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History
Clarinet

The clarinet has its roots in the early single-reed instruments used in Ancient Greece and Ancient Egypt. The modern clarinet evolved from a Baroque instrument called the chalumeau. This instrument was similar to a recorder, but with a single-reed mouthpiece and a cylindrical bore. Lacking a register key, it was played mainly in its fundamental register, with a limited range of about one and a half octaves. It had eight finger holes, like a recorder, and a pitch range - written - from F3 to G4. At this time, contrary to modern practice, the reed was placed in contact with the upper lip.

Johann Christoph Denner


The clarinet came into being at the beginning of the 18th century when the German instrument maker Johann Christoph Denner equipped a chalumeau in the alto register with two keys, most importantly one that enabled access to a higher register. It did not "overblow" at the octave, as was usual, but yielded a second register an octave and a perfect fifth higher than the first. The second key, at the top, made A4 and together with the register key B♭4 possible. A little later, Denner lengthened the bell and provided it with a third key, so that the pitch range now reached down to E3. . This defined the pitch range of normal clarinets as we know them. The lower register from E3 to B♭4 was called the chalumeau register and the overblown register from B4 to C6 the clarion register. Above this, a third register - altissimo - developed through special fingerings up to C7 (or D7).

Other makers than Denner added keys to improve tuning and facilitate fingerings. As clarinets sufficient improved, the chalumeau fell into disuse. The clarinet of the Classical period, as used by Mozart, typically had five keys. Mozart suggested extending the clarinet downwards by four semitones to C$3$, which resulted in a special version of the clarinet that was about 18 centimetres longer, made first time by Theodor Lotz for Anton Stadler. This type of a clarinet is now called the Basset clarinet. Mozart wrote the first Quintet for clarinet and string quartet in 1789 and the 1792 Concerto in A major for clarinet and orchestra for this instrument.

Clarinets were soon accepted into orchestras. By the time of Beethoven (c. 1780–1820), the clarinet was a standard fixture in the orchestra.

Iwan Müller
The next developmental push for the clarinet came in 1812 with the German clarinetist and master clarinet maker Iwan Müller. Until then, the number of keys equipped with felt pads had been limited because they did not seal tightly enough. Müller remedied this shortcoming by countersinking the tone holes for the keys, surrounding them with raised conical rings (twisters) and covering the pads with soft leather. This paved the way for equipping the instrument with considerably more keys. In 1812 Müller presented a clarinet with seven finger holes and thirdteen keys, which he called "Clarinet omnitonic" since it was capable of playing in all keys, rather than requiring alternating joints as was common at the time..

This clarinet gradually became the worldwide standard, especially in the 1820s, and was given more keys by other clarinet makers.

Iwan Müller is also considered the inventor of the ligature (made of metal) and the thumb rest. It was after the invention of the thumb rest that clarinetists began to attach the mouthpiece so that the reed rested on the lower lip, because they could now hold and position the clarinet with the thumb rest.

Theobald Böhm, Hyacinthe Klosé, Auguste Buffet
Müller's inventions revolutionised not only clarinet making but also the construction of other woodwind instruments. At the end of the 1830s, the German flute maker Theobald Böhm made a similarly significant invention: the ring and axle key system, which he realised on the transverse flute but which was then also adopted by other woodwind instrument makers. In this system, rings surround the tone holes in such a way that when a finger covers a tone hole, it also pushes down a metal ring that is flush with the top of the hole. There may be a small resonance key on the ring. The ring in turn sits on an axle on which other rings are mounted, which then also close and which may also have resonance flaps that close with it.

This key system was first transferred to the clarinet between 1839 and 1843 by the French clarinetist Hyacinthe Klosé in collaboration with the instrument maker Louis Auguste Buffet. In the process they made other significant changes to the clarinet, resulting in a new clarinet with different fingerings and, due to a different inner bore, a different sound. The most striking change with this clarinet (which the inventors called the Boehm clarinet, although Böhm was not involved in its development), was the addition of new keys for the two little fingers on the lower joint, providing redundant fingerings for certain notes. The standard Boehm clarinet has 17 keys and 6 rings.

