Understanding Klose's Solo de Concours

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The Scholastic and Performance Legacy of Hyacinthe Klosé’s Solos de Concours for the Paris Conservatory

The institutional history of the clarinet is inextricably linked to the pedagogical and compositional output of Hyacinthe Eléonore Klosé, whose tenure at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris from 1838 to 1868 defined the French clarinet school for the nineteenth century. As the fourth Professor of Clarinet, Klosé followed a lineage that included Xavier Lefèvre and Frédéric Berr, but he surpassed his predecessors by integrating technological innovation with a new, systematic approach to the Solo de Concours. During his thirty-year tenure, Klosé was responsible for selecting or composing the annual examination pieces—the Morceaux de Concours—that served as the final hurdle for students seeking the prestigious Premier Prix. His series of twelve numbered solos represents a critical evolution in the instrument’s literature, moving away from the simpler Air Varié toward more complex, multi-movement structures that showcase the technical possibilities of the newly developed Boehm system clarinet.

Technological Foundations and the Boehm System Revolution

Klosé’s compositions cannot be analyzed without understanding the mechanical revolution he spearheaded alongside the instrument maker Louis-Auguste Buffet. Between 1839 and 1843, Klosé adapted the ring-key principles developed by Theobald Boehm for the flute to the clarinet, resulting in what is now the standard Boehm system. This system utilized a series of rings and lateral keys to solve the intonation and fingering difficulties inherent in the earlier Müller and simple-key systems. The development of the Boehm system allowed for greater chromatic agility, particularly in the "break" between the chalumeau and clarion registers, and facilitated performance in distant keys that were previously considered prohibitively difficult.

The twelve numbered solos were essentially laboratory experiments in this new technology. Each solo was designed to push the boundaries of what a student could achieve on the Boehm system instrument, requiring a combination of finger dexterity, refined articulation, and a vocal, operatic approach to tone production. Consequently, the performance history of these solos is also a history of the Boehm system's adoption and eventual dominance in the global clarinet community.

Chronological Reconstruction of the Twelve Numbered Solos

The transition from Frédéric Berr to Hyacinthe Klosé in 1838 marked a shift in the competitive landscape. While Berr had focused on the Air Varié format, Klosé introduced a series of works simply titled "Solo," which were eventually numbered and published with opus numbers. These works were used repeatedly throughout the mid-to-late nineteenth century, even after Klosé’s retirement, highlighting their enduring pedagogical value.

Analysis of Solo Numbers 1 through 6

The early solos in the series established the formal expectations for the Concours. These works typically consisted of two or three movements, often pairing a lyrical introductory section with a brilliant finale.

Solo Number	Opus Number	Movement Structure	First Known Concours Year	Subsequent Usage Years
Solo No. 1	Op. 9	Allegro and Rondo	1839	1850, 1869
Solo No. 2	Op. 10	Andante Sostenuto and Rondo	1840	1841, 1870
Solo No. 3	Op. 13	Recitative, Adagio, and Polacca	1844	1874
Solo No. 4	Op. 14	Introduction, Recitative, and Bolero	1855	1864
Solo No. 5	Op. 15	Larghetto and Mouvement Pas Redoublé	1846	1852, 1859
Solo No. 6	Op. 16	Andante and Finale	1856	1866

Solo No. 1 (1839) served as the inaugural statement of Klosé’s professorship. It used the standard Allegro-Rondo pairing, but the technical demands were significantly higher than those of Berr’s previous offerings. Solo No. 2, Op. 10, was originally categorized as a "Concerto" in its 1840 and 1841 appearances before being republished as a solo. This work is notable for its Andante Sostenuto, which requires a high degree of breath control and tonal modulation, reflecting Klosé's own reputation for a "vocal" quality in his playing.

Solo No. 3, Op. 13, introduced the Polacca as a finale, a form that would become a staple of the French school for its rhythmic vivacity and opportunity for articulated brilliance. Solo No. 5, Op. 15, on the other hand, drew from Klosé’s extensive experience in military music, featuring a Mouvement Pas Redoublé—a quick-step military march style. This movement tested the student’s ability to maintain a rigorous tempo while executing complex staccato patterns, a skill essential for the wind band musicians of the era.

Analysis of Solo Numbers 7 through 12

As Klosé’s tenure progressed, the solos became more sectional and operatic, often incorporating lengthy recitatives that mirrored the dramatic trends of the Paris Opéra and the Théâtre Italien.

