Genre | instrument makers |
---|---|
Founded | 1976 |
Headquarters | |
Key people | Francesco, Pietro and Biagio Patricola |
Products | Clarinets (Boehm system), Oboes |
Number of employees | 9 |
Website | patricola |
Fratelli Patricola (Patricola Brothers) is an Italian company producing oboes and clarinets since 1976, based in Castelnuovo Scrivia in the Province of Alessandria.
The brothers Francesco, Pietro and Biagio Patricola, woodwind instrument makers, founded their own workshop in 1976 for the production of oboes and clarinets. [1] [2] Two sons and a grandson are also working as instrument builders in the family business. [3]
Patricola make oboes and clarinets from the woods of Grenadilla (Dalbergia melanoxylon) and Bubinga (Guibourtia tessmannii), aged for up to 12 years, and with silver-plated or optionally gold-plated key work. [1] The woodworking is done with the help of CNC machines, while the hand-made key work is manufactured in-house. [4] About 75% of the manufacturing is done by hand. [1]
Oboes are made in student, semi-professional and professional grades, and the oboe d'amore, cor anglais, and oboe musette in E♭ are also produced. Clarinets are offered as "Virtuoso" semi-professional and "Artista" professional models using the French (Boehm) fingering system in B♭ and A, with options for Full Boehm fingering and a low E♭ key. A clarinet in C and a sopranino in E♭ are also made.
Patricola instruments are distributed globally and played by well-known oboists and clarinetists in orchestras in Italy and throughout the world. [5]
The clarinet is a single-reed musical instrument in the woodwind family, with a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell.
The oboe is a type of double-reed woodwind instrument. Oboes are usually made of wood, but may also be made of synthetic materials, such as plastic, resin, or hybrid composites.
The Boehm system is a system of keywork for the flute, created by inventor and flautist Theobald Boehm between 1831 and 1847.
The cor anglais, or English horn, is a double-reed woodwind instrument in the oboe family. It is approximately one and a half times the length of an oboe, making it essentially an alto oboe in F.
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.
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.
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.
Theobald Böhm was a German inventor and musician, who greatly improved the modern Western concert flute and its fingering system. He was a Bavarian court musician, a virtuoso flautist and a renowned composer.
The Western concert flute is a family of transverse (side-blown) woodwind instruments made of metal or wood. It is the most common variant of the flute. A musician who plays the flute is called a “flautist” in British English, and a “flutist” in American English.
The alto clarinet is a woodwind instrument of the clarinet family. It is a transposing instrument pitched in the key of E♭, though instruments in F have been made. In size it lies between the soprano clarinet and the bass clarinet. It bears a greater resemblance to the bass clarinet in that it typically has a straight body, but a curved neck and bell made of metal. All-metal alto clarinets also exist. In appearance it strongly resembles the basset horn, but usually differs in three respects: it is pitched a whole step lower, it lacks an extended lower range, and it has a wider bore than many basset horns.
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 piccolo oboe, also known as the piccoloboe or sopranino oboe and historically called an oboe musette, is the smallest and highest pitched member of the oboe family. Pitched in E♭ or F above the regular oboe, the piccolo oboe is a sopranino version of the oboe, comparable to the E♭ clarinet. It is most commonly found in early 20th-century marching band music, and more rarely in chamber music ensembles or contemporary compositions.
The E-flat clarinet is a member of the clarinet family, smaller than the more common B♭ clarinet and pitched a perfect fourth higher. It is typically considered the sopranino or piccolo member of the clarinet family and is a transposing instrument in E♭ with a sounding pitch a minor third higher than written. In Italian it is sometimes referred to as a terzino and is generally listed in B♭-based scores as terzino in Mi♭. The E-flat clarinet has a total length of about 49 cm.
Altissimo is the uppermost register on woodwind instruments. For clarinets, which overblow on odd harmonics, the altissimo notes are those based on the fifth, seventh, and higher harmonics. For other woodwinds, the altissimo notes are those based on the third, fourth, and higher harmonics. The altissimo register is also known as the high register.
The Mazzeo system is a key system for the clarinet invented by Rosario Mazzeo in the 1950s, and is a modification of the Boehm system. Exclusive mass-production rights were given to the Selmer company, although only 13,000 were made.
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.
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.
Backun Musical Services Ltd. (BMS) is a Canadian manufacturer of clarinets in B♭ and A and accessories, based in Burnaby, British Columbia.
Seggelke Klarinetten, is a German clarinet manufacturer based in Bamberg in the Bavarian Upper Franconia. The company manufactures clarinets of a variety of fingering systems. A specialty of the company is the reproduction of historical clarinets.
The company F. Arthur Uebel GmbH (FAU) is a German manufacturer of clarinets with headquarters in Wiesbaden and production facilities in Markneukirchen (Saxony).