Other Clarinets

The contrabass clarinet is one of the largest members of the clarinet family. The instrument is pitched in Bb, sounding two octaves lower than the common Bb soprano clarinet and one octave lower than the Bb bass clarinet. more...

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The contrabass clarinet is also sometimes known by the name pedal clarinet—this term referring not to any aspect of the instrument's mechanism but to an analogy between its very low tones and the pedal tones of the trombone, or the pedal department of the organ.

There are not many producers of the contrabass clarinet. Selmer Paris makes a rosewood version looking much like a longer version of the bass clarinet, and Leblanc USA has a plastic instrument in a similar long-body design. Leblanc Paris builds two versions made of metal, one known as a paperclip contrabass due to its folded shape, and another similar in shape to the Selmer and Leblanc USA models. Some contrabass clarinet models have a range extending down to low (written) Eb, while others can play down to low C.

Unlike other clarinets, the contrabass clarinet is usually built with only a single trill key used by the right hand instead of four of them. The single key functions the same as the lowest trill key in other clarinets.

Probably the best known musician who has made significant use of the contrabass clarinet is Anthony Braxton.

Though relatively rare itself, the contrabass remains the lowest-pitched member of the clarinet family that has ever been in significant use. (Larger clarinets have occasionally been constructed , including the extremely rare EEEb octocontra-alto and a single instance of a BBBb octocontrabass.)

The Eb contra-alto clarinet is sometimes referred to as the Eb contrabass clarinet. Arnold Schoenberg's Fünf Orchesterstücke specifies a contrabass clarinet in A, but there is no evidence of such an instrument ever existing.

Musical compositions using contrabass clarinet

Solo literature for the instrument is extremely scarce. Some compositions making notable use of the contrabass clarinet include:

• Triple Concerto for clarinet, bass clarinet, and contrabass clarinet by Donald Martino
• Éclairs Sur l'Au-Delà by Olivier Messiaen
• Symphony No. 1 ("Of Rage and Remembrance") by John Corigliano
• Fantasy Variations on a Theme by Niccolo Paganini by James Barnes

Read more at Wikipedia.org