F. Arthur Uebel

Last updated
F. Arthur Uebel GmbH
TypeGesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung (GmbH) (Germany)
IndustryManufacture of woodwind instruments
Founded30 April 2010
Headquarters Wiesbaden, Branch office Markneukirchen
Key people
Jürgen Stoelzel, Wiesbaden
ProductsClarinets
Website en.uebel-klarinetten.de

The company F. Arthur Uebel GmbH (FAU) is a German manufacturer of clarinets with headquarters in Wiesbaden and production facilities in Markneukirchen (Saxony). [1]

Contents

FAU 3 clarinets.jpg
Clarinet Superior (german), Plateau-clarinet in B♭ (french) and basset clarinet in A (french)
Transparent stripe.png
FAU Bass dt.jpg
Bass clarinet, german
FAU Bass Boehm Mopane.png
Bass clarinet, french

History

The company, founded in 2010, sees itself in the tradition of the clarinet manufacture founded on 2 September 1936 by Friedrich Arthur Uebel (1888–1963) in 1936 in Markneukirchen. [2] The latter was the son of the woodwind instrument maker Friedrich Gustav Uebel (1855-1915) and had learned the craft of clarinet making in his father's workshop. In 1911, he completed a traineeship with the clarinetist and clarinet maker Oskar Oehler  [ de ] (1858-1936) in Berlin, with whom he worked closely until Oehler's death on 1 October 1936, which meant that he was able to take over Oehler's customer base. He built high-quality instruments for professional clarinettists in addition to cheaper models. Although the main focus was on building Oehler clarinets, the company also made Boehm and Reform Boehm clarinets. He had already registered the trademark FAU in 1936. [3] [4] [5]

In 1984, the factory was nationalised and merged with other wind instrument manufacturer. After the Peaceful Revolution, the company was privatised in 1990 and the production of Uebel clarinets continued as a dependent part of the business. In 2005, for economic reasons, the production of Uebel clarinets in Markneukirchen was discontinued. [1]

In the course of the liquidation, the music wholesaler Arnold Stölzel GmbH in Wiesbaden, managing director Jürgen Stölzel, acquired the rights to the name as well as the design and production documents in 2005 and then, also with the help of former Uebel employees, had a very modern production facility built in China, [6] where Uebel clarinets were prefabricated from around mid-2006 under the direction of a German master clarinet maker and from materials supplied by Germany, which were then finished in Wiesbaden and distributed. [7] In 2010 Jürgen Stölzel founded the current company in Wiesbaden with a branch in Markneukirchen and set up a workshop there, where Uebel clarinets are also again manufactured. In 2017, the company moved to a newly built production facility with an office extension in the Markneukirchen industrial park. [1]

The company manufactures clarinets with German and French system (Oehler / Boehm) as well as accessories. The product line of Boehm clarinets has been greatly expanded in recent years. [1]

Products

All clarinet models [8] are made of grenadilla with silver-plated machine heads, the higher-priced ones also of mopane with silver-plated or gold-plated machine heads or with gold-plated pillars and otherwise silver machine heads. The keys are made partly of vacuum casting and partly of nickel silver and are completely fitted by an instrument maker. The instruments are manufactured in Germany and in China, whereby the final assembly or regulation always takes place in Germany (Markneukirchen or Wiesbaden). [9] [10]

With the German system, four soloist models are offered in B♭ tunings, one of which is an Austrian model (Vienna) and one of which is also available as an A clarinet. Furthermore, two standard models in B♭ and A and one in E♭ are produced, as well as three beginner models in B♭, one in C and one in low G, and finally a professional bass clarinet reaching down to low C.

With the French system there are seven professional instruments in B♭ and A, one of them also as a basset clarinet in A and another also as a C and as an E♭ clarinet and as basset horn, besides – as a special feature – a plateau (capped) clarinet in B♭. Then three standard models in B♭ and a bass clarinet reaching down to low C are offered.

Artists

Well-known F. A. Uebel players include: Giora Feidman, Alexander von Hagke  [ de ], Ricardo Morales, [11] Danny Goldman, Evgeny Petrov, Nicholas Carpenter, Björn Nyman, Danila Yankovsky, David Rowden, Gerald Kraxberger, Thomas Watmough, Thorsten Skringer, Giovanni Bertoni, Mitchel Berick and Michael Kirby.

