Clarinet

A Brief History of the Clarinet  

The clarinet was invented in the first few years of the 18th century by the renowned woodwind maker Johann Christoph Denner (1655-1707), or his son Jakob (1681-1785) of Nuremberg. It was the first reed-blown instrument to have a cylindrical rather than a conical bore. Denner's main achievement was in his practical use of the way that the scale of fundamentals could be made to sound a twelfth higher if a vent hole were pierced at the upper end of a cylider. This hole was covered by what is now known as the speaker key.

Made of boxwood, the first clarinets were pitched in C and had six finger-holes and two keys. A third key was soon added to extend the range down a semitone and, more importantly, to make possible the playing of the "missing b" at the break--even today, amateur clarinettists still find this note difficlut to produce.

At first, it was common practice to play with the reed uppermost against the top lip. The modern style of placing it on the lower lip was adopted by the Paris conservatoire in 1831, but did not become universal for many years.

Modern Clarinet

In 1809 Iwan Muller (1786 - 1854) brought out the prototype of his 13-key model pitched in B flat, which was to become the standard instrument for the next hundred years. In 1817 its development was refined when Muller, who was the first to use pads over the countersunk tone-holes, invented the metal ligature. The final major modification of the clarinet occured between 1839 and 1843 when the clarinettist Hyacinthe Eleonore Klose collaborated with the maker Luis-August Buffet to simplify the fingering system, using the ring-keys Boehm had developed for his flutes. Buffet's company, now known as Buffet Crampon is the world's leading maker of fine clarinets.