Solo Number	Opus Number	Movement Structure	Concours Usage Years
Solo No. 7	Op. 17	Cantabile, Recitative, Allegro and Finale	1851
Solo No. 8	Op. 19	Cantabile and Bolero	1853, 1858
Solo No. 9	Op. 25	Pastorale and Allegro	1854, 1857, 1860, 1862, 1865, 1885
Solo No. 10	Op. 27	Andantino and Allegro	1859, 1862, 1892
Solo No. 11	Op. 28	Recitative, Andante and Allegro	1861, 1865, 1875, 1876, 1895
Solo No. 12	Posth.	Recitative, Cantabile Largo, and Allegro	1863

Solo No. 9, Op. 25, emerged as perhaps the most successful work in the series, used in at least five different competition years and remaining on the list as late as 1885 during Cyrille Rose’s tenure. Its Pastorale movement allowed for a display of rural, evocative tone colors, while the Allegro finale provided a comprehensive technical test. Solo No. 11, Op. 28, is similarly significant for its longevity, appearing in the 1895 Concours, just two years before the formal commissioning of new solos began. The posthumously published Solo No. 12 represents Klosé’s final thoughts on the genre, emphasizing a deep, elegiac Cantabile Largo that suggests a culmination of his lyrical style.

Identifying Performance Records and Modern Interpretations

Finding professional recordings of Klosé’s numbered solos requires navigating among historical archives, pedagogical resources, and the limited output of modern soloists specializing in nineteenth-century French repertoire. While the later commissioned works by Debussy and Messager dominate modern concert programs, Klosé’s solos remain present in specialized recordings and academic contexts.

Historical Discography and Early Recordings

The earliest performance records of Klosé’s music come from the graduates of the Paris Conservatory who entered the recording era in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

• Henri Paradis: A student of Cyrille Rose and a First Prize winner in 1880, Paradis served as the solo clarinetist of the Garde Républicaine band. He recorded over sixty solo pieces on 78 rpm records, which likely included movements or themes from the Klosé solos and etudes that formed the basis of his training.

• Louis Cahuzac: One of the most famous clarinetists of the early twentieth century, Cahuzac recorded a wide array of French repertoire. While his discography is dominated by works like the Hindemith Concerto and Honegger Sonatine, his foundation was the Klosé school, and his recorded style—characterized by extreme clarity and a light, fluid technique—is the direct descendant of the performance practice required for Klosé's numbered solos.

Modern Professional Recordings

In the contemporary era, the focus has shifted toward the "La Clarinette Parisienne" aesthetic, which often features the commissioned solos from 1897 to 1984. However, Klosé's music is occasionally featured in historical surveys.

• Michael Collins and Noriko Ogawa: On their album La Clarinette Parisienne, Collins performs works by Messager, Rabaud, Widor, and Debussy. While this specific disc does not include a Klosé-numbered solo, the liner notes and surrounding scholarship explicitly identify Klosé’s pieces as the "largely forgotten" yet essential precursors to the masterpieces on the recording. Collins' performance of Messager’s Solo de Concours (1899) serves as an indirect performance record of the Klosé style, as Messager’s work was a conscious technical expansion of the Klosé model.

• Solo No. 2, Op. 10: This work has been preserved through high-quality professional clarinet and piano play-along videos designed for both students and professionals. These recordings provide a complete reference performance with full notation, serving as one of the most accessible modern records of how the piece should be interpreted stylistically.

• Solo No. 7, Op. 17: This solo is available through specialized publishers like Billaudot and has been included in CD/Online audio collections titled Clarinet with CD/Online Audio, providing a professional interpretive model for students.

Performance Practice in Academic and University Settings

Klosé’s solos frequently appear in the recitals of university professors and doctoral students specializing in woodwind history.

• Virginia Tech and the PEN Trio: Dr. David Widder and other faculty at Virginia Tech have a history of performing and teaching the French school repertoire. For example, in December 1994, Widder’s programs included works by Debussy and Widor, which are traditionally prefaced by a study of Klosé’s solos. More recently, in 2021, Keith Koons performed Jean-Michel Damase’s "Hommage à Klosé," a modern work that quotes Klosé’s stylistic fingerprints, effectively keeping his performance legacy alive in a contemporary context.

