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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.
The Reform Boehm system was invented by German clarinetist Ernst Schmidt (1870–1954), [1] who used the original Boehm system as early as 1895. Schmidt made changes to the Boehm clarinet based on scientific and mathematical principles. The new instrument had rollers between two little-finger keys in the right hand, and a modified bore that produced a different sound character. Schmidt named the instrument the "Reform Boehm clarinet". In the second half of the 1940s, master clarinet maker Fritz Wurlitzer, based in Erlbach, [lower-alpha 1] Vogtland / Saxony, built a clarinet with Schmidt's instructions. [1] They had collaborated earlier in producing the Schmidt-Kolbe clarinet, a variant of the German clarinet. [2] Both modified a clarinet with the Boehm fingering system to sound like an Oehler (German) clarinet. Wurlitzer built a Boehm clarinet with less taper, which impaired the intonation, but compensated for this by shortening the lower joint by a few millimeters and offsetting the lower tone holes. He also fitted it with a German-style mouthpiece. In 1949 he sent the first Reform Boehm clarinet to a clarinetist of the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam. [3]
A Reform Boehm clarinet looks similar to an original Boehm clarinet, although some brands or models exhibit some of these differences:
Initially Reform Boehm clarinets were built only by Fritz Wurlitzer, and later by his son Herbert Wurlitzer, [7] followed by other manufacturers in Germany (Leitner & Kraus, [8] Wolfgang Dietz, [9] Harald Hüyng [10] ) and Japan (Yamaha). Major French instrument producers were not interested in the Reform Boehm clarinets. [1] Most customers were clarinetists in the Netherlands, Spain, Italy and Japan. Instruments from the GDR were used in the Eastern Bloc until 1990. Distribution in the United States has always been low. [11]
Manufacturers sold fewer Reform Boehm clarinets than German system clarinets, possibly due to the relatively high price of the instrument and a smaller market. Yamaha discontinued production several years ago. As of 2019 [update] The production of these instruments was declining, but they are still made by various German manufacturers. Instead of Reform Boehm clarinets "it has recently become increasingly evident that more and more professional clarinetists, in collaboration with instrument makers, are developing individual instruments constructed for the needs of the musicians, based either on the German or the French system." [12] [13] Working with the basic ideas of Fritz Wurlitzer, the Canadian manufacturer Stephen Fox has developed clarinets in B♭ and A, wanting "to blend the focus and cleanness of the German sound with the brilliance and projection of the French clarinet, with superior intonation." Their development is based on a Buffet R13 clarinet and a Reform Boehm clarinet by Herbert Wurlitzer. [14]
Producers of Boehm clarinets have adopted new drilling techniques, and the sound of a modern Boehm clarinet is not far away from that of the Reform Boehm clarinet or that of a German clarinet. [15]
The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family, which plays in the tenor and bass ranges. It is composed of six pieces, and is usually made of wood. It is known for its distinctive tone color, wide range, versatility, and virtuosity. It is a non-transposing instrument and typically its music is written in the bass and tenor clefs, and sometimes in the treble. There are two forms of modern bassoon: the Buffet and Heckel systems. It is typically played while sitting using a seat strap, but can be played while standing if the player has a harness to hold the instrument. Sound is produced by rolling both lips over the reed and blowing direct air pressure to cause the reed to vibrate. Its fingering system can be quite complex when compared to those of other instruments. Appearing in its modern form in the 19th century, the bassoon figures prominently in orchestral, concert band, and chamber music literature, and is occasionally heard in pop, rock, and jazz settings as well. One who plays a bassoon is called a bassoonist.
The clarinet is a single-reed musical instrument in the woodwind family, with a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell.
The Boehm system is a system of keywork for the flute, created by inventor and flautist Theobald Boehm between 1831 and 1847.
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 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.
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.
Theobald Böhm was a German inventor and musician, who perfected the modern Western concert flute and improved its fingering system. He was a Bavarian court musician, a virtuoso flautist and a renowned composer.
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.
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 A-flat clarinet is a member of the clarinet family, smaller than and sounding a perfect fourth higher than the E♭ clarinet and a minor seventh higher than the B♭ clarinet. As a transposing instrument, it sounds a minor sixth higher than written, thus its lowest note, E, sounds as concert middle C.
In music, fingering, or on stringed instruments sometimes also called stopping, is the choice of which fingers and hand positions to use when playing certain musical instruments. Fingering typically changes throughout a piece; the challenge of choosing good fingering for a piece is to make the hand movements as comfortable as possible without changing hand position too often. A fingering can be the result of the working process of the composer, who puts it into the manuscript, an editor, who adds it into the printed score, or the performer, who puts his or her own fingering in the score or in performance.
Fingering...also stopping...(1) A system of symbols for the fingers of the hand used to associate specific notes with specific fingers....(2)Control of finger movements and position to achieve physiological efficiency, acoustical accuracy [frequency and amplitude] and musical articulation.
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.
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. Many are now in museums, but some are in private collections or can be found for sale. In addition to the instruments made in France, Selmer's "Bundy" and "Signet" lines of student instruments each included a Mazzeo model.
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.
Leitner & Kraus is a German clarinet manufacturer based in Neustadt an der Aisch, Bavaria.
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 according to the German handle 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.
Ivan Panteleyevich Mozgovenko was a Soviet and Russian clarinetist and music teacher. He taught clarinet as a professor at the Gnessin State Musical College. For his participation as a soldier in World War II and for his later artistic achievements, he received numerous medals and honorary titles, including the title People's Artist of Russia.
The company F. Arthur Uebel GmbH (FAU) is a German manufacturer of clarinets with headquarters in Wiesbaden and production facilities in Markneukirchen (Saxony).
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.
