clar’inet

clarinette (nét), F., clarinet to, I. An important wood-wind instr. with a single beating reed, cylindrical tube and bell. It is in effect a stopped pipe (q.v.) and sounds an octave lower than other wood-wind of its length; it has only the odd-numbered partials in the overtone-scale, and requires a different fingering from the oboe, etc. It has 18 holes, including 13 with keys, by means of which it has a range of 3 octaves and a sixth, which range is sharply divided into four distinct qualities of tone: 1. The highest, or superacute, being (in the normal soprano clarinet in C) d’’’-c’’’’, 2. The high or clarinet to or clarion register (whence the instr. took its name) b/-c’’’. 3. The medium, f’-b’b. 4. The chalumeau (sh ’-im6) or Schalmei (shil-mi) g-e’; the qualities being respectively. 1. Shrill. 2. Liquid and clear. 3. Veiled and feeble. 4. Rich and sonorous like a contralto voice. The clarinet is a transposing instr. written in the C clef; it is made in many sizes to adapt it to different keys; the large soprano in C, Bb (often called simply “clarinet in B’’) and A;.the small soprano in D, E, F, Ab; the alto or barytone in F and Eb, the ba (an octave lower than the sopranos) in C, Bb and A. The soprano in Bb is the most brilliant; the soprano in A is very tender in tone. The small sopranos are too shrill for use except in military bands in which the clarinet group serves the substantial purpose served by the strings in the orchestra. The clarinet is an improvement (made by Denner of Niirnberg, 1700) upon the old chalumeau or Schalmei, whose name still persists in the low register of the clarinet. The ch. had a single, beating reed, a cylindrical tube and nine holes, each of which produced a tone giving a compa of these natural tones, f-a’. By placing a hole and a key at a nodal point dividing the tube into 3 equal parts, overblowing became po ible in the twelfth, i. e., the 3d partials (vide Acoustics). This new register was called clarinet to or clarion for its clarity of tone, and from this word came the present name of the instr., all of whose gaps have been filled by means of the Béhm key-mechanism, etc., though the fingering is still difficult and a slip gives a squawk called the “‘goose” or couac. 2. A soft 8-ft. reed-stop.