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Re: Tenor clarinet?

Author: Chris J
Date: 2017-10-23 20:04

This is from the YouTube page:

To help clean some of the discussions in the comments, here are some of Alex Simu's own words about his unique instrument:

"The instrument you see in the video is a prototype and the only one in the world.
You can think about it as a Tenor clarinet or as a Straight Alto clarinet. The instrument can be pitched in Eb or D.
I have two barrels which allow me to change the key.

Talking about classification of clarinets is not so simple.
Alto or Soprano instruments are not in Bb or Eb. Unlike the saxophone,flute or other woodwinds, clarinets are found nearly in all keys C, Bb, A, A, F, E, Eb, D and so on.

When I start playing the instrument in public I was calling it "Straight alto clarinet". Because the sound is considerably low, actually it plays lower then a tenor saxophone, most people and the audiences where not satisfied, commenting things like "this alto is very male and low" which made more sense to call it a Tenor. Afterwards every single musician and audience I came across agreed that Tenor Clarinet is a proper name.
All the clarinets feature a very high altissimo range, a good bass clarinet player can fool your ear make you think that he is playing soprano clarinet if you do not see it.
If anybody wants to call it in another way I sincerely do not mind, there can be a huge discussion also if we should call the clarinet a clarinet and not in another way, my self i prefer to focus on playing and composing music.

The low G clarinet sounds quite darker then an A or Bb or C soprano clarinet. I would think of calling alto clarinets
those pitched in G, Gb, F and E
calling Tenor clarinet instruments in Eb, D,Db, C

The instrument was made in Turkey in Izmir in 2012 at the Hubb clarinet factory by the clarinet builder Tayfun Demirok and the mouthpieces currently at the 4.0 version where made by Pomarico in Italy under my instructions and design. We had to fully redesign the chamber, tip opening and table to fit the instrument. For the reeds I use adapted bass clarinet reeds for the moment. A specialized reed will be developed soon."

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