Coordinates	29°57′53″N90°4′14″N
Name	Clarinet
Image capt	B♭ Clarinet (Boehm system)
Background	woodwind
Classification	Wind Woodwind Single-reed
Hornbostel sachs	422.211.2-71
Hornbostel sachs desc	Single-reeded aerophone with keys
Range	Written range (though it is possible to play higher):
Midi	071/072
Related	* Saxophone Tárogató (modern) Oboe Chalumeau
Musicians	* Clarinetists
Articles	}}

The clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix ''-et'' (meaning ''little'') to the Italian word ''clarino'' (meaning a type of trumpet designed for high-register playing), as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed. In jazz contexts, it has sometimes been informally referred to as the "licorice stick."

Clarinets comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitches. The clarinet family is the largest such woodwind family, with more than a dozen types, ranging from the (extremely rare) BBB♭ octo-contrabass to the A♭ soprano (piccolo clarinet). Of these, many are rare or obsolete (there is only one BBB♭ octo-contrabass clarinet in existence, for example), and music written for them is usually played on the common types. The unmodified word ''clarinet'' usually refers to the B soprano clarinet, by far the most commonly played clarinet.

A person who plays the clarinet is called a clarinetist or clarinettist. Johann Christoph Denner invented the clarinet in Germany around the turn of the 18th century by adding a register key to the earlier chalumeau. Over time, additional keywork and airtight pads were added to improve tone and playability. Today, the clarinet is used in jazz and classical ensembles, in chamber groups, and as a solo instrument.

Characteristics

Tone

The cylindrical bore is primarily responsible for the clarinet's distinctive timbre, which varies between its three main registers, known as the chalumeau, clarino, and altissimo. The tone quality can vary greatly with the musician, the music, the instrument, the mouthpiece, and the reed. The differences in instruments and geographical isolation of players in different countries led to the development, from the last part of the 18th century onwards, of several different schools of clarinet playing. The most prominent were the German/Viennese traditions and the French school. The latter was centered on the clarinetists of the Conservatoire de Paris. The proliferation of recorded music has made examples of different styles of clarinet playing available. The modern clarinetist has a diverse palette of "acceptable" tone qualities to choose from.

The A clarinet and B clarinet have nearly the same bore, and use the same mouthpiece. Orchestral players using the A and B instruments in the same concert use the same mouthpiece (and often the same barrel) for both (see 'usage' below). The A and the B instruments have nearly identical tonal quality, although the A typically has a slightly warmer sound. The tone of the E clarinet is brighter than that of the lower clarinets and can be heard even through loud orchestral textures. The bass clarinet has a characteristically deep, mellow sound, while the alto clarinet is similar in tone to the bass and the basset horn has a tone quality comparable to the A clarinet.

Range

Clarinets have the largest pitch range of common woodwinds. The intricate key organization that makes this range possible can make the playability of some passages awkward. The bottom of the clarinet’s written range is defined by the keywork on each instrument, standard keywork schemes allow a low E on the common B clarinet. The lowest concert pitch depends on the transposition of the instrument in question.

Nearly all soprano and piccolo clarinets have keywork enabling them to play the E below middle C (E₃ in scientific pitch notation) as their lowest written note, though some B clarinets go down to E₃ to enable them to match the range of the A clarinet. On the B soprano clarinet, the concert pitch of the lowest note is D₃, a whole tone lower than the written pitch. Most alto and bass clarinets have an extra key to allow a (written) E₃. Modern professional-quality bass clarinets generally have additional keywork to written C₃. Among the less commonly encountered members of the clarinet family, contra-alto and contrabass clarinets may have keywork to written E₃, D₃, or C₃; the basset clarinet and basset horn generally go to low C₃.

Defining the top end of a clarinet’s range is difficult, since many advanced players can produce notes well above the highest notes commonly found in method books. The G two octaves above G₄ is usually the highest note clarinetists encounter in classical repertoire. The C above that (C₇ i.e. resting on the fifth ledger line above the treble staff) is attainable by advanced players and is shown on many fingering charts, and fingerings as high as E₇ exist.

