The clarinet is a woodwind with a cylindrical bore, a flared bell and a single cane reed clamped to a mouthpiece. Its tube behaves acoustically like one closed at the reed end, so it overblows at the twelfth instead of the octave, giving the instrument its dark lower register, its bright upper one and a wide compass. Traditionally credited to Johann Christoph Denner of Nuremberg around 1700, it became established in the orchestra in the later eighteenth century and is now made in a large family of sizes.
An old folk pipe and a new key
The clarinet begins with a problem of overblowing. Its predecessor, the chalumeau, was a single-reed pipe limited to a narrow compass, because blowing harder on it produced pitches too far away to fill in the gap above. Johann Christoph Denner of Nuremberg, a maker of woodwind instruments, is traditionally credited with the fix, around 1700: a small speaker key that makes the tube jump to a note a twelfth higher. His son Jacob Denner made some of the earliest surviving examples, and the attribution of the exact date and inventor remains debated.
Keys accumulated over the following century. Two keys gave way to five by the later 1700s, and six became common by the early 1790s, the period of a B♭ clarinet by the London maker John Hale, now in Edinburgh, with boxwood body and brass keys. Mozart wrote his Clarinet Quintet in 1789 and his Clarinet Concerto in 1791 for the virtuoso Anton Stadler, who played an instrument with an extended low range, the basset clarinet. Stadler’s own instruments are not known to have survived, so reconstruction relies on evidence that is incomplete.
A five-part tube of blackwood
A standard B♭ clarinet is roughly 66 centimetres long and divides into five pieces: mouthpiece, barrel, upper joint, lower joint and bell. The body is usually African blackwood, a dense, dark wood, though students’ instruments are often of hard plastic. The bore is cylindrical until the bell flares. Keys are of nickel silver, often plated, and carry pads of leather or synthetic material that seal the holes; metal rings on the upper joint connect with rods to open or close holes beyond the fingers’ reach.
The mouthpiece, traditionally of hard rubber, carries a thin, flat-sided reed cut from cane, held in place by a metal or fabric clamp called a ligature. The interaction of reed and mouthpiece facing, the carefully shaped surface the reed vibrates against, strongly influences tone and response. Modern keywork descends from ring-key mechanisms developed in Paris by Hyacinthe Klosé and the instrument-maker Louis-Auguste Buffet in the 1840s, while in German-speaking countries a different system with its own fingerings continues.
Why the twelfth matters
Air blown past the reed makes it beat against the mouthpiece, opening and closing the tube’s end some hundreds of times a second. A cylinder closed at one end resonates at odd multiples of its lowest frequency, so the second mode is three times the first, a twelfth higher, and the even-numbered harmonics are weak. That imbalance produces the hollow, woody colour of the lowest notes, which a flute or oboe, with their different bores, do not have.
The design has a practical consequence. Where a flute or oboe jumps an octave when overblown, the clarinet jumps a twelfth, and the register key must cover the gap with extra holes and fingerings. The transition between the low and middle registers, called the break, passes through notes that are weaker, known as throat tones. Skill in crossing it smoothly is one of the clarinettist’s main tasks, and the clarinet’s sound is generally described as mellow, with a dark, rounded core.
Four registers, three names
The B♭ clarinet’s written range begins at E3, the E below middle C, and climbs to about C7. Because the instrument is pitched in B♭, it sounds a major second below the written note, putting its lowest sounding pitch near D3, close to the Philharmonia’s stated low frequency of 146 hertz. The A clarinet, slightly longer, sounds a minor third lower than written. Orchestral players carry both and choose according to the key of the music.
The lowest octave and a half, called the chalumeau register, is dark and full. Above the break lies the clarion register, bright and clear, and above that the altissimo, which is piercing and difficult to control. Each register suits different writing: the lowest notes bring weight or menace, the clarion register carries lyrical melodies, and the top adds brilliance or a squeal, as in the glissando that opens Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue.
Breath, reed and a thumb hole
The player takes the mouthpiece in the mouth so that the reed rests against the lower lip, which covers the lower teeth, while the upper teeth touch the top of the mouthpiece. The left thumb covers a hole on the back of the instrument and also operates the register key. The right thumb supports the weight. Most of the hole-covering is done by the fingertips, with small movements for trills and quick runs.
Tonguing, flicking the tip of the tongue against the reed to interrupt the vibration, shapes the start and end of each note, and clarinets are known for a clean staccato. Very quiet playing, from a whisper up to a loud blast, is among the instrument’s strengths, a range that the Philharmonia describes as surprisingly wide. Good reeds are difficult to find, and players select and adjust them carefully, because minor differences in cane change response.
