Author: brycon
Date: 2017-12-12 02:54
Quote:
I don’t know much about historical clarinets.
Recorders were commonly made in C, F, and G (not transposing). Modern alto flutes are in G (transposing). During the 19th c they made flutes and picolos in a number of different keys for band music. Anthony Baines lists all of them. The English horn is in F (transposing), and the oboe d’amore was in A. (I had to look most of that up.)
The need for recorders in different keys cane from playing in consorts, like other renaissance instruments. They were imitating voices in choirs, so they were separated by 4ths or 5ths.
Recorders play very well chromatically, I assume classical flutes are the same. Baroque and classical flute music is in all keys.
Early clarinets were pitched primarily in D and C (though instruments in other keys existed). I believe there's a very early Denner clarinet, which is a D instrument, in Berkeley. I imagine D was such a common key because the clarinet began as a sort of little trumpet, often doubling the brass instrument. In some Telemann music, for example, the trumpet and clarinet parts are indistinguishable. D, of course, was one of the trumpet keys; the clarinet, then, followed suit.
Two-key instruments like the earliest clarinets, however, don't really produce chromatics in the low register (pitchwise, the upper register is more flexible and can be finagled into producing chromatics). So instruments pitched in different keys became necessary, especially once the clarinet came into its own as a distinctive instrument rather than a trumpet substitute.
Post Edited (2017-12-12 02:56)
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The Clarinet BBoard
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