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CLARINET

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Originally appearing in Volume V03, Page 492 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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CLARINET and See also:

AULOS. The construction of the See also:bass clarinet demands the greatest care. The See also:bore should theoretically be strictly cylindrical throughout its length from See also:mouthpiece to See also:bell See also:joint; the slightest deviation from mathematical accuracy, such as an undue widening of the bell from the point where it joins the See also:body to the mouth of the bell, would tend to muffle the See also:lower notes of the See also:instrument and to destroy correct intonation. The origin of the bass clarinet must be sought in See also:Germany, where Heinrich Grenser of See also:Dresden, one of the most famous instrument-makers of his See also:day, made the first bass clarinet in 1793. The See also:basset See also:horn (q.v.) or See also:tenor clarinet, which had reached the height of its popularity, no doubt suggested to Grenser, who was more especially renowned for his excellent fagottos, the possibility of providing for the clarinet a bass of its own. One of these earliest attempts in the See also:form of a fagotto, stamped " A. Grenser, Dresden," with nine square-flapped See also:brass keys working on knobs, is in the Grossherzogliches Museum at See also:Darmstadt and was See also:lent to the Royal Military See also:Exhibition, See also:London 1890.1 Two other See also:early specimens,' belonging originally to Adolphe See also:Sax and to M. de Coussemaker, are now respectively preserved in the museums of the See also:Brussels See also:Conservatoire and of the See also:Berlin Hochschule (Snoeck Collection). The tubes are of See also:great thickness and the holes are bored obliquely through the walls. Both See also:instruments are in A. Attempts were made in See also:Italy to overcome the See also:mechanical difficulties by making the bore of the bass clarinet See also:serpentine. A specimen by See also:Nicolas Papalini of See also:Pavia 3 in the museum of the Brussels Conservatoire has the serpentine bore pierced through two slabs of See also:pear-See also:wood; the two halves, each forming a See also:vertical See also:section of the instrument, are fitted together with wooden pins. The outside length is only 2 ft.

31 in. and there are nineteen See also:

finger-holes. See also:Joseph Uhlmann of See also:Vienna 4 constructed a bass clarinet, also termed " bass basset horn," with twenty-three keys and a See also:compass from Bb through four See also:complete octaves with all See also:chromatic ' See See also:Captain C. R. Day, Descriptive See also:Catalogue (London, 1891), No. 266, p. 125. a See See also:Victor Mahillon, Catalogue descriptif, vol. ii. (1896), pp. 224-226, No. 940. 3 See Captain C. R.

Day, op. cit. p. 123, pl. V. B. and p. 123, No. 262. ' See Dr Schafhautl's See also:

report on the See also:Munich exhibition, Bericht der Beurtheilungscommission fiir Musikinstrumente (Munich, 1855), P. 153• semitones. These instruments resemble the saxophones (q.v.), having the bell joint See also:bent up in front and the crook almost at right angles backwards, but the bore of the See also:saxophone is conical. Georg Streitwolf (1779-1837), an ingenious musical instrument-maker of See also:Gottingen, produced in 1828 a bass clarinet with a compass extending from Ab to F, nineteen keys and a fingering the same as that of the clarinet with but few exceptions. In form it resembled the fagotto and had a crook terminating in a See also:beak mouthpiece. The Streitwolf bass clarinet was adopted in 1834 by the Prussian See also:infantry as bass to the wood-See also:wind .l Streitwolf's first bass clarinets were in C, but later he constructed instruments in Bb as well.

Like the basset horn, Streitwolf's instruments had the four chromatic open keys extending the compass downwards to Bb. The See also:

tone was of very See also:fine quality. One of these instruments is in the See also:possession of Herr C. Kruspe of See also:Erfurt,' and another is preserved in the Berlin collection at the Hochschule. It was, however, the successive improvements of Adolphe Sax (See also:Paris, 1814-1894), working probably from Grenser's and later from Streitwolf's See also:models, which produced the See also:modern bass clarinet, and following up the See also:work of Halary and See also:Buffet in the same See also:field, he secured its introduction into the See also:orchestra at the See also:opera. The bass clarinet in C made its first See also:appearance in opera in 1836 in See also:Meyerbeer's See also:Huguenots, See also:Act V., where in a fine passage the lower See also:register of the instrument is displayed to See also:advantage, and later in Dinorah (Le See also:pardon de Ploermel). Two years later (1838) at the See also:theatre of See also:Modena a bass clarinet by P. Maino of See also:Milan, differing in construction from the Sax See also:model, was independently introduced into the orchestra? See also:Wagner employed the bass clarinet in Bb and C in See also:Tristan and Isolde,4 where at the end of Act II. it is used with great effect to characterize the reproachful utterance of See also:King See also:Mark, thus: —V<`T etc. P f I aim. P (K.

End of Article: CLARINET

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