Paperclip clarinets
From Oddwinds
Members of the low end of the clarinet family are sometimes made of metal; sometimes these instruments are made in a configuration that loops around in a paperclip-like shape, ending with a bell emerging at the top. The paperclip format makes for a much shorter instrument, which is especially advantageous for the contrabass clarinet, and even more so for the octocontra-alto and octocontrabass clarinets, the few specimens of which are exclusively in paperclip form.
Pictures
- Terje Lerstad's web site,
- In the midst of a bunch of pictures of octocontra-alto and octocontrabass clarinets (all, of course, in paperclip form), a 1940 picture of six all-metal harmony clarinets, several of which are in paperclip form, including what may well be the only paperclip bass ever made (second from right); and a Leblanc clarinet family portrait that includes several paperclip instruments.
