clarinet (redirected from clarinettist)

clarinet, musical wind instrument of cylindrical bore employing a single reed. The clarinet family comprises all single-reed instruments, including the saxophone. The predecessor of the modern clarinet was the simpler chalumeau, which J. C. Denner of Nuremberg improved (c.1700) into the clarinet. It was accepted into the orchestra during the 18th cent., and Mozart used it extensively. Major improvements of the key system during the 19th cent. employed the principles of Theobald Boehm. The clarinets in B flat and A are the standard orchestral instruments. The higher, shriller E flat clarinet is also a band instrument and is used occasionally in the orchestra. Of the larger clarinets, the B flat bass clarinet is the most important. The E flat alto and the E flat contrabass clarinets are mainly band instruments. Clarinets were once made in other keys, but all of these instruments are now obsolete. The basset-horn, a type of alto clarinet, was much used by Mozart and was revived by Richard Strauss. The clarinet is a transposing instrument.

Bibliography

See F. G. Rendall, The Clarinet (3d rev. ed. 1971).

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clarinet

Single-reed woodwind instrument. It is a standard member of both orchestras and bands. It has a cylindrical bore and a flared bell, and it is usually made of African blackwood (Dalbergia melanoxylon, more commonly called renadilla). It has a 3¹⁄₂-octave range; its lower register is rich and its top register is brilliant. It developed from the slightly older two-key chalumeau; the German flute maker Johann Christoff Denner (1655–1707) is said to have invented it at the beginning of the 18th century. The B-flat clarinet is the standard instrument today; the A clarinet often replaces it in sharp keys. Clarinets with the fingering system devised by Theobald Boehm are standard in the U.S., Great Britain, and France; those employing an older fingering style are used in Germany and Russia. Clarinets of other sizes include the C clarinet, much used in the Classical period and often preserved in German orchestration; octave clarinets in A, used in large European bands; and sopranino clarinets in F and later E-flat. The B-flat bass clarinet, with its rich timbre, is the next most frequently employed member of the clarinet family. Contrabass clarinets are made in E-flat or in B-flat.

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clarinet Music

a keyed woodwind instrument with a cylindrical bore and a single reed. It is a transposing instrument, most commonly pitched in A or B flat