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In a letter to his father dated 3 December 1778, W. A. Mozart waxes lyrical about the clarinet and its special sound. It is not his first encounter with this woodwind instrument, but perhaps the letter that inspired the title of this book is the beginning of a lifelong musical love affair between instrument and composer that is almost unique in the history of music. Hans-Peter Huber, himself a passionate clarinettist and music teacher, has spent many years researching this fascinating subject and describes the appearance of the clarinet in Mozart's work in chronological order with great attention to detail, starting with the fifteen-year-old's early wind works and ending with the "opus magnum" of the clarinet world, the Clarinet Concerto in A major K. 622, which marks the end of the master's creative career.
The author brings together a wealth of historical facts. The book contains a detailed characterisation of all Mozart's completed and fragmentary compositions in which clarinets or basset horns are used. Detailed analyses including the sources, illustrated with numerous musical examples and tables, provide an in-depth insight into the structure of the works and focus on the question of what special role the composer assigned to the instrument. Concepts such as tone colour, tuning and key characteristics are just as important as aspects of instrument construction, fingering and playing technique, historical performance practice and information on the composer's biographical background. Last but not least, there is a brief portrait of Anton Stadler, for whom Mozart wrote the most important of his clarinet works.
Hans-Peter Huber emphasises that he writes from the clarinettist's point of view and focuses on musical practice without leaving musicological questions unanswered. His work therefore focuses on the problem of a possible reconstruction of the original text of the two main works, the Clarinet Quintet K. 581 and the Clarinet Concerto K. 622 for Stadler's "basset clarinet", the autographs of which have been lost to this day.
In a letter to his father dated 3 December 1778, W. A. Mozart waxes lyrical about the clarinet and its special sound. It is not his first encounter with this woodwind instrument, but perhaps the letter that inspired the title of this book is the beginning of a lifelong musical love affair between instrument and composer that is almost unique in the history of music. Hans-Peter Huber, himself a passionate clarinettist and music teacher, has spent many years researching this fascinating subject and describes the appearance of the clarinet in Mozart's work in chronological order with great attention to detail, starting with the fifteen-year-old's early wind works and ending with the "opus magnum" of the clarinet world, the Clarinet Concerto in A major K. 622, which marks the end of the master's creative career.
The author brings together a wealth of historical facts. The book contains a detailed characterisation of all Mozart's completed and fragmentary compositions in which clarinets or basset horns are used. Detailed analyses including the sources, illustrated with numerous musical examples and tables, provide an in-depth insight into the structure of the works and focus on the question of what special role the composer assigned to the instrument. Concepts such as tone colour, tuning and key characteristics are just as important as aspects of instrument construction, fingering and playing technique, historical performance practice and information on the composer's biographical background. Last but not least, there is a brief portrait of Anton Stadler, for whom Mozart wrote the most important of his clarinet works.
Hans-Peter Huber emphasises that he writes from the clarinettist's point of view and focuses on musical practice without leaving musicological questions unanswered. His work therefore focuses on the problem of a possible reconstruction of the original text of the two main works, the Clarinet Quintet K. 581 and the Clarinet Concerto K. 622 for Stadler's "basset clarinet", the autographs of which have been lost to this day.
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