Contrabass clarinet

Contrabass clarinet
Clarinets: contrabass in B♭ (left), contra-alto in E♭ (right)
Woodwind instrument
Classification Single-reed
Developed1808
Playing range
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The contrabass clarinet in B♭ sounds two octaves and a major second lower than written.
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]

  1. ^ a b c "Contrabass clarinet". Grove Music Online (8th ed.). Oxford University Press. 2001. doi:10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.06357. ISBN 978-1-56159-263-0.
  2. ^ "Pedal clarinet". Grove Music Online (8th ed.). Oxford University Press. 2001. doi:10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.21171. ISBN 978-1-56159-263-0.
  3. ^ Adler 2016, p. 230.
  4. ^ Arnold Schoenberg, Five Orchestral Pieces (Courier Dover, 1999)
  5. ^ Baines 1991, p. 131.
  6. ^ Newton, Bret (6 November 2018). The True History of the Octo-Contra Clarinets? (video). Retrieved 11 October 2022 – via YouTube.