Bass clarinet use by unsungs

[TerraEpon]

So, I'm doing a research paper on the history of the bass clarinet (and its notational issues), and the topic that brought up Hausegger's Nature Symphony made me for the hell of it scan the score, and I found a couple nice bass clarinet solos. It got me thinking -- what else? I'm always looking for good music with my favorite isntrument, so here's some unsungs I know of:

Nice solos:
-Funtek - Orchestration of Pictures at an Exhibition
-Griffes - The Pleasure Dome of Kuble Kahn
-Karlowicz - Lithuanian Rhapsody
-Lazzari - Effet de Nuit
-Tushmalov - Orchestration of Pictures at an Exhibition

The following supposedly have bass clarinet part, and I own recordings, but I don't have scores so would have to listen again to see if these count:
-Bantock: Fifne at The Fair
-Charpentier: Imprssions d'Italie
-Griffis: Bacchanale, Clouds
-Martucci; Tarentella, Op. 44 No. 6
-Stenhammer: Excelsior!


And I'm curious about the following which do appear to have good parts. Anyone know them?:
-Chadwick: Symphonic Sketches, Tam O'Shanter
-Converse: The Mystic Trumpet (Naxos disc got some great reviews and is cheap)
-Gilbert: Dance in The Place Congo
-Loeffler: A Pegan Poem (possibly nothing of note judging by the score)


So, anyone got any more input? Note I am kinda looking for stuff I can listen to, so no Il Fausto by Vivendi, please...

[Delicious Manager]

The only notational issues are those composers (mostly Russians like Shostakovich and Prokofiev) who write for the bass clarinet in the bass clef a major second or minor third higher than concert pitch instead of a major ninth (or minor tenth) higher in treble clef. I would be interested to learn why the Russians did this if you have found out.

There are some good bass clarinet solos in some not-particularly-unsung works such as Mahler's Sixth Symphony, Tchaikovsky's Manfred Symphony and Shostakovich's Fourth, Seventh, Eighth, Eleventh and Thirteenth Symphonies.

[JimL]

Is there not a short bass clarinet solo in the development section of the finale of Dvorak 5?  Hardly the most sung of his symphonies, although not entirely unsung either.

[TerraEpon]

Yeah, as I said I'm doing a paper on it so I know all about the 'sungs' (including the tiny bit in Dvorak 5. It's the ONLY spot the instrument is used in that work, too)

I was looking for music to listen to mainly, not really help with the paper....though if anyone knows of any non-operatic pieces by less famous composers that use it pre 1890, I'd be more than happy to know, even if unrecorded.

I'm very interested if anyone knows the bottom five pieces (I imagine the Chadwick at least people do...) and if they are worth listening to.

[alberto]

I have heard (and own recordings) of all the five pieces at the bottom the first list.
All are worthy listening (I would say mostly the Loeffler - I have a Stokowsky recording).

[Hofrat]

Joachim Eggert's C-minor symphony (1807) calls for a bass clarinet in its 2nd movement.

If I am not mistaken, Beethoven's "Creatures of Prometheus" calls for a bass clarinet in several of the dance numbers, the only time LvB scored one, but alas he is not unsung.

[edurban]

I guess this is my chance to beat the Meyerbeer drum again...the Act 5 trio in Les Huguenots (1836) has what has to be the most famous bass clarinet solo in the 19th century.  You can find it cited in Berlioz' Treatise.  And, with 1000 performances of Huguenots by 1906 at the Paris Opera alone, by far the most often heard.

David

[Hofrat]

To be more accurate in the examples I stated, the Eggert C-minor symphony calls for a "basset horn" in F, as does Beethoven's "Creatures of Prometheus."

[TerraEpon]

I guess this is my chance to beat the Meyerbeer drum again...the Act 5 trio in Les Huguenots (1836) has what has to be the most famous bass clarinet solo in the 19th century. 

Um,....The Nutcracker?


And yeah, not looking for Basset Horn stuff.

[eschiss1]

from the score there seems to be a bass clarinet solo soon before [5] in the first movement of Lyapunov's first symphony... (page 15, Zimmermann full score)
doing a search for "bass clarinet" on IMSLP finds a few promising scores to download and look through (broken record, sorry.)

[edurban]

"...Um,....The Nutcracker?..."

Nutcracker was premiered, none too successfully, in 1892.  In the remaining eight years of the 19th century could it really have eclipsed Huguenots?  Since the 19th century, of course, Huguenots has joined the unsungs and Nutcracker is ubiquitous...

David

[JimL]

from the score there seems to be a bass clarinet solo soon before [5] in the first movement of Lyapunov's first symphony... (page 15, Zimmermann full score)
doing a search for "bass clarinet" on IMSLP finds a few promising scores to download and look through (broken record, sorry.)

I just listened to that CD the other day, although it was the VC, which I'm still assimilating.  I do think you're right, though, although I can't give a number in the score.  I'll give it a listen tomorrow.

[JimL]

I know this isn't unsung, but there are some rather nice passages in Dvorak's In Nature's Realm Overture for bass clarinet.  Not so much solos as places where the part stands out rather prominently.  One phrase in particular recurs in which the bass clarinet is doubled by the English horn.

[eschiss1]

I note several chamber works whose scores are at IMSLP featuring the bass clarinet- maybe of interest here (maybe not, and I don't know the works, but I put them up as possibles) are Henri Marteau's Serenade and Ferdinand Scherber's quartet for oboe, clarinet, bass clarinet and piano (published 1922 and 1914 respectively.)
Eric