises

from

Klose's

Boehm

clarinet

tutor

of

I844.

Williams

used

a

thirteen-keyed

instrument.

7I







The Clarinet

in

England

I

think,

in

forming

a

link

between the older

and the

modern

schools, between Willman and Charles Draper. His

career was

extraordinarily long,

all

but

sixty years,

from

1835

to

I892.

He

was

coming

to

the

front

just

when

the

clarinet

had

reached

its

height

of

popularity;

he saw this

popularity

decline

and

saw the

wind

instrumentalist

finally

relegated

to

the

position

of

inferiority

from

which

he has

only

lately

emerged.

It is

a

tribute to

his

great

abilities

that he

kept

some interest

in his instrument

alive

in

a

period

of dullness

and

depression.

He was

born in

I815,

the son

of

a

private

soldier, was trained under Blizzard

at

the

Duke of

York's,

and

under the elder

Godfrey

in

the Coldstreams.

His earliest

instrument seems

to

have

been

the now

forgotten

Alto

Fagotto,12

in all essentials

a

wooden

saxophone,

but he soon

devoted himself

to

the clarinet.

He

made

his concert debut

in

I835

and

gave

his official

farewell concert

in

1892,

but he

con-

tined

playing

in

charity

concerts

almost

up

to his death

in

I895.

It would be

tedious

to enumerate

all

the

positions

he

held,

but

here

are some of

them.

Starting

his career

as

second to

Willman

at

the

Sacred

Harmonic,

he

succeeded

him as principal at the Opera in

I840.

For more than thirty

years

he was

in

the

Philharmonic;

he

was

engaged

at the

Birmingham

Festival

from

I840

to

I885,

and

appeared

at

most

of

the

other

provincial

meetings.

For

many years

he

was

professor

at

the

Royal

Academy,

and

from

I858

at

Kneller

Hall.

These

were

his more

important

public

engagements,

but

his services

to chamber

music

were

equally

important.

He

was

frequently

engaged

to

play

at

Ella's Musical Union

concerts,

which

began

in

I845,

and

later at the Popular Concerts in St. James's Hall. In I855

he

founded the

Anemoic

Society

for

the

performance

of

wind

chamber music. It

was in

music

of

this

intimate

nature

that

his

qualities

were

most

clearly

shown.

These

were fine

tone,

good

style,

and

masterly

phrasing.

Friends

of an older

generation

have often

told

me of his classic

performance

in his

especial

favourites,

Mozart's

clarinet

Quintet

and

the

Beethoven

Septet.

In

his earlier

days

he

12Alto Fagotto. This was the invention of a Scot, William Meikle,

and

was made

by

George

Wood,

who

published

a

tutor

for it

about

1830.

In

appearance

it

resembled

a

tenoroon,

and has often

been mis-

taken for this instrument.

It

was

blown with

a

small clarinet

mouth-

piece,

was

made

in three

pitches,

and had

a

compass

of three octaves.

It

was

in effect

a

wooden

saxophone,

anticipating

Sax's

invention

by

at

least ten

years.

A

description

of this instrument

and

a discussion of

its

nomenclature

will

be

found

in

an

article

by

the

present

writer in

the

Musical Times

for

December,

1932.

72







The

Clarinet in

England

had

been one

of

Jullien's

solo

clarinets,

and in

I85I

per-

formed a concerto by Molique'3 at a Philharmonic concert.

He

also

carried

on the old tradition of

obbligato playing.

Details

are

fortunately

available of

the instruments he

used.

Till

I855

these were

of

the

primitive English

type,

made

by

Key

of

Charing

Cross,

a

twelve-keyed

Bb

and a

ten-keyed

A,

of

boxwood,

with the

addition

of

a

ring

key

on the

lower

joints,

an

invention of

the

'forties. In

I855

he

changed

to

a

much

more

complicated

pair

of

instruments

made

by

Fieldhouse

which

incorporated

some

features of

the

Boehm

system,

and

were

calculated to

give greatly

increased

free-dom of

execution. The

keys

were

of more

practical

design

and

mounted

on modem

pillars,

a

great improvement

on

the

older

mechanism. In

I860 he

changed again

to

instru-

ments

made

by

E.

Albert

of Brussels. This

was in

a

way

a

retrograde

step,

as

the

Belgian

instruments

were

merely

much

improved

versions

of

Miller's

thirteen-keyed system

and

much

less

advanced

than those

designed by

Fieldhouse.

The

outstanding

virtues

of these

instruments

were

good

tone

and

intonation

obtained

by

a

larger

interior

bore

and

an improved mouthpiece. Tonally they have never been

excelled

and

rarely

equalled.

They

had

been

introduced to

England

by

another

of

Jullien's

soloists,

Wuille,

a

Belgian

and

a

brilliant

performer.

Critics

immediately

noticed

the

massive

richness of

his

tone,

especially

in the

chalumeau

register,

where

the

earlier

instruments were

specially

defective.

The

influence of

these

Belgian

instruments

on

English

clarinet

playing

was

very great,

in

two

directions

especially.

Firstly

they

fixed

a

definite standard

of fine

tone,

secondly their all round excellence diverted attention from

the

Boehm

system.

This

latter

influence

was

important

since it

retarded

development

of fluent

technique

till

the

turn

of

the

century.

Lazarus knew

the Boehm

system

sufficiently

well

to

recognise

its

merits. He had

a

basset

horn

of

this

system,'4

though

whether he used

it we

do

not

know,

and

he

certainly

prophesied

the

eventual

adoption

of

this

clarinet

by

the

majority

of

players.

We

can

only

assume

that

he

found the

Albert

clarinet

adequate

to

his

own

needs

and

was content

to

teach the

system

he

knew

best.

'3

This

concerto

as

never

been

printed.

The

next

clarinet oncerto

to

be

heard

at the

Philharmonic

as

Stanford's,

layed by

Charles

Draper

in

I904.

14

Date

about

x860.

Lazarus

occasionally

played

basset

hom

obbligati

in

his

earlier

days.

The

instrument

s

stamped

with

the

name

of

Pask,

a

London

maker,

but is

probably

of

French

manufacture.

Fieldhouse

was

a

London

maker.

73







The Clarinet in

England

A

well-known

contemporary

of Lazarus was

J.

H.

Maycock who died in 1907, aged 89. Like several other

famous

players

he came from the

Coldstreams,

where

Willman's

influence,

as we have

seen,

was

very

strong.

His

fine

playing

at the

opera

soon

attracted

the notice

of

Balfe

who wrote

many

obbligati

to

display

his skill.

The

best

known of them

are the

corno

di

bassetto

introduction

to

the Heart bowed down and the

bass

clarinet solo

in

The

Daughter

of

St. Mark. He

made

a

speciality

of the

basset

horn and bass

clarinet,

and

seems

to have

been

the

first

regular performer

on

the latter. He was

second

only

to

Lazarus in

popularity,

especially

at

provincial

festivals,

and

resembled him in

possessing

dignity

of

style

and

a fine tone.

Like Lazarus

too,

he

excelled

in

chamber

music

and

for

some time

ran

his own

combination

of

players.

He

took

the

first basset horn

in

Mozart's

Serenade

for

thirteen

wind

instruments

(K. 361)

played

for

the

first

time on

April

Ist,

I857.

This

fine work

is

seldom

played

to-day

for

lack

of

basset

horns,

and

rarely

in

its

entirety.

Two

very

well-known artists

must

now

be mentioned

who form an important link between the later years of

Lazarus

and

the moderns.

They

are

George

Clinton

and

Julian

Egerton.

Clinton

was born

at

Newcastle-on-Tyne

in

1850,

and

studied

under his

father,

a well-known

band-

master

and

clarinettist. When

only

seventeen

he

was

appointed

principal

in

Queen

Victoria's

private

band,

a

position

he

held till

I900.

In

I873

he

was

principal

in

the

Philharmonic,

appearing

five

times

as

soloist.

In

I874

he

succeeded

Pape,

a

German,

at

the

Crystal

Palace,

where

he

remained

twenty-four years, appearing frequently

as a

soloist in

the

Mozart, Weber,

and

Spohr

concertos. It was

here that

he

established

his

great reputation.

He

had

great

influence

as a

teacher,

holding

professorships

at

the

Royal

Academy,

Kneller

Hall,

and

Trinity

College.

He

adhered

throughout

his

life to

the old

Albert

system,

so his influence

in

this

respect

was

possibly

reactionary.

He was

an

ardent

chamber

musician and

formed

a

society

which

gave

frequent

concerts

in

the

early

'nineties

for

wind

instruments,

alone

or with

strings.

Not

only

were

many

old works

performed-

most of them now forgotten-but a stimulus was given to

the

production

of

new

compositions.

In execution

he

was

extremely

brilliant

and in

his earlier life far

in

advance of

his

contemporaries;

he was

also,

in

spite

of

a

certain

downrightness,

a

most conscientious

and

thorough

musician.

He

was,

too,

of

an

inventive

turn

of

mind

and

made

some

important

contributions

to

the

improvement

of

the

clarinet,

74







The Clarinet in

England

giving

thereby

an

important

stimulus

to

English

clarinet

manufacture.'5 His final model was a mixture of the

Albert

and

Boehm

systems,

elaborate

in

mechanism

but

not

unpractical,

and

worthy

of

adoption by players

of

the

Albert model

who

have

not the time

or

opportunity

to

make

a

complete

change

of

fingering.

His

brother,

James,

was

also

an excellent

player,

and had

as

well

considerable

inventive abilities.

He

dissipated

these

in

contriving

a

combined

A and

Bb

clarinet.

The idea

is attractive

in

theory

and on

paper,

but,

however well

the

intricate

mechanism

is

contrived,

it is

a

failure in

practice.

It

is

usually

found that

the

instrument

is

faulty

in

intonation

at

both

pitches,

and

that

the resonance

of

the

tube

is

stifled

by

the

weight

of

the

keywork,

that

is on the

rare

occasions

when

the

mechanism works

at

all.

Julian Egerton,

whose father had

played

with

both

Willman and

Williams,

was

another

prominent

clarinettist,

and a

contemporary

of Clinton.

He

played

with the

latter

for

many

years

in

Queen

Victoria's

private

band.

He

was

principal,

too,

at

many

of

the

provincial

festivals,

and at

the Richter concerts in London from the time of their com-

mencement in

1876.

He

was

well

known

to

habituds

of

the

St.

James's

Hall

where the

Beethoven

Septet

and

Schubert

Octet

were

regularly

given

twice

each

season.

Egerton,

like

Clinton,

adhered

to

the

old

system

and

played

on

a

pair

of

instruments made

by

Fieldhouse.

