Bass clarinet: Encyclopedia - Bass clarinet

Bass clarinet

The bass clarinet is a musical instrument of the clarinet family. Like standard clarinets, it is usually pitched in B flat (meaning it is a transposing instrument where a written C sounds as B flat), but it plays notes an octave below the "normal" B flat clarinet and an octave above the contrabass clarinet. Bass clarinets in other keys, notably A, also exist.

Bass clarinet - Description

Most modern instruments are straight-bodied (the body most often being made of grenadilla or African Blackwood), with a small upturned silver-colored metal bell and a curved metal neck. Early bass clarinets varied in shape, some having a doubled body making them look similar to bassoons. While it is sometimes mistaken for a large saxophone, the bass clarinet's wooden body is generally black in color, unlike the saxophone, whose body is typically made entirely of metal. It differs most significantly from the saxophone in its bore, which is basically the same diameter along the body of the instrument. This cylindrical bore gives it the clarinet's dark tone and low pitch. While the range of the soprano (B-flat) clarinet ends at a low (written) E (sounding D below middle C), most bass clarinets have a low E-flat (sounding D-flat a half step above the cello's lowest C). Some models have an extended range and can play to a low C (sounding B-flat one whole step below the cello's lowest C). The instrument is heavy and is supported either with a neck strap or with an adjustable peg attached to its body.

Bass clarinet - Uses

Bass clarinets are used to boost the overall sound in small ensembles. They are also used in symphony orchestras to make up for poor/absent low brass sections and as a solo instrument in jazz. They almost universally play the bass part (usually similar or identical to the Tuba part) of a musical piece, though they are sometimes given leading parts as well. They are also used in wind bands and clarinet choirs.

The bass clarinet has an appealing, rich, earthy tone quite distinct from other instruments in its range, drawing on and enhancing the qualities of the lower range of the soprano instrument.

Bass clarinet - Invention

The origin of the bass clarinet is uncertain. It may have been invented by G. Lott in Paris in 1772, or by Heinrich Grenser in 1793. Adolphe Sax, a Belgian manufacturer of musical instruments, first designed the straight-bodied form of the bass clarinet in the early 19th century.

Bass clarinet - Musical compositions using bass clarinet

The most familiar piece in classical music using the bass clarinet is probably "The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" from Tchaikovsky's ballet The Nutcracker, in which its low tones contrast with the tinkling higher pitches of the celesta. Other pieces featuring this instrument include:

• Concertos for bass clarinet and orchestra by Thea Musgrave and Dietrich Erdmann
• Rapsodie espagnole, by Maurice Ravel
• Die Walküre and Tristan und Isolde, by Wagner, have solos for the A bass clarinet.
• Pelleas and Melisande, by Arnold Schoenberg
• Symphony No. 3, by William Schuman has a large duet for bass clarinet and snare drum in the final movement
• Symphony No. 6, by Dmitri Shostakovich, features a wild duet for flute and bass clarinet in the scherzo
• The slow movement to Aram Khachaturian's Piano Concerto contains several bass clarinet solos
• Chemins IIc by Luciano Berio has a solo part for the instrument
• "Afro-American Symphony", by William Grant Still
• Karlheinz Stockhausen's In Freundschaft (1977) can also be played on the bass clarinet (among other instruments).
• "Symphony No. 1 (Genome) for Band" by Ryan Fraley (2004). Solo in the last movement.
• "The Light Fantastic" for bass clarinet and wind ensemble by Andrew Rindfleisch (2003).

Bass clarinet - Bass clarinet in jazz

While the bass clarinet was seldom heard in early jazz compositions, a bass clarinet solo by Omer Simeon can be heard in the 1926 recording "Someday Sweetheart" by Jelly Roll Morton and His Red Hot Peppers.

Harry Carney occasionally played bass clarinet in some of Duke Ellington's arrangements, beginning in the late 1930s.

Eric Dolphy (1928-1964) was the first major jazz soloist on the instrument, and established much of the vocabulary and technique used by later performers.

While the bass clarinet has been used often since Dolphy, it is typically used by a saxophonist or clarinetist as a second or third instrument; such musicians include David Murray, John Surman, and James Carter. Very few performers have used the instrument exclusively, but one such performer is the Baltimore-based American musician and bandleader Todd Marcus.

Bass clarinet - Bass clarinet soloists

It was not until the 1950s that classical performers began to adopt the bass clarinet as their primary instrument. The pioneer was the Czech performer Josef Horák (d. 2005), who is credited as having performed the first ever solo bass clarinet recital on March 23, 1955. This marked a turning point when the instrument first became thought of as a soloist’s instrument.

Because the repertoire of solo music for the bass clarinet was quite small, most bass clarinet soloists specialize in new music, while also arranging works composed for other instruments from earlier eras (such as the Bach Cello Suites). Beginning with Horák, many players have commissioned works for the instrument, and consequently there now exists a repertoire of hundreds of solo works, many by prominent international composers such as Brian Ferneyhough. In addition to Horák, other specialist performers include Dennis Smylie (United States), Harry Sparnaay (Netherlands, who has worked with important composers such as Berio, Xenakis, Feldman, etc), Evan Ziporyn (United States), and Michael Lowenstern (United States).

In October 2005, the First World Bass Clarinet Convention was held in Rotterdam, Netherlands, at which Horák was the guest of honour and played in one of the many concerts given by the leading bass clarinetists from around the world (including all the aforementioned performers, as well as many others).

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Bass clarinet", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki