Basset Horn: Mozart’s Favourite Clarinet, Reborn in the 20th Century

Overview

The basset horn (sometimes hyphenated as “basset-horn”; Italian corno di bassetto, German Bassetthorn, French cor de basset) is a member of the clarinet family of musical instruments. Like the clarinet, it is a wind instrument with a single reed and a cylindrical bore. It differs from the standard clarinet in three principal respects: it is larger; it has a bend or kink between the mouthpiece and the upper joint (older instruments are typically curved or bent in the middle); and although the standard clarinet is typically a transposing instrument in B♭ or A, the basset horn is typically in F (less often in G). It also has additional keys that extend its range down to written C, which sounds F at the bottom of the bass staff.

The basset horn is not related to the brass horns of the orchestra (the French horn and so on, classified as Sachs-Hornbostel 423.121.2 or 423.23). It does, however, bear a distant relationship to the hornpipe and to the cor anglais. The name probably derives from the resemblance of early curved versions to the horn of some animal.

Origin and History

Some of the earliest basset horns, which are believed to date from the 1760s, bear an inscription reading “ANT et MICH MAYRHOFER INVEN. & ELABOR. PASSAVII,” which has been interpreted to mean they were made by Anton and Michael Mayrhofer of Passau. The instrument flourished in the late 18th century, particularly in the south-German and Austrian musical world, where it became closely associated with Masonic ceremony and with the chamber-wind tradition known as Harmoniemusik. The famous 18th-century clarinettist Anton Stadler and his brother Johann were both basset-horn players, and a number of composers wrote significant parts for them.

The instrument fell into relative disuse during the 19th century, surviving only in occasional revivals. Antonín Dvořák attempted a half-hearted revival, using the basset horn in his Czech Suite (1879), in which he specifies that an English horn (cor anglais) may be used instead — a substitution that suggests how marginal the basset horn had become by that time. The 20th century brought a steady revival, particularly through period-instrument performance of Mozart’s chamber and choral music and through the contemporary commissions of Karlheinz Stockhausen.

Construction and Materials

Modern basset horns are made of grenadilla (African Blackwood) like other modern clarinets, with silver-plated keywork. They use a single reed and a cylindrical bore — the defining acoustic characteristics of the clarinet family. The body is bent at one or two joints to manage its physical length without making it unwieldy; older instruments are often curved or bent more dramatically in the middle, while modern instruments tend to use a straighter design with a kink near the mouthpiece. The bell is often slightly upturned, a visual reminder of the basset horn’s place in the clarinet family alongside the bass clarinet and contrabass clarinet.

Modern basset horns can be divided into three basic types, distinguished primarily by bore size and consequently by the mouthpieces with which they are played:

• The small-bore basset horn has a bore diameter still somewhat larger than a soprano clarinet bore (although it is often erroneously thought to be the same; even a large-bore English clarinet such as the old B&H 1010 design has a smaller bore). It is played with a B♭/A clarinet mouthpiece. Only the Selmer Company (Paris) and Stephen Fox (Canada) currently make this model.
• The medium-bore basset horn has a slightly larger bore. This is the most common type made by German-system manufacturers (such as Otmar Hammerschmidt of Austria).
• The large-bore basset horn, played with an alto-clarinet mouthpiece, produces a fuller and weightier tone; modern builders include Schwenk & Seggelke, Herbert Wurlitzer, Leitner & Kraus, Buffet Crampon and Selmer.

Playing Technique

A clarinettist can usually transfer to the basset horn relatively quickly, as the fingering is essentially the same as on a clarinet. The principal adjustments are the larger reed and mouthpiece (which require a slightly more open embouchure and more air), the unfamiliar transposition (parts written in F sound a perfect fifth lower), and the additional low-register keys that extend the instrument down to a written low C. These low-register keys are operated by the right thumb in most modern designs and are the main way the basset horn distinguishes itself from the alto clarinet, which lacks this extension.

The instrument’s range — written C₃ to D₇, sounding a perfect fifth lower at F₂ to G₆ — gives it almost the same compass as the alto clarinet but with that crucial extra fourth at the bottom. Parts are written in treble clef. The cylindrical bore preserves the characteristic clarinet response — even tone across the chalumeau, throat and clarion registers, and overblowing at the twelfth — but with a darker, more covered quality than the soprano clarinet.

