The clarinet
(Source: Leonardo Musical Site)
History and use of the clarinet
A little history ...
The origin of the clarinet is somewhat obscure. Its most direct ancestor is the torch of the Middle Ages, instrument overcame a small tube which is fixed a beating reed. The clarinet as such would have been created for the first time in Nuremberg in 1690 by a luthier named Jean-Christophe Denner. Early clarinets did not possess at the outset that very few keys, which limited technical possibilities and above required the possession of several clarinets, clarinet almost a dial tone ! |
Today, the clarinet features thirteen keys and uses the so-called system BOEHM, named after its inventor who had the idea of joining a moving rod by a ring system, allowing both a natural spacing of holes compared to the hand, and fingering facilities.
Note also that the evolution of the clarinet is not completely uniform because the two systems coexist, giving two models of clarinet slightly different: the so-called "German" and the so-called "French". The French system is currently the most widespread.
The use of the clarinet ...
Anyone who has ever heard the full and warm sound of a clarinet may perhaps wonder at the origin of the word "clarinet". The word "clarinet" is indeed a derivative of "Clarino" which was ... a small trumpet! But we know that the early clarinets were "small" clarinets and the people of this era seem to have been impressed by the shrill, sharp, shrill perhaps this new instrument. Thus the first concerto dedicated to him, namely MOLTER concertos are written for clarinet in D, and more in the range of the instrument most acute.
These brilliant MOLTER concertos are perhaps the only plays baroque known for the clarinet, for very soon the aspirations of the era classic should arise, for example, with concertos by Johann Stamitz, Carl Stamitz, Mercader ... There already is, passages in the writings of the clarinet although it is often encompassed in an arpeggio or a range , the passages are still sung almost exclusively reserved to the highs.
It was not until Mozart to the full extent of the clarinet is highlighted. It was he who really gave the clarinet its pedigree. It was indeed excited about this instrument as soon as he heard for the first time, as evidenced by a letter written to his father ("Father, you can not imagine the sound of the clarinet ...") but also as evidenced by the number (and quality too ...) that he will dedicate works: the most famous concerto K622 course, but the quintet with strings, the trio said "bowling trio" with viola and piano, a large number of entertainment for three basset horns ( see the clarinet family ), and many works of chamber music for winds, including the clarinet (The Great Partita for 13 wind instruments, the octets, quintets etc. ...).
The Golden Age, but the clarinet is undoubtedly the Romantic period . It sees it as the ideal confidant for the emotions of the soul, its dark timbre is perfectly suitable for domestic dramas of composers, but knowing also demonstrate the vehemence when necessary. SCHUMANN, BRAHMS great room and wrote sonatas for her . Carl Maria von Weber in a more extrovert kind, attracted by possible technical prowess, it left an impressive number of concertos, duets, quintets etc. ... The clarinet is then part of the symphony orchestra and there is an important and very personal. BERLIOZ noted for example that the clarinet is the only instrument able to swell the sound and make it disappear into infinity.
It was then that, in parallel to develop the first military bands that would later become the orchestras of harmony (orchestras composed solely of wind and percussion). Its importance is central and that the clarinet is supposed to replace the violins. The technological advances of the instrument at the beginning of the twentieth century opens for clarinet new horizons. There is no hesitation to give solos and features difficult, sometimes very difficult as evidenced by the works of Ravel (Daphnis and Chloe, for example). We also discover the whole family of the clarinet. The clarinet for his side now drilling into the upper sometimes melancholy in the grave, and bass clarinet alongside his cavernous and mysterious bring new colors to perfectly exploited the orchestra Debussy, Ravel, Stravinsky. In Europe the TSE is the king of instruments: SMETANA, BORODIN, BARTOK use it copiously.
Today, finally, contemporary composers have exploded technical possibilities of the instrument, the performer, pushing its limits. In the first grades, grades with extreme sounds almost inaudible, followed by sounds so powerful it ears and then in the range , with a systematic and at heights of more high shrill; in the technique then, with features including large intervals tempi always higher, and finally the use of new effects (slap, flatterzunge, quarter tone, vibrato, ...).
The clarinet is ubiquitous today in all styles of music ( jazz , classical, contemporary, pop, folk), and if one believes Pierre Boulez, an instrument with a bright future.
The family of clarinets ...
From highest to lowest:
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Glossary
Baroque period
Hector Berlioz
Hector Berlioz is a composer, a writer and a French critic, born December 11, 1803 at La Cote Saint Andre, Isere, died March 8, 1869 in Paris.
It is considered one of the greatest representatives of European Romanticism, although it should challenge the term "romantic" that meant nothing to him.
It is defined in fact as a classical composer. His music had the reputation of not respecting the laws of harmony, accusation which does not resist to a deepened reading of its scores.
It reveals, paradoxically, that Berlioz respects the historical foundations of harmony dating from the XVIth century (rules governing opposite and joint movements), but sometimes it frees additional rules appeared later and aesthetically questionable (rules modulation cadential among others).
