Chapter I: The Clarinet Culture in Paris

 

From The Baroque Three Key Clarinet to The Classical Four-Six Key Clarinet: Increasing Recognition, and Early Treatises, 1750-1800

 

 

    In the middle of the eighteenth century, Paris was one of three important cultural centers in Europe that embraced the clarinet and enabled it to thrive, alongside Mannheim and London.1 In Paris, the three-key ‘baroque’ clarinet made its first significant appearances in an orchestra, at the private orchestra of Alexandre Le Rich de la Poupelinière. La Poupelinière ensemble was strongly associated with Jean-Philippe Rameau, Johann Stamitz, and Francois-Joseph Gossec, who were among the first composers to include a pair of clarinets in their symphonies and operas.2 This ensemble was also one of the earliest to hire four clarinetists/hornists - Gaspard Procksch, Flinger, Schencker, and Pierre Louis - around 1754; The first three were probably of Germanic origins.3
Rameau was the first composer to introduce the instrument in the orchestra in his 1749 opera Zoroastre.4 According to Albert Rice, six extra musicians were hired for the three rehearsals and twenty-five performances, including two German clarinetists: Jean Schiffer and Francois Raiffer.5 Since the score doesn’t include clarinet parts, it is likely that they doubled or substituted another instrument. Rameau also wrote significant parts for two clarinets in his 1751 opera Acante et Céphise. The musicians who took part in the eighteen performances of this opera between 1751 to 1762, according to an archival payments list, are Procksch, Flinger, Schencker, and Louis.

 

    During his year-long stay in Paris in 1754, Johann Stamitz included two clarinets and two horns in a few of his symphonies written for the La Poupelinière ensemble, performed at the Concert Spirituel, and published in the collection of symphonies entitled 'La Melodia Germanica'. It is likely that the clarinet concerto by Johann Stamitz was written for the Poupelinière clarinetist, and fellow bohemian, Gaspard Procksch.6 Composed around 1755, this is the very first solo concerto for the clarinet, in which Stamitz presented a truly innovative lyrical writing style, opposing the trumpet-like idiom that was associated with the instrument at the time.7 Johann Stamitz’s time in Paris clearly left him deeply impressed with the clarinet and could have been the catalysator that eventually lead the Mannheim court to employ two specializing clarinetists for their famous orchestra by 1759.8

    In the mid-eighteenth century the classical clarinet – usually with either four or five keys - grew increasingly common across Europe. Most clarinets were made of boxwood with mounts made of ivory or horn, and brass keys mounted by wood blocks or metal saddles. The classical clarinet was made in six parts and was slightly longer than the baroque clarinet due to the corps de rechange; which enabled the conversion of a Bb clarinet into an A clarinet, and a C clarinet into a B clarinet, by replacing the right-hand joint with another joint of a different length.9 Further modifications included the re-shaping of tone holes and a wider bore.10 The new design created a functional and responsive chalumeau register that extended the clarinet’s range to over three octaves and affected the classical clarinet’s tone and intonation.
The four or five-key classical clarinet first appeared in the French musical scenery around the year 1760.

 

    Around 1760 the composer and clarinetist Valentin Roeser published in Paris the earliest essay regarding the classical four-key clarinet, Gamme de la clarinette, avec six duo pour cet instrument.11 Four years later, in 1764, he published his Essai d’instruction à l’usage de ceux qui composent pour la clarinette et le cor. In this document, Roeser discusses the range of the four-key clarinet and makes suggestions on how to compose for the instrument.12 Of particular interest regarding this essay are his comments on the ‘reed above’ embouchure;13 according to Roeser the player cannot use his tongue to articulate because of the positioning of the reed, therefore he uses his breath. This is one of the earliest written documents that support the notion that playing with the reed above was common practice at the time.14 Roeser also mentions as many as seven sizes of clarinets in different keys/transpositions - C, D, Bb, E, A, F, and G – and elaborates on the tonal qualities of each.15

    An article by Du Moutier in the Dictionnaire portatif des arts et métiers from 1764 reveals a fascinating description of the instrument, the reed and its position against the upper lip, its structure, and range. In this paragraph, the writer describes the tonal variety of the clarinet, stating that: “…In the low range, it has the sound of the chalumeau; and in the high range, it has the sound of a soft trumpet…”16 This is a curious remark, as we can clearly notice the change in the perception of the clarinet’s idioms; less than a decade earlier the baroque clarinet was played almost exclusively in the high range, and the music written to it bared the characteristics of that written for trumpets and horns: playing fanfare-like arpeggios in the mid-high register. This while the chalumeau, known for its soft, mellow, dark sound, got the more lyric and pastoral writing style.17 According to Du Moutier, the classical clarinet was praised and recognized for having the best of both instruments with an improved, functional, and soft low register, and a bright mid-high register. 18

 

    A handful of methods, treatises, and essays discussing the four-five key clarinet were published in France in the following decade:

 

  • Louis-Joseph Francœur: Diapason general de tous les instruments a vent, 1772.

  • Michel Corrette: Methode raisonnee pour apprendre aisement a jouer de la flute traversiere [. . . ] Nouvelle edition, revue corrigee et augmentee de la gamme de hautbois et de la clarinette, 1773.

  • Jacques-Martin Hotteterre: Methode pour apprendre a jouer en tres peu de temps de la flute traversiere et des tablatures de la clarinette et du basson – (first edition 1765?), 1775 (ca).

  • Frederic de Castillon: supplement a l'encyclopedie, 1776.

  • Jean-Benjamin de Laborde: Essai sur la musique, 1780.

  • Abraham: Principes de clarinette Suivis de pas redoubles et de 7 Marches les plus a la mode, 1780.

  • Othon Joseph Vandenbrock: Traite general de tous les instruments a vent, 1793.

  • Sebastian Demar: Nouvelle methode pour la clarinette fait d'une maniere - tre's facile avec le doigte' et tous les principes indispensables pour bien jouer de cet instrument, 1795.

  • Fredric Blasius: Nouvelle Method de clarinette, 1796.

  • Anonymous: Principes de Clarinette avec la Tablature des Meilleurs Mètre pour cet instrument et plusier Duo pour cet instrument.

  • Michel Yost: Methode de Clarinette, c. 1800.

    By the end of the century and particularly following the French Revolution the clarinet was mainly employed in wind ensembles and military music, where it became the favorite soprano instrument in court wind ensembles and in Military bands, proving to have many advantages over the flute and oboe in outdoor musical performances.
In September 1789, National Guard captain Bernard Sarrette formed the Corps De Musique de la Garde Nationale; This wind band of forty-five musicians, including Amand Vanderhagen, was directed by Gossec and his assistant Charles Simon Catel, and performed at civic festivals and demonstrations. The ensemble was revolutionary for its size, as the average size for wind ensembles at the time was six to ten musicians. In order to sustain the size of the band, the city of Paris established the Ecole gratuite de Musique de la Gard Nationale Parisienne on the 9th of June 1792. This was an institution in which students aged ten to twenty were taught various wind instruments by National Guard musicians. In 1795 this school became officially known as the Conservatoire de musique.19

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