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Article: BASSET HORN TRIO BRINGING BACK VENERABLE INSTRUMENT
- Article from:
- The Boston Globe (Boston, MA)
- Article date:
- March 5, 1989
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright (null) The Boston Globe. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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In the clarinet family, the basset horn is the alto. By 1850, it
was extinct, pushed out of the orchestra by a new woodwind, the
bass clarinet, whose big boom could hold its own against modern
winds and strings. Mozart would have lamented the passing of the
basset horn. It was his favorite wind. Slightly nasal, but mellow
and muted, it could sing of the sorrow beyond tears. If you listen
to the basset horn in Mozart's next-to-last opera "La Clemenza di
Tito," you do not need the libretto to know who feels remorse.
The range of the instrument was incredible, from the lowest
low F of the human voice to the highest high C of the soprano.
Which made the basset horn the instrumental version ...