Ernst Ulrich Deuker, a German jazz musician, with a Selmer contrabass clarinet. |
|
| Clarinet |
|---|
The contrabass clarinet and contra-alto clarinet are the two largest members of the clarinet family that has ever been used commonly. Modern contrabass clarinets are pitched in BB♭, sounding two octaves lower than the common B♭ soprano clarinet and one octave lower than the B♭ bass clarinet. Some contrabass clarinet models have a range extending down to low (written) E♭, while others can play down to low D or further to low C. Some early instruments were pitched in C; Arnold Schoenberg's Fünf Orchesterstücke specifies a contrabass clarinet in A,[1] but there is no evidence of such an instrument ever having existed.
The contrabass clarinet is also sometimes known by the name pedal clarinet, this term referring not to any aspect of the instrument's mechanism but to an analogy between its very low tones and the pedal tones of the trombone, or the pedal division of the organ.
Subcontrabass clarinets, lower in pitch than the contrabass, have been built only an experimental basis.
The EE♭ contra-alto clarinet is sometimes referred to as the "EE♭ contrabass clarinet".
Contents |
The earliest known contrabass clarinet was the contre-basse guerrière invented in 1808 by a goldsmith named Dumas of Sommières; little else is known of this instrument. The batyphone (also spelled bathyphone, Ger. and Fr. batyphon) was a contrabass clarinet which was the outcome of W. F. Wieprecht's endeavor to obtain a contrabass for the reed instruments. The batyphone was made to a scale twice the size of the clarinet in C, the divisions of the chromatic scale being arranged according to acoustic principles. For convenience in stopping holes too far apart to be covered by the fingers, crank or swivel keys were used. The instrument was constructed of maple-wood, had a clarinet mouthpiece of suitable size connected by means of a cylindrical brass crook with the upper part of the tube and a brass bell. The pitch was two octaves below the clarinet in C, the compass being the same, and thus corresponding to the modern bass tuba. The tone was pleasant and full, but not powerful enough for the contrabass register in a military band. The batyphone had besides one serious disadvantage: it could be played with facility only in its nearly related keys, G and F major. The batyphone was invented and patented in 1839 by F.W. Wieprecht, director general of all the Prussian military bands, and E. Skorra, the court instrument manufacturer of Berlin. In practice the instrument was found to be of little use, and was superseded by the bass tuba.
A batyphone bearing the name of its inventors formed part of the Snoeck collection which was acquired for Berlin's collection of ancient musical instruments at the Hochschule für Musik.[2] Soon after Wieprecht's invention, Adolphe Sax created his clarinette-bourdon in B♭.
In 1889 Fontaine-Besson began producing a new pedal clarinet (see photograph). This instrument consists of a tube 10 feet (3.0 m) long, in which cylindrical and conical bores are combined. The tube is doubled up twice upon itself. There are 13 keys and 2 rings on the tube, and the fingering is the same as for the B♭ clarinet except for the eight highest semitones. The tone is rich and full except for the lowest notes, which are unavoidably a little rough in quality, but much more sonorous than the corresponding notes on the double bassoon. The upper register resembles the chalumeau register of the B♭ clarinet, being reedy and sweet.[3]
None of these instruments saw widespread use, but they provided a basis for contrabass clarinets made beginning in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by several manufacturers, notably those designed by Charles Houvenaghel for Leblanc, which were more successful.
The contra-alto clarinet higher-pitched than the contrabass.The modern contra-alto clarinet is pitched in the key of EE♭ and is sometimes incorrectly referred to as the EE♭ contrabass clarinet. The unhyphenated form "contra alto clarinet" is also sometimes used, as is "contralto clarinet", but the latter is confusing since the instrument's range is much lower than the contralto vocal range; the more correct term "contra-alto" is meant to convey, by analogy with "contrabass", that the instrument plays an octave lower than the alto clarinet. It is the second-largest member of the clarinet family in significant use, larger than the bass clarinet but not as big as the BB♭ contrabass clarinet.