• Western Kentucky University: John Cipolla, a Distinguished Professor at WKU and past president of the International Clarinet Association, has produced a series of masterclasses entitled "Kontemporary Klose". These performances and lessons focus on applying Klosé’s nineteenth-century technical principles to modern clarinet playing, including "play along by ear" and "singing" through the instrument, which are the core requirements of the numbered solos.

Institutional Context: The Paris Conservatory Concours (1838–1896)

The performance of a Klosé solo during his tenure was a high-stakes event. The Concours was held annually in July, and the students were judged by a panel of experts, including the professor and external members from the Paris musical elite. The winner of the Premier Prix was often guaranteed a career in the leading orchestras of Paris, such as the Opéra or the Concerts Lamoureux.

Key Student Performers and Prize Winners

The history of the numbered solos is also the history of the students who first performed them. These individuals went on to become the next generation of teachers and performers, ensuring the Klosé style persisted well into the twentieth century.

Student Name	Achievement/Year	Career Impact
Cyrille Rose	First Prize, 1847	Succeeded Leroy as Professor; teacher of Cahuzac and Jeanjean
K.I. Boutruy	First Prize, 1852	Prominent soloist of the mid-century
Frédéric Selmer	Prize of Honour, 1852	Founder of the Selmer clarinet dynasty
A. Grisez	First Prize, 1857	Influential teacher and orchestral player
Charles Paul Turban	First Prize, 1865	Succeeded Rose as Professor; commissioned 1901–1904 solos
Adolphe Leroy	Succeeded Klosé	Continued the use of Klosé solos in the 1870s

Cyrille Rose is particularly vital to this performance history. Having won his prize with a Klosé solo in 1847, Rose became the bridge between Klosé’s mechanical innovations and the "Golden Age" of the French clarinet school. When Rose became a professor in 1876, he continued to program Klosé’s Solos No. 3, 9, and 11, alongside the works of Weber and Spohr, thus creating a performance tradition that combined Klosé’s French brilliance with German Romanticism.

Analysis of Non-Numbered and Related Competition Pieces

While the twelve numbered solos are the primary focus, Klosé also utilized other forms for the Concours, notably the Air Varié. These pieces were often used in the early years of his tenure or in years where a shorter technical test was required.

• 1er Air Varié (Op. 7): Used in 1842.

• 2ème Air Varié (Op. 8): Used in 1843.

• 3ème Air Varié (Op. 11): Used in 1848.

• 4ème Air Varié (Op. 12): A significant work used in 1845 and again in 1872. It features an Introduction, Theme, Variations, and a Finale in the Pas Redoublé style.

These Airs Variés are often found on modern digital sheet music sites such as free-scores.com, where they are occasionally accompanied by video performances or synthesized MIDI files, providing another layer of performance data for modern researchers.

Stylistic Attributes and Technical Demands for Performance

The performance of a Klosé solo requires a specific technical and stylistic toolkit. According to pedagogical analysis from the French school, these works demand "seamless, perfectly modulated tone" and "long-breathed melodic lines".

The Operatic Recitative

Almost all of Klosé’s later solos (Nos. 7, 11, and 12) feature an extensive Recitative. These sections are characterized by:

1. Free Rhythmic Structure: The performer must interpret the music as a dramatic declamation, pausing for emphasis and accelerating through florid runs.

2. Wide Interval Jumps: These passages often test the Boehm system’s ability to move cleanly across the registers, requiring the performer to maintain a consistent tone quality from the low E to the high G.

3. Dynamic Nuance: The recitatives are meant to be expressive, moving from pianissimo whispers to fortissimo outcries.

The Bolero and Polacca Finals

The finals of Solos No. 3, 4, and 8 use national dance rhythms popular in nineteenth-century Paris.

• The Bolero (Solo No. 4 and 8): Requires a crisp, rhythmic articulation and a sense of Spanish flair.

• The Polacca (Solo No. 3): Demands a "brilliant" and "noble" character, with many rapid triplets and grace notes that must be executed with extreme clarity.

The Military Pas Redoublé

The use of the Pas Redoublé in Solo No. 5 and the 4th Air Varié highlights the clarinet’s role in French military bands. Performance of these sections requires a "metronomic" precision and a high degree of staccato endurance, reflecting Klosé's own experience as a military bandmaster.

The Transition to Commissioned Solos (1897–Present)

The performance history of Klosé’s solos was fundamentally altered in 1897, when the French Ministry of Education ordered the creation of a dedicated solo competition that would commission new works from leading composers. This shift was intended to bring the clarinet repertoire into the mainstream of French musical composition, attracting composers such as Widor, Messager, and, eventually, Debussy.

