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Re: Why Bb?

Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2007-04-04 20:43

Lucy -

If you've played a C clarinet, you know that it's brighter than the other woodwinds. The Bb clarinet matches the flute, oboe and bassoon better. See http://test.woodwind.org/Databases/Klarinet/2004/01/000239.txt

Also, the C clarinet is harder to play in tune and harder to control. If you're not careful, it really shrieks on the high notes.

The clarinet overblows at the twelfth and so needs more keys than an oboe or flute, to make the six extra semitones. The extra keys are operated by the left thumb and index finger and the two little fingers. On the 5-key Mozart-era clarinet, there are note sequences that are very difficult -- for example, the first three notes of the E major scale starting on low E. Thus clarinetists could not play easily in extreme keys and needed several instruments in different keys to avoid the "you can't get there from here" passages. Mozart wrote for clarinets in many different pitches, including an instrument in B natural.

By Beethoven's time, the clarinet had 10 keys, and instruments in Bb and A (and occasionally C) were sufficient.

With the development of modern key systems, professional players have become comfortable, or at least fluent, in any key. However, even top professional players switch back and forth. See http://test.woodwind.org/Databases/Klarinet/1998/03/001402.txt and http://test.woodwind.org/Databases/Klarinet/1998/03/001413.txt

Ken Shaw

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Why Bb? new

claclaws

2007-04-04 13:53