One of the more interesting experiments on prejudice involves disseminating among a group of children various instruments and asking them which one they should like to play. If they are old enough then they will gravitate towards the trinity: piano, violin and cello, and in that order. Though I cannot claim to have tried this out myself in any rigorous or scientific way, I will also bet that the younger children will create a far more random data pattern, responding individually to the sonority of each instrument.
But why should exposure weight our subjects towards these three? For while there have been as many great works written for the piano as there are bones in a butcher's shop, most of the important works for flute remain children of the baroque and early classical. If a flautist wants to play something that isn't Mozart, they must either find a transcription of some other great work or transcribe up something themselves (a veritable pursuit). Yet the lonely flute, parched but for the tone poems and harp collaborations fed by the French, is not a universal template.
The clarinet exploded under Brahms, resultantly creating some of its finest works. For him it sings softly, hauntingly, and ohso sweetly. Mozart's concerto is regularly considered among the best and most popular in all music. Weber's is a cute and plucky creature as versatile and expressive as anything. And that is just the clarinet.
So, if it is clear that these instruments can reach the expressive heights of any piano or violin, then why are they not written for more often? All three examples bear the reasons why: while any composer can sit down and write something for the violin or piano and know that it will be performed well, clarinettists, let alone great ones, are in relatively short supply: instead it comes down to knowing someone who can surely play them well – as it was with Brahms and Mozart (like Mühlfeld or Stadler), and then watching them perform it. Each and every player outside the trinity will recognise such a momentum behind many of their greatest pieces. But now we must look at how to end the feedback loop.
The conventional wisdom is that it is up to composers to realise more widely the fine possibilities of these neglected instruments, but it many circumstances their inclusion can become a gimmick, which, if anything, is degrading. Instead, it is down to music teachers to broaden the horizon by introducing and encouraging a wide range of instruments to their young students. It should be done both for the cultivation of new and diverse music, but for the other reason that not everyone likes the piano, and that people otherwise lost to music will find a foothold in the form of a fine, if somewhat irregular, instrument.
Self-portrait by Noah
