Klarinet Archive - Posting 001222.txt from 1997/08

From: reedman@-----.com
Subj: Basset Horn/Bass Clarinet history/Leeson
Date: Thu, 28 Aug 1997 17:51:51 -0400

Thanks Dan and Nick for claifying the issue of basset-clarinet vs basset horn. It is
clearly an issue that many players and performers have not read sufficiently about. Also, Al
Rice has shown me photos of an extant basset clarinet to low C. This may have been part of the
article that Nick referred to.

Now, Mr. Leeson, I don't believe I have ever been able to correct you on a point of
history, but I think one of your statements may have been incorrect. Your posting stated, (I'm
paraphrasing) "the basset horn was an experiment in extending the lower compass of the clarinet
and led to the development of the bass clarinet".

There is an excellent article JAMIS vol. 13 (1987) by John Henry van der Meer entitled
"The Typology and History of the Bass Clarinet". In this excellent paper Mr. van der Meer
discusses an extant instrument in the Salzburger Museum Carolino Augusteum which he describes as
a
bass clarinet ca. 1700. He also cites references in Viennese court operas that call for "bass
chalumeaux".

My understanding from this article is that while the development of the basset horn may
have contributed to the improvement of mechanism for extended compass clarinets, the bass
clarinet was
already in existence when the basset horn was in it's nascents.

Clark W Fobes