They

were

similar

in

design

to

those

used

by

Lazarus in the

'fifties

and

were

of

ebonite,

possibly

the first

instruments to

be

made

of this

material.

They

had

originally

belonged

to

George Tyler,'6 a very fine clarinettist, who died in 1878.

Egerton

played

on these

instruments

regularly

till the

change

15

Clinton's

instruments were

made

by

Messrs.

Boosey,

who turned

their

attention to

clarinet

manufacture n the

early

I88o's.

They

have

since

achieved a

very high

reputation

for

excellence

of

workmanship

and

accuracy

of

tuning.

His

brother's

combination

clarinet was

made

by Jacques

Albert

of

Brussels. A

company

was

formed with

Sullivan

as

chairman to

promote

its

use,

and

recitals

were

given upon

it

at

the

R.C.M.,

by

Gomez,

Clinton and

others.

All

George

Clinton's clarinets

incorporated

the

Barret

action

which

was

borrowed

from the oboe

and

applied

to

the

clarinet

by

both

Mahillon

and

Albert of Brussels.

I6

George

Tyler

was a memberof the

Royal

Italian

Opera

orchestra

and

of the

Philharmonic.

The

Musical

Directory

spoke

of

his

death

as

an

almost

irreparable

oss

to

the

R.I.O.

Another

Tyler-Joseph-

patented

a

C#

key,

a

very

valuable

addition to

the old

system

clarinet.

The

credit of

this

invention

was also

claimed

by

Lef6vre of

Paris,

as

well as

by

Albert

and

Mahillon.

The

Boehm

clarinet was

advertised

by

Rudall Rose in

I854-5,

and

pictured

by

Tamplini

in

The

Bandsman,

published

in

January,I857.

75







The Clarinet

in

England

from

high

pitch

to low

forced

him

to

acquire

others.

Some

ten years ago he showed them to me, and even after seventy

years they

were

still

in excellent

condition,

a

tribute to

excellent

workmanship.

He told

me,

too,

of his

sorrow

when

the

change

of

pitch

forced

him to abandon

his old

friends. The

chief feature of his

playing

I

have

been told

by

friends and

pupils

were

extraordinary beauty

of

tone,

and

the charm

and finish of his

style.

Both

were

still

apparent

when,

as

an

octogenarian,

he

played

in

a

wireless

concert

some

years

ago.

He

had

great

success

and

popularity as a teacher, especially at the Royal College,

where he

succeeded Lazarus in

the

early

'nineties.

There are not

wanting

signs

that

English

clarinet

playing

in the

early

'nineties

was

in need

of

some

external

stimulus.

In

spite

of the

efforts

of

Lazarus,

Clinton

and

Egerton,

interest in

the

instrument

had

noticeably

declined,

and,

though

wind

chamber music

was

fairly

frequently performed

by

two rival

societies,

the

performances

tended

to

be

rather

unimaginative.

Audiences, too,

were

small.

Again,

although

composers

were

demanding

more

and

more

from

their wind players, the leading English clarinettists, Clinton

excepted,

were

quite

content

with

their

instruments,

which,

apart

from

minor

improvements

in

mechanism,

had

received

no

important

amelioration for close

on

half

a

century.

The

Boehm

model

which had freed so

many

continental

players

from

the

trammels of

mechanism,

was

almost

entirely

neglected

in

this

country.

A

solitary

pioneer

is found

in

James

Conroy,

an

army

bandmaster and

pupil

of

Lazarus.

He

bought

a

pair

of Boehm clarinets

quite

early

in

the

'sixties and demonstrated them to Lazarus. The latter gave

him

his

blessing,

prophesied

a

future for

the

system,

but

did

nothing

more about it-so

far

as we

know

at

any

rate.

Doubtless there were

other such

pioneers,

amateurs

possibly

-for

amateurs

having

nothing

to

lose

professionally

are

often

instrumental in

spreading

new

ideas-but

amateurs

of

the

clarinet

were

few

and far

between

at

this

period.

Professionals are

notoriously

conservative;

Lazarus

and

Clinton could

not be

expected

to

re-study

their

instruments

in

the midst

of

a

professional

career,

but

they

could

reason-

ably be expected to have imparted the Boehm system to

their

pupils. They

can

hardly

be

acquitted

of selfishness

in

not

doing

so.

It

was

left to

a

foreign

clarinettist

to

make

the

system

more

widely

known in

this

country.

This

was

Manuel

Gomez,

a

Spaniard,

and

a

prize

winner of

the

Paris

Conservatoire

who came

to

London in the

late

'eighties.

He

was

an

excellent

musician and

a

quite

excep-

76







The

Clarinet

in

England

tional executant.

His talents soon

secured

him

the

post

of

principal at Covent Garden, and later in the newly formed

Queen's

Hall

Orchestra. His

execution caused

even

greater

astonishment

when

it was

noticed that

he

played

everything,

however

elaborate,

on his

Bb

clarinet,17

disdaining

the

use

of

an A

entirely.

The lesson

was not lost

upon

two

young

players,

recent

scholars

of the

R.C.M.,

Charles

Draper

and

George

Anderson,

who

took

immediate

steps

to

acquire

Boehm instruments.

With

their

courageous

example

begins

a new

chapter

in

English

clarinet

playing.

The

younger

professional players followed their example, hesitatingly at

first,

but the seed

was well and

fairly

sown.

English

wood

wind makers

did

what

they

could

to

oppose

the

innovation.

