Except for the octocontrabass (only one in the world and it needs new pads and springs, apparently) and the 'Turkish' in G (definite omission). But, there is one in the lot I never was aware of and want on general principle -- the last one in the set. [yt=This should me me in the video!]zjERmUZUY78[/yt] I very much want to write a clarinet choir piece featuring all the major clarinets (Bb and Eb and the Ab), but getting the entire family together is difficult at best, plus getting the players of the bigger horns (alto on down) to just lay into the instruments and show the saxes and low brass what a forte is... yeah, they're fucking afraid of their instruments
That itty bitty clarinet at was pitched so high, I barely heard the first couple of notes that were played And I think I may be the only one on WF that could really appreciate this, have played the the clarinet, bass, contralto and alto clarinets all throughout middle and high school. I didn't even know an octocontrabass () even existed! On that note, the alto is the most godawful useless instrument, ever. Rarely is it ever written for, and the one solo I had was doubled by the trumpet. Plus, the thing is hard as hell to play--harder than any of the other clarinets I played.
WTF? Southerners have been playing these for years! Sweet Home Alabama was written on one matter-of-fact.
Get a crappy alto clarinet and it will be hell to play. And most composers don't know what to do with it, so they either don't write for it or it gets doubled by the other mid-range instruments. But it really is one of the best tenor instruments out there and should handle a lot more repetoire than it does. The tough thing with the alto is just taking ownership of the horn and working around its limitations and then dominating the line when it does have a part to play. Doubling the horns? Float the alto's color on top. Doubling the saxes? Out blow them -- they'll be heard anyway.
Call me crazy, but I've never been a huge fan of the clarinets sound, in any range, but especially those big ones. They seem to produce a useless farting sound to me, I've never understood their purpose.
I don't think they work all that great in a group either, that vibrating noise leaves me with a headache. But, thats just me.
Well allow me to retort: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hC6iPLhP_nk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHtFTJcq4MU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQTWUaM78oc
Pete Fountain disagrees! I started out on clarinet, but switched to sax a few years later because, at the time, I harbored a small notion that I might try turning pro at some point and there were more gigs for sax players than clarinet players.
Not the soprano clarinet Of course the soprano's a solo instrument. I was talking about the two contras.
That makes a little more sense. Because regular clarinets are awesome - Benny Goodman being just one example of greatness.
Granted, anything larger than a bass clarinet is gonna need a bit more air and control to get a decent sound out of it.
This really wouldn't be an issue in most cases -- the players just are too afraid to take ownership of the horns, so consequently, you'll never hear them; the tubas will be too busy burying them alive. This is a problem for 3rd Clarinet on down, annoyingly.
Regarding this, watching one of the YTs of the octocontra-alto also talked about the tiny clarinet. It doesn't play; it was a model done up as a gift by one of the LeBlanc sons for their father, Gerard, who developed the two octocontras; an adolescent's hands would be too big for the keywork, but the keys all function properly! The comments for this particular YT says that this was a computer altered/generated scale to represent this 'Unlisted' clarinet (likely pitched in Bb). That leaves the Ab Piccolo/Sopranino as the smallest playable clarinet still in production (I've actually seen a picture of one pitched in C using the German fingering system!). As the Ab's lowest note is Concert Middle C (lowest note on many non-professional flutes), the Ab is exactly 12" long. Compare it to the world's smallest saxophone, Benedikt Eppelsheim's Bb Soprillo Sax, which is 14" long but pitched a minor 7th higher (concert Ab above Middle C) and requires its octave key drilled into the mouthpiece! Thanks to the clarinet's dominant cylindrical bore, they have a 1:2 ratio in terms of length of pipe to sound of pitch, i.e., every foot of pipe yields double the length in sound; why the Ab's lowest note (written E, Concert C) at 12" of pipe is really a 2' C. If the Bb Soprano were a full 2' instead of 23", it'd have a 4' C. Bass clarinets frequently have Low C (concert Bb) extensions; though longer than 4', they're true 8' sounds (I won't comment on the quality of the Bass' timbre, though...) The Contrabass is 8' long. 16' C. We're talking pipe organ pedal ranks now. This leaves the Octocontrabass -- 16' long. 32' C. To this day, we can only approximate what that sounds like, because the one that LeBlanc made isn't working. Needs new pads. So enthusiasts build them out of PVC pipe and stick on a contrabass mouthpiece. Like I said, it's only an approximation, because the octocontras use a bigger mouthpiece and roof shingles -- I mean, reeds -- than for the contrabass and contra-alto. When I get back on my other computer, I'll post a video of one such PVC subcontrabass that I built myself. It was 17' long (I've since shortened it a mere 16' for use in my last concert).