Like other clarinets, the contra-alto clarinet is a wind instrument that uses a reed to produce sound. The keys of the contra-alto are similar to the keys on smaller clarinets, and are played in the same way. Some contra-alto clarinet models have a range extending down to low (written) E♭, sounding as the lowest G♭ on the piano (aka G♭1), while others can play down to low C.
The earliest contra-alto clarinets were developed in the first half of the nineteenth century; these were usually pitched in F and were called contrabasset horns, being an octave lower than the basset horn. Albert (probably E. J. Albert, son of Eugène Albert) built an instrument in F around 1890.[4] In the late 19th and early 20th century contra-alto clarinets in EE♭ finally attained some degree of popularity.
The contra-alto clarinet is used mostly in concert bands and clarinet choirs, where it usually (though not always) plays the bass line of a piece of music. While there are few parts written specifically for it, the contra-alto can play the baritone saxophone part and sounds the same pitch; it is also possible to read parts written in the bass clef for instruments pitched in C (such as bassoon or tuba) as if the part were in the treble clef, while adjusting the key signature and any accidentals as necessary by adding three sharps to the music. It is occasionally used in jazz, and a few solo pieces have been written for it. The contra-alto clarinet is also a popular instrument in Broadway pit orchestras, with its parts being written in reed books as a doubler instrument e.g. with soprano clarinet and bass clarinet. The contra-alto clarinet can also be used in marching bands where it shares the parts of the sousaphone or baritone saxophone. However, because of its size and weight, many bands choose not to march them in parades.
The octocontra-alto clarinet (also known as octo contra alto, sub contra alto, or octocontralto) is the second largest member of the clarinet family. The instrument is pitched one octave lower than the E♭ contra-alto clarinet, two octaves lower than the E♭ alto clarinet, and two octaves and a fifth lower than the standard B♭ soprano clarinet (making it an EE♭ transposing instrument). Only three octocontra-alto clarinets were ever built, all by the G. Leblanc Corporation.
The octocontrabass clarinet (also known as octo contrabass clarinet, octo contra bass clarinet, or subcontra bass clarinet) is the largest, and longest, and lowest playing member of the clarinet family. It is pitched an octave below the contrabass clarinet, or three octaves lower than the standard B♭ soprano clarinet. It stood at near 8 foot 2 inches (2.49 m).
Although only one such instrument was ever produced, by Leblanc, at least three pieces of music have been written specifically for it by Norwegian composer Terje Lerstad (Trisonata, Op. 28; De Profundis, Op. 139; and Mirrors in Ebony for clarinet choir, Op. 134), and two more by American composer Adam Gilberti ("Reflections of Honor", for large orchestra, "Four Poems" for orchestra and mixed chorus). There are no known recordings of the pieces.
There are several present-day producers of the contrabass clarinet. Selmer Paris makes a rosewood version (model 41) looking much like a longer version of the bass clarinet, with full keywork, and Leblanc USA has a plastic instrument in a similar long-body design. Leblanc Paris builds two versions made of metal, model 340 (known as a paperclip contrabass due to its folded shape) with range to low C, and the model 342 (similar in shape to the Selmer and Leblanc USA models, with range to low E♭). In 2006 Benedikt Eppelsheim introduced a metal contrabass clarinet with a folded shape somewhat resembling that of a baritone saxophone, described as a full Boehm system instrument with a full set of four right hand trill keys.
Probably the best known musician who has made significant use of the contrabass clarinet as a solo instrument is Anthony Braxton. Other performers (most of whom use the instrument in the genres of jazz and free improvised music) include James Carter, Douglas Ewart, Vinny Golia, Mwata Bowden, Wolfgang Fuchs, Hans Koch, Ernst Ulrich Deuker, Paolo Ravaglia, Hamiet Bluiett, and Edward "Kidd" Jordan. Leroi Moore of the Dave Matthews Band played a contrabass clarinet on the song "So Right" from the 2001 album Everyday.
Solo pieces:
Ensemble pieces:
|
|||||||||||||||||