Bass clarinet

bass member of the clarinet family

The bass clarinet is a type of clarinet, and is a woodwind single-reed instrument. The earliest record of the bass clarinet is called a 'bass tube' invented in Paris in 1772 by G. Lott. It usually has a B-flat pitch. It plays one octave lower in pitch than the normal clarinet. This means that when a bass clarinet makes a note, the note that actually sounds is an octave and a whole tone lower.[1] There are some bass clarinets that have an A or C pitch as well as E flat, but these are not common.

Bass clarinet
2 historical short bass clarinets, right instrument made 1848 by Adolphe Sax from boxwood
Hornbostel–Sachs classification422.211.2
(Single clarinets with cylindrical bore, with fingerholes)
Playing range

References

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  1. "Clarinet", The New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments 3 volumes, ed. Stanley Sadie. London: Macmillan, 1984.

Other websites

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  Media related to Bass clarinets at Wikimedia Commons