 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Katherine Pincock
Date: 2000-04-13 00:20
It's called a Bb clarinet because of the transposition of the notes it plays. Instruments like the flute are in C: this means that, when the flute plays a written C, it sounds like the C on the piano. The clarinet, however, sounds like a Bb on the piano when it plays a written C; therefore, people call it a Bb instrument. The same goes for Eb instruments (like alto sax) and F instruments (like French horn.) Hope this clears things up!
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Author: Donn
Date: 2000-04-13 00:35
I'm going to ask what may seem to many as a dumb question:
Why didn't they make the instruments in C in the first place? Life could be so much simpler.
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Author: Nick Conner
Date: 2000-04-13 02:45
I think it's because some instruments sound better in different keys. There is (or was)a C clarinet (not the Lyons C clarinet), but it doesn't sound very good. Sometimes, they do it so that a particular instrument won't have to read lots of leger lines (this is usually just transposing octaves, which isn't that signifigant).
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Author: Joris van den Berg
Date: 2000-04-13 08:09
The main reason is that the first clarinet's did not have so many keys to provide the flat's and the #. Those notes had to be produced using fork fingerings, which don't sound very well. So instrument's in different keys where produced to be used at different pieces to avoid the fork-fingerings. The most used of the keyed ones was the Bb, so that's the one that remained the most popular after the fork-fingering was (mostly) solved.
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Author: Katherine Pincock
Date: 2000-04-13 12:25
Adding to what Joris said, when clarinets had to be different sizes for different keys, it was easier to transpose the part than to make performers learn three or four sets of fingering-pitch connections; for example, imagine convincing yourself that the open fingering was F for Bb clarinet, C for the basset horn in F, and Bb for the Eb clarinet! (And hopefully, I've even done those transpositions right! ;-) This way, performers can switch from clarinet to clarinet without pause; it makes determining concert pitch a little harder, but playing a lot easier. Hope that clears things up!
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2000-04-14 14:53
Well said, Joris and others, each of these cl's are DIFFERENT, in tonality [bright, mellow, hollow-spooky sounds from the big ones, etc] and playing characteristics, [try playing 1st cl parts on a bass, or alto for that matter]. Aside from making playing easier in the "bad" key music, many composers made use of the widely differing tonal character of the adjacent sopranos, Eb,D,C,Bb,A,G? and F?[basset horn]even tho their ranges overlap [at least to some extent], to achieve great music [and wow the audience with different sounds!!]. Don
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Author: Lelia
Date: 2000-04-14 16:47
One good way to find out why everybody above is right is to learn to play the recorder! I love this wonderful instrument, but using different fingerings for the C recorders and the F recorders is a hassle. Some notes are super-hard to play in tune with the forked fingerings and half-holes instead of keys. Intonation gets more difficult the more sharps or flats appear in the key signature. To some extent, that's true on clarinet, too, but the keys help a lot. For ensemble playing, if all the instruments have the same "bad" key signatures, the result is overall sour intonation, but if instruments in different keys can spread out the errors through the band or orchestra, a poor tone quality or *slight* systemic intonation error in one type of instrument isn't so obvious and tends to blend into the overtones and harmonies. It's no accident that the "bad" keys are also the ones so stacked up with sharps or flats that they're the most difficult to learn to play, since instrument makers tune an instrument to play best in the key signatures that get used the most. No use making a clarinet sound great playing in the key of B and lousy in the key of C.
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Author: Kontragirl
Date: 2000-04-15 04:14
Donn wrote:
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I'm going to ask what may seem to many as a dumb question:
Why didn't they make the instruments in C in the first place? Life could be so much simpler.
I've been pondering that for as long as I've been playing clarinet. I think it's because they like to torchure us. The more I think about it, the more I'm sure that's the reason.
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2000-04-15 15:15
Kontragirl wrote:
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Donn wrote:
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I'm going to ask what may seem to many as a dumb question:
Why didn't they make the instruments in C in the first place? Life could be so much simpler.
I've been pondering that for as long as I've been playing clarinet. I think it's because they like to torchure us. The more I think about it, the more I'm sure that's the reason.
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The clarinets in different keys are to <b>keep</b> them from torturing you! It keeps the fingering relatively easy even when a piece has a concert key which has 4 or 5 sharps.
Before there were chromatic clarinets (clarinets that had fingerings for all twelve notes in a Western scale) there was a requirement that you had different clarinets so you could play in different keys. My faulty memory says that the 5 key clarinet let you play in keys with 2 sharps or 3 flats. Anything else - the composers was supposed to switch to a different pitched clarinet. I'm really busy today - could someone else verify that rule?
It was something like a regular harmionica - you switch harmonicas to play in different keys. Unless you play a chromatic harmonica - which has its own tradeoffs, just like a clarinet.
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Author: Donn
Date: 2000-04-16 14:59
Try to play by ear sometime in E or A (or other keys that country musicians play in), and you'll see why I asked!!
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Author: Dee
Date: 2000-04-16 15:37
Donn wrote:
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Try to play by ear sometime in E or A (or other keys that country musicians play in), and you'll see why I asked!!
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Then a reasonable solution would be to get an A clarinet. This takes away three sharps when transposed from concert key to music printed for the clarinet. In orchestral settings, the A clarinet is more common than the Bb for this very reason. String instrument players seem to prefer sharp keys to flat keys and since the heart of an orchestra is the strings, the A clarinet fits in nicely as the "standard."
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