Implications for Klosé's Repertoire

Once the commissioning process began, Klosé’s numbered solos were gradually removed from the Concours lists in favor of newer, more modern works like Messager’s Solo de Concours (1899) and Rabaud’s Solo de Concours (1901). However, the Concours lists show that Klosé's Solos No. 10 and 11 were still used as late as 1892 and 1895, respectively, indicating that they remained the gold standard for technical evaluation until the very end of the century.

Digital and Archival Resources for Finding Performances

For a modern researcher or performer seeking to hear these works, several digital repositories provide the most consistent access.

• IMSLP (International Music Score Library Project): This archive contains the primary scores and parts for nearly all the numbered solos, including those published by Richault, Meissonnier, and Costallat. Some entries, such as Solo No. 9, include historical metadata on their competition use.

• YouTube and Academic Repositories: While complete studio recordings are rare, YouTube has become a repository for "Play Along" versions and student/faculty recitals. Professional clarinetists like John Cipolla use these platforms to demonstrate technical segments of the Klosé method, which are often the same technical segments found in the solos.

• Clarinet Institute of Los Angeles: This organization provides digital downloads of the "complete libraries" of clarinet music, which include Klosé's numbered solos as part of the foundational French repertoire.

Comparative Context: Klosé vs. His Contemporaries

To understand the specific niche of Klosé’s performances, it is helpful to compare his use of competition with that of other composers featured at the Paris Conservatory during the same era.

Era	Primary Composer(s)	Typical Form	Notable Year/Event
1831–1838	Frédéric Berr	Air Varié	All Concours solos composed by Berr
1838–1868	Hyacinthe Klosé	Numbered Solo	Implementation of the Boehm system
1869–1876	Adolphe Leroy	Klosé / Berr	Transition years; Leroy was Klosé's pupil
1877–1896	Cyrille Rose	Weber / Spohr	Introduction of German Romantic concertos
1897–Present	Commissioned	Varied (Impressionist, Modern)	Ministry order for new commissions

This table illustrates that Klosé’s numbered solos dominated the conservatory for over three decades and remained a fallback even as the department sought to internationalize its repertoire under Cyrille Rose. The performance of a Klosé solo in 1895 (Solo No. 11) was a nostalgic but necessary nod to the technical foundations that allowed the subsequent Debussy and Ravel-influenced works to be performed successfully.

The Future of Klosé Performances: Historical Information and Modern Research

The ongoing interest in "Historically Informed Performance" (HIP) has begun to touch the nineteenth-century wind tradition. Research by scholars like Jean-Marie Paul, published in The Clarinet (the journal of the International Clarinet Association), has revitalized interest in Klosé’s works. Articles such as "Hyacinthe Klosé (1808–1880): His Works for Clarinet" provide the analytical framework necessary for modern performers to approach the numbered solos with stylistic accuracy.

Furthermore, projects like the "Clarinet Learning Community" at ClarinetFest® continue to feature presentations and performances of these works. The 2021 ClarinetFest®, for instance, included discussions on "Hommage à Klosé" and the "Clarinetron," illustrating how the pedagogical lineage from Klosé to the present day is a continuous performance record.

Conclusion: Synthesizing the Legacy of Klosé's Solos

Hyacinthe Klosé’s twelve numbered solos for the Paris Conservatory represent a unique intersection of musical art, pedagogical rigor, and technological progress. While they served the immediate purpose of evaluating the elite students of the mid-nineteenth century, their performance history has become a foundational narrative for the entire clarinet world. From the first prize winners like Cyrille Rose and Charles Turban to the modern-day masterclasses of John Cipolla, the Klosé solos are the technical and stylistic "DNA" of modern clarinet playing.

The difficulty in finding modern "superstar" recordings of these works is not a reflection of their lack of quality, but rather of their transformation from "concert pieces" into "living technical documents." They are performed daily in practice rooms and teaching studios around the world, and their technical demands are heard in every clean scale and perfectly phrased cantabile of the modern orchestral clarinetist. Through archival scores on IMSLP, historical recordings by Paradis and Cahuzac, and the pedagogical efforts of modern university faculty, the numbered solos of Hyacinthe Klosé continue to be performed, heard, and studied as the essential blueprints of the French clarinet school.