 2 long B♭ bass clarinets: Buffet Crampon Prestige 1193 + Yamaha YCL 622 II | |
| Woodwind instrument | |
|---|---|
| Classification | woodwind instrument |
| Hornbostel–Sachs classification | 422.211.2–71 (Single-reededaerophone with keys) |
| Playing range | |
long / short instrument written: C3 / E♭3 – E7, sounding: B♭1 / D♭2 – D6 | |
| Related instruments | |
Clarinet family | |
| More articles or information | |
Thebass clarinet is amusical instrument of theclarinet family. Like the more commonsoprano B♭ clarinet, it is usually pitched in B♭ (meaning it is atransposing instrument on which a written C sounds as B♭), but it plays notes anoctave below the soprano B♭ clarinet.[1] Bass clarinets in other keys, notably C and A, also exist, but are very rare (in contrast to the regular A clarinet, which is quite common in classical music). Bass clarinets regularly perform inorchestras,wind ensembles and concert bands, and occasionally in marching bands, and jazz bands. They also play an occasional solo role in contemporary music and jazz in particular.
Someone who plays a bass clarinet is called a bass clarinettist or a bass clarinetist.[2][3]
Most modern bass clarinets are straight-bodied, with a small upturned silver-colored metal bell and curved metal neck. Early examples varied in shape, some having a doubled body making them look similar tobassoons. The bass clarinet is fairly heavy and is supported either with a neck strap or an adjustable peg attached to its body. WhileAdolphe Sax imitated its upturned metal bell in his design of the largersaxophones, the two instruments are fundamentally different. Bass clarinet bodies are most often made ofgrenadilla (African Blackwood) or (more commonly for student-instruments) plastic resin, while saxophones are typically made of metal. (Metal bass clarinets exist,[4] but are rare.) More significantly, all clarinets have abore that is basically the same diameter along the body. This cylindrical bore differs from the saxophone's conical one and gives the clarinet its characteristic tone, causing it tooverblow at the twelfth (octave + fifth) compared with the saxophone's octave.
A majority of modern bass clarinets, like other clarinets in the family, have theBoehm system of keys and fingering. However, bass clarinets are also manufactured in Germany with theOehler system of keywork, which is most often known as the 'German" system in the US, because it is commonly used in Germany and Austria, as well as Eastern Europe and Turkey; bass clarinets produced with the Oehler system's predecessor, theAlbert system, are still in use, particularly in these areas.[citation needed] German system bass clarinets frequently have a bore that is significantly narrower than most Boehm system instruments, resulting in a somewhat different sound and set of playing characteristics. Some modern clarinet makers have successfully produced Boehm system bass clarinets with a German bore, but these are not in widespread use.
Most modern Boehm system bass clarinets have an "extension" key allowing them to play to the (written) E♭. This key was originally added to allow easy transposition of parts for the relatively rare bass clarinet pitched in A, but it now finds significant use in concert band and other literature. A significant difference between soprano and bass clarinet key work is a key pad played by the left-hand index finger with a vent that may be uncovered for certain high notes. This allows a form of "half-hole" fingering that allows notes in higher registers to be played on the instrument. In addition, older bass clarinets have two register keys, one for middle D♯ and below, the other for middle E and higher. Newer models typically have an automatic register key mechanism, where a single left thumb key commands the two vent holes. Depending on whether the right hand ring finger (used in fingerings for middle D♯ and below) is down or up, the lower or upper vent hole will open.
Many professional or advanced bass clarinet models extend down to a low C, two octaves below written middle C. At concert pitch this note is the B♭ below the second ledger line below the bass staff or B♭1 inscientific pitch notation (identical to thebassoon's lowest B♭). These three lowermost half-steps are played via additional keys operated by the right thumb, some of them often duplicated in the left- or right-hand little-finger key clusters. Overall, the instrument sounds an octave lower than the B♭ soprano clarinet.
