clarinet

a single-reed instrument with a straight tube

The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The name derives from adding the suffix ''-et'' meaning ''little'' to the Italian word ''clarino'' meaning ''trumpet'', as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet.Clarinets are made from specially chosen varieties of wood or, in the case of some student instruments, composite material or plastic resin. The instrument uses a single reed (music)reed which vibrates to generate the instrument's sound. (See ''Characteristics of the Instrument'')A person who plays the clarinet is called a clarinetist.

Characteristics of the instrument -

Tone - The clarinet has a distinctive liquid timbretone, resulting from the shape of the bore, whose characteristics vary between its three registers: the chalumeau (low), clarion or clarino (middle), and altissimo (high). Of all the wind instruments the clarinet has the widest compass, which is showcased in much wind band and orchestral writing. Additionally, improvements made to the fingering systems of the clarinet over time have enabled the instrument to be very agile; there are few restrictions to what it is able to play.The bass clarinet has a characteristically deep mellow tone. It is often only used in large bands and contemporary orchestral pieces. The alto clarinet is rare to be found in other than a concert band. Its range is slightly higher than that of a bass clarinet, yet still much lower than the common B flat clarinet. The B flat clarinet is a very common band, orchestra, chamber music, and solo instrument. The tone quality varies greatly with the musician, the music, the style of clarinet, the reed, and humidity. The German clarinet generally has a dark, greenish tone quality. In contrast, the French clarinet, because of impressionable french composers, is more bright and lively -- some might even say shrill. In between, the modern American clarinet has tone qualities borrowed from both the French and the German clarinets. Only a semitone below the B flat clarinet is the A clarinet. Much of orchestral and chamber repetoire is composed originally for A clarinet. Some people find the sound of the A clarinet to be just a little more rich and mysterious than a B flat, though the difference is small. Today, the chief use of an A clarinet is to make the key signature of a piece simpler. An E flat clarinet, about eighteen inches (45cm) long, is hardly as warm as the A clarinet. Many contemporary musicians write band music using the E flat clarinet. It is looked upon as the piccolo of clarinets, with its high and very bright tone. Beginning clarinetists often choose soft reeds - 2 to 2 1/2. Jazz clarinetists often remain on softer reeds, as the soft reeds are easy for bending pitch. However, most classical musicians work their way up the reed size as their embouchures strengthen. The benefit of a harder reed is a sturdy, round tone. It takes many years of practice to strengthen your embouchure, but your tone depends on it. Within a few years of playing, the corners of your mouth will be strong enough to keep the air flowing in a very narrow, cylindrical form. To practice controlling your air, light a candle, and hold it far from your face. Then, open your mouth only slightly, keep the corners of your mouth in, to make a very tight O shape. Then, take a deep breath from your diaphragm and blow at the candle. See how far away you can hold it and still blow it out. This gain of control will concentrate your air flow and round your tone in the most beautiful way possible.

Range - All clarinets, except for the C clarinet, are transposing instruments, meaning that the sounding and written pitches differ. For a standard B♭ clarinet, the range stretches from the D below middle C, to around the F two and half octaves above middle C, although the top of the range is not well defined. Being a B♭ insturment, the written range is a tone higher. An A clarinet has the same written range, and consequently can get a semitone lower. All clarinets have nominally the same written range, so a bass clarinet operates an octave lower, and a high E♭ clarinet operates a fourth higher than a B♭ clarinet. Generally, the lower clarinets are able to produce higher 'fingered' pitches than the small clarinets. This gives the bass clarinet a useable range of almost five octaves (beginning at low Bb two octaves and one tone below middle C) and the contra-alto and contra-bass clarinets perhaps more, but again these upper limits are subject to many variables. The range of a clarinet can be divided into three main sections, known as 'registers'. The bottom octave and a half (from written E below middle C to the B♭ above middle C) is known as the 'chalumeau register', of which the top fourth contains what are known as the 'throat notes'. Good tone in the 'throat notes' takes great skill. The middle section is called the 'clarion register', which spans just over an octave (from written B above middle C, to the C two octaves above middle C). The top section is called the 'altissimo register', which starts with the (written) C# two octaves above middle C and upwards without a definite upper limit, though anything beyond the C above this can be considered quite extreme. The highest notes in the altissimo register are generally used only rarely, to achieve particular dramatic or showy effects, as in Dixieland performance. Beginners often discover these notes quite by accident; playing them deliberately and well requires many years of practice.

