Piccolo clarinet
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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 is common, but the most often used piccolo clarinet is the A♭ clarinet, sounding nearly an octave 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 uses it to refer to the E♭ and D clarinets, as well as obsolete instruments in G, F, and E, but this classification, while useful, seems to be uncommon; the E♭ and D instruments are more usually considered soprano clarinets.
Currently, the A♭ is the modern clarinet that is commonly known as the sopranino. It is pitched a minor seventh higher than the B♭ soprano clarinet. Its lowest note, E, is concert Middle C, the same as most 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, writing, "For the sake of completeness it may be added that 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.
[edit] Notes
- ^ a b c Basil Tschaikov, "The high clarinets," in Colin Lawson, The Cambridge companion to the clarinet, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), pp. 52-55.
- ^ Forsyth, Orchestration, second edition, p. 281 (Dover Reprint) ISBN 978-0486243832
- ^ Hans-Joachim Hespos - Complete work (engl.) - Ensemble works. Hans-Joachim Hespos web site. Retrieved on 2007-02-07.
- ^ Hans-Joachim Hespos - Complete work (engl.) - Orchestral works. Hans-Joachim Hespos web site. Retrieved on 2007-02-07.
- ^ Post by Diz to the Clarinet List, 2003-06-27 based on information from Leblanc Sydney
[edit] References
- Nicholas Shackleton. "Clarinet", Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy (accessed 21 February 2006), grovemusic.com (subscription access).
