Basset clarinet
Encyclopedia
The basset clarinet is a clarinet
Clarinet
The clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed...

, similar to the usual soprano clarinet
Soprano clarinet
The soprano clarinets are a sub-family of the clarinet family.The B clarinet is by far the most common type of soprano clarinet - the unmodified word "clarinet" usually refers to this instrument...

 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, as opposed to the standard clarinet's E or E♭ (both written), and is most commonly a transposing instrument
Transposing instrument
A transposing instrument is a musical instrument for which written notes are read at a pitch different from the corresponding concert pitch, which a non-transposing instrument, such as a piano, would play. Playing a written C on a transposing instrument will produce a note other than concert C...

 in A, although basset clarinets in C and B♭ also exist, and Stephen Fox
Stephen Fox (clarinet maker)
Stephen Fox is a clarinetist, saxophonist and clarinet maker based in Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada. He is widely regarded as one of the world's foremost makers of custom, hand-built professional clarinets. Born in England, Fox completed a master's degree in physics at the University of...

 makes a "G basset clarinet/basset horn". The similarly named basset horn
Basset-horn
The basset horn is a musical instrument, a member of the clarinet family.-Construction and tone:Like the clarinet, the instrument is a wind instrument with a single reed and a cylindrical bore...

 is also a clarinet with extended lower range, but is in a lower pitch (typically F); the basset horn predates, and undoubtedly inspired, the basset clarinet.

The basset clarinet was most notably associated with the clarinet virtuoso Anton Stadler
Anton Stadler
Anton Stadler was an Austrian clarinet and basset horn player for whom Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote both his Quintet for Clarinet and Strings and Clarinet Concerto....

 (1753-1812), a contemporary and good friend of Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...

. Mozart wrote his Clarinet Quintet in A major, K581
Clarinet Quintet (Mozart)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Quintet for Clarinet and Strings, K. 581, was written in 1789 for the clarinetist Anton Stadler. A clarinet quintet is a work for one clarinet and a string quartet . Although originally written for basset clarinet, it is almost always played on a clarinet in A or B-flat...

 and Clarinet Concerto in A Major, K622
Clarinet Concerto (Mozart)
Mozart's Clarinet concerto in A major, K. 622 was written in 1791 for the clarinetist Anton Stadler.It consists of the usual three movements, in a fast–slow–fast form:# Allegro# Adagio# Rondo: Allegro...

 for this instrument; the concerto is partly based on an earlier fragment of a Concerto for Basset Horn in G, K584b. The mezzosoprano Sesto's aria (Parto, ma tu ben mio) from Act I of Mozart's last opera, La clemenza di Tito
La clemenza di Tito
La clemenza di Tito , K. 621, is an opera seria in two acts composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an Italian libretto by Caterino Mazzolà, after Metastasio...

, also features a basset clarinet obbligato. Franz Xaver Süßmayr
Franz Xaver Süssmayr
Franz Xaver Süssmayr was an Austrian composer, now famous for his completion of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Requiem.-Early life:...

 also wrote a concerto movement for basset clarinet.

A basset clarinet is an A-clarinet with an extension of a terts down. It is in fact related to the basset horn in F or G. Because Mozart's clarinet concerto is so important, the basset clarinet is quite an interesting instrument in spite of its small applicability. For the concert the extension must be chromatic and the shape of the Viennese bassethorn is not suitable for this. It has long been unclear how this instrument might have looked.

In a library in Riga
Riga
Riga is the capital and largest city of Latvia. With 702,891 inhabitants Riga is the largest city of the Baltic states, one of the largest cities in Northern Europe and home to more than one third of Latvia's population. The city is an important seaport and a major industrial, commercial,...

 in 1992 programmes were found of concerts which Anton Stadler (Mozart's favorite clarinettist) has played there in 1784. Two of those programmes show an engraving of Stadler's instrument (see image).

The term "basset clarinet" was in use by 1796, though it may originally have referred to the basset horn.

Despite Stadler's advocacy the instrument did not become a regular member of the orchestra. During the 19th and early 20th centuries only a few basset clarinets were produced, for performances of Mozart pieces, and no further music was written for the instrument. However, beginning in the mid 20th century, interest in performing on original instruments prompted the basset clarinet's revival. A few modern composers, among them Bill Sweeney, Harrison Birtwistle
Harrison Birtwistle
Sir Harrison Paul Birtwistle CH is a British contemporary composer.-Life:Birtwistle was born in Accrington, a mill town in Lancashire some 20 miles north of Manchester. His interest in music was encouraged by his mother, who bought him a clarinet when he was seven, and arranged for him to have...

 and Alan Ray Hacker
Alan Ray Hacker
Alan Ray Hacker OBE FRAM is an English clarinettist and professor of the Royal Academy of Music.-Early life:He was born in 1938, the son of Kenneth and Sybil Hacker...

, have written works featuring basset clarinet; Joan Tower
Joan Tower
Joan Tower is a Grammy-winning contemporary American composer, concert pianist and conductor. Lauded by the New Yorker as "one of the most successful woman composers of all time", her bold and energetic compositions have been performed in concert halls around the world...

's 1988 clarinet concerto is written to be played on either basset or standard clarinet Many clarinet makers
Clarinet makers
The following are lists of makers of clarinets, clarinet mouthpieces, clarinet ligatures, and clarinet reeds. Note that some of the following are simply brands for instruments from original equipment manufacturers.-Clarinets:-Mouthpieces :...

 now produce basset clarinets, or extended lower joints which will convert a standard clarinet to a basset clarinet.

Performers

Classical
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...

 clarinetists who have recorded albums using basset clarinet include Sabine Meyer
Sabine Meyer
Sabine Meyer is a German classical clarinetist.-Biography:Meyer began playing the clarinet at an early age. Her first teacher was her father, also a clarinetist...

 and David Shifrin
David Shifrin
David Shifrin is an American classical clarinetist.-Performances:He has performed clarinet concertos with many major orchestras around the world....

. The German clarinetist Theo Jörgensmann
Theo Jörgensmann
Theodor Franz Jörgensmann is a jazz and free-improvising Basset clarinet player and composer. He has been a professional musician since 1975.-Activities:...

 plays free jazz
Free jazz
Free jazz is an approach to jazz music that was first developed in the 1950s and 1960s. Though the music produced by free jazz pioneers varied widely, the common feature was a dissatisfaction with the limitations of bebop, hard bop, and modal jazz, which had developed in the 1940s and 1950s...

 on a basset clarinet. The British clarinetist Thea King
Thea King
Dame Thea King DBE FRCM FGSM was a British clarinettist.Thea King was born in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, the daughter of Henry Walter Mayer King, the manager of a family engineering business, George. W. King Ltd., based in Hitchin then Stevenage, Hertfordshire, and his wife, Dorothea...

 recorded both Mozart's Quintet and Concerto on the basset clarinet for Hyperion Records
Hyperion Records
Hyperion Records is an independent British classical record label.-History:The company was named after Hyperion, one of the Titans of Greek mythology. It was founded by George Edward Perry, widely known as "Ted", in 1980. Early LP releases included rarely recorded 20th century British music by...

, coupled together on one CD. Michael Collins, who studied with Thea King, has recorded the Mozart concerto playing a basset clarinet (Deutsche Grammophon, along with a transcription for clarinet of Beethoven's Violin Concerto). He is also the soloist with the North Carolina Symphony on April 10, 2008 of the world premier of Elena Kats-Chernin's "Ornamental Air," in the form of a concerto for basset clarinet.

Joy Farrall has also recorded Mozart's concerto, quintet and trio for clarinet, viola and piano (BMG and Meridian) using a basset clarinet.

External links

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