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| Chalumeau |
A few weeks ago
I watched a crazy performance on Jazz at Lincoln Centre’s Livestream featuring
the Anat Cohen Quartet (JALC Livestreams totally awesome shows by the way, if
you have any interest in jazz definitely go follow them!). For those of you who
don’t know, Anat Cohen is, in my opinion, one of the most skilled clarinet
players in the world. Sometimes clarinets can sound a bit scream-ish in the
upper register, but her control makes for an extremely smooth sound on every
note. I was completely blown away. So long story short that was my inspiration
for this blog.
The clarinet
evolved from an old instrument called the chalumeau. It looked much like a
recorder and sounded like a clarinet playing in the low range. The chalumeau
was the first single-reed instrument (meaning it was played with one reed as
opposed to a double reed like the oboe or the bassoon). The chalumeau was
commonly played in the baroque and classical eras, however due to its small
range and fickle tuning, it was never given much attention by anyone other than shepherds and the odd peasant. To be honest, I probably wouldn’t have laid a
hand on the instrument either. All its limitations make it sound rather boring
to play.
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| Clarinet |
On that count, I think a German man named C. H. Denner was in the same
boat as me. Denner and his son Jacob spent much time experimenting with the
chalumeau and making improvements. In the end, they successfully increased its
range by over two octaves and altered the bell and mouthpiece to improve the
intonation (tuning). From this, the clarinet was born and the composers finally
had something to be excited about; a single reed instrument with a range both
super low and very high. It doesn’t get much more versatile than that. I mean,
something had to tide them over until these instrument makers got their crap
together and figured out the saxophone!
Sources:
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