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A performance project in eighteenth century music for the clarinet: Michel Yost's Concerto No. 11 in B-flat for clarinet and orchestra

Patricia Williams West, University of Nebraska - Lincoln

Abstract

The concertos of Michel Yost, a Parisian clarinet virtuoso who lived from 1754 to 1786, illustrate a type of virtuoso writing and playing characteristic of the early French school. Yost was second in line in the list of important early clarinet players; he was a pupil of Joseph Beer (1744-1812), the first clarinet virtuoso and the individual perhaps most responsible for the clarinet's growing popularity. Yost was one of the most popular clarinet soloists in Paris during the 1770s and 1780s. He was the teacher of Xavier Lefevre (1763-1829), who became the first professor of clarinet at the Paris Conservatoire and influenced an entire generation of clarinetists. The clarinet in the eighteenth century developed from a rather primitive instrument with a limited range to an instrument with five keys and an extended range for which a substantial body of solo music was written. The development of the five-key clarinet led to the instrument's full acceptance in the orchestra, the emergence of a school of virtuoso players, and the development of a true clarinet idiom and a body of solo clarinet literature. This project consists of a study of the clarinet during the early years of its development followed by an edition of Yost's Concerto No. 11, a concerto for clarinet dating from the late eighteenth century. An orchestral score was prepared from the printed parts, a piano reduction was made, and the solo part was edited for modern performance. Yost's Concerto No. 11, written in the early 1780s, displays many characteristics typical of compositions by virtuoso performers. For example, the display of technical prowess takes precedence over other musical considerations. Many features of this concerto illustrate the capabilities and limitations of the clarinet in that particular stage of its development. Whatever the musical merits of Yost's concertos for the clarinet, they provide historical documentation of some aspects of the development of the clarinet in the eighteenth century.

Subject Area

Music

Recommended Citation

West, Patricia Williams, "A performance project in eighteenth century music for the clarinet: Michel Yost's Concerto No. 11 in B-flat for clarinet and orchestra" (1991). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI9219392.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI9219392

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