C. M. von Weber
Clarinet Quintet
in Bb Major (Op. 34)
for Clarinet and Strings

Carl Maria von Weber, composer, pianist and conductor, was born on November 18, 1786 in Eutin, Germany and died on June 5, 1826 in London, England. Although he lived in the Classical Period (1750-1825) in music, he is usually referred to as the father of Romantic Period (1825-1900) German Opera.

His first cousin, Constanze Weber (1763-1842), was married to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791), who had originally courted Constanze’s older sister Aloysia (1760-1839). His father, Franz Anton (1734-1812), a violinist and bassist, had hoped Carl Maria would also become a child prodigy, like Mozart, however, such was not the case.

Franz directed a travelling theatre company in which Carl Maria’s mother, Genoveva (1768-1798) was a singer; consequently, his first major work was an opera, “Das Waldmadchen”, written in 1800, when he was 13 years old. Eight years later, he wrote another opera on the same subject, “Silvana” (1808-10), from which the theme in Variations (Op. 33) is taken.

He wrote his Concertino, Op. 26, Variations, Op. 33 (for clarinet & piano), Quintet, Op. 34 (for clarinet & strings) and 2 Concertos, Op. 73 & 74 for clarinetist Heinrich Baermann (1784-1847). He met Baermann in Darmstadt, in early 1811, while Baermann was on tour. Baermann was much more famous than Weber, and immediately he began writing works for Baermann.

The Concertino (Op. 26) was first performed on April 5, 1811, in Munich and the Concerto No. 1 in F Minor (Op. 73) was first performed on June 13, 1811. When Weber returned from tour, he performed a “Concert Rondo” on November 11, 1811 in Munich, which he eventually used as the basis for the 3rd movement of Concerto No. 2 in Eb Major (Op. 74), first performed on November 25, 1811.

He and Baermann toured together from December 1, 1811 to March 28, 1812. The Variations (Op. 33) was hastily written on December 3, 1811 for a performance the following day in Prague, when it was realized that they had no works for clarinet and piano, alone.

The Quintet (Op. 34) for Clarinet & Strings was begun in September, 1811 but not completed until 1815. It can be seen that the opus numbers in Weber’s works bear little resemblance to the order in which the music was written.

From January 13, 1813 until September 13, 1816 Weber was director of Opera in Prague; on December 21, 1816 he became conductor of German Opera in Dresden. His most famous operas are Der Freischütz (completed June 18, 1821), Euryanthe (completed October 25, 1823) and Oberon (completed April 12, 1826) - the first production of which he was in London supervising when he died (of tuberculosis).

A few changes have been made in this arrangement: a short introduction was added to the 3rd movement (4 bars); in 5 instances the cello part was changed from sustained notes to a rhythmic figure, in order to maintain the feeling of the meter (1st mvt: 116 & 132; 2nd mvt: 42; 4th mvt: 180-182 & 306-307); for similar reasons, 2 notes were added in the cello part near the end of the 2nd movement (bar 61). The 2nd movement was originally in the meter of 2/4 (really 4/8); all rhythmic values have been doubled and the meter changed to 4/4 .

Book - 44 pages - 9”X12” - $19.95
CD - 8 Audio tracks & 4 MIDI Files

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