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RE: clarion register?

Author: Dee
Date: 2000-11-21 10:36

Ken Rasmussen wrote:
>
> I have heard that there was an early single reed
> instrument called the "Clarion", and a lower pitched instrument
> called the Chamulo (spelling is wrong--can't remember correct
> spelling at present). The modern clarinet is supposed to be an
> amalgamation of the two instruments. The low register is named
> after the low instrument, and the high is named after the
> higher pitched instrument. However, I've never heard it said
> that there was a third instrument called the
> Altissimo--probably because no one would have wanted to play it
> if there had been.

Check out the various books on the history of the clarinet such as F. Geoffrey Rendal's "The Clarinet." These were not different instruments that became amalgamated but were instead the same instrument played in its different ranges. The chalumeau is the ancestral version. When the clarion register became accessible, our term clarinet developed from a diminutive of "clarino" meaning little horn as the sound was thought to resemble a horn in this register. Of course if you go further back, the term clarino does come from a word that in turn means clear.

Catalogs and scores from the transition period show that terminology was not yet settled. A score might be marked as being for chalumeau but a check of the range indicates that both registers were required and thus they really meant an early clarinet.

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