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Piccolo clarinet
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The piccolo clarinets are members of the clarinet family, smaller and higher pitched than the more familiar high soprano clarinets in E and D. None are common, but the most often used piccolo clarinet is the A clarinet, sounding a minor seventh higher than the B clarinet. Shackleton also lists obsolete instruments in C, B, and A. Some writers call these sopranino clarinets or octave clarinets. The boundary between the piccolo and soprano clarinets is not well-defined, and the rare instruments in G and F might be considered as either.
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The piccolo clarinets are members of the clarinet family, smaller and higher pitched than the more familiar high soprano clarinets in E and D. None are common, but the most often used piccolo clarinet is the A clarinet, sounding a minor seventh higher than the B clarinet. Shackleton also lists obsolete instruments in C, B, and A. Some writers call these sopranino clarinets or octave clarinets. The boundary between the piccolo and soprano clarinets is not well-defined, and the rare instruments in G and F might be considered as either. Shackleton uses it to refer to the E? and D clarinets, as well as obsolete instruments in G, F, and E, but this classification, while useful, seems to be uncommon; the E? and D instruments are more usually considered soprano clarinets.
Currently, the A? is the modern clarinet that is commonly known as the sopranino. It is pitched a minor seventh higher than the B? soprano clarinet. Its lowest note, E, is concert Middle C, the same as most flutes.
Clarinets pitched in A-flat appeared frequently in European wind bands, particularly in Spain and Italy, at least through the middle of the 20th century, and are called for in the stage-band parts for several operas by Verdi.
Cecil Forsyth associated the high instruments with Austria, writing, "For the sake of completeness it may be added that Clarinets in (high) F, and even in (high) A are occasionally used abroad. The latter instrument is regularly employed in the Austrian military bands." A famous example of extensive use of a high clarinet in a Viennese small ensemble was the Schrammel quartet, consisting of two violins (the brothers Johann and Josef Schrammel), a bass guitar, and G clarinet, played by Georg Dänzer, during the 1880s.
The A clarinet is not uncommon in clarinet choir arrangements--for instance, those of Lucien Calliet, including Mozart's Marriage of Figaro overture--though the instrument is often optional or cued in other voices. There are parts for A clarinet in Béla Bartók's Scherzo for Piano and Orchestra, op. 2 ("mostly in unison with the E or piccolo") and in John Tavener's Celtic Requiem (1969). Several chamber works of Hans-Joachim Hespos employ the A clarinet,
including the wild go which also features soprano sarrusophone, heckelphone, and tárogató. Hespos also uses the A clarinet in the orchestral work Interactions.
At least four manufacturers currently produce A clarinets: Leblanc, L. A. Ripamonti, Orsi Wind Instruments and Schwenk and Seggelke. As of 2003, the Leblanc A was only being made under special order. Ripamonti produces both German and French system (including Full Boehm) A clarinets. Schwenk and Seggelke make German system clarinets in A and high G.
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