2. History
For a historical perspective on clarinets, we don't need to go back to ancient Egypt, unlike the flute, whose predecessors were crafted from bone. The reason for this can be found in the instrument itself. The clarinet is unlike other wind instruments. When you overblow the flute or the saxophone, it produces an octave. However, with the clarinet, this test quickly reveals that it's not just an octave; there's also a fifth involved. It produces a duodecime above the overblown note. This, in turn, means that instrument makers must consider different hole spacings for various ranges. However, this art was still unknown both theoretically and practically before the 17th century.
For those who are eager to find a predecessor of the clarinet, there is the chalumeau, a reed instrument used with either a double or single reed.
It was the chalumeau that the Nuremberg instrument maker Johann Christistan Denner took as the starting point for his instrument development around 1700, resulting in the precursor to today's clarinets. Many still refer to the non-overblown register as the chalumeau register, although Denner had to add the A and B keys to extend its range beyond an octave. In total, Denner's instrument had only two keys, and the addition of more keys happened over time. For instance, Mozart wrote his clarinet concertos for an instrument with five keys and eight tone holes. In pursuit of better intonation and purity, Russian clarinet virtuoso I. Müller created a model with 13 keys around 1812, which was initially rejected by the commission of the Paris Conservatory. However, despite this rejection, the model quickly spread across Europe, particularly in Austria and Germany, where it established the foundation for the so-called German key system. Another leap of about 30 years brings us to the discovery of the ring key mechanism by Th. Boehm, which was adapted to the clarinet by H. Klosé and instrument maker A. Buffet, significantly influencing instrument development. In 1844, this model, known as the clarinette à anneaux mobiles or Boehm clarinet, was patented. The result was a model with 24 tone holes, 17 keys, and 6 rings. In the following years, there were extensive experiments with different keys and rollers, and Müller's clarinet was gradually replaced by the Boehm clarinet in Romance and Anglo-American countries. Berlin-based instrument maker Oskar Oehler returned to Müller's model at the end of the 19th century, building a clarinet with 22 keys primarily aimed at achieving a noble tone and featuring a high number of correction keys. In comparison, the Boehm clarinet aimed for technical virtuosity and was superior to the Oehler system as it eliminated the need for fingers to slide from key to key. The development of the clarinet continued on two parallel tracks.
Even today, we distinguish between the Boehm system, also known as the French system, and the German system for clarinets.
What has remained constant from the beginning is the instrument's name, "clarinet," which means "little clarino." But how did a woodwind instrument, belonging to transposing musical instruments, come to be called a "little clarino," when during the 18th century there was a brass instrument called the "clarin trumpet"? The answer lies in the sound. The sound of the clarinet in its high registers resembles that of the Baroque trumpet of the time.