As with all wind instruments, the upper limit of the range depends on the quality of the instrument and skill of the clarinetist. According to Aber and Lerstad, who give fingerings up to written C7 (sounding B♭5), the highest note commonly encountered in modern solo literature is the E below that (sounding D5, the D above treble C).[5] This gives the bass clarinet a usable range of up to four octaves, quite close to the range of the bassoon; indeed, many bass clarinetists perform works originally intended for bassoon or cello because of the plethora of literature for those two instruments and the scarcity of solo works for the bass clarinet.
The bass clarinet has been regularly used in scoring fororchestra andconcert band since the mid-19th century, becoming more common during the middle and latter part of the 20th century.[6] A bass clarinet is not always called for in orchestra music, but is almost always called for inconcert band music. In recent years, the bass clarinet has also seen a growing repertoire of solo literature including compositions for the instrument alone, or accompanied bypiano, orchestra, or other ensemble. It is also used inclarinet choirs,marching bands, and infilm scoring, and has played a persistent role injazz.
The bass clarinet has an appealing, rich, earthy and inky tone, quite distinct from other instruments in its range, drawing on and enhancing the qualities of the lower range of the soprano and alto instrument.
Perhaps the earliest solo passages for bass clarinet—indeed, among the earliest parts for the instrument—occur inMercadante's 1834 operaEmma d'Antiochia, in which a lengthy solo introduces Emma's scene in Act 2. (Mercadante actually specified a glicibarifono for this part.) Two years later,Giacomo Meyerbeer wrote an important solo for bass clarinet in Act 4 of his operaLes Huguenots.
French composerHector Berlioz was one of the first of the Romantics to use the bass clarinet in his large-scale works such as theGrande symphonie funèbre et triomphale, Op. 15 (1840), theTe Deum, Op. 22 (1849), and the operaLes Troyens, Op. 29 (1863). Later French composers to use the instrument includedMaurice Ravel, who wrote virtuosic parts for the bass clarinet in his balletDaphnis et Chloé (1912),La valse (1920), and his orchestration ofModest Mussorgsky'sPictures at an Exhibition (1924).
The operas ofRichard Wagner also make extensive use of the bass clarinet, beginning withTannhäuser (1845). He incorporated the instrument fully into the wind section as both a solo and supporting instrument. Wagner pioneered in exploiting the instrument's dark, somber tone to represent sadness and melancholy. Wagner was almost completely responsible for making the instrument a permanent member of the opera orchestra. The instrument plays an extensive role inTristan und Isolde (1859), the operas ofDer Ring des Nibelungen (1876), andParsifal (1882).
Also around this time, Hungarian pianist and composerFranz Liszt wrote important parts for the instrument in his symphonic poemsCe qu'on entend sur la montagne (What One Hears on the Mountain),Tasso, and hisDante Symphony.Giuseppe Verdi followed suit, using it in Ernani,Aida (1870),La forza del destino,Simon Boccanegra,Don Carlo andFalstaff. Following in Verdi's footsteps,Giacomo Puccini, composer ofLa Bohème,Tosca andMadame Butterfly, used the bass clarinet in all of his operas, beginning withEdgar in 1889. The Russian composerPyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky wrote some prominent solos for the instrument in his last ballet,The Nutcracker.
The later Romantics used the bass clarinet frequently in their works. All ofGustav Mahler's symphonies include the instrument prominently, and often contain lengthy solos for the instrument, especially in hisSymphony No. 6 in A minor.Richard Strauss wrote for the instrument in all of his symphonic poems except forDon Juan, and the instrument shared the spotlight with the tenor tuba in his 1898 tone poem,Don Quixote, Op. 35. Strauss wrote for the instrument as he did for the smaller clarinets, and the parts often include playing in very high registers, such as inAlso Sprach Zarathustra, Op. 30.