They

had never

made

Boehms,

and

did

not recommend

them for the

military

with

whom most

of

their business

was

done. Their

attitude,

in

fact,

was

frankly

obstructionist

and

reactionary,

and

lasted well

into the

present

century.

Within the last

thirty

years,

however,

there

has

been

a

complete

change

of

heart,

and

to-day

clarinets

of Boehm

and other

complicated

systems

are

made

in

greater per-

fection in this country than in any other in the world.

Another

stimulus

from outside was

provided

by

Richard

Miuhlfeld,

clarinettist

and

sub-conductor

of

the

Meiningen

Orchestra,

who

paid many

visits

to

England

between

1892

and

I907.

Muhlfeld was

a

sensitive

musician,

pianist

and

violinist as well

as

clarinettist. The

imaginative

and

essentially

artistic

quality

of

his

playing

had

inspired

Brahms

to

write

his clarinet

works

especially

for

him.

Three

reasons for the

mild

furore he

caused are

discernible:

I. The freshness and originality of the works themselves.

2.

The

interpretative ability

and

musicianship

of

the

player.

3.

The

preference

for

a

foreigner,

which,

formerly

con-

fined to

foreign

singers,

had

during

the last

fifty years

extended

itself to

instrumentalists

as well.

There is

no doubt

whatever

that

Miihlfeld

was

a

fine

artist;

whether or

no he

was

a

fine

clarinettist

is

a

different

17

This

necessitates

the addition

of

an

extra

key

for

the

low

Eb

at

the

bottom

of

the

instrument.

Sax made

this

addition

in

his

improved

clarinet in

I840.

Stadler,

Mozart's

clarinettist,

had

extended

the down-

ward

compass

from

E to C as in

the basset

horn

and

some

bass

clarinets,

but

his

example

was

not

followed,

and

Eb

is

now

accepted

as the

limit

of

downward

extension.

Gomez made

some

additions

and

improve-

ments to

the

Boehm

clarinet. His

complicated

instruments

were

made

for

him

by

Messrs.

Boosey.

77







The Clarinet in

England

matter.

There are

good

reasons

to

suppose

that

in

tone,

intona-

tion, and execution he was considerably inferior to Clinton,

Charles

Draper

and several others.

He

played

on

the

clumsy

Birmann

system

clarinet,'8

which

fortunately

inspired

no

following.

But

his visits

certainly gave

a much

needed

fillip

to

clarinet

players,

to

composers

too,

even to

musical

journalists,

who

took

the

opportunity

of

redis-

covering

the clarinet

and

writing

some

pretty

nonsense

about it.

The

interest,

however,

was

shortlived;

by

the

end

of

the

century

the

clarinettist was

more

or

less where

he

was some ten

years before.

We

are now

on the

threshold of

modern

history,

and

at

the

point

where this

sketchy

chronicle

must

end.

I

had

hoped

to do

more than

merely

allude

to two

clarinettists,

whose

influence

during

the

last

thirty years

or

so has been

of the

highest

importance,

Charles and

Haydn

Draper.19

I

am

not

forgetting

Lazarus and

Clinton and the

rest,

when

I

suggest

that

they

have

had a more decisive

influence

on

English

clarinet

playing

than

any

other

players.

Between

them

they

have

determined the character of

the modern

English school, which, to my mind at any rate, yields to no

other

in

vigour

and

accomplishment.

To

mention

individuals is

invidious

and

unnecessary,

but

here are some

general

notes

about

their

attributes.

Tone.-Our

players

from

the

time of Willman

have

always

excelled

in

beauty

of

tone.

To

define

this

beauty

is

difficult,

but

here

are

some

of

the

ingredients-robustness

and

firmness without

harshness, warmth,

and a

perfect

clarity,

which,

as

in

singing,

comes

largely

from

perfect

intonation.

Technique.-English players

have

always

been notable

sight

readers

and

executants,

even

when

natural

agility

has

been

hampered

by

old

fashioned mechanism.

To-day,

when

the use

of the

Boehm

system

is

all

but

universal,

virtuosity

is

commonplace.

It

is

by

no

means rare to find

students

i8

Called after

Carl Barmann

(I8ii-85),

son

of Heinrich. It

is

an

improved

Muller

system

clarinet. The Germans and Central

Europeans

have

never

taken

kindly

to the Boehm model.

I9

Haydn

Draper

was

the

nephew

and

pupil

of

Charles

Draper-

Charles

Draper

has

retired,

at

any

rate for the

time,

from

the

exercise

of his

profession.

Haydn Draper

died some

years ago

in

the full

maturity

of his

powers.

Like his uncle

he

was a scholar of the

Royal College

and

was

by way

of

being

an

accomplished player

while

still

in

his

early

'teens. The

present professor

at the

R.A.M.,

Mr.

Reginald

Kell,

is

one

of his

pupils.

Mr.

Frederick

Thurston,

the brilliant

principal

clarinet

of

the

B.B.C.

Symphony

Orchestra,

is a

pupil

of

Charles

Draper.

78







The

Clarinet

in

England

in their

teens

with more

technique

at their command

then

their

precedessors

of

thirty

or

forty

years ago

had

acquired

in full maturity. It is not entirely a matter of improved

mechanism;

there

seems

to be an ever

increasing

natural

aptitude.

Musicianship.-Here

the influenceof the

colleges

has

been

making

tself

felt

for

a

generation

and more.

