Viennese chamber music with clarinet and piano, 1783-1827 : repertory and performance strategy.

The thesis, in two parts, establishes a corpus of Viennese chamber music with clarinet and piano
composed between 1783 and 1827 and develops strategies for the performance of this and other
Classical music repertory. Extant evidence from both primary and secondary sources confirms that
the clarinet was used in chamber music with piano in Vienna in advance of the rest of Europe.
Much of that repertory has been located and inspected for the first time by the author. In Part I the
corpus and its composers are examined, with emphasis given to hitherto unexamined contemporary
reviews of the works and the role played by the clarinet within the varied duos, trios, quartets and
larger configurations of instruments with piano. With works often being offered with instrumental
options, the relationship between the clarinet parts and their string alternatives, most commonly the
violin, is given special attention. By approaching works from differing analytical and historical
perspectives a holistic overview is also presented. In that chamber music was largely pursued in the
private sphere, few critical reports of performances of chamber music exist. No detailed review of a
clarinettist's performance in a work of Viennese chamber music with piano has survived, so the
reception of clarinet players in Vienna in other, more public genres is assessed in order to reveal the
attributes of clarinettists most highly prized by Viennese commentators. In Part II the debates
surrounding historically informed performance are surveyed, as are recent musicological
developments in performer analysis. A multivalent strategy for the performance of this chamber
music is proposed, derived from the topic theory of Ratner that is as contingent upon performer
analysis as historical evidence of previous performance practice. This strategy is applied to three
case studies from the repertory. A first appendix is a thematic catalogue of the corpus; a second
appendix includes a performing edition of Eberl's Sonata in B flat major, Op.10 no.2 that is
included in a recital of music from the corpus, submitted in partial fulfilment of the degree.