Clarinet choir

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A clarinet choir is an instrumental ensemble consisting entirely of instruments from the clarinet family. Typically it will include e-flat, b-flat, alto, bass, and contra-alto and/or contrabass clarinets, although some pieces are scored for a smaller set of instruments. In total size it may range from a chamber group of eight or so players to a band of forty or more. Such an ensemble of instruments with varied ranges but uniform timbre may be thought of as a woodwind equivalent to the string orchestra.

While Mozart and Stadler anticipated the clarinet choir in their works for three basset horns, Gustave Poncelet (1844-1903) is credited with creating the first clarinet choir at the Brussels Conservatoire in the late nineteenth century.^[1] An early clarinet choir in the United States was established in 1927 by Simeon Bellison, then first clarinetist of the New York Philharmonic; from an initial eight members, the group's size grew by 1948 to 75 members.^[2]

The repertoire of music composed for clarinet choir is small and was virtually nonexistent before the mid twentieth century, but transcriptions have been made of many earlier works originally scored for different instruments.

[edit] External links

• American Symphonic Clarinet Choir, a professional clarinet choir
• Capriccio Clarinet Orchestra
• Chattanooga Clarinet Choir
• East London Clarinet Choir
• Lignum, clarinet choir in Leiden, Netherlands
• The Los Angeles Clarinet Choir
• Stockholm Clarinet Choir
• Thameside Clarinet Choir