George Frederick McKay · section 14 of 111

The Clarinet

There are several sizes of clarinets, each of which is identified by a basic pitch. There are clarinets in E-flat, B-flat, and A; there is also an alto clarinet in E-flat, and a bass clarinet in B-flat. The B-flat clarinet is the one most commonly used, and its liquid tone has a sweet, warm, expressiveness. The A clarinet has the same flexibility as the B-flat but its tonal character is darker and more tragic.

The shrill, gay and prankish E-flat clarinet is garishly high in pitch and is rarely used except for special dramatic effect and tonal grotesquerie. The B-flat bass clarinet has a particularly dark and deep tone. It can be used for tonal surprise in its low register, and it adds vital reinforcing power when doubled with low strings, bassoon, or tuba. The bass clarinet should carry melody only briefly, because of its intensely vivid roundness and substantial tone. Like all low instruments, it must articulate and move more slowly. The bass clarinet has the most authentic depth of all instrumental timbres, and its use could well be restricted to its deep low and middle registers. The upper tones are more difficult to play and are somewhat dry and grotesque in effect. The E-flat alto clarinet is known mainly as a moderately deep timbre which adds mellowness and depth to woodwind harmony.

Music written for the clarinet can be very agile. Clarinetists are able to skip about easily from high to low register and, like flutists, can easily execute runs and rapidly moving legato designs. They can also maintain a sustained tone or a slow legato. As on the flute, staccato articulation will be played with sufficient definiteness only when specially marked with dots and interpretative indications: e.g., "incisive," "delicate," marcato, etc.

In its middle register the B-flat clarinet is disappointingly weak and relatively characterless. In its upper tones it becomes strikingly bright and powerful, while in the chalumeau or low register it has an unequalled rich, mellow, deep quality much

treasured for its poetic power. The extreme high notes should be used with caution because of a disagreeable shrillness that increases markedly as the player approaches the top of the range.

Outstanding illustration of clarinet use can be heard in the Première rhapsody for clarinet and piano by Debussy and the Quintet for clarinet and strings by Brahms. The prankish E-flat clarinet can be heard in Concertino for piano and orchestra by Janácek, in Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche by Strauss, and in El Salón México by Copland. Bass clarinet can be heard in "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" from the Tchaikovsky Nutcracker Suite.