Unimaginative

playing

is

rarer

han it

was

half a

century ago,

when recruit-

ment was

largely

from

military

bands. This is not

to

say

that

the

military

musician

s,

or

was,

necessarily

nsensitive,

but the civilian

enjoys

advantages

denied

to the

soldier,

and

a solid backgroundof education and general culture goes

a

long way

in

creating

a

finished artist.

APPENDIX.

Notes on

Saxophone,

Basset

Horn and Bass

Clarinet.

The

history

of

the

saxophone

in

England

begins

with

the

Alto

Fagotto,

which Lazarus

played

as

a

boy

in the

band of the Royal MilitaryAsylum. It was in principlea

wooden

prototype

of the

saxophone,preceding

Sax's

inven-

tion

by

almost

fifteen

years.

It

was

a

pleasant

oned

instru-

ment,

but

apparently

made

little

appeal,

and was soon

forgotten.

The

saxophone

n its modern orm

was

apparently

introduced o

this

country

by Jullien

n

1849.

It

was

played

by

one

Sommer.

It

appeared

again

in

I852

in

the

hands

of

Soualle,

a

very

capable

performer.

This

time

the

Manchester

Guardian

aw

fit

to call

it

the

Corno-musa.

From

the

fairly

accuratedescription t wasplainlyone of the largermembers

of

the

family.

Another brilliant

performer

was

Jullien's

Belgian

clarinettist, Wuille,

who

played

the

bass

clarinet

as

well. It

sprang again

into

a

shortlived

popularity

in

I865,

when

at

Mellon's

promenade

concerts a

Frenchman,

Cordier,

performed

some

striking

solos

upon

it.

Jullien

fils,

who

was

running

an

opposition

series of

concerts,

set

about

finding

a

rival to

Cordier

and selected

Tyler

for

the

part.

The

latter

may

be classed as

possibly

the first

English saxophonist.

For the next

twenty-five years

or so

the instrument

appears

to have been all but

forgotten,

in

London at

any

rate,

so much so

that

when

E.

Mills,

an

excellent

Brussels-trained

clarinettist,

performed

on it

in

I89I,

it

was

described

by

a

London

paper

as

the almost

obsolete

saxophone-something

between the horn

and

bassoon.

7

Vol. 68

79







The

Clarinet

in

England

The

basset

horn,

as

we have

seen,

was

played

on

by

most

of the early clarinettists. In fact for the first half of the

nineteenth

century

it

was

a

very

popular

instrument

both

in

solos

and

obbligati,

and there

can

have

been

no

dearth

of

players,

since

two

players

were

forthcoming

to

accom-

pany

Miss

Jane

Shirreff20

in

a

concert in

the

'thirties,

but

it

appears

to

have

lost

ground

later in

the

century.

There

was

certainly

some

trouble

in

finding

players

for

the

wind

chamber

music concerts

in

the 'nineties. Francisco

Gomez,

a

brother

of

Manuel

and

a

no less

accomplished

player,

made efforts to revive it just before the last war and was a

fine

performer.

It seems

doomed,

however,

to

appear

in

text books

of

orchestration,

to be

rediscovered,

and to

dis-

appear

again.

The modern

French form of

the

instrument,

in which the extra

keys

to

carry

the

instrument

down

a

third

below

the

ordinary

clarinet

are

appropriated

to

the

little

fingers

of

both

hands,

is not

in

my

opinion,

so

satis-

factory

as

the

older

model

in which

they

are

assigned

to

the thumb of

the

right

hand,

and this

may

be

one of

the

reasons

why

the

modern

player

fights

shy

of it. But we

should not forget that Mozart originally wrote2' the

clarinet concerto

for

it,

and

gave

us several

masterly

examples

of its

proper

employment.

In

the orchestra

it

might very

properly

be used to

reinforce,

even to

replace,

the weak

middle

register

of

the

bass

clarinet,

and

to continue

down

the chalumeau

notes of

the orchestral

clarinet.

In

Mozart's

Requiem,

at

any

rate,

the

use

of

basset

horns

should

be

insisted

upon;

to-day

they

are

almost

invariably

replaced

by

A

clarinets

to the

great

detriment of

the tone

colour

intended by Mozart.22

The bass

clarinet, too,

has

been

noticed

in

passing.

It

made

its

appearance

in London

in

1833,

and was

played

occasionally

by

Willman

in

obbligati,

and

later

by

Maycock

in

both

obbligati

and solos.

It

came

into the

limelight

in

the

I850's,

again

in

solos,

when it

was

played by

the

20

In Al

desio

di

chi

t'adora

at an Antient Concert in

I834.

This

brilliant

rondo

for

soprano

was

written

by

Mozart

in

July,

1789,

for

insertion

in

Figaro.

The

obbligati parts

for 2

basset horns

are

florid

and

effective.

The work

might

well be added

to

our

concert

programmes.

21

Sketched

would

be more

correct.

Mozart

broke off

work on it

after

199

bars

of

the

Allegro

and on

taking

it

up

again

in

I79I

re-wrote

the work

for clarinet.

The slow movement is

particularly

well

suited

by

the

placid,

reedy

tone

of

the

basset

horn.

22

The most

striking

feature of the

basset

horn

is its reediness

due

to

the

length

and

smallness

of

its bore.

This is

entirely

lost

when

it is

replaced by

one of the

orchestral clarinets or

by

the alto or

tenor

clarinets.

The

latter

have

a

more

vigorous

and

open

tone.

