Hoedown for Copland’s Rodeo has always felt like a vicious tonguing exercise on the wrong clarinet. Why would an orchestrator of Copland’s caliber make us do anything in E Major on a Bb clarinet when a perfectly good A clarinet could do it better in F Major? So, the principal clarinetist and I collectively decided to do it on A clarinet. (Links to the parts are below.) Of course, it was much easier to play in F Major, but I started to wonder if it was worth it. I, admittedly, was painfully flat on my opening F playing on a cold instrument, but even more obvious was the unsuitable timbre. I missed the extra “punch” that is a little easier on Bb. I think Copland knew exactly what he was doing when he put a Bb clarinet in E Major. (Of course he did… He was a master orchestrator!) So, before you download the transposed parts in A, please consider the original version in Bb.
Thank you sooo much for transposing Hoedown to A. The Bb parts have difficult fingerings and we have always wished someone would transpose…and so I went on line to see if I could find a transposed part. We appreciate you! Clarinetists of the Philharmonic Orchestra of Indianapolis.
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