Related Research Articles

The clarinet is a single-reed musical instrument in the woodwind family, with a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bass clarinet</span> Member of the clarinet family

The bass clarinet is a musical instrument of the clarinet family. Like the more common soprano B♭ clarinet, it is usually pitched in B♭, but it plays notes an octave below the soprano B♭ clarinet. Bass clarinets in other keys, notably C and A, also exist, but are very rare. Bass clarinets regularly perform in orchestras, wind ensembles and concert bands, and occasionally in marching bands, and play an occasional solo role in contemporary music and jazz in particular.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Basset clarinet</span> Woodwind musical instrument

The basset clarinet is member of the clarinet family similar to the usual soprano clarinet but longer and with additional keys to enable playing several additional lower notes. Typically a basset clarinet has keywork going to a low (written) C or B, as opposed to the standard clarinet's E or E♭. The basset clarinet is most commonly a transposing instrument in A, although basset clarinets in C and B♭ and very seldom in G also exist. The similarly named basset horn is also a clarinet with extended lower range, but is in a lower pitch ; the basset horn predates, and undoubtedly inspired, the basset clarinet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Contrabass clarinet</span> Very low pitched instrument of the clarinet family

The contrabass clarinet (also pedal clarinet, after the pedals of pipe organs) and contra-alto clarinet are the two largest members of the clarinet family that are in common usage. Modern contrabass clarinets are transposing instruments pitched in B♭, sounding two octaves lower than the common B♭ soprano clarinet and one octave below the bass clarinet. Some contrabass clarinet models have extra keys to extend the range down to low written E♭3, D3 or C3. This gives a tessitura written range, notated in treble clef, of C3 – F6, which sounds B♭0 – E♭4. Some early instruments were pitched in C; Arnold Schoenberg's Fünf Orchesterstücke specifies a contrabass clarinet in A, but there is no evidence such an instrument has ever existed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Contra-alto clarinet</span> Low pitched instrument

The contra-alto clarinet, E♭ contrabass clarinet, is a large clarinet pitched a perfect fifth below the B♭ bass clarinet. It is a transposing instrument in E♭ sounding an octave and a major sixth below its written pitch, between the bass clarinet and the B♭ contrabass clarinet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oehler system</span> System of keywork for the clarinet

The Oehler system is a system for clarinet keys developed by Oskar Oehler. Based on the Müller system clarinet, the system adds tone holes to correct intonation and acoustic deficiencies, notably of the alternately-fingered notes B♭ and F. The system has more keys than the Böhm system, up to 27 in the Voll-Oehler system. It also has a narrower bore and a longer, narrower mouthpiece leading to a slightly different sound. It is used mostly in Germany and Austria. Major developments include the patent C♯, low E-F correction, fork-F/B♭ correction and fork B♭ correction. Fingering charts can be found for example in this reference.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Buffet Crampon</span> French wind musical instrument manufacturer

Buffet Crampon SAS is a French manufacturer of wind instruments based in Mantes-la-Ville, Yvelines department. The company is the world market leader in the production of clarinets of the Boehm system. Its subsidiary, Buffet Crampon Deutschland GmbH, founded in 2010 and based in Markneukirchen, Vogtland, Sachsen, is the world market leader in the manufacture of brass instruments. To manufacture and sell its products, the BC Group employed around 1000 people worldwide at the beginning of 2021, 470 of them as employees of BC Germany alone. The management of the group has been in the hands of Jérôme Perrod since 2014.

The Buescher Band Instrument Company was a manufacturer of musical instruments in Elkhart, Indiana, from 1894 to 1963. The company was acquired by the H&A Selmer Company in 1963. Selmer retired the Buescher brand in 1983.

The Boehm system for the clarinet is a system of clarinet keywork, developed between 1839 and 1843 by Hyacinthe Klosé and Auguste Buffet jeune. The name is somewhat deceptive; the system was inspired by Theobald Boehm's system for the flute, but necessarily differs from it, since the clarinet overblows at the twelfth rather than the flute's octave. Boehm himself was not involved in its development.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heckelphone-clarinet</span> Wooden conical bore single reed wind instrument

The heckelphone-clarinet (or Heckelphon-Klarinette) is a rare woodwind instrument, invented in 1907 by Wilhelm Heckel in Wiesbaden-Biebrich, Germany. Despite its name, it is essentially a wooden saxophone with wide conical bore, built of red-stained maple wood, overblowing the octave, and with clarinet-like fingerings. It has a single-reed mouthpiece attached to a short metal neck, similar to an alto clarinet. The heckelphone-clarinet is a transposing instrument in B♭ with sounding range of D3 (middle line of bass staff) to C6 (two ledger lines above the treble staff), written a whole tone higher. The instrument is not to be confused with the heckel-clarina, also a very rare conical bore single reed woodwind by Heckel but higher in pitch and made of metal, nor with the heckelphone, a double reed instrument lower in pitch.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clarinet family</span> Musical instrument family

The clarinet family is a woodwind instrument family of various sizes and types of clarinets, including the well-known B♭ clarinet, the A clarinet, the bass clarinet, and the slightly less familiar E♭clarinet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Herbert Wurlitzer</span>

