Clarinet History

Compared to most other woodwind instruments, the clarinet is a fairly new instrument, explaining why there is still much controversy over its keying system and construction. The clarinet, as recognized today, first appeared in late 17th century Germany, with Beethoven and Mozart being the first to add the instrument to their symphonies. The clarinet was created by Johann Christoph Denner, when he improved the primitive single reed instrument, the chalumeau. The first design of the clarinet was impractical as it had only five keys. Many of the required notes could only be played by using cross fingerings, making it difficult to play evenly and consistently. In addition, the early system did not fully utilize the fact that the mouthpiece makes

If the clarinet could easily play chromatically, that tradition would be destroyed. Hyacinthe Klosé took the opportunity to adapt a previously existing French key model to the clarinet. German flute maker Theobald Boehm had already spent his life crafting the perfect mathematical location for the position of the tone holes and keys, and also perfected the ring key. Klosé, being a student of Boehm, developed a way to utilize his mentor’s system that has worked so well for the flute and oboe. Along the way he ran into the issue of the clarinet’s closed pipe acoustics. Up to this point developers had not yet embraced the overblown twelfth, let alone the third series of an overblown sixth, and the final fourth series of an overblown fourth. Klosé takes advantage of this by decreasing the diameter of the register key hole, creating a greater sense of equal temperament throughout the registers. The third register was then possible by lifting the left index finger and the final fourth register by simply over blowing. Since Klosé himself was French, he had an advantage when showcasing his model to the world standard Parisian Music Academy. The French quickly accepted the system with open arms, mostly due to its similarity to other traditional woodwind models. Klosé was then granted his own instrument manufacture called Buffet in 1839 (Pearson 204-212). The system, with minor improvements throughout the year, is the model still in use all over the world today. Although in German speaking countries the Müller model and its descendents are still being