The range of a clarinet can be divided into three distinct registers. The lowest register, consisting of the notes up to the written B above middle C (B₄), is known as the ''chalumeau'' register (named after the instrument that was the clarinet's immediate predecessor). The middle register is termed the ''clarino'' (sometimes ''clarion'') register and spans just over an octave (from written B above middle C (B₄) to the C two octaves above middle C (C₆)); it is the dominant range for most members of the clarinet family. The top or ''altissimo'' register consists of the notes above the written C two octaves above middle C (C₆). Unlike other woodwinds, all three registers have characteristically different sounds. The chalumeau register is rich and dark. The clarino register is brighter and sweet, like a trumpet heard from afar ("clarino" means trumpet). The altissimo register can be piercing and sometimes shrill.

Construction

Materials

Clarinet bodies have been made from a variety of materials including wood, plastic, hard rubber, metal, resin, and ivory. The vast majority of clarinets used by professional musicians are made from African hardwood, mpingo (African Blackwood) or grenadilla, rarely (because of diminishing supplies) Honduran rosewood and sometimes even cocobolo. Historically other woods, notably boxwood, were used.

Most modern, inexpensive instruments are made of plastic resin, such as ABS. These materials are sometimes called "resonite", which is Selmer's trademark name for its type of plastic. Metal soprano clarinets were popular in the early twentieth century, until plastic instruments supplanted them; metal construction is still used for the bodies of some contra-alto and contrabass clarinets, and for the necks and bells of nearly all alto and larger clarinets. Ivory was used for a few 18th century clarinets, but it tends to crack and does not keep its shape well.

Buffet Crampon's Greenline clarinets are made from a composite of grenadilla wood powder and carbon fiber. Such instruments are less affected by humidity and temperature changes than wooden instruments but are heavier. Hard rubber, such as ebonite, has been used for clarinets since the 1860s, although few modern clarinets are made of it. Clarinet designers Alastair Hanson and Tom Ridenour are strong advocates of hard rubber. Hanson Clarinets of England manufactures clarinets using a grenadilla compound reinforced with ebonite, known as 'BTR' (bithermal reinforced) grenadilla. This material is also not affected by humidity, and the weight is the same as that of a wood clarinet.

Mouthpieces are generally made of hard rubber, although some inexpensive mouthpieces may be made of plastic. Other materials such as crystal/glass, wood, ivory, and metal have also been used. Ligatures are often made out of metal and plated in nickel, silver or gold. Other ligature materials include wire, wire mesh, plastic, naugahyde, string, or leather.

Reed

The instrument uses a single reed made from the cane of ''Arundo donax'', a type of grass. Reeds may also be manufactured from synthetic materials. The ligature fastens the reed to the mouthpiece. When air is blown through the opening between the reed and the mouthpiece facing, the reed vibrates and produces the instrument's sound.

Basic reed measurements are as follows: tip, wide; lay, long (distance from the place where the reed touches the mouthpiece to the tip); gap, (distance between the underside of the reed tip and the mouthpiece). Adjustment to these measurements is one method of affecting tone color.

Most clarinetists buy manufactured reeds, although many make adjustments to these reeds and some make their own reeds from cane "blanks". Reeds come in varying degrees of hardness, generally indicated on a scale from one (soft) through five (hard). This numbering system is not standardized — reeds with the same hardness number often vary in hardness across manufacturers and models. Reed and mouthpiece characteristics work together to determine ease of playability, pitch stability, and tonal characteristics.

Components of a modern soprano clarinet

Note: A Boehm system soprano clarinet is shown in the photos illustrating this section. However, all modern clarinets have similar components.

The ''reed'' is attached to the ''mouthpiece'' by the ''ligature'', and the top half-inch or so of this assembly is held in the player’s mouth. German clarinetists often wrap a string around the mouthpiece and reed instead of using a ligature. The formation of the mouth around the mouthpiece and reed is called the ''embouchure''.

The reed is on the underside of the mouthpiece, pressing against the player's lower lip, while the top teeth normally contact the top of the mouthpiece (some players roll the upper lip under the top teeth to form what is called a ‘double-lip’ embouchure). Adjustments in the strength and shape of the embouchure change the tone and intonation (tuning). It is not uncommon for clarinetists to employ methods to relieve the pressure on the upper teeth and inner lower lip by attaching pads to the top of the mouthpiece or putting (temporary) padding on the front lower teeth, commonly from folded paper.

