Low C

[pete]

Well, I'm obviously trolling the 'board tonight and I may as well ask a question that's bothered me:

I've played Bb bass clarinet and Bb contrabass clarinet. In the former instance, the basses I've played have all had keyed ranges down to low Eb. The contra was a Leblanc paperclip with range to low C.

You can get low C keywork on a lot of pro basses and contras. My question is, why? I've rarely played pieces that required the low Eb and never played one that went lower than that -- and I have played orchestral pieces.

So, anyone use that low C keywork really often?

[clarnibass]

So, anyone use that low C keywork really often?
Yes. Players who play jazz, modern music, improvised music, etc. are likely to use notes down to low C if they want/need to. I can say personally I play almost only improvised music or written music that is written for me (by me or someone else). So I can choose to play low C or a composer will write down to low C since I have that on my bass clarinet. For example I'm playing a half improvised/half written piece now for bass clarinet & tenor saxophone that is only the low C note for the first approx six mintues. Generally it is rare that I don't use notes to low C in a concert (even with a rock/pop singer I use nots to low Db).

[SOTSDO]

For a bassoon doubler without a bassoon, the low C horn is a must. For someone who is "serious" about concert band stuff and plays a lot of the modern compositions, it would be advisable to have one. (Trouble is, just where do you find a "serious" concert band these days? Sousa is somewhat passé, and there are only so many seats in the Eastman Wind Ensemble...)

For the rest, there are some Russian symphonic compositions from the late 1800's that drop down to low D. Not all that many of them; I've only encountered two in some forty years of playing bass.

As for the low Eb, if you play either concert band works or symphonic works from the period 1850 through the current day, then you are going to encounter the occasional Eb. After all, it wouldn't be on the horn if there wasn't a reason for it, right?

In concert band stuff, you find that composers will drop down to Eb for some tone color issue or other. In symphonic stuff, bass clarinet parts in A show up about once every fifty pieces or so. Most are from the Romantic period - little Dickie Wagner was fond of using the bass clarinet in A, and such parts are invariably played on a standard bass in Bb.

I have a couple bass clarinets without the low Eb, and I used to play a wonderful Buffet in A . So, I've got a lot of experience on both sides of the equation. The low E on the bass in A is vented through the bell hole, just like the low Eb (sounding the same note), so the equivalency works across the transposition.

I once played a walk-on appearance with a local group that involved a bunch of tune with which I was familiar, plus one by a Mittleuropan composer whose name I have forgotten. All of the other tunes on the program I had done dozens of times (such as Overture to Candide), and I was assured by the contractor that the one that I had not was nothing more than half and quarter notes at a moderate tempo - the sort of thing that could be done in my sleep.

I glanced over the new work when I got there, about twenty minutes before the downbeat. Nothing extraordinary there, just "dots and mushrooms" (quarter and half notes - whole notes are sometimes called "potatoes". So, I sit and chat with a violin player of my acquaintance until it's time to start.

The new work was in the second half, so it was a while before it came up. Printed on both sides, with a couple of bars at the bottom for the page turn, it was boredom personified.

Then I turned the page and for the first time noticed the ominous words in black type "To Bass Clarinet in A". I had another bar, with the rest of the group crawling along, to get it through my mind that I needed to shift to the A bass transposition. Once I got my head straight, it was seven bars of A to Bb, and then back to the Bb horn again.

So, yah never know when something like that is going to crop up. I do know that I earned my fifty bucks that time around, and ever since I have taken care to examine the parts more closely.

Another example was a piece by Chadwick called Jubilee. That particular movement was written for the bass clarinet in A in the 1920's, at a time when a bass clarinet in A hadn't been made for about thirty years. To compound the issue, Mr. Chadwick, who probably hadn't paid attention during his orchestration class in college, also chose to write the part in the bass clef.

The A to Bb transposition I can hack, albeit with some difficulty when the key signatures get extreme. The bass to treble clef conversion I can also hack, with the same caveat. But, a simultaneous shift of the two is beyond my ken. I ended up transposing and transliterating the part in Finale.

I have several orchestration books that acknowledge this problem with the bass. Some muse that there never was such an animal (one modern one makes a categoric statement to that effect), but I am here to tell you that Buffet once made such a horn, and that Selmer made them more recently (1980's).

In any event, the mechanical feat of toting around a "matched pair" of basses to play orchestral works back in the day was probably seen as a physical impossibility, and the simple expedient of adding a semi tone to the bottom of the Bb bass was the practical way to solve the problem.

[Merlin]

I've used my extended range quite a bit. Most newer theatre orchestrations require it. I've done a lot of Russian orchestral music that called for it (Prokofiev, Stravinsky & Khatchaturian).

[saxplayer1004]

I see a fair amount of low D's and C's come up in theatre work as well. First time was when I was playing Beauty and the Beast at a local high school. I didn't look through the book until dress rehearsal, although I was lucky the low oom pahs were doubled with the tuba so it wasn't a big deal. Stuck a paper towel tube down the bell and was good enough for that. Having the low C is definitely important though. I have brought my paperclip to some musicals though if the low C was imperative and the bass clarinet wasn't being used in it's high range. That confuses directors if they've never seen one before

[SOTSDO]

I'm doing Beauty And The Beast this spring; if any of the others who play bass around these parts did the part, they would come up short. Not me...

[saxplayer1004]

If you haven't done it before it's only like 3 pages of bass work. 95% Bb, and like 2.5 of flute and bass. Some real cool parts in there though