Clarinet
Clarinet
| Category | Woodwind |
|---|---|
| Country of origin | Nuremberg, Germany (c. 1700) |
| Wikidata | Q8343 |
Overview
By acoustic principle the clarinet is a single-reed woodwind with a nearly straight cylindrical bore that ends in a flared bell. The single reed — a thin shaped piece of cane — is held against an open mouthpiece by a metal or string ligature; the player’s breath causes the reed to vibrate against the mouthpiece, exciting the air column inside the bore. Wikidata catalogues the most common B♭ soprano clarinet under Hornbostel-Sachs 422.211.2-71, identifying it as a single-reed cylindrical-bore instrument with keys.
The clarinet family is unusually large. From the highest A♭ piccolo (rare, military-band use only) the family runs down through the E♭ sopranino, the standard B♭ and A soprano clarinets, the alto in E♭, the bass clarinet in B♭, the contra-alto in E♭, and the BB♭ contrabass. The B♭ soprano is the instrument meant when the unqualified word “clarinet” is used.
Origin & History
The clarinet was invented in Nuremberg, Germany, around 1700 by the maker Johann Christoph Denner. Denner’s innovation was the addition of a register key (the speaker key) to the older chalumeau, an earlier single-reed instrument with limited range. The register key allowed the clarinet to overblow at the twelfth (one octave plus a fifth) — a consequence of the cylindrical bore that distinguishes the clarinet from every other modern woodwind, all of which overblow at the octave.
The 18th century brought refinement and additional keys; Mozart’s Concerto K. 622 (1791), written for the basset clarinet of Anton Stadler, is the canonical Classical-era work and remains the central solo clarinet repertoire. The 19th century saw two parallel improvements: Iwan Müller’s 13-key clarinet of 1812 and the more radical Boehm-system clarinet of Hyacinthe Klosé and Auguste Buffet (1843), which adapted Theobald Boehm’s flute key system to the clarinet. The Boehm-system clarinet became standard in France, Italy, the United States, and most of the world; the Oehler-system clarinet (a German refinement of Müller’s) remains standard among German and Austrian orchestras.
Construction & Materials
A modern B♭ clarinet is built in five sections: mouthpiece, barrel, upper joint, lower joint, and bell. Body material is traditionally African blackwood (grenadilla) — a dense, dark wood from West Africa — with metal keywork (silver-plated or nickel-plated nickel silver). Plastic and composite (greenline, hartwood) bodies serve student instruments and outdoor playing where wood would crack. Total tubing length is about 67 cm; the bore is approximately 14.6 mm in diameter throughout the cylindrical sections.
The mouthpiece is hard rubber (ebonite), occasionally crystal or wood, with a slot called the facing that determines the reed’s vibrating length. Reeds are shaped from Arundo donax cane in standard strengths from 1.5 (soft) to 5 (hard), with most professionals using strengths between 3 and 4. Reed selection and maintenance is the daily preoccupation of every clarinetist.
How It’s Played
The player holds the instrument vertically with the right thumb supporting it under the lower joint. The mouthpiece is taken into the mouth with the lower lip cushioning the reed against the lower teeth (single-lip embouchure, standard) or with both lips folded over the teeth (double-lip embouchure, used by some teachers for tone development). Air pressure causes the reed to beat against the mouthpiece; finger holes and keys close points along the bore to select the speaking length.
Standard technique covers single, double, and (rarely) triple tonguing, the chalumeau register (low), the clarion register (middle, accessed via the register key), the altissimo register (high, requiring complex cross-fingerings), legato playing across the famous register break around B♭4/B4, and a wide vibrato palette that ranges from no vibrato (German tradition) through subtle (American symphonic) to broad (klezmer and some jazz traditions).
Cultural Significance
The clarinet sits in the woodwind section of every symphony orchestra (typically two players, sometimes with bass clarinet doubling), in concert and military bands (where it functions as the equivalent of the orchestral string section), in the woodwind quintet, and as a major solo and chamber instrument. The Mozart concerto, the Mozart Quintet K. 581, the Brahms two sonatas and quintet, and the Weber, Spohr, Crusell, Nielsen, Copland, and Corigliano concertos define the central repertoire.