Next is the short ''barrel''; this part of the instrument may be extended to fine-tune the clarinet. As the pitch of the clarinet is fairly temperature-sensitive, some instruments have interchangeable barrels whose lengths vary slightly. Additional compensation for pitch variation and tuning can be made by pulling out the barrel and thus increasing the instrument's length, particularly common in group playing in which clarinets are tuned to other instruments (such as in an orchestra). Some performers use a plastic barrel with a thumbwheel that enables the barrel length to be altered. On basset horns and lower clarinets, the barrel is normally replaced by a curved metal neck.

The main body of most clarinets is divided into the ''upper joint'', the holes and most keys of which are operated by the left hand, and the ''lower joint'' with holes and most keys operated by the right hand. Some clarinets have a single joint: on some basset horns and larger clarinets the two joints are held together with a screw clamp and are usually not disassembled for storage. The left thumb operates both a ''tone hole'' and the ''register key''. On some models of clarinet, such as many Albert system clarinets and increasingly some higher-end Boehm system clarinets, the register key is a 'wraparound' key, with the key on the back of the clarinet and the pad on the front. Advocates of the wraparound register key say it improves sound, and it is harder for moisture to accumulate in the tube beneath the pad.

The body of a modern soprano clarinet is equipped with numerous ''tone holes'' of which seven (six front, one back) are covered with the fingertips, and the rest are opened or closed using a set of keys. These tone holes allow every note of the chromatic scale to be produced. On alto and larger clarinets and a few soprano clarinets, some or all finger holes are replaced by key-covered holes. The most common system of keys was named the Boehm System by its designer Hyacinthe Klosé in honour of flute designer Theobald Boehm, but it is not the same as the Boehm System used on flutes. The other main system of keys is called the Oehler system and is used mostly in Germany and Austria (see History). The related Albert system is used by some jazz, klezmer, and eastern European folk musicians. The Albert and Oehler systems are both based on the early Mueller system.

The cluster of keys at the bottom of the upper joint (protruding slightly beyond the cork of the joint) are known as the ''trill keys'' and are operated by the right hand. These give the player alternative fingerings that make it easy to play ornaments and trills. The entire weight of the smaller clarinets is supported by the right thumb behind the lower joint on what is called the ''thumb-rest''. Basset horns and larger clarinets are supported with a neck strap or a floor peg.

Finally, the flared end is known as the ''bell''. Contrary to popular belief, the bell does not amplify the sound; rather, it improves the uniformity of the instrument's tone for the lowest notes in each register. For the other notes the sound is produced almost entirely at the tone holes and the bell is irrelevant. On basset horns and larger clarinets, the bell curves up and forward and is usually made of metal.

Boehm Keywork and sample fingerings of a modern soprano clarinet

Theobald Boehm did not directly invent the key system of the clarinet. Boehm was a flautist who created the key system that is now used for the Transverse Flute. Klosé and Buffet applied Boehm's system to the Clarinet. Although the credit goes to those people, Boehm's name was given to that key system.

The current Boehm key system consists of generally 6 rings, on the thumb, 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th and 6th holes, a register key just above the thumb hole, easily accessible with the thumb. Above the 1st hole, there is a key that lifts two covers creating the note A in the throat register (high part of low register) of the clarinet. A key at the side of the instrument at the same height as the A key lifts only one of the two covers, producing G# a semitone lower. The A key can be used in conjunction solely with the register key to produce A#/Bb.

Acoustics

Sound is a wave that propagates through the air as a result of a local variation in air pressure. The production of sound by a clarinet follows these steps:

# The air in the bore of the instrument is at normal atmospheric pressure and moves towards the bell (or the first open hole). The minuscule space between the mouthpiece and the reed allows only a small amount of air to enter the instrument. This creates a low-pressure area in the mouthpiece. The difference in pressure between the two sides of the reed increases, causing the reed to press against the mouthpiece. # The wave of low-pressure air moves down the bore and arrives at the first open hole. # The outside air, at normal atmospheric pressure, is sucked in by the low pressure inside. The air that was previously leaving the clarinet through the hole changes direction quickly and enters the bore. # The incoming air normalizes the pressure within the bore, starting at the open hole and moving back towards the mouthpiece. # Once all the air in the bore is at atmospheric pressure (moving towards the mouthpiece), the difference in pressure between the two sides of the reed decreases and the reed returns to its original position. # The moving column of air is stopped by the sudden collision with the pressurized air coming from the player's mouth. A wave of high-pressure air moves towards the first open hole. # When the high-pressure air arrives at the open hole, the air coming into the bore abruptly changes direction and goes out through the hole. # The high pressure normalizes and the cycle restarts.