Construction and acoustics - Professional clarinets are usually made from African hardwood, often grenadilla or (rarely) HondurasHonduran rosewood. One major manufacturer makes professional clarinets from a composite mixture of plastic resin and wood chips — such instruments are less affected by humidity, but are heavier than the equivalent wood instrument. Student instruments are usually composite materialcomposite or plastic resin, commonly "resonite", an Acrylonitrile butadiene styreneABS resin. Some parts are sometimes made of ebonite. The instrument uses a single wooden (sometimes "fiber" or plastic) reed (music)reed which is held in the mouth by the player. Vibrating the reed produces the instrument's sound. The body is equipped with a complicated set of seven tone holes (six front, one back) and 17 keys which allow the full musical scale to be produced. The most common system of keys was named the Boehm System (clarinet)Boehm System by its designer Hyacinthe Klosé in honour of the flute designer Theobald Boehm, but it is not the same as the Boehm System used on flutes. The other main system of keys is called the Oehler system and is used only in Germany and Austria (see History).The hollow bore inside the instrument has a basically cylindrical shape, being roughly the same diameter for most of the length of the tube. There is a subtle hourglass shape, with its thinnest part at the junction between the upper and lower joint. This hourglass figure is not visible to the naked eye, but helps in the resonance of the sound. The diameter of the bore affects characteristics such as the stability of the pitch of a given note, or, conversely, the ability with which a note can be 'bent' in the manner required in jazz and other styles of music. The bell is at the bottom of the instrument and flares out to spread the tone evenly. A clarinetist moves between registers through use of the register key, or speaker key. The fixed reed and fairly uniform diameter of the clarinet give the instrument the configuration of a stopped pipe in which the register key, when pressed, causes the clarinet to produce the note a interval (music)twelfth higher. This interval corresponds to the third harmonic seriesharmonic, whereas most other woodwinds go up to the second harmonic, an octave higher, when the register key is pressed. The fifth and seventh harmonics are also available to skilled players, sounding a further sixth and fourth higher respectively.The highest notes on a clarinet can have a piercing quality and can be difficult to tune precisely. Different individual instruments can be expected to play differently in this respect. This becomes critical if a number of instruments are required to play a high part in unison. Fortunately for audiences, disciplined players can use a variety of fingerings to introduce slight variations into the pitch of these higher notes. It is also common for high melody parts to be split into close harmony to avoid this issue. The parts that make up a clarinet are as follows (description follows the illustration from left to right):

The ''reed'' is attached to the ''mouthpiece'' by the ''ligature (music)ligature'', and the whole assembly is held in the player’s mouth, with the reed on the underside of the mouthpiece, pressing against the player's bottom lip. The formation of the mouth around the mouthpiece and reed is called the ''embouchure''.

Next is the short ''barrel''; this part of the instrument may be extended in order to fine-tune the clarinet. As the pitch of the clarinet is fairly temperature sensitive some instruments have interchangeable barrels whose lengths vary very slightly. Some performers employ a single barrel with a thumbwheel that enables the barrel length to be altered on the fly.

The main body of the clarinet is divided (except in the case of the E♭ soprano clarinet) into the ''upper joint'' whose holes and most keys are operated by the left hand, and the ''lower joint'' with holes and most keys operated by the right hand. The left thumb operates both a ''sound hole'' and the ''register key''. The cluster of keys in the middle of the illustration are known as the ''trill keys'' and are operated by the right hand. These give the player alternative fingerings which make it easy to play ornaments and trill (music)trills that would otherwise be awkward. The entire weight of the instrument is supported by the right thumb behind the lower joint on what is misleadingly called the ''thumb-rest''.