Classical period
The harmony
Harmony is the deliberate use of frequencies simultaneously, with a view to provide relief and depth to the song or instrumental performance : she represents the aspect vertical music, while the melody is the aspect horizontal.
The jazz
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgang Theophilus Mozart, better known by the name of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (born in Salzburg, a principality of the Holy Roman Empire, January 27, 1756 - died in Vienna Dec. 5, 1791) is generally considered one of the largest Composers of European classical music.
Although he died at thirty-five years, it leaves an important work (626 work are listed in the Catalog KV) which embraces all genres of his time.
According to the testimony of his contemporaries was the piano to the violin as a virtuoso.
The octave in music
Maurice Ravel
Joseph Maurice Ravel (Ciboure, Pyrenees-Atlantiques, March 7, 1875 - Paris, December 28, 1937) was a French composer of the modern era.
His work is the result of a persistent search for perfection and a legacy ranging from Rameau to the pioneers of jazz, reflects a unique style that, after participating at the beginning of the century Impressionist movement, turned to a more neoclassical stripped.
Recognized as a master of orchestration and a meticulous craftsman, a man of complex personality has never parted with a sensitivity and expressiveness that, according to Le Robert, made him recall his work in both " games the most subtle of intelligence "and" the outpourings of the most secret heart. "
Not very prolific (eighty-six original works, twenty-five works orchestrated or transcribed), producing music of Ravel is characterized by a diversity of genres and a significant proportion of works recognized as a major.
These include the symphonic ballet Daphnis et Chloe (1909-1912), Bolero (1928), two concertos for piano and orchestra (for the Left Hand, 1929-1931, in G major, 1930-31) and orchestration of Pictures at an Exhibition by Mussorgsky (1922) are those who have contributed most, for decades, internationally renowned musician.
Richard Strauss
Richard Strauss is a composer and conductor born in Munich, Germany June 11, 1864 and died in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, September 8, 1949.
There is no relationship between Richard Strauss and Johann Strauss the two (father and son), from Vienna and dubbed the kings of the waltz.
The few waltzes composed by Richard Strauss are not present in his works only as a nod to Viennese tradition, a reference to an earlier period (for example in the operas Der Rosenkavalier and Arabella) and as part connoting the eroticism and sensuality.
Strauss addressed almost all types: instrumental music for orchestra, solo instrument (whose concerto) or works for chamber ensemble, symphonic poem, opera, song, ballet.
If his name is known to the public, is primarily through the three operas Salome, Elektra and The Rosenkavalier, except through the symphonic poem Thus Spake Zarathustra (1896), including the Prologue, famous throughout the world, was used in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey by Stanley Kubrick, exacerbating the misunderstanding about the aesthetic sense of what real musical commentary of a philosophical text.
These pages are famous Strauss Yet only a small part of a consistently strong production that covers a wide range of genres, styles and characters.
The romantic period
Gioacchino Rossini
Gioacchino Rossini (Gioachino or - in the civil Giovacchino Antonio Rossini), born in Pesaro, February 29, 1792 and died in Paris on November 13, 1868, is one of the greatest composers of the nineteenth century, both in importance and extent of his repertoire as for its quality.
Above all, his name is connected with the opera. Today's most popular works are The Barber of Seville (The Barber of Seville by Beaumarchais), and La Cenerentola (from Cinderella), Overture (The Thieving Magpie), L'italiana in Algeri (The Italian Girl in Algiers) and Guillaume Tell.
The year 1830 represents a break in the life of Rossini. He stopped writing operas but always composed, at its own rhythm, sacred music and instrumental music until his death in 1868.
The Symphony Orchestra
Tone
In western music, the word means a tone scale music belonging to the tonal system.
- Caught in a broad sense, the word "tone" can refer to the tonal system as a whole.
- The word can also take the direction of height, its fundamental to some instruments.
- The word tone can be used as a synonym for tone.
A tone is defined as the set of intervals, melodic and harmonic as well, between hierarchical levels of a given scale compared to its fundamental level, called tonic. A tone is characterized by both the tonic and its mode.
Each key is constructed from the diatonic scale.
The tone is also a means to locate a musical instrument in relation to C reference.
The flute, violin or piano are in C, that is to say that when the C is played, it really means to do. The B-flat trumpet sounded really flat so when playing a do. The horn (in F) is heard when playing an F do.
The tone is very important because it will allow transposition and transcription of partitions in C in tones of instruments with different pitches.
Some instruments and their tone:
- Ut: Piano, strings, flutes and piccolo, oboe, bassoon, C trumpet, trombone, tuba, bass tuba.
- D flat: the old piccolos.
- Re: Trumpet in D.
- Eb: alto saxophone and baritone, small bugle, horn in E flat, alto (small tuba), clarinet, bass tuba.
- F: Cor.
- Sol: Trumpet in G.
- The: Oboe d'amore, the trumpet.
- Bb: soprano saxophone, tenor tuba (euphonium and baritone), B-flat trumpet, flugelhorn, clarinet, bass tuba (bombardon).