 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: r small
Date: 2022-03-21 08:29
At least one major manufacturer makes a basset clarinet in A, but does anyone make one in Bb? I recently bought a full Boehm in Bb and the low Eb is fun to play and responds well. No stuffiness. So I would think that having a low D, C#, and C would work too. There would be virtually no use for such an instrument in a classical orchestra but jazz musicians might find the extra notes could be put to good use. I would be interested in such an instrument but it would have to be manufactured as a basset, not a regular Bb soprano with the basset notes added as an extension.
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Author: ebonite
Date: 2022-03-21 13:47
r small wrote:
> At least one major manufacturer makes a basset clarinet in A,
> but does anyone make one in Bb? I recently bought a full Boehm
> in Bb and the low Eb is fun to play and responds well. No
> stuffiness. So I would think that having a low D, C#, and C
> would work too. There would be virtually no use for such an
> instrument in a classical orchestra but jazz musicians might
> find the extra notes could be put to good use. I would be
> interested in such an instrument but it would have to be
> manufactured as a basset, not a regular Bb soprano with the
> basset notes added as an extension.
There is at least one use for the Bb basset clarinet in a classical orchestra:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaKX21earkk
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Author: Jeroen
Date: 2022-03-21 20:19
Herbert Wurlitzer makes Basset clarinets in A and Bb. Only German system I believe. Sabine Meyer plays Wurlitzer and I guess she is playing one on the youtube video.
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Author: JohnP
Date: 2022-03-21 21:01
Schwenk and Seggelke make a Bb basset clarinet, upwards of €14,500 I believe. And yes the Parto, Parto obbligato from La Clemenza di Tito was written for a Bb clarinet going down to low C.
https://www.schwenk-und-seggelke.de/konfigurator/_en/modell3000_bassett.php?Stimmung=BBassett
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Author: cigleris
Date: 2022-03-21 22:45
Mozart used the Bb basset clarinet in Parto Parto and there is an unfinished quintet in Bb for basset clarinet and quartet.
Don’t rule out having a craftsman like Steve Fox extend a regular Bb clarinet.
Peter Cigleris
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2022-03-21 23:05
So as one NOT schooled on the vast history of the clarinet, could I get a clarification.
Is the term basset clarinet merely a designator for a clarinet that has an extended low range? Or, is there some further difference between a clarinet and a basset clarinet?
..............Paul Aviles
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Author: Liquorice
Date: 2022-03-21 23:17
A basset clarinet is an extended clarinet. It wasn't called this in Mozart's time: Stadler's instrument was sometimes referred to as a bass clarinet! But once they started building them again for modern reconstructions of Mozart's repertoire, this is the name that they were given.
Besides being longer and having extra keys to play lower notes, the basset clarinet needs the bore to stay cylindrical for longer than a normal clarinet would. So for German clarinets (whose bores are more cylindrical) it is possible to build an extension to convert a normal colarient into a basset clarinet. Sadly this isn't possible with Boehm bores, which start to flare already around the right hand first finger hole.
I once sent an old B-flat Buffet to Steven Fox, who amputated the bottom part of the instrument and rebuilt it into a basset clarinet. He did an excellent job and it works better than my Buffer A basset. And cost a fraction of the price...
There is also an aria in Cosi fan Tutte where the 2nd clarinet part is required to play a low D.
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Author: Simon Aldrich
Date: 2022-03-22 07:08
Similar to Liquorice's experience, I sent the lower joint of an R13 A clarinet to Steven Fox and he converted it into a basset lower joint. He amputated the bottom of the joint and grafted an extension containing the 4 extra basset notes.
Aside from cost, one of the advantages to this process (of sending Fox only a lower joint) is that since you use your original upper joint with the new lower joint, you are still playing "your" instrument. The feel and resistance were essentially the same in this case. I was playing R13 Prestige at the time and the converted R13 lower joint played better on my Prestige than the matching Prestige lower joint.
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Author: Auke
Date: 2022-03-22 16:06
“ Technisch gesehen spricht man von einer Bassettklarinette, wenn das Instrument bis zu seinem Grundton gespielt werden kann. Der Tonumfang dieser Klarinette reicht im Normalfall also eine große Terz weiter nach unten, also chromatisch hinab bis zum gegriffenen C. Das hat sie mit dem Bassetthorn gemeinsam, welches jedoch in F gestimmt ist. Man könnte die Bassettklarinette also auch Bassetthorn in A nennen.”
https://www.schwenk-und-seggelke.de/klarinetten_bassett.php
My translation:
Technically speaking, one speaks of a basset clarinet when the instrument can be played down to its fundamental. The range of this clarinet normally extends thus a major third further down, i.e. chromatically down to fingered C. This is what it has in common with the basset horn, which, however, is tuned in F. The basset clarinet could therefore also be called a basset horn in A.
Post Edited (2022-03-22 23:56)
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