Hear Less Common Clarinets

[Enthalpy]

Yes, you all heard a clarinet already. But there are many more than the Bb soprano and the Eb sopranino.

===== Ab piccolo clarinet

It served in Italian military bands and is nearly extinct. Badly difficult to play, especially in tune, so here are better clarinettists:
d-aqcHlSFEI duett with contrabass
giSev7Vk_5w duett with octocontralto
JN4OX-yefbY same musicians

===== Eb alto clarinet

Presently not rare, the nice instrument got several concerti in the classical period.
XE8Z3ZSQKvc - EaNh6RZsAsA - 3HiVA3IU5UA

The related cor de basset is nearly extinct. Pitched in F rather than Eb, but it has added keys to reach notes written lower.
Here a reproduction of a historical instrument, music 2:46-3:24
NI8MUaTW8ck&t=166
Smaller tone holes, fork fingerings and boxwood made a different sound. The Boehm system has let it sound clearer and uniformly on all scales.

The La de basset too is nearly extinct. It's an A soprano with added keys to reach notes written lower. All alti I see have a low Eb.

===== Bb bass clarinet

Adopted during the romantic era, getting more common for excellent reasons. The best working woodwind in the orchestra, extremely agile, capable of pp and ff, with a huge range. Jazz musicians have given it more varied techniques than the soprano has. Its sound differs from the bassoon and can be loud. The very dark notes low on the soprano clarinet are clear on the bass' medium range. I wish symphonic orchestras (and scores) had an independent group of bass clarinets, as bassoons don't suffice among the woodwinds, and clarinettists are plentiful.

Low notes can become hard in forte, but here's a nice sound by Vincent Penot:
dq4wrQff2mY - 6NqP90jxwFo
and nice sound by Sebastian Tozzola :
tE-YZz8Fii0 - 4qzAi7JoKGE - NjEu6Dd1Q9k
Quartett, music at 0:15
PtI2cdPdVRo&t=15

Some models go down to written Eb and others to C to play bassoon scores. My score of the Sacre du printemps wants two A bass clarinets that to my knowledge never existed. The bass too exists with the worse Oehler fingerings in Germany (the linked Austrian quartett plays the Boehm system).

===== Eb contraalto clarinet

Between the bass and contrabass, rare. Low notes get hard in forte. Bad players abound on the Web, here are nice sounds:
3bP-rCdxLlc - wNatSqHYGaY - 3bP-rCdxLlc - and with commentaries DaC0pIbKd4Q

Beginning here, the low clarinets appeared in the twentieth century, so classical pieces are transcriptions. Metal instruments are more compact ("paperclip" shape) but sound worse. At least some instrument go down to written C.

===== Bb contrabass clarinet

Rare too. Low notes get easily hard.

At least some go down to written low C, sounding as low as a contrabassoon. The contrabassoon is very agile (and grossly underused) too, but it provides no decent forte and sounds differently. The hard and very dark notes low on the bass clarinet are clear on the contrabass' medium range. Symphonic orchestras (and scores) could have one permanently as the only strong contrabass woodwind.

wUNZjNVFMkY - ry4cjT7oGmI - oA4vdeRo33M - nl7hYZqZJLI

===== Eb octocontraalto clarinet

Two octaves below the alto clarinet. One metal paperclip model was built in 1971 by Leblanc, possibly the one playing here, in the pieces already linked for the Lab piccolo clarinet.
giSev7Vk_5w - JN4OX-yefbY

===== Bb octocontrabass clarinet

Two octaves below the bass clarinet. One metal paperclip model was built in 1935 by Leblanc and is exposed in the museum in La Couture-Boussey
WU93vd_00Do (only pictures)

Edited August 27, 2019 by Enthalpy

[Enthalpy]

More of the bass clarinet's nice sound, by Sebastian Tozzola:
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Edited June 1, 2020 by Enthalpy