The clarinet is a single-reed musical instrument in the woodwind family, with a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell.
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 horn is a member of the clarinet family of musical instruments.
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.
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 (A♭) clarinet is the highest-pitched instrument of the clarinet family still manufactured. It is just over half the length of the common B♭ clarinet and pitched a minor seventh higher, a perfect fourth higher than the E♭ clarinet. As a transposing instrument it sounds a minor sixth higher than written, thus the lowest written note E3 sounds as concert C4 (middle C). Around the beginning of the 19th century, several small clarinets in different pitches appeared; the A♭ clarinet was adopted in European military bands and has survived to the present day, where it is sometimes called for in contemporary classical music and in large clarinet choirs.
Sabine Meyer is a German classical clarinetist.
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 clarinet d'amore or clarinet d'amour is a musical instrument, a member of the clarinet family.
The clarinet family is a woodwind instrument family of various sizes and types of clarinets, including the Clarinet, Soprano clarinet, Bass clarinet, and E-flat clarinet.
Suzanne Stephens is an American clarinetist, resident in Germany, described as "an outstanding performer and tireless promoter of the clarinet and basset horn".
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.
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.
Shirley Brill is an Israeli clarinetist living in Germany.
Fratelli Patricola is an Italian company producing oboes and clarinets since 1976, based in Castelnuovo Scrivia, province of Alessandria.
The company F. Arthur Uebel GmbH (FAU) is a German manufacturer of clarinets with headquarters in Wiesbaden and production facilities in Markneukirchen (Saxony).
Dietz Klarinettenbau GmbH & Co. KG is a German clarinet manufacture based in Neustadt an der Aisch, Bavaria.