8o







The Clarinet

in

England

Belgian,

Wuille.

There

was for

long

a

tendency

to

regard

it as a poor relation of the clarinet, as a doubling instru-

ment

for

any

clarinettist

not of the first rank. This

in

the

writer's

opinion

has been

the fault

of

composers

who

have

not

made

sufficient

use of

it,

and who

forget,

or even

do

not

realise,

what

good

use can be made of

it,

not

only

in

the orchestra but

also

with

strings

in chamber

music.

Francisco

Gomez,

already

mentioned as a

bassethornist,

was

also

a

most

capable

bass

clarinettist,

and in

the

present

day

no

more

finished

artist

could be desired

than

Mr.

Walter Lear Bass clarinets have long been made in great

perfection

in this

country. English

players

have

always

preferred

the

big

bored

model first introduced

by

Sax

in

contrast

to

the

slighter

toned

German

model,

which

is

little

more than an

enlarged

basset horn.

Of

the contrabass

clarinet

it

is

necessary

to

say

very

little.

Efforts were

made

during

the nineteenth

century

to

produce

such an

instrument,

but

with

no

very

satisfactory

result,

and

it

was not

until

the

last

decade of

the

past

century

that

Messrs.

Besson of

Paris

produced

a

more

or

less passable instrument. Some of these were imported

into

this

country,

and

M.

Bretonneau

came from Paris to

demonstrate

their

capabilities,

but

the

instrument was

found

defective in

intonation,

and,

in

addition,

unwieldy

and

complicated.

A few

were

acquired

for the use of the

military,

but

were soon

discarded. Of

the

later and

more

satisfactory

models

recently

evolved

by

two

Paris

makers,

Buffet

and

Leblanc,

little or

nothing

appears

to

be known

by

our orchestras

and

military

bands.23

A

SHORT

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

Altenburg,

W.

Die

Klarinette.

Heilbronn,

1904.

Schlesinger,

K.

Articles on

Basset

Horn,

Bass

Clarinet,

Clarinet

in

Encyclopedia

Britannica,

I

th

edition.

Cambridge,

19o0.

Street,

Oscar W.

The

Clarinet and

its

Music.

Pro-

ceedings

of

the

Musical

Association,

42nd

Session,

1916.

Carse,

A.

Musical

Wind Instruments.

London,

I939.

Carse, A. The Orchestra n the XVIII Century. Cambridge,

I940.

23

Contrabass clarinets

are

found in

several

French

and

Belgian

works

bands.

The

Garde

Republicaine possesses

one

in

addition

to

two

bass

clarinets.

The Buffet

instrument

is

made

of

wood,

the

Leblanc

of

metal.

M.

Houvenaghel,

the

technical

adviser

to

the

latter

firm,

has

also

evolved a

sub-contrabass,

two

octaves

lower

than

the

bass.

8I







The Clarinet

in

England

Royal Military

Exhibition,

I890.

A

Descriptive Catalogue

of

the Musical Instruments. By C. R. Day. London, 89I.

Quarterly

Musical

Magazine

-

-

London,

I818-28.

Harmonicon

- - - - -

London,

I823-33.

Musical World

- - - -

London,

I836-91.

Athenaeum

- - - - -

London,

I828-

.

Musical

Opinion

-

- - -

London,

I877-

.

Musical

Standard

-

- - -

London,

I862-

.

DISCUSSION.

The CHAIRMAN

Sir

Percy

Buck):

Ladies

and

gentlemen,

the

first

duty

of the

Chairman,

which

is

also

a

pleasure,

is

always

to

thank the

reader of

the

paper.

I

belong

to

the

generation

which can well

remember

the

playing

of

Clinton and

Egerton.

I

do

not think

I

have

ever

heard such beautiful

tone

got

out of

a

clarinet

by anybody

as

Egerton

used to

produce.

That

may

be

a

dream of

youth,

but

I

always

think

of

him

as

having

made

the most

perfect

sounds I ever heard. I also like to remember that Charles

Draper

and I

got

our

scholarships

at

the

Royal

College

of

Music on the same

day,

and

have

been friends ever

since.

The clarinet is tuned to

equal

temperament

so that

it

can

sound

a

complete

chromatic

scale.

But,

having

finished

the

lower

register

the

player

must blow

the

third

partial

of

the

bottom note to

get

a

B,

and

that

B

cannot be in

equal

temperament.

Is

the

interval from

Bb

to

Bi

out of

tune

?

Mr. RENDALL:

In

practice

it

is often

out of

tune,

the

Bb

being

sharp,

the

Bt

flat.

But

on

modern instruments there

are

many

different

fingerings

which

give

slightly

sharper

and flatter notes

when

they

are

wanted.

A

good

player

who

is

playing

with

strings

or

accompanying

a

singer,

will

unconsciously

adapt

himself. It

is

possible, especially

with

the

type

of instrument

I have

here,

to

alter

the intonation

appreciably.

The

CHAIRMAN:

I

remember

when I first

had lessons

in

orchestration,

I

was forbidden to write a shake for the

clarinet

on

At.

I asked

why,

of

course,

as

any

sensible

pupil would, and I was told that there was a mechanical

difficulty,

the

At

being

on the lower

register

and

Bt

on the

upper;

but I could not

help

wondering

whether it was

because

there was an enharmonic difference between the

notes.

But,

as

you

say,

the

player

can

definitely

alter the

pitch.

Mr.

RENDALL: Yes.