From sopranino to contrabass
The clarinet is a family, with some sources counting about eleven sizes. The E♭ clarinet is a small, shrill instrument that sits high above the standard pitch; the alto in E♭, the bass in B♭ and the contrabass sound progressively lower. The basset horn, pitched in F, is a mid-sized relative with a dark tone and an extended low range. The contrabass clarinet reaches notes below those of a double bass, according to the Philharmonia.
Variation also exists in fingering systems. Most players in Britain, France and North America use the Boehm system, while the German or Oehler system persists in Germany and Austria. Period instruments of the classical era, such as a six-keyed boxwood copy by an Oregon maker in Yale’s collection, have a different, more veiled colour, and are used by orchestras playing music of the time. Folk clarinets from the Balkans and Turkey, and related single-reed pipes of the Middle East, including double-pipe forms, belong to other lineages.
Orchestra, band and dance floor
In the orchestra there are usually two or three clarinettists, often with a bass clarinet and sometimes an E♭ clarinet. The instrument is a bridge between the brighter Flute and Oboe and the darker Bassoon. It has a large chamber repertoire, including Mozart’s quintet and the clarinet quintet Brahms wrote in 1891, and in a concert band a large section of clarinets plays the role that violins play in an orchestra.
In jazz, Benny Goodman, known as the King of Swing, brought the clarinet to mass audiences in the 1930s and 1940s, and Aaron Copland later wrote a concerto for him. The instrument also appears in klezmer, in Greek and Turkish dance music, and in Brazilian choro. Its ability to bend pitch and to glide between notes makes it central to traditions in which ornament and inflection matter.
Wood, cane and moisture
Moisture is the principal enemy of a wooden clarinet. A swab pulled through the bore after playing removes water that could seep into the wood, and a slow warm-up prevents the cracks that arise when cold wood meets warm breath. Cork tenon joints are greased lightly so the sections slide together without force, and joints should be twisted rather than pried apart.
A reed is a consumable item. It should be moistened before playing, stored flat in a protective holder and replaced when it grows soft or chipped. A ligature that is too tight can deaden it. Pads need periodic replacement, and springs and rods are adjusted by a repairer. Because the keywork is slender, the instrument should be assembled by holding the body, not the keys, to keep the rods straight.
Odd facts and curiosities
- The Hale B♭ clarinet in Edinburgh is stamped on every part with a fleur-de-lys and the maker’s name, but its mouthpiece is missing.
- The word clarinet is generally traced to an Italian diminutive of clarino, a high trumpet, apparently because of the instrument’s bright upper register.
- Stadler’s basset clarinet could play a major third lower than the usual clarinet, to a written C.
- Iwan Müller developed a 13-key clarinet in the early 1810s with leather-covered pads that seal the holes, a design that became a basis for later keywork systems.
Terms used in this entry
- basset clarinet
- A clarinet with extra keys and tube that extend its range down to a written C.
- chalumeau
- A single-reed pipe that preceded the clarinet, and the name now given to the clarinet’s lowest register.
- clarion register
- The middle register of the clarinet, reached by overblowing at the twelfth, with a bright, clear tone.
- facing
- The carefully curved surface of the mouthpiece against which the reed vibrates.
- ligature
- A metal or fabric clamp that holds the reed against the mouthpiece.
- Oehler system
- A German and Austrian fingering system for clarinets, distinct from the Boehm system used elsewhere.
- register key
- A small key, worked by the left thumb, that vents the tube so that it sounds a twelfth higher.
- throat tones
- Notes near the break between registers that are weaker and less resonant, and need careful fingering.
References
- Philharmonia Orchestra. Clarinet | Philharmonia. philharmonia.co.uk/resources/instruments/clarinet
- Northern Illinois University. Development of the Clarinet. niu.edu/gbarrett/resources/development.shtml
- University of Edinburgh (St Cecilia’s Hall collections). Clarinet, nominal pitch: B♭ (John Hale, c. 1790). collections.ed.ac.uk/stcecilias/record/95929
- BBC Music Magazine. Clarinet: our guide to the mellow woodwind instrument heard everywhere from Mozart to Benny Goodman. classical-music.com/features/instruments/clarinet
- Yale School of Music. Clarinet in Bb | Yale School of Music. music.yale.edu/browse-collection/clarinet-bb-cc-308
Sources were consulted for facts and context; the text is original. See Sources and Methodology.
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