Cultural Context

The basset horn occupies an unusual position in Western music history: it is one of the very few orchestral instruments whose entire reputation rests on the work of essentially one composer. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was by far the most notable composer for the basset horn. He included three basset horns in the Maurerische Trauermusik (Masonic Funeral Music), K. 477, and two in both the Gran Partita, K. 361, and the Requiem, K. 626. Several of his operas use the instrument, including Die Entführung aus dem Serail, La Clemenza di Tito — whose central aria for Vitellia, “Non più di fiori,” features a basset-horn obbligato — and Die Zauberflöte, where basset horns prominently accompany the March of the Priests. Mozart also wrote dozens of pieces for basset-horn ensembles. (His Clarinet Concerto in A major, KV 622, originally appears to have been written for a basset clarinet in A — a clarinet with a downward extension — rather than a basset horn; an earlier version of part of the first movement, KV 621b, is scored for G basset horn in the key of G major.)

Other early works for basset horn include a concerto for basset horn in G and small orchestra by Carl Stamitz (now usually arranged for the conventional basset horn in F and recorded in that form by Sabine Meyer), and a concerto in F by Heinrich Backofen. In the 19th century Felix Mendelssohn wrote two pieces for basset horn, clarinet and piano (Op. 113 and Op. 114), later scored for string orchestra. Franz Danzi wrote a Sonata in F for basset horn and piano, Op. 62 (1824). The instrument’s Italian name, corno di bassetto, was used by George Bernard Shaw as a pseudonym when writing music criticism — perhaps the most curious side-effect of any orchestral instrument’s nomenclature.

Notable Players and Examples

The Lotz Trio performs on replicas of basset horns made by the 18th-century instrument-maker Theodor Lotz of Pressburg (Bratislava) and Vienna. The ensemble presents a repertoire of popular 18th-century wind harmonias (known in German as Harmoniemusik), represented predominantly by Mozart’s music, and also by other central European composers including Georg Druschetzky, Vicente Martín y Soler, Anton Stadler, Vojtěch Nudera, Johann Josef Rösler and Anton Wolanek. The Prague Trio of Basset Horns, based in the Czech Republic, has a repertoire of music written or transcribed for three basset horns by composers including Mozart, Scott Joplin and Paul Desmond.

Suzanne Stephens is a leading basset-horn specialist in contemporary music. Starting in 1974, the German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen composed many new works for her, including a large number for basset horn with a solo role in his cycle of operas LIGHT. Other interpreters of Stockhausen’s basset-horn music include the Dutch player Fie Schouten and the Italian Michele Marelli. Sabine Meyer and Alessandro Carbonare (with the Carbonare Clarinet Trio) are among the leading mainstream classical clarinettists who perform regularly on the basset horn.

Comparison with Related Instruments

The basset horn sits in the modern clarinet family between the soprano clarinet and the alto/bass instruments, sharing their cylindrical bore, single reed, and overblowing-at-the-twelfth behaviour. Compared with the alto clarinet, the basset horn is pitched a tone or so lower, has a downward extension to written low C (sounding F), and produces a darker, more covered tone — though the two instruments overlap considerably in repertoire, particularly in concert-band music where the alto clarinet is the more common choice.

Compared with the modern bass clarinet, the basset horn is smaller, lighter, brighter, and pitched higher (sounding from F₂ to G₆ rather than from B♭₁ to D₆), but the family resemblance is unmistakable. Compared with the oboe family — particularly the cor anglais, which occupies a similar register — the basset horn is single-reed rather than double-reed, with a smoother and less nasal tone. Compared with the corresponding string instruments, the basset horn’s range overlaps the viola and the upper register of the cello, and 18th-century composers occasionally exploited that overlap when scoring chamber works that combine basset horns with strings. The instrument’s modern survival owes most to two very different forces: the canonisation of Mozart’s late chamber and choral works (which keep the basset horn in regular professional rotation worldwide) and Karlheinz Stockhausen’s late-20th-century commissions (which gave it a new life in contemporary art music). Few orchestral instruments have a comparably narrow but persistent reason for being.