Composers of theSecond Viennese School,Arnold Schoenberg,Anton Webern andAlban Berg, often favored the instrument over the bassoon, the instrument's closest relative in terms of range. Russian composersDmitri Shostakovich andSergei Prokofiev used the low concert C and B♭ (equivalent to the bassoon's lowest two notes) in many of their compositions and an instrument with the extended range is necessary for works such as Shostakovich's Symphonies Nos.4, 6,7,8, and11, andLeoš Janáček'sSinfonietta. All of these works exploit the instrument's dark, powerful lower range.
Prokofiev wrote parts for the instrument in his Symphonies Nos. 2–7 and in his balletRomeo and Juliet.Sergei Rachmaninoff used the instrument to great effect in his Symphonies Nos.2 and3 and in his symphonic poem,Isle of The Dead.Igor Stravinsky also wrote complex parts for the instrument throughout his career, most prominently in his balletsThe Firebird (1910),Petrushka (1911) andThe Rite of Spring (1913).
The bass clarinet has a solo at the opening of the third movement ofFerde Grofé'sGrand Canyon Suite.
In the duet "A Boy Like That" fromWest Side Story (1957),Leonard Bernstein scored for "the inky sounds of three bass clarinets".[7]
Early minimalistSteve Reich'sMusic for 18 Musicians (1976) calls for two bass clarinets, featured prominently in the lower register. Used almost percussively, the effect of deep, staccato repetitions, played beneath a static rhythmic drone, is to create a feeling of slowly fluctuating cycles.[citation needed]
One of the most performed works for Bass Clarinet isMarc Mellits's Black, with over 3,000 performances as of 2024.
Many modern composers employ the bass along with the contra-alto and contrabass clarinets, such asEsa-Pekka Salonen in hisPiano Concerto. A great amount of literature can be found in the wind ensemble, in which there is always a part for the instrument.[citation needed]
There are many important solo pieces, duos, sonatas and concertos for bass clarinet, including:
There is a rich and diverse chamber repertoire for bass clarinet and other instruments, including Leoš Janáček's suiteMládí (Youth), Karlheinz Stockhausen'sKontra-Punkte,Theo Loevendie'sPlus One for flute, bass clarinet & piano andBeat Furrer'sGaspra for ensemble incl. bass clarinet.
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It was not until the 1950s that classical performers began to adopt the bass clarinet as their primary instrument. The pioneer was theCzech performerJosef Horák (1931–2005), who is credited as having performed the first ever solo bass clarinet recital on March 23, 1955.[17] This marked a turning point when the instrument first became thought of as a soloist's instrument.
Because the repertoire of solo music for the bass clarinet was quite small, most bass clarinet soloists specialize in new music, while also arranging works composed for other instruments from earlier eras (such as theBachCello Suites). Beginning with Horák, many players have commissioned works for the instrument, and consequently there now exists a repertoire of hundreds of solo works, many by prominent international composers such asBrian Ferneyhough andDavid Lang. In addition to Horák, other specialist performers includeHenri Bok (Netherlands), his studentLuís Afonso (Brazil),Dennis Smylie (United States), Tommie Lundberg (Sweden),Harry Sparnaay (Netherlands, who has worked with important composers such asLuciano Berio,Iannis Xenakis, andMorton Feldman), Fie Schouten (artistic director Basklarinet Festijn; worked with o.a.Georges Aperghis,Michael Finnissy,Theo Loevendie,Louis Sclavis,Rozalie Hirs)Jason Alder,Evan Ziporyn (United States), andMichael Lowenstern (United States); the latter two are also composers.
In October 2005, the First World Bass Clarinet Convention was held inRotterdam, Netherlands, at which Horák was the guest of honor and played in one of the many concerts given by the leading bass clarinetists from around the world (including all the aforementioned performers, as well as many others).[18]
In April 2014, 70th birthday ofHarry Sparnaay, the first Basklarinet Festijn was held in the Netherlands.[19] Initiators and artistic leaders are former students of Sparnaay and active in contemporary composed and improvised music: Fie Schouten and Tobias Klein.
