The Clarinet

The Clarinet is a woodwind instrument. It is a cylindrical-bore pipe sounded by a single beating reed that is clipped over a slot in a mouthpiece set in the upper end of the pipe. The lower end flares out into a bell. Modern clarinets are made of ebony and have 20 or more side holes to produce different pitches.

The most common size of clarinet is the B-flat soprano. It has a range of about three-and-one-half octaves. Other common sizes of clarinet are the A soprano; the E-flat alto; the bass and the contrabass. Music for all clarinets is written as if for a C clarinet; on a B-flat clarinet the written note C sounds as B-flat. Players can thus switch instruments without learning new fingerings. The term B-flat clarinet refers to the notation, and not to the acoustic fundamental note of the instrument.

The clarinet was invented sometime in the 1700's by Johann Christoph Denner. By about 1840 two complex systems of keywork had evolved: the Boehm system, used in most countries; and the narrower-bore, darker-sounding system developed in 1860 by the Belgian maker Eugène Albert.

Clarinets were common in orchestras by 1780.

Return to the Music Page

Return Home

This page and all pages in the OnLine Music Encyclopedia were created solely by the