Clarinet

The clarinet is a reed instrument that comes in a variety of sizes which vary the pitch of the instruments from soprano to contrabass. Notes are played by opening and closing holes in the cylinder with keys.

• In Peru and Mexico, there is a trumpetlike wind instrument called the clarin.

• The clarinette d'amour was developed in France in the 18th Century. It was unique because it had a pear-shaped bell which altered the sound of the music from clarinets with traditional bells.

• However, these variation was just a few of many that occurred in the development of clarinets. Many South American clarinets had a long tube with holes attached to a gourd at the end which amplified the sound. In the Upper Volta region of Africa, clarinets were made with punctured gourds at both ends of the tube.

• To broaden the range of sound they could produce, many musicians put multiple clarinets together. In South America, this led to the urua--one long and one shorter cane with a reed and finger holes tied together. In Palestine, double clarinets were assemble from bird bones. The Sardinians play a triple clarinet, the launedda which as two drone pipes and a melody pipe.