Bass clarinet
The bass clarinet is a musical instrument of the clarinet family. Like the more common soprano B clarinet, it is usually pitched in B, but it plays notes an octave below the soprano B clarinet. Bass clarinets in other keys, notably C and A, also exist, but are very rare. Bass clarinets regularly perform in orchestras, wind ensembles and concert bands, and occasionally in marching bands, and jazz bands. They also play an occasional solo role in contemporary music and jazz in particular.
Someone who plays a bass clarinet is called a bass clarinettist or a bass clarinetist.
Description
Most modern bass clarinets are straight-bodied, with a small upturned silver-colored metal bell and curved metal neck. Early examples varied in shape, some having a doubled body making them look similar to bassoons. The bass clarinet is fairly heavy and is supported either with a neck strap or an adjustable peg attached to its body. While Adolphe Sax imitated its upturned metal bell in his design of the larger saxophones, the two instruments are fundamentally different. Bass clarinet bodies are most often made of grenadilla or plastic resin, while saxophones are typically made of metal. More significantly, all clarinets have a bore that is basically the same diameter along the body. This cylindrical bore differs from the saxophone's conical one and gives the clarinet its characteristic tone, causing it to overblow at the twelfth compared with the saxophone's octave.A majority of modern bass clarinets, like other clarinets in the family, have the Boehm system of keys and fingering. However, bass clarinets are also manufactured in Germany with the Oehler system of keywork, which is most often known as the 'German" system in the US, because it is commonly used in Germany and Austria, as well as Eastern Europe and Turkey; bass clarinets produced with the Oehler system's predecessor, the Albert system, are still in use, particularly in these areas. German system bass clarinets frequently have a bore that is significantly narrower than most Boehm system instruments, resulting in a somewhat different sound and set of playing characteristics. Some modern clarinet makers have successfully produced Boehm system bass clarinets with a German bore, but these are not in widespread use.
Most modern Boehm system bass clarinets have an "extension" key allowing them to play to the E. This key was originally added to allow easy transposition of parts for the relatively rare bass clarinet pitched in A, but it now finds significant use in concert band and other literature. A significant difference between soprano and bass clarinet key work is a key pad played by the left-hand index finger with a vent that may be uncovered for certain high notes. This allows a form of "half-hole" fingering that allows notes in higher registers to be played on the instrument. In addition, older bass clarinets have two register keys, one for middle D and below, the other for middle E and higher. Newer models typically have an automatic register key mechanism, where a single left thumb key commands the two vent holes. Depending on whether the right hand ring finger is down or up, the lower or upper vent hole will open.
Many professional or advanced bass clarinet models extend down to a low C, two octaves below written middle C. At concert pitch this note is the B below the second ledger line below the bass staff or B1 in scientific pitch notation. These three lowermost half-steps are played via additional keys operated by the right thumb, some of them often duplicated in the left- or right-hand little-finger key clusters. Overall, the instrument sounds an octave lower than the B soprano clarinet.
As with all wind instruments, the upper limit of the range depends on the quality of the instrument and skill of the clarinetist. According to Aber and Lerstad, who give fingerings up to written C7, the highest note commonly encountered in modern solo literature is the E below that. This gives the bass clarinet a usable range of up to four octaves, quite close to the range of the bassoon; indeed, many bass clarinetists perform works originally intended for bassoon or cello because of the plethora of literature for those two instruments and the scarcity of solo works for the bass clarinet.
Uses
The bass clarinet has been regularly used in scoring for orchestra and concert band since the mid-19th century, becoming more common during the middle and latter part of the 20th century. A bass clarinet is not always called for in orchestra music, but is almost always called for in concert band music. In recent years, the bass clarinet has also seen a growing repertoire of solo literature including compositions for the instrument alone, or accompanied by piano, orchestra, or other ensemble. It is also used in clarinet choirs, marching bands, and in film scoring, and has played a persistent role in jazz.The bass clarinet has an appealing, rich, earthy and inky tone, quite distinct from other instruments in its range, drawing on and enhancing the qualities of the lower range of the soprano and alto instrument.
Musical compositions
Perhaps the earliest solo passages for bass clarinet—indeed, among the earliest parts for the instrument—occur in Mercadante's 1834 opera Emma d'Antiochia, in which a lengthy solo introduces Emma's scene in Act 2. Two years later, Giacomo Meyerbeer wrote an important solo for bass clarinet in Act 4 of his opera Les Huguenots.French composer Hector Berlioz was one of the first of the Romantics to use the bass clarinet in his large-scale works such as the Grande symphonie funèbre et triomphale, Op. 15, the Te Deum, Op. 22, and the opera Les Troyens, Op. 29. Later French composers to use the instrument included Maurice Ravel, who wrote virtuosic parts for the bass clarinet in his ballet Daphnis et Chloé, La valse, and his orchestration of Modest Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition.
The operas of Richard Wagner also make extensive use of the bass clarinet, beginning with Tannhäuser. He incorporated the instrument fully into the wind section as both a solo and supporting instrument. Wagner pioneered in exploiting the instrument's dark, somber tone to represent sadness and melancholy. Wagner was almost completely responsible for making the instrument a permanent member of the opera orchestra. The instrument plays an extensive role in Tristan und Isolde, the operas of Der Ring des Nibelungen, and Parsifal.
