Clarinet

In its various forms, from piccolo to B-flat, basset horn to bass clarinet, this reed instrument has been a regular part of the orchestra for more than 200 years. The modern clarinet emerged in the early 1700s from the chalumeau, a Baroque instrument after which the lowest register of the clarinet is still named. The most common clarinet, the B-flat, possesses a beautifully smooth, mellow tone that makes it capable of singing long, liquid melodic lines, as heard in the opening of Finzi’s radiant Clarinet Concerto or the slow movement of Poulenc’s irresistible Clarinet Sonata. It has an impish side, however, which makes it ideal for some of music’s lighter moments such as final movements of Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto and Clarinet Quintet, as well as Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf where the instrument conjures a mischievous cat. In jazz, the clarinet has also achieved star status, with Benny Goodman and Sidney Bechet winning new audiences for the instrument. And in that ever-moving land between classical and jazz, the clarinet reigns supreme, both in Copland’s Clarinet Concerto (composed for Goodman) and in the iconic glissando that launches Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue.