![]() Clarinets: contrabass in B♭ (left), contra-alto in E♭ (right) | |
Woodwind instrument | |
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Classification | Single-reed |
Developed | 1808 |
Playing range | |
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Related instruments | |
Musicians | |
The contrabass clarinet (also pedal clarinet, after the pedals of pipe organs) and contra-alto clarinet are the two largest members of the clarinet family that are in common usage.[1][2] Modern contrabass clarinets are transposing instruments pitched in B♭, sounding two octaves lower than the common B♭ soprano clarinet and one octave below the bass clarinet.[1] Some contrabass clarinet models have extra keys to extend the range down to low written E♭3, D3 or C3. This gives a tessitura written range, notated in treble clef, of C3 – F6, which sounds B♭0 – E♭4.[3] Some early instruments were pitched in C; Arnold Schoenberg's Fünf Orchesterstücke specifies a contrabass clarinet in A,[4] but there is no evidence such an instrument has ever existed.[5]
The smaller E♭ contra-alto clarinet is sometimes referred to as the "E♭ contrabass clarinet" and is pitched one octave lower than the E♭ alto clarinet.[1]
Two models of subcontrabass clarinet (the octocontralto and octocontrabass), lower in pitch than the B♭ contrabass, were built as prototypes by Leblanc in the 1930s and survive only as museum items.[6]