In jazz the clarinet was the central wind voice of New Orleans and swing-era playing — Sidney Bechet, Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Pee Wee Russell, Buddy DeFranco, Eddie Daniels — and continues in contemporary jazz through Don Byron and others. Klezmer (Naftule Brandwein, Dave Tarras, Giora Feidman) made the clarinet the central voice of Eastern European Jewish wedding music; Turkish, Greek, Bulgarian, and Romanian traditions all developed distinct clarinet schools across the 19th and 20th centuries.
Notable Examples & Recordings
- Recording landmarks: Benny Goodman (Carnegie Hall Concert, 1938; Mozart and Copland concertos), Jack Brymer (Mozart concerto), Karl Leister (Brahms sonatas), Sabine Meyer (Mozart, Weber), Martin Fröst (modern repertoire), Alessandro Carbonare. Klezmer reference: Dave Tarras (Master of the Jewish Clarinet, 1980).
Related Instruments
- Bass clarinet — the B♭ instrument an octave below the standard, with a metal upturned bell.
- Saxophone — the closest single-reed cousin, also patented by Adolphe Sax (1846).
- Oboe — the double-reed soprano woodwind.
- Bassoon — the double-reed bass woodwind.
- Western concert flute — the standard non-reed soprano woodwind.
- Chalumeau — the pre-clarinet single-reed instrument the clarinet evolved from.
- Basset horn — the F-pitched alto-clarinet relative used by Mozart in La clemenza di Tito and the Requiem.
Where to Hear It
Live: every full-time symphony orchestra, woodwind quintet, concert band, and military band. The International Clarinet Association ClarinetFest is the central professional showcase. Specialist klezmer festivals (KlezKamp, Yiddish Summer Weimar) showcase the Eastern European Jewish tradition.
Learning Resources
A student plastic clarinet costs around 200 to 500 USD; an intermediate wood clarinet 800 to 2,000 USD; a professional Buffet R13, Selmer Récital, Yamaha Custom, or Backun typically 3,500 to 8,000 USD. Standard methods include the Klosé Méthode complète (the universal Boehm-system text), Baermann’s daily exercises, the Rose 32 and 40 études, the Cavallini 30 caprices, and the Stark études for advanced work. The Daniel Bonade and Robert Marcellus lineages dominate American teaching; the Ulysse Delécluse and Guy Deplus lineages dominate the French school.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is the clarinet pitched in B♭?
Historical convention. Clarinets in C, B♭, and A all coexist in the orchestral tradition, with composers choosing among them for ease of fingering and tone colour in particular keys. The B♭ instrument became dominant because its reach across major and minor keys is most balanced.
What is the “register break”?
The transition between the chalumeau register (below) and the clarion register (above), reached by pressing the register key together with the thumb hole closed. Crossing this break smoothly — typically around B♭4 to B4 — is one of the central technical challenges of clarinet playing.
Why does the clarinet overblow at the twelfth instead of the octave?
Because of its cylindrical bore closed at the mouthpiece end. Acoustically, a stopped cylindrical pipe favours odd-numbered harmonics, so the first overblown register sits at the third harmonic (a twelfth above the fundamental) rather than the second harmonic (the octave) that conical-bore woodwinds use.
What is the difference between B♭ and A clarinets?
A semitone of length and a different transposition. Players regularly carry both instruments and switch between them depending on the key signature of the piece — orchestral parts routinely specify which instrument to use to make the music more comfortable to read and play.
How long should I practice as a beginner?
Twenty to thirty minutes per day, five days per week, is the standard recommendation for the first year, with attention to embouchure development, breath support, and reed maintenance. Reaching ensemble-ready playing usually takes two to three years; reaching the standard student concerto repertoire takes seven to ten years.
