 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: music_is_life
Date: 2005-02-28 16:12
I was just looking at clars. on amazon.com, not looking to buy necesarilly, but just out of interest, and I saw that some clarinets (Bb) were listed as having 15 keys, while others (also Bb) were listed as having 13 keys. I was slightly confused, as I thought 1. dont clarinets have more keys? (I've never counted), and 2. why do some have less than others?
-Lindsie
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Author: Ralph G
Date: 2005-02-28 16:29
Your garden variety Boehm Bb and A clarinet will have 17 keys and 6 rings.
Clarinets like the R-13 Prestige, Leblanc Opus and Selmer Signature (and some others) have 18 keys -- No. 18 being the alternate Ab/Eb left pinky lever over there by the left-hand E/B and F#/C# keys.
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Author: John O'Janpa
Date: 2005-02-28 17:09
The most common clarinets listed at low prices with fewer than 17 keys are the clarinet shaped objects that are sort of alberts with the red pads. Indian Army? clarinets.
There are some real clarinets, some antique, with fewer than 17 keys but these are not the common boehms that most clarinetists in the USA play.
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Author: Terry Stibal
Date: 2005-02-28 17:42
Looking at this a bit more literally, the term "keys" actually refers to the cover for the holes, not the place where you place your finger to operate them. This can cause confusion when discussing German clarinets, as they discuss the number of hole covers.
(The original term "key" came from the resemblance to the old style key, with the round head being equivalent to the pad, the shank to the shank, and the square portion to the stuff that got dragged through the wards in the locks. Come to think of it, with old "pads" often being square in shape, the reverse could have been just as true.)
With the "French system" we go by keys and rings, as discussed above. A "standard" "Klose-Boehm" clarinet would be a 17/6, with seventeen touchpieces and six rings. The "whitebread" 17/6 probably covers well over 95% of the French style clarinets currently in circulation.
The most common extra key these days is the left hand Ab/Eb lever, which would bump this designation up to an 18/6. It removes the little finger slide problem by providing full duplication for all of the keys operated by the RH little finger.
Next most common is the addition of a articulated Eb/Bb mechanism, which adds one ring, moving us to 18/7. It's quite useful in arpeggi, and it does equalize the LH ring finger "fall distance", but otherwise it's something that most will do without.
Next in the sweepstakes is my favorite, the articulated C#/G# mechanism. Very useful in extreme keys, but it does remove one favorite fingering up in the altissimo, so it is not well liked by the art music crowd. If you are a sax doubler or bass clarinet player, you will probably have a different opinion, though. Although the mechanism operates the standard LH little finger key, it usually also includes a "sliver" key for trilling the note, hence the designation 19/7 for clarinets so equipped.
Last is the extension of the clarinet's range down to low Eb, thus allowing full transposition of A clarinet parts on the Bb clarinet. Something nice to have to avoid the occasional A clarinet changeover that might make more sense to play on a warm Bbg, but what I prefer it for is the uniformity that it gives to the middle of the staff B, as the sound now issues from a tone hole rather than completely from the bell. Adding this key now brings the total up to 20/7 for the increasingly rare "full Boehm" "French style" clarinet.
These horns used to all be available new from Selmer (up through Series 9, last time that I checked) and LeBlanc (in several models at the high end of the line), and are still partially available in the Pete Fountain model from LeBlanc and from Amati (who offers a true "Full Boehm".
If you wander around on eBay, you will see plenty of "simple" system clarinets, based upon some variant of the old "Albert system" horns. They will have key counts down around 13, and perhaps only four or five rings. Some are quality, artist level instruments (I really like the old Buffets, both soprano and bass, that I have used in the past), some will be good but set at the wrong pitch (avoid "HP" horns like the plague unless you are just collecting clarinets), and some will be Indian and Chinese made junque produced for the gullible.
A good "Albert" horn will still work well enough if it is pitched right, but you're definitely not in Kansas anymore when you start trying to play one. In generalities, they are more facile in sharp keys, while the Boehm horn are moreso in the flat keys. They do tend not to have duplication for the little fingers, and crossing the break with one can be a adventure in finger contortion.
I've never seen "Albert" horns with additional keys save only the bass clarinet versions of same, which will often have a double, non-automatic octave key. Some horns will have one of several "patent C#" devices, which allow you to finger a little finger, little finger B, then lift one finger to get a C#. No extra keys for that though, you just need to be in on the "secret".
Get yourself an old Rubank clarinet method book one, use the fingering chart there and start working through the Lazarus methods (which were written with the "Albert" instrument in mind) and you'll do just fine.
German style horns are different. To begin with, there's that whole pads versus keys terminology difference. Then too, the base "German" clarinet is a pretty minimalist one, with perhaps four rings and nine to eleven touch pieces in some student versions. As you move up the price range and into "professional" horns, German clarinets start acquiring a formidable number of touch pieces plus the addition of a plateau key over one of the tone holes. The "fingerhole spacing" is (to use a modern term) "funky" compared to the Boehm system, and it takes some getting used to. One thing that you DON'T get is a ring for the left thumb.
My Amati "professional" "Oehler-system" horn has 16 key touchpieces, five rings, and one plateau key, but I've never seen such a horn referred to by 16/5/1. Instead, they go the total number of tone holes ("klapper") route, with something like 23 of those (including the finger holes and the numerous "vent" holes, the pads for which are often tied directly to a ring), along with the five rings. Some of the "keys" are primarily there for trills, particularly the long first finger RH reach for C#/G#. Of course, the same can be said for the Boehm horns.
The "patent C#" mechanism is alive and well in Eastern Mittleurope, and it's a nice solution to the lack of little finger duplication. You need to know about the secret, though, as it's not obvious that the option is available. It always reminds me of the old LeBlanc "fork Ab/Eb", which you accessed by lifting your middle finger, right hand. I've run across any number of LeBlanc bass users who didn't even know that the fingering was there.
Incidentally, once you get the hang of the German system, with the reversed first finger fingerings, it's not too bad. I still can't rip a chromatic scale with as much facility as I can on an Albert or Boehm horn, but this is mostly due to much less time spent on a soprano clarinet versus bass clarinet. In other words, I'm just not practicing enough.
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2005-02-28 21:15
Very well said, Terry, you have sure "covered the waterfront" !! Many of us commonly refer to a cl's complexity by 17/6 [keys/rings, the usual one] 18/6, 18/7, 19/7 and the 20/7, generally referred to as Full Boehm [system]. The 13 and 15's you see on EBAY et al generally date from about 1875-1925, since before the Albert there was the Muller [system]. In his two authoritative books [so far] Al Rice has documented our cl's history, and ever increaseing number of keys and tone holes, the Baroque [1700's] and the Classical [1800's] Periods, from Denner's register [speaker] one key, thru the 4-5 keys period to the 13+ keys. This fascinating progress is also discussed in many of our "good books" with Clarinet in the title. Read, Don
Thanx, Mark, Don
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