Also around this time, Hungarian pianist and composer Franz Liszt wrote important parts for the instrument in his symphonic poems Ce qu'on entend sur la montagne, Tasso, and his Dante Symphony. Giuseppe Verdi followed suit, using it in Ernani, Aida, La forza del destino, Simon Boccanegra, Don Carlo and Falstaff. Following in Verdi's footsteps, Giacomo Puccini, composer of La Bohème, Tosca and Madame Butterfly, used the bass clarinet in all of his operas, beginning with Edgar in 1889. The Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky wrote some prominent solos for the instrument in his last ballet, The Nutcracker.
The later Romantics used the bass clarinet frequently in their works. All of Gustav Mahler's symphonies include the instrument prominently, and often contain lengthy solos for the instrument, especially in his Symphony No. 6 in A minor. Richard Strauss wrote for the instrument in all of his symphonic poems except for Don Juan, and the instrument shared the spotlight with the tenor tuba in his 1898 tone poem, Don Quixote, Op. 35. Strauss wrote for the instrument as he did for the smaller clarinets, and the parts often include playing in very high registers, such as in Also Sprach Zarathustra, Op. 30.
Composers of the Second Viennese School, Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern and Alban Berg, often favored the instrument over the bassoon, the instrument's closest relative in terms of range. Russian composers Dmitri Shostakovich and Sergei Prokofiev used the low concert C and B in many of their compositions and an instrument with the extended range is necessary for works such as Shostakovich's Symphonies Nos. 4, 6, 7, 8, and 11, and Leoš Janáček's Sinfonietta. All of these works exploit the instrument's dark, powerful lower range.
Prokofiev wrote parts for the instrument in his Symphonies Nos. 2–7 and in his ballet Romeo and Juliet. Sergei Rachmaninoff used the instrument to great effect in his Symphonies Nos. 2 and 3 and in his symphonic poem, Isle of The Dead. Igor Stravinsky also wrote complex parts for the instrument throughout his career, most prominently in his ballets The Firebird, Petrushka and The Rite of Spring.
The bass clarinet has a solo at the opening of the third movement of Ferde Grofé's Grand Canyon Suite.
In the duet "A Boy Like That" from West Side Story, Leonard Bernstein scored for "the inky sounds of three bass clarinets".
Early minimalist Steve Reich's Music for 18 Musicians calls for two bass clarinets, featured prominently in the lower register. Used almost percussively, the effect of deep, staccato repetitions, played beneath a static rhythmic drone, is to create a feeling of slowly fluctuating cycles.
One of the most performed works for Bass Clarinet is Marc Mellits's Black, with over 3,000 performances as of 2024.
Many modern composers employ the bass along with the contra-alto and contrabass clarinets, such as Esa-Pekka Salonen in his Piano Concerto. A great amount of literature can be found in the wind ensemble, in which there is always a part for the instrument.
There are many important solo pieces, duos, sonatas and concertos for bass clarinet, including:
- Kalevi Aho Concerto for Bass Clarinet and Orchestra
- Georges Aperghis – Façade-Trio
- Howard J. Buss "Lunar Vistas" for solo bass clarinet, "Three Euphonics for Solo Bass Clarinet," "Color'tudes" for bass clarinet and piano
- Ann Callaway Concerto for Bass Clarinet and Chamber Orchestra
- Unsuk Chin: Advice from a Caterpillar
- Peter Maxwell Davies: The Seas of Kirk Swarf for bass clarinet and strings.
- Daniel Dorff: Flowers of St. Francis five scenes for bass clarinet
- Daniel Dorff: In A Deep Funk dance set for bass clarinet
- Anders Eliasson Concerto for Bass Clarinet and Orchestra
- Michael Finnissy – Tussen Rede en Gevoel 2 x bass clarinet, cello, double bass
- James Gardner: Rendering for solo bass clarinet
- Osvaldo Golijov: Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind for Klezmer clarinetist and string quartet, later arranged for solo clarinetist and string orchestra.
- Ig Henneman – Featherlight monkeys 3 x bass clarinet
- Rozalie Hirs: Article 7 bass clarinet & electronics
- Guus Janssen: Met spoed for bass clarinet and piano
- Rafael Leonardo Junchaya: Concerto Silvestre for bass clarinet and orchestra Op.14a. Premiered by Marco Antonio Mazzini and the GUSO Orchestra conducted by Steven Decraene in May 2009. First version for bass clarinet and string orchestra premiered in Guatemala in July 2009.
- Tobias Klein: Leichte Überlappungen 2 x bass clarinet
- Jos Kunst : Solo identity I
- David Lang: Press Release for solo bass clarinet
- Ivana Loudova: Aulos for solo bass clarinet
- *Double bass-clarinet concerto.
- Osmo Tapio Räihälä: Claroscuro for solo bass clarinet, strings and percussion
- Rebecca Saunders: Aether 2 bass clarinets
- Jeroen Speak: Epiesodos in a version for solo bass clarinet
- Benjamin Staern: Worried Souls: concerto for clarinet/bass clarinet and symphony orchestra.
- Johannes Maria Staud: Black Moon for solo bass clarinet
- Karlheinz Stockhausen:
- *In Freundschaft for unaccompanied bass clarinet,
- *Libra for bass clarinet and electronic music
- *Harmonien for unaccompanied bass clarinet.
- Jörg Widmann: Friedenskantate, bass clarinet solo in Praeludium
- Nigel Westlake: Invocations for bass clarinet and chamber orchestra