At least two professional bass-clarinet quartets exist. Rocco Parisi's Bass Clarinet Quartet is an Italian group whose repertoire includes transcriptions of music byGioacchino Rossini,Niccolò Paganini, andÁstor Piazzolla.Edmund Welles is the name of a bass clarinet quartet based in San Francisco. Their repertoire includes original "heavy chamber music" and transcriptions ofmadrigals,boogie-woogie tunes, andheavy metal songs. Two of the members of Edmund Welles also perform as a bass clarinet duo, Sqwonk.[20]
While the bass clarinet was seldom heard in earlyjazz compositions, a bass clarinet solo byWilbur Sweatman can be heard on his 1924 recording "Battleship Kate" and a bass clarinet solo byOmer Simeon can be heard in the 1926 recording "Someday Sweetheart" byJelly Roll Morton and His Red Hot Peppers. Additionally,Benny Goodman recorded with the instrument a few times early in his career.
Harry Carney,Duke Ellington'sbaritone saxophonist for 47 years, played bass clarinet in some of Ellington's arrangements, first recording with it on the song, "Saddest Tale" in 1934. He was featured soloist on many Ellington recordings, including 27 titles on bass clarinet.[21]
The first jazz album on which the leader solely played bass clarinet wasGreat Ideas of Western Mann (1957) byHerbie Mann, better known as a flautist. However, avant-garde musicianEric Dolphy (1928–1964) was the first major jazz soloist on the instrument, and established much of the vocabulary and technique used by later performers. He used the entire range of the instrument in his solos.Bennie Maupin emerged in the late 1960s as a primary player of the instrument, playing onMiles Davis's seminal recordBitches Brew as well as several records withHerbie Hancock'sMwandishi group. His style resembles Dolphy's in its use of advanced harmonies.
While the bass clarinet has been used often since Dolphy, it is typically used by asaxophonist orclarinetist as a second or third instrument; such musicians includeDavid Murray,Marcus Miller,John Surman,John Gilmore,Bob Mintzer,John Coltrane (to whom Dolphy's mother left some of Dolphy's instruments including his bass clarinet.[22]),Brian Landrus,James Carter,Steve Buckley,Andy Biskin,Don Byron,Julian Siegel,Gunter Hampel,Michel Portal,Myron Walden,Yusef Lateef,Paul McCandless,Gianluigi Trovesi, andChris Potter. Very few performers have used the instrument exclusively, but such performers include AmericanMichael Pinz, Berlin-based bass clarinetistRudi Mahall, and French bass clarinetistsLouis Sclavis andDenis Colin. Klezmer clarinetistGiora Feidman is known for idiosyncratic use of the bass clarinet on some klezmer and jazz tunes.
OnThe Beatles 1967 recording ofGeorge Harrison's "It's All Too Much", a prominent bass clarinetostinato, scored and conducted by producerGeorge Martin, is played by session musician Paul Harvey.[23]
Victor Hayden, AKAThe Mascara Snake, was a member ofCaptain Beefheart's band in the late 1960s, playing bass clarinet on the 1969 albumTrout Mask Replica.
OnSteely Dan's 1980 song "Babylon Sisters", bass clarinets are played by George Marge and Walter Kane.
OnFlight of the Conchords' 2009 song "Rambling Through the Avenues of Time", the instrument is used as a form ofword painting when one is heard afterBret McKenzie sings the line "my heart played a bass clarinet". The part is played by David Ralicke.