Finally, the flared end is known as the ''bell'', which amplifies the sound. When playing to a microphone, it is often found that the sound produced from the bell is relatively coarse, and that a better tone can be recorded by placing the microphone a little way from the finger-holes of the instrument. This relates to the position of the instrument when playing to an audience: pointing down at the floor, except in the most vibrant parts of certain styles of music.

Usage and repertoire of the clarinet -

Classical music - In European classical musicclassical music, clarinets are part of standard orchestral instrumentation, which frequently includes two clarinetists playing individual parts — each player usually equipped with a pair of standard clarinets in B flat and A. Clarinet sections grew larger during the 19th century, employing a thrid clarinetist or a bass clarinet. In the 20th century, composers such as Igor Stravinsky, Richard Strauss and Olivier Messiaen enlarged the clarinet section on occasion to up to nine players, employing many different clarinets including the Eb or D sopranino clarinets, bassett horn, bass clarinet and/or contrabass clarinet. This practice of using a variety of clarinets to acheive colouristic variety was common in 20th century classical music20th century music and continues today.The clarinet is widely used as a solo instrument. The relatively late invention of the clarinet has bequeathed a considerable repertoire from the Classical music eraClassical, Romantic musicRomantic and Modern musicModern periods but few works from the Baroque musicBaroque era. A number of clarinet concertos have been written to showcase the instrument, with Clarinet Concerto (Mozart)the one by Wolfgang Amadeus MozartMozart (the first major composer to write for the clarinet), Aaron CoplandCopland and Carl Maria von WeberWeber being particularly well known.Many works of chamber music have also been written for the clarinet. Particularly common combinations are:

clarinet and piano (including clarinet sonatas)

clarinet, piano and another instrument (e.g. string instrument or voice)

clarinet quintet, generally made up of a clarinet plus a string quartet,

wind quintet

clarinet quartet, consisting of four soprano clarinets, but sometimes using bass clarinet or alto clarinet in place of one of the sopranos.

clarinet, violin, piano

Concert bands - In concert bandwind bands, clarinets are a particularly central part of the instrumentation, occupying the same space in bands that the strings do in orchestras. Bands usually include several B♭ clarinets, divided into sections each consisting of several instruments playing the same part. Alto, bass, and contrabass clarinets are sometimes used as well.

Jazz - Clarinets are also commonly found in jazz, especially in its earlier forms such as the Big Band music of the 1930s and 1940s.The clarinet was a central instrument in early jazz starting in the 1910s and remaining popular through the big band era into the 1940s. Larry Shields, Ted Lewis (musician)Ted Lewis, Jimmie Noone and Sidney Bechet were influential in early jazz. The B flat soprano was the most common, but a few early jazz musicians such as Louis Nelson Deslile and Alcide Nunez prefered the C soprano, and many New Orleans jazz brass bands have used E flat sopranino. Swing clarinetists such as Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, and Woody Herman led perhaps the most successful popular music groups of their era. With the decline of big bands' popularity in the late 1940s, the clarinet faded from its prominent position in jazz, though a few players (Buddy DeFranco, Jimmy Giuffre, Perry Robinson and others) used clarinet in bebop and free jazz. However, the instrument has seen something of a resurgence since the 1980s, with Eddie Daniels, Don Byron and others playing the clarinet in more contemporary contexts. The instrument remains common in such styles as Dixieland.

Klezmer - Clarinets are also feature prominently in much Klezmer music, which requires a very distinctive style of playing from the clarinetist.

Groups of clarinets - Groups of clarinets playing together have become increasingly popular among clarinet enthusiasts in recent years. Common forms are:

clarinet choir, which features a large number of clarinets playing together, usually involving a range of different members of the clarinet family (see Family of Clarinets). The homogeneity of tone across the different members of the clarinet family produces an effect with some similarities to a human choir.

clarinet quartet, for which three B♭ sopranos and one B♭ bass is a particularly common combinationClarinet choirs and quartets often play arrangements of both classical and popular music, in addition to a body of literature specially written for a combination of clarinets by composers such as Arnold Cooke, Alfred Uhl, Lucien Caillet and Vaclav Nehlybel.

