Alexis

My name is Alexis, and I am going to study the history of the clarinet. I want to study the history of the clarinet because I have heard people say  The clarinet was the greatest invention made!, or  Some day I will play the greatest musical instrument of all, the clarinet!. So I would like to know why the clarinet is their favorite instrument. So far I've learned that the clarinet was invented around 1690. It was evolved from an earlier invention called the chalumeau, the first true single reed instrument.Johann Christoph Denner and his son,Jacob, had invented the clarinet,yet another version of the Chalumeau.There are more than a dozen clarinets. http://www.tuftl.tufts.edu/mie/research/undercut/Clarinet.jpg

Denner had made additional changes to the Chalumeau and increased that instruments range by over two octaves. He also invented a more professional mouthpiece and had improved the bell of the Chalumeau. Around 1843 the clarinet was further improved when Klose adapted the Boehm flute key system to the clarinet. Mozart was the first composer to use the clarinet in a symphony. Modern day clarinet was made by a few woods called boxwood,plum wood, or pear wood. The clarinet found in Wales was made of bone or elder wood. French makers began to make clarinets out of ebony,a heavy, dark wood from Africa,in the mid nineteenth century. The most prefered material came out as African blackwood, that is similar to ebony but less heavy and brittle.The word  clarinet came from the French word,  clarionette, or little trumpet. This also has to do with the capacity of the clarinet as well as the sounds and tone of its higher notes. http://clarinet.suite101.com/article.cfm/origins-of-the-clarinet In the early 1800s composers wrote music especially for the clarinet because it can do stuff a flute,trumpet or any instrument can do. in the mid 1700s the clarinet was edited with another key that made the clarinet's range to E. The clarinet is also similar to a saxophone.The clarinet was once produced with other keys.There is another clarinet similar to to the regular clarinet, but larger. It's called the B flat bass clarinet.