On

this

instrument

there are

three

differently

tuned

F#'s,

so the

player

can

adapt

himself

82







The

Clarinet in

England

without

any

trouble

whatever.

That

is

why

the

instrument

does not sound at its best with the piano. The instruments

do not

blend;

in

fact,

they

do

not suit

each

other at

all.

The shake on

A$

is

now

practicable

and

easy

on all

modern

instruments.

It is

merely

a

question

of

an additional

key.

Mr.

LLEWELYNLLOYD:

The lecturer has

explained

about

the method

of

altering

the intonation. Is

that

a

matter of

mechanism,

or is there

any

control over

the intonation

through

the

lips,

as there is

in

some other

instruments

?

Mr.

RENDALL:

Lip

control exists

in

theory,

but

largely

in theory. It is possible to influence the intonation

very

slightly, possibly

a

vibration or

two with the

lips.

Alterations of

pitch

can also

be made

mechanically.

This

was

the case

with

the three

F$'s

I mentioned

just

now,

with their

varying

degrees

of

sharpness.

Or,

notes can be

sharpened

or flattened

by

opening

or

obstructing

tone

holes

just

below

the

note

which is

sounding.

In this

instru-

ment the middle

Bb[

is

always

sharp,

so

it has to be

flattened

by

the

player

putting

his

fingers

down.

He

may

also slacken off the lip pressure without thinking of it; in

fact,

I

think

any

really good player

will

do

so

automatically.

I

was

hoping

that

some members

might

have

personal

reminiscences of some

of

the

earlier

players,

of

Lazarus,

or

Maycock,

for

example.

The

CHAIRMAN:

I

remember

Lazarus's

name

being

on

the

programme

when

I

went,

fifty years

ago,

to the Phil-

harmonic Concerts.

I

myself

have

conducted

an

orchestra

in

which

Egerton

and

Clinton

were

playing.

The LECTURER: have heard a good deal about Clinton

and

Egerton,

and

also

heard

Egerton

play

on the

wireless when

he

was

eighty-four

or

so;

in

fact,

I

believe he

is

still

living.

The

SECRETARY:

In the

library

of

the

Royal

College

of

Music

there are the archives

of the Wind

Instrument

Chamber

Music

Society,

which

I

assume

is Mr.

Clinton's

Society,

presented by

Mr.

Arthur Frere. Mr.

Frere

was,

I

believe,

the

Secretary

of

that

Society

for some

years.

The

LECTURER:

There were two of

those

Societies. The

original Society split into two in consequence of a quarrel.

I think

yours

is

the one

which Clinton controlled.

The SECRETARY: I think

it

was

suggested

in

the

early

part

of the

paper

that

Mozart

might

have

heard the

clarinet

for

the

first

time

in London.

If

so,

may

it

be

assumed

that

London

was

in

the

eighteenth

century

ahead

of

the

Con-

tinent in

using

and

fostering

clarinet

playing

?

83







The

Clarinet

in

England

The LECTURER:

No,

not

of

Germany.

If

you

admit

that Handel used the clarinet then it was probably rather

ahead

of

France.

But

they

had

a

good many

clarinet

players

in Paris round

about

1750.

No,

I

think we

were

very

much

in

the same

stage

except

for

M.

Charles. He

is

a

very

obscure

person.

We

have

his

Twelve Duettos

for

two

French

Horns

at the British

Museum,

but that

is

the

only

work

of

his

I

know,

and

that

is

very

rare,

I

believe.

The

CHAIRMAN:

Who

invented that

horrible little

thing

called

the

Eb

clarinet

?

The

LECTURER:

It

probably

came in about

80oo-15,

with

the

development

of

the

military

band. There

is

one

even

more

horrible,

the one in

high

Ab.

The CHAIRMAN:

hey

are

only

defensible

on the

ground

that

an

open

air band

must have

brilliancy.

The

LECTURER:

Yes.

Still,

the

D

clarinet

is

used

by

Richard

Strauss.

Mr. BATE: The lecturer more or less categorically

denied

the

player's

ability

to blow

a

note

up

or down.

Now

I

am

a

player

of

moderate

ability,

but

my

experience

has

been

rather

the reverse.

I

wonder

whether

the

lecturer

agrees

with

me on the

following

point.

I

find

that

when

one

is

in the lowest

register

or round about B and C

in the

middle of

the

staff,

it is

extremely

difficult

intentionally

to

blow

up

or

down. But

round

about the

A

or

Bb-the

throat

notes-it

is

very

much easier.

At

least

I

find

that on my pair of instruments. Is

it

possibly due to

the

fact

that

the

reed has

more dominance

in

the

partnership

of

reed

and

resonant

air

column

when

the

column is

shorter

?

Is the

reed

then

less

firmly governed

by

the

column

of

air

below

it,

and therefore

more

susceptible

to deliberate

lip

pressure

?

The

LECTURER:

Yes,

I

certainly

think

that

the

shorter

the air

column

the more

easily

is

it influenced.

I

do

not

think

the notes

at the

bottom

of the

tube can be blown

up

or down appreciably.

I

have never been able

to

do

so.

Mr.

BATE: I

agree

there,

but

when

the

player

is

on

the

upper

half

of

the tube the

facility begins

to come.

The LECTURER:

n

my

opinion

the

professional player

does

it

much more

by

opening

other

keys

to

sharpen

and

by closing

other

keys

to flatten.

84







The Clarinet in

England

Mr.