The cycle repeats at a constant frequency and emits a note related to that frequency. For example, A4 (440 Hz) is produced when the cycle repeats 440 times per second.

The bore of the soprano clarinet is cylindrical for most of the tube with an inner bore diameter between , but there is a subtle hourglass shape, with the thinnest part below the junction between the upper and lower joint. The reduction is depending on the maker. This hourglass shape, although not visible to the naked eye, helps to correct the pitch/scale discrepancy between the chalumeau and clarino registers (perfect 12th). The diameter of the bore affects characteristics such as available harmonics, timbre, and stability of pitch (the extent to which a note can be 'bent' in the manner required in jazz and other styles of music). The bell at the bottom of the instrument flares out to improve the tone of the lowest notes.

Most modern clarinets have "undercut" tone holes to improve intonation and the sound. Undercutting means chamfering the bottom edge of tone holes inside the bore. Acoustically, this makes the tone hole function as if it were larger, but its main function is to allow the air column to follow the curve up through the tone hole (surface tension) instead of "blowing past" it under the increased velocity of the upper registers.

The fixed reed and fairly uniform diameter of the clarinet give the instrument an acoustical behavior approximating that of a cylindrical stopped pipe. Recorders use a tapered internal bore to overblow at the 8th (octave) when its thumb/register hole is pinched open while the clarinet, with its cylindrical bore, overblows on the 12th. Adjusting the angle of the bore taper controls the frequencies of the overblown notes (harmonics). Changing the mouthpiece's tip opening and the length of the reed changes the harmonic timbre or voice of the instrument because this changes the speed of reed vibrations. Generally, the goal of the clarinetist when producing a sound is to make as much of the reed vibrate as possible, making the sound fuller, warmer, and potentially louder.

Covering or uncovering the tone holes varies the length of the pipe, changing the resonant frequencies of the enclosed air column and hence the pitch of the sound. A clarinetist moves between the chalumeau and clarino registers through use of the register key, or speaker key: clarinetists call the change from chalumeau register to clarino register "the break". The register key, when pressed, cancels the fundamental frequency scale and forces the clarinet to produce the next dominant harmonic scale a twelfth higher, and when using at least fingers 1-2-3 1-2, taking off the first finger on the left hand, acts as another register key, and doesn't overblow a twelfth, but instead a sixth. The clarinet is therefore said to overblow at the twelfth, and when moving to the altissimo register, a sixth. By contrast, nearly all other woodwind instruments overblow at the octave, or like the Ocarina and Tonette, do not overblow at all (the Rackett or Sausage Bassoon is the next most common Western instrument that overblows at the twelfth). A clarinet must have holes and keys for nineteen notes (a chromatic octave and a half, from bottom E to B) in its lowest register to play the chromatic scale. This overblowing behavior explains the clarinet's great range and complex fingering system. The fifth and seventh harmonics are also available, sounding a further sixth and fourth (a flat, diminished fifth) higher respectively; these are the notes of the altissimo register. This is also why the inner "waist" measurement is so critical to these harmonic frequencies.

The highest notes on a clarinet can have a shrill piercing quality and can be difficult to tune accurately. Different instruments often play differently in this respect due to the sensitivity of the bore and reed measurements. Using alternate fingerings and adjusting the embouchure helps correct the pitch of these higher notes.

Since approximately 1850, clarinets have been nominally tuned according to 12-tone equal temperament. Older clarinets were nominally tuned to meantone. A skilled performer can use his or her embouchure to considerably alter the tuning of individual notes or to produce vibrato, a pulsating change of pitch often employed in jazz. Vibrato is rare in classical or concert band literature; however, certain clarinetists, such as Richard Stoltzman, do use vibrato in classical music. Special fingerings may be used to play quarter tones and other microtonal intervals. Fritz Schüller of Markneukirchen, Germany built a quarter tone clarinet, with two parallel bores of slightly different lengths whose tone holes are operated using the same keywork and a valve to switch from one bore to the other. ==History==

Lineage

The clarinet has its roots in the early single-reed instruments or hornpipes used in the Middle East and Europe since the Middle Ages, such as the albogue, alboka, and double clarinet.

The modern