Family of clarinets - Clarinets come in a range of different sizes. The most common varieties by far are the standard B♭ soprano and the A soprano, whose ranges are described above, followed by the B♭ Bass and the E♭ Sopranino. Clarinets other than the standard B flat and A clarinets are sometimes known as harmony clarinets. However, there are many differently-pitched clarinet types, some of which are very rare:

A♭ Piccolo - Very rare. Used only in Italian marching bands.

E♭ Sopranino - Fairly common. Also affectionately called the "Eefer". Used in marching bands, wind ensembles, clarinet choirs and sometimes in orchestras to increase the upper range of the clarinet choir. The piercing quality of this smaller clarinet carries well in outdoor situations.

D Sopranino - Rare. Occasionally used in orchestral writing, but these pieces are usually played on an E♭ Sopranino.

C Soprano - Rare. Was fairly common in the early 19th century, with some music by composers such as Ludwig van BeethovenBeethoven and Franz SchubertSchubert is written for it. C Clarinet parts are quite common in Italian music and opera. C parts are often played on a standard B♭. However, the C clarinet is having somewhat of a resurgence in orchestra and solo literature.

B♭ Soprano - This is the standard clarinet used for marching band, orchestra and jazz band.

A Soprano - Standard orchestral instrument used alongside the B♭ Soprano. Orchestral clarinetists always come equipped with a pair of clarinets. The A clarinet offers a slightly richer tone than the B♭, but the instrument's primary advantage is its greater ease of playing in orchestral repertoire written in keys with many sharps.

A Basset - The basset clarinet was written for by Mozart and others. It is essentially a soprano clarinet with a range extension to low C (written).

G Soprano - Also called a "Turkish Clarinet". It has a much deeper timbre than the soprano and is capable of Microtonal musicmicrotones. It is primarily used in ethnic music.

F Basset hornBasset Horn - This instrument was written for by Mozart often; his friend Anton Stadler was an accomplished player. It is not common in wind band or orchestral music. It differs from the alto in that it has a range to low C and a smaller bore designed to be played with a soprano mouthpiece. In appearance, the basset horn is most often distinguished from the alto by the low C extension.

F Alto clarinetAlto - While the F Alto shares some design features of the basset horn and looks like a small bass clarinet, the alto has a range only to low E♭ (written) and presents a larger bore than the basset horn. Some examples of extended range (to written low C) alto clarinets in F are presently manufactured.

E♭ Alto clarinetAlto - Used in marching bands in previous centuries but not as common anymore in the traditional setting. Used in clarinet choirs and some works for concert band. There is a limited solo repertiore. This instrument has the advantage of being more easily manufactured, carried and played than the bass clarinet, whilst retaining some of the appealing tonal character of the larger instrument.

B♭ Bass clarinetBass - An octave below the B♭ soprano. Commonly used in concert bands and clarinet choirs; also fairly common in orchestral writing, especially of the 20th century. Some marching bands may have marching bass clarinets, but this is rare, as the instrument is heavy and can be awkward and difficult to carry on the field.

EE♭ Contra-alto clarinetContra-Alto - An octave below the E♭ Alto. Fairly common, especially in wind band literature. Sometimes called the "EE♭ Contra-bass". The lower range of the Contra-Alto (as opposed to the B♭ Bass Clarinet) can match some of the lower range passages written for bassoon, tuba and double bass. Its popularity among players rests in the ease with which one transposes parts for bassoon, tuba, and bass.

BB♭ Contrabass clarinetContra-Bass - An octave below the B♭ Bass. Rare, except in large clarinet choirs and wind ensembles. Orchestratively, its usage is primarily supplemental, though some works for concert band and orchestra employ distinct passages expressly for this instrument; the contrabassoon is sometimes substituted.

EEE♭ Octocontralto - Only three were ever built.

BBB♭ Octocontrabass - Only one was ever built. (The only one that exists is in the personal collection of Mr. George Leblanc.)

