Clarinet
From Oddwinds
Revision as of 15:00, 13 September 2006
Clarinets are single reed instruments with a cylindrical bore. The clarinet family is the largest of the instrument families; over two dozen sizes of clarinets have been made over the past three centuries. The family can be broken down to the following sub-families, many of which include several instruments in several different keys:
- Piccolo (or Octave) clarinet in C, Bb, A, Ab
- Sopranino clarinet in G, F, E, Eb, D (This is Shackleton's useful classification, but Eb and D clarinets are much more commonly considered soprano clarinets, and "sopranino" if used at all is used as a synonym for piccolo (or octave) clarinet.)
- Soprano clarinet in C, B, Bb, A, Ab, G
- Basset clarinet in A and other keys
- Clarinette d'amour in Ab, G, F
- Basset horn in G, F, D
- Alto clarinet in F and Eb
- Bass clarinet in C, Bb, and A
- Contra-alto (or Contralto, or Eb Contrabass) clarinet in EEb
- Contrabass clarinet in BBb
- Octocontra-alto (or Octocontralto) clarinet in EEEb
- Octocontrabass clarinet in BBBb
The clarinet family isn't odd, but most of its members are: The Bb, A, and C soprano clarinets, the Eb and D sopranino clarinets, and the Bb bass clarinet are mundane instruments; probably so is the basset horn; but most or all the rest can probably be regarded as Category 2 odd instruments.
From Terje Lerstad's web site, in the midst of a bunch of pictures of octocontra-alto and octocontrabass clarinets, are two family portraits: a 1940 picture of six all-metal harmony clarinets, and a photo from a 1983 Leblanc catalog of fourteen clarinets from piccolo to octocontrabass.
The Philharmonia Orchestra web site has a PDF leaflet on the clarinet family.
Whatever the size, an clarinet is odd if:
- its body is made of metal
- it's tuned to a Bohlen-Pierce scale
References
- Nicholas Shackleton. "Clarinet", Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy (accessed 21 February 2006, grovemusic.com (subscription access)