Eugène Albert
In 1852, the Belgian Eugène Albert transferred the Boehm ring key system without any further significant changes to the Müller clarinet, so that the fingerings largely corresponded to the traditional fingering system. The sound of the Albert clarinet, however, is more similar to that of the Boehm clarinet. It has 16 keys and 5 rings and twice two rollers on the keys intended for the little fingers. Technical development in detail shows the clarinets in the Edinburgh University Collection of Historic Musical Instruments.

In England and the USA, the Albert system is also called "simple system". From 1920 to 1940 Selmer Paris built an improved Albert clarinet, also called "Full-Albert" versus "Plain-Albert", with very good intonation and extended mechanics with 6 rings, 4 side trill keys, E-flat-lever and F-sharp/G-sharp-trill, which was played by many jazz clarinetists.

Carl Baermann, Georg Ottensteiner
Around 1860, the clarinettist Carl Baermann and the instrument maker Georg Ottensteiner jointly developed the patented Baermann/Ottensteiner clarinet, a clarinet with 16 keys, four rings and four rollers (like the Albert clarinet, except that the rings partially surround other tone holes) but in the tradition of the historic sound. This instrument was distinguished above all by its novel connecting levers, which made it possible to press most of the keys from several places. It was used from 1860 until about 1910.

The famous Brahms clarinettist Richard Mühlfeld used this clarinet, and the American clarinet soloist Charles Neidich has used a Baermann-Ottensteiner instrument for playing compositions by Brahms.

Oskar Oehler
At the beginning of the 20th century, the German clarinettist and clarinet maker Oskar Oehler perfected the instrument, and in 1905 presented a clarinet with 22 keys, four rollers, five rings and a blind cover for the right index finger, under which there is no tone hole, but through which two keys on the right side of the lower joint are operated.

This marked the end of the further development of the Müller clarinet for the time being. The new clarinet was called the Oehler clarinet or German clarinet, while the Böhm clarinet has since been called the French clarinet. Since the 1950s, most top German clarinets are still equipped with a cup mechanism to improve the intonation of low E and F and are sometimes called "Full-Oehler" clarinets, even though this mechanism was not developed by Oehler.

Fritz Wurlitzer
The French clarinet differs from the German not only in fingering but also in sound. The characteristic sound of the clarinet that had fascinated Mozart was lost. After conducting in France, Richard Strauss spoke of the nasal French clarinets. At the end of the 1940s, the German clarinet maker Fritz Wurlitzer, father of Herbert Wurlitzer, built a Boehm clarinet with a sound approximating the the German ideal. The result was the Reform Boehm clarinet, which is still in production.

Today the Boehm clarinet has no longer a nasal sound, because the manufacturers have changed their drilling techniques, and also because clarinetists' playing has changed. Its sound has been described as sharper, richer in overtones and more flexible, in comparsion with the sound of the German clarinet that has been called pure, sonorous and warm.

The actual sound of a clarinet depends not only on the type of construction, but also to a large extent on the players' ideas of the sound and their ability to realise this idea.

Distribution
Outside Germany and Austria, clarinets with the Boehm system are used almost exclusively today. In Eastern Europe the Oehler system was widespread until the middle of the 20th century, but was largely replaced by the Boehm system in the second half of the 20th century. In the Netherlands, the Reform Boehm system was important for a long time but has gradually been replaced by the classic Boehm system. For reasons relating to sound and intonation, the use of Oehler clarinets has continued in German and Austrian orchestras, including the Vienna Philharmonic and the Berlin Philharmonic), while no German clarinets are used in French symphony orchestras.

The Albert clarinet was in common use in Britain since the second half of the 19th century. This type of clarinet dominated jazz in its early days, is still used in folk music in the Balkans and Turkey.