History - The clarinet started life as a small instrument called the chalumeau. Not much is known about this instrument, but it may have evolved from the recorder. The chalumeau had a similar reed to the modern clarinet, but lacked the register key which extends the range to nearly four octaves, so it had a limited range of about one and a half octaves. It also lacked certain chromatics. Like a recorder, it had eight finger holes, and usually had one or two keys for extra notes.In about 1700, a German instrument maker named Johann Christoph Denner added a register key to the chalumeau and produced the first clarinet. This instrument played well in the middle register with a loud, strident tone, so it was given the name ''clarinetto'' meaning "little trumpet" (from ''clarino'' + ''-etto''). Early clarinets did not play well in the lower register, so chalumeaus continued to be made to play the low notes and these notes became known as the chalumeau register. As clarinets improved, the chalumeau fell into disuse.The original Denner clarinets had two keys, but various makers added more to get extra notes. The classical clarinet of Wolfgang Amadeus MozartMozart's day would probably have had eight finger holes and five keys.Clarinets were soon accepted into orchestras. Later models had a mellower tone than the originals. Mozart liked the sound of the clarinet and wrote much music for it, and by the time of Ludwig van BeethovenBeethoven, the clarinet was a standard fixture in the orchestra.The next major development in the history of clarinet was the invention of the modern pad. Early clarinets covered the tone holes with felt pads. Because these leaked air, the number of pads had to be kept to a minimum, so the clarinet was severely restricted in what notes could be played with a good tone. In 1812, Ivan Mueller, a Russian-born clarinetist and inventor, developed a new type of pad which was covered in leather or fish bladder. This was completely airtight, so the number of keys could be increased enormously. He designed a new type of clarinet with seven finger holes and thirteen keys. This allowed the clarinet to play in any key with near equal ease. Over the course of the 19th century, many enhancements were made to Mueller's clarinet, such as the Albert system and the Baermann system, all keeping the same basic design. The Mueller clarinet and its derivatives were popular throughout the world.The final development in the design of the clarinet was introduced by Hyacinthe Klosé in 1839. He devised a different arrangement of keys and finger holes which allow simpler fingering. It was inspired by the Boehm system developed by Theobald Boehm, a flute maker who had invented the system for flutes. Klosé was so impressed by Boehm's invention that he named his own system for clarinets the Boehm system, although it is different from the one used on flutes. This new system was slow to catch on because it meant the player had to relearn how to play the instrument. Gradually, however, it became the standard and today the Boehm system is used everywhere in the world except Germany and Austria. These countries still use a direct descendant of the Mueller clarinet known as the Oehler system clarinet. Also, some contemporary Dixieland and Klezmer players continue to use Albert system clarinets, as the simpler fingering system can allow for easier slurring of notes. At one time the reed was held on using string, but now the practice exists only in Germany and Austria, where the warmer, ''thicker'' tone is preferred over that produced with the ligatures that are more popular in the rest of the world.

Famous clarinetists - See clarinetist for a list of some famous clarinet players.

References -

Pino, Dr. David ''The Clarinet and Clarinet Playing.'' Providence: Dover Pubns, 1998, 320 p.; ISBN 0486402703

External links - pic

buffetcrampon.org - Buffet: A prestigious brand

woodwind.org - B flat clarinet fingering chart

hem.passagen.se - Comprehensive list of clarinets

phys.unsw.edu.au - Clarinet acoustics

wfg.woodwind.org - Comprehensive list of Boehm-, Albert-, and Oehler-system clarinets and Kinderklarinettes fingering chartCategory:Woodwind !instrumentsCategory:ClarinetsL ink? FAde !ca:Clarinetda:Klarinetde:Klari nettees:Clarineteeo:Klarnetofr :Clarinettegd:Clàirneidko:클 라리넷hr:Klarinetit:Clarine ttohe:קלרינטnl:Klarinetj a:クラリネットpl:Klarnet pt:Clarineteru:Кларнетs imple:Clarinetsl:Klarinetsr:К ларинетsv:Klarinettth:� ��ลาริเน็ตvi:K èn? dăm !đơnzh:单簧管zh-min-nan:O� �-ta̍t-á

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