ROYLE

SHORE:

I

should like

to ask

whether

the

lecturer ever heard what I once heard and have never for-

gotten.

Somebody

prophesied

when

the concertina was

invented,

that it would oust

the

clarinet

from

the

orchestra.

Did

anybody

ever

hear

that

grotesque

prophecy

?

The

LECTURER:

NO,

I cannot

say

I

ever heard

that.

Mr. ROYLE SHORE:

My

knowledge

of

the

clarinet

is

limited to

an

instrument

which

Professor Bantock

once

lent

me for

a

special purpose.

It

was described

as

a

Montenegrin

clarinet.

I

do

not

know

how

many

keys

it had.

I

used

it,

not for orchestral purposes, but for snake charming and

growing

a

mango

tree.

Miss

SCHLESINGER: I

should like to

thank

the lecturer

for

giving

us

information

on

a

field

of

knowledge

on which

I

knew little.

My

work

has

dealt

almost

entirely

with

ancient

instruments

and

with the

predecessors

of

the clarinet.

One

point might

perhaps

be

of

interest,

and that

is,

on

the

production

of the

upper

register

on the

clarinet

from

the

chalumeau

register.

I

once wanted to

know whether

it

could be produced in the same way as in the ancient instru-

ments

mentioned

by

Aristotle

and

various other

writers of

ancient

Greece,

namely, by

shortening

the

length

of the

little

tongue

which

produces

the

beating

reed.

If

the

reed

is

inserted

into

the instrument-a little

pipe-and produces

say

C, D,

E,

F

from the first

three

holes,

and the

player

then

shortens

the little

tongue

by

a

third

of

its

length

and

blows,

the

fundamental

rises to

the

fifth.

The size

of the

vibrating

part

of

the

modern clarinet

reed is so infinitesimal

compared with that of these little ancient mouthpieces,

that it

is rather difficult to

see whether the clarinet

player

is

really

conscious

of

what

he

does.

He

probably

does

shorten

the

vibrating portion

of

the

reed

unconsciously

with his

lip,

but

as the

total

vibrating

distance is

only

about

half an

inch,

whereas

in

the

other

it

was

anything

from

one

inch

to

one and

three-quarters

or

two

inches,

he

might

not

be at all

conscious of the fact

that

he

is

influencing

the

tone,

because

those

notes

that are

produced

from the

chalumeau

register

are not

harmonics.

They

have

not the

harmonic quality. Then where do they come from and

how

do

they

come

?

The

fact

is

that

the

note is born in

the

reed

mouthpiece

itself.

The

tube

of the clarinet is

but

the

resonator.

I

have

given

an

explanation

of the

process

together

with a

formula

(for

the

ancient

clarinet)

for

computing

the

pitch

in

vibration

frequency

of

notes,

from the

length

of

the

85







The

Clarinet in

England

vibrating tongue,

which

provides

an

answer to the

question

in my book.4

The

LECTURER: I

am

afraid

that is rather

beyond

me.

I

have

always

understood

that

they

were harmonics.

Miss SCHLESINGER:

But

you

would not consider

that

they

had

the

harmonic

quality,

would

you

?

The

LECTURER:

Yes,

I

see

your

point.

No,

I

do

not

think

they

have

really,

but I

have

always

been told

they

were.

Miss SCHLESINGER: I asked Charles Draper himself

that

question,

and

he

did

not

at all

agree

with

my

suggestion,

but when

I

asked

whether

he

always kept

the reed

exactly

in the

same

position

in

his

mouth to

play

all

the

notes,

he

said, Oh,

no,

we move the

lips

up

and

down

on

it,

or

something

to

that effect.

The

LECTURER:

I

do

not

think

the

player

always

knows

what

he is

doing.

He is

so used to

doing

it

that,

like a

singer,

he does

it

without

thinking

about

it.

Miss SCHLESINGER:It is quite easy to see that one could

stop

one-third of

a

vibrating

reed

which

has

only

about

half

an

inch to

vibrate,

without

being

conscious

of

it.

If

so,

the modern

player

is a true descendant of

the

ancient Greek one.

The LECTURER:I

have

here

a

photograph

of

the

opening

page

of

the

Handel

Overture

in

D,25

which

is

possibly

the

first

piece

of music

written

for the clarinet

in

England.

I

also have

a

portrait

of

Willman26and some instruments.27

The CHAIRMANroposed a vote of thanks to the lecturer

coupling

with

it

an

expression

of

gratitude

to

Mr.

Oldman

for

having

read

the

paper.

The

motion was carried

with

acclamation.

24

The Greek Aulos

(Methuen),

pp.

96-103;

and

io6

seq.

25

Fuller

Maitland

and

Mann,

Catalogue

of

the

Music

in the Fitz-

william

at

Cambridge,

p.

221.

26

See the frontispieceto this volume.

27

These included

a

facsimile of

an

ancient

Egyptian

reed

pipe

lent

by

Miss

Schlesinger,

a

facsimile

of

a

two-keyed

clarinet

lent

by

the

President,

a

five-keyed

clarinet

by

Collier,

London,

circa

I775,

several

early

nineteenth

century

boxwood

instrumentswith from

six to

twelve

keys,

two

sixteen-keyed

nstruments

by

Fieldhouse and

Albert,

formerly

used

by

Lazarus,

and two Boehm clarinets

(one

an

early

model)

by

Buffet,

Paris.

86

clarinet england eighteen century

Documents