The company Herbert Wurlitzer Manufaktur für Holzblasinstrumente GmbH is a German clarinet manufacturer based in Neustadt an der Aisch, Bavaria with a second production site in Markneukirchen, Saxony. It was founded in 1959 by Herbert Wurlitzer. His father Fritz Wurlitzer operated since the 1930s in Erlbach, now a district of Markneukirchen, a manufactory for the production of clarinets. The company W. Wurlitzer makes clarinets with German System and with the "Reform Boehm system", developed by Fritz Wurlitzer in the late 1940s, an instrument with Boehm fingering system and the sound of an Oehler Clarinet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reform Boehm system</span> System of keywork for the clarinet

The Reform Boehm system is a fingering system for the clarinet based on the Boehm system. It was developed to produce clarinets with the Boehm keywork but with a sound similar to a German clarinet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leitner & Kraus</span>

Leitner & Kraus is a German clarinet manufacturer based in Neustadt an der Aisch, Bavaria.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Backun Musical Services</span>

Backun Musical Services Ltd. (BMS) is a Canadian manufacturer of clarinets in B♭ and A and accessories, based in Burnaby, British Columbia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Schwenk & Seggelke</span> German clarinet manufacturer

Seggelke Klarinetten, is a German clarinet manufacturer based in Bamberg in the Bavarian Upper Franconia. The company manufactures clarinets according to the German system and the French system as well as in a combination of both systems, starting from the Boehm system. A specialty of the company is the reproduction of historical clarinets.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fratelli Patricola</span>

Fratelli Patricola is an Italian company producing oboes and clarinets since 1976, based in Castelnuovo Scrivia, province of Alessandria.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Friedrich Arthur Uebel</span> German woodwind instrument maker (1888–1963)

Friedrich Arthur Uebel was a German woodwind instrument maker. He was owner of the clarinet manufacture F. Arthur Uebel.

Fritz Ulrich Wurlitzer was a German clarinet maker, based in Erlbach in Vogtland, Saxony. He developed the Reform Boehm clarinet and made improvements to the Schmidt-Kolbe clarinet and the German bass clarinet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dietz Klarinettenbau</span> Clarinet manufacturer

Dietz Klarinettenbau GmbH & Co. KG is a German clarinet manufacture based in Neustadt an der Aisch, Bavaria.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Gisbert König, Eine Reise durch die deutsche Klarinettenbaulandschaft (A journey through the German clarinet making landscape) in 'rohrblatt - die Zeitschrift für Oboe, Klarinette, Saxophon und Fagott (the magazine for oboe, clarinet, saxophone and bassoon) 38 (2023), vol. 3 p. 107-117, pdf-file, here p. 109 F. Arthur Uebel (in German)]
  2. ↑ Birgit Matuschewski (2006), Chronik eintausend Jahre Erfindergeist in Sachsen: Musik und Instrumente (Chronicle of One Thousand Years of Inventive Spirit in Saxony: Music and Instruments) (in German), MPR-Verlag, p. 121, ISBN   978-3-935579-03-2
  3. ↑ Website, History of the FAU Company Retrieved 15 May 2022
  4. ↑ Enricio Weller, Erste Adresse des deutschen Klarinettenbaus – Geschichte Bedeutung und Entwicklungsleistungen der Markneukirchener Holzblasinstrumentenwerkstätte F. Arthur Uebel (First Address of German Clarinet Making – History Significance and Development Achievements of the Markneukirchen Woodwind Instrument Workshop F. Arthur Uebel), in: rohrblatt 8 (1993), pp. 142–146; 9th (1994), pp. 52–60.
  5. ↑ Enrico Weller (2004), Der Blasinstrumentenbau im Vogtland von den Anfängen bis zum Beginn des 20. Jahrhunderts: Untersuchungen und Dokumentationen zur Geschichte eines Gewerbezweiges der Musikinstrumentenindustrie (Wind Instrument Making in the Vogtland from the Beginnings to the Beginning of the 20th Century: Studies and Documentation on the History of a Branch of the Musical Instrument Industry) (in German), Geiger, p. 257, ISBN   978-3-89570-986-9
  6. ↑ Claus Raumberger, F. Arthur Uebel, Es-Klarinette Böhm-System Nr. 811
  7. ↑ "The Chinese are coming", Musiktreff.info 5.2.2007 07:41 h and 9.2.2007 10:24 h, retrieved 2022-08-17
  8. ↑ website, clarinets
  9. ↑ Musiktreff.info 28.1.2016 12:14 h, message from the company
  10. ↑ Musiktreff.info 25. 2. 2019, 5:59 h message from the company
  11. ↑ Ricardo Morales wird Teil der "F. Arthur Uebel"-Familie (Ricardo Morales becomes part of the "F. Arthur Uebel" family), Das Musikinstrument, 12 September 2018
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