A♭ clarinet |
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| Woodwind instrument | |
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| Classification | Single-reed |
| Hornbostel–Sachs classification | 422.211.2-71 (Single-reeded aerophone with keys) |
| Related instruments | |
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Clarinet Saxophone Tárogató (modern) Oboe Chalumeau |
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| Musicians | |
| Clarinetists | |
The piccolo clarinets are members of the clarinet family, smaller and higher pitched than the more familiar high soprano clarinets in E♭ and D. None are common, but the most often used piccolo clarinet is the A♭ clarinet, sounding a minor seventh higher than the B♭ clarinet. Shackleton also lists obsolete instruments in C, B♭, and A♮. Some writers call these sopranino clarinets or octave clarinets. The boundary between the piccolo and soprano clarinets is not well-defined, and the rare instruments in G and F might be considered as either. Shackleton along with many early twentieth-century composers uses the term "piccolo clarinet" to refer to the E♭ and D clarinets as well (piccolo merely meaning "small" in Italian). This designation is now less common today; with the E♭ and D instruments are more usually designated soprano clarinets.
The A♭ clarinet is pitched a minor seventh higher than the B♭ soprano clarinet. Its lowest note, E ,sounds as concert middle-C, the same as many concert flutes.
Clarinets pitched in A-flat appeared frequently in European wind bands, particularly in Spain and Italy, at least through the middle of the 20th century, and are called for in the stage-band parts for several operas by Verdi.[1]
Cecil Forsyth associated the high instruments with Austria saying, "Clarinets in (high) F, and even in (high) A♭ are occasionally used abroad. The latter instrument is regularly employed in the Austrian military bands."[2] A famous example of extensive use of a high clarinet in a Viennese small ensemble was the Schrammel quartet, consisting of two violins (the brothers Johann and Josef Schrammel), a bass guitar, and G clarinet, played by Georg Dänzer, during the 1880s.[1]
The A♭ clarinet is not uncommon in clarinet choir arrangements--for instance, those of Lucien Calliet, including Mozart's Marriage of Figaro overture--though the instrument is often optional or cued in other voices. There are parts for A♭ clarinet in Béla Bartók's Scherzo for Piano and Orchestra, op. 2 ("mostly in unison with the E♭ or piccolo") and in John Tavener's Celtic Requiem (1969).[1] Several chamber works of Hans-Joachim Hespos employ the A♭ clarinet,[3] including the wild go which also features soprano sarrusophone, heckelphone, and tárogató. Hespos also uses the A♭ clarinet in the orchestral work Interactions.[4]
At least four manufacturers currently produce A♭ clarinets: Leblanc, L. A. Ripamonti, Orsi Wind Instruments and Schwenk and Seggelke. As of 2003, the Leblanc A♭ was only being made under special order.[5] Ripamonti produces both German and French system (including Full Boehm) A♭ clarinets. Schwenk and Seggelke make German system clarinets in A♭ and high G.
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