 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: jdbassplayer
Date: 2021-04-14 18:24
Attachment: B099DBAA-F632-4215-B0A4-A875CEC86494.jpeg (793k)
Recently I picked up a very strange instrument, a Buffet bass clarinet in the key of C. I know C basses existed in the early 19th century, but the strange thing about this instrument is that it has Boehm key work and dates to around 1935 based on the serial number. It uses a standard bass clarinet mouthpiece and has a 23.4mm bore just like most bass clarinets. It also tunes to modern pitch, right around 440.
This instrument has me stumped. Why would a C bass clarinet exist so late? Is there any music for C bass clarinet from the 20th century? Anybody ever see anything like it, or is it possible this is just some strange one-off creation?
-JDbassplayer
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Author: ebonite
Date: 2021-04-14 19:24
I would guess that somebody had it built as a special order, to make it easier to read parts in concert pitch; kind of like a bass clarinet version of a c melody sax.
Does it have manual double register keys?
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Author: Johan H Nilsson
Date: 2021-04-14 19:33
I saw one on Ebay France IIRC a while ago. Like melody saxes, they could be used in bands to play any part in C.
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Author: jdbassplayer
Date: 2021-04-14 19:40
Yeah it's got manual register keys. I also got this on eBay France.
-Jdbassplayer
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Author: davyd
Date: 2021-04-16 01:53
Prokofiev's "Love for 3 oranges" suite calls for bass clarinet in C, along with 2 regular clarinets in C (or at least the set of parts we used the one time I played it did).
But since the score is all in concert pitch, I'm supposing that's copyist malfeasance rather than the composer's actual intention.
A bass clarinet in C would be a nice thing to have, but would probably be too expensive for a "nice to have".
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Author: clarnibass
Date: 2021-04-16 08:55
Buffet definitely made a few "several-offs" for example their metal Bb contrabass clarinets. I don't know if they made it as a special order or just a few for a while.
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2021-04-16 17:37
The last makers of basses in A (to low Eb) from the big name French makers was by Selmer back in the late '80s.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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The Clarinet Pages
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