Clarinet

The clarinet is a WIND INSTRUMENT consisting of a cylindrical wood (or occasionally metal) pipe with a bell-shaped opening at one end and a mouthpiece at the other end, to which a reed is attached. Generically, the clarinet is any member of the woodwind family, whose enclosed air column is activated by a single reed, as opposed to the double-reed instruments of the oboe family. It is a versatile member of the orchestra, the principal treble woodwind of the concert band and is used extensively in solo, chamber, and popular music. The clarinet is a transposing instrument--its part in the score is written at a different pitch from the one actually sounded.

The immediate ancestor of the clarinet was the chalumeau, a short, cylindrical pipe with seven finger holes and a reed cut in its upper side, but without a bell-shaped opening. The clarinet was invented when Johann C. Denner (1655-1707) doubled the length of the chalumeau and added two keys, making possible the clarino, the upper or trumpetlike, register. By the end of the 18th century, the clarinet was an established member of the orchestra and was exploited by such composers as Jean Philippe RAMEAU and Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART. In describing the clarinet of Mozart's day, Anthony Baines wrote: " . . . every note offers a resistance that encourages the most expressive cantabile that is possible to imagine from a wind instrument. . . . In the upper register, the clarinet can never have sounded more beautiful."

Mechanical improvements gradually transformed the clarinet into one of the most versatile of all instruments. It is capable of playing all chromatic tones with great ease, producing a tonal variety that ranges from the somber and mysterious low tones through the bright, full-bodied clarino register to the shrill and piercing notes of its highest octave.