OnParamore's 2023 albumThis Is Why, the song "Figure 8" prominently features a bass clarinet. The part is played by Henry Solomon.[24]
There are several instruments that can arguably be considered the first bass clarinet. Probably the earliest is adulcian-shaped instrument in theMuseum Carolino Augusteum inSalzburg. It is incomplete, lacking acrook or mouthpiece, and appears to date from the first half of the eighteenth century. Its wide cylindrical bore and its fingering suggest it was achalumeau or clarinet in the bass range.[25] Four anonymous bass chalumeaux or clarinets apparently dating from the eighteenth century and having from one to six keys also appear to be among the earliest examples, and one in particular has been suggested to date from before 1750.[26] However, the authenticity of at least one of these instruments has been questioned.[27]
In theMunich Stadtmuseum there is an instrument made c. 1770 by the Mayrhofers ofPassau,[27] who are often credited with the invention of thebasset horn. It resembles early sickle-shaped basset horns, but has a larger bore and is longer, playing in low B♭. Whether this should be considered a low basset horn or a bass clarinet is a matter of opinion. In any case, no further work along this line is known to have been done.
A 1772 newspaper article describes an instrument called the"basse-tube", invented by G. Lott in Paris in 1772.[28] This instrument has not survived and very little is known of it. The article has frequently been cited as the earliest record of a bass clarinet, but it has more recently been suggested that the basse-tube was in fact a basset horn.[29]
TheKlarinetten-Bass byHeinrich Grenser, c. 1793, had a folded, bassoon-like shape and an extended range, and was presumably intended to serve as a bassoon replacement in military bands. Desfontenelles of Lisieux built a bass clarinet in 1807 whose shape was similar to that of the latersaxophone. It had thirteen keys, at a time when most soprano clarinets had fewer.
Additional designs were developed by many other makers, including Dumas of Sommières (who called his instrument a"Basse guerrière") in 1807; Nicola Papalini, c. 1810 (an odd design, in the form of a serpentine series of curves, carved out of wood); George Catlin ofHartford, Connecticut ("clarion") c. 1810; Sautermeister of Lyons ("Basse-orgue") in 1812; Gottlieb Streitwolf in 1828; and Catterino Catterini ("glicibarifono") in the 1830s.[25][26][30] These last four, and several others of the same period, had bassoon-like folded shapes, and most had extended ranges. A straight-bodied instrument without extended range was produced in 1832 by Isaac Dacosta and Auguste Buffet.[25][26]
Finally,Adolphe Sax, aBelgian manufacturer of musical instruments, designed a straight-bodied form of the bass clarinet in 1838. Sax's expertise in acoustics led him to include such features as accurately-placed, large tone holes and a second register hole. His instrument achieved great success and became the basis for all bass clarinet designs since.
The instrument on whichAnton Stadler first playedWolfgang Amadeus Mozart'sclarinet concerto was originally called aBass-Klarinette, but was not a bass clarinet in the modern sense; since the late eighteenth century this instrument has been called abasset clarinet.
Orchestral music for bass clarinet is written using one of four systems:
Music is occasionally encountered written for the bass clarinet in A, e.g., in Wagner operas, andMahler orRachmaninov symphonies. This music tends to be written in bass clef, although not invariably (e.g.Ravel'sLa Valse). Probably the first bass clarinet in A was made by Johann Adam Henkel, around 1850, and a number of greater and lesser known makers continued to produce examples over the next 70 years: e.g., Stengel, Moritz, Kruspe,et al. Buffet made some instruments in the 1920s, but the bass in A was never produced in any great numbers, and after the 1920s very few instruments in A were made (although Fritz Wurlitzer experimented with one in the 1940s).[31]
Despite its relative rarity, important works by some prominent composers featured the bass clarinet in A, and in the early 20th century makers began regularly offering B♭ bass clarinets equipped with an E♭ extension key, so that bass parts in A could be transposed onto the B♭ instrument.
In the 1970s there was a mild revival of interest in the instrument, and Selmer of Paris produced a few instruments pitched in A with Boehm system key work and keyed to low E♭ (even though the original parts seldom descend below written low E). However, these instruments were expensive and many players were reluctant to haul around two heavy bass clarinets to rehearsals and performances, so few of the modern bass clarinets in A were sold. Selmer ceased production of the bass clarinet in A in the late 1980s. Today, very few players own a bass clarinet in A and these parts are generally played on the B♭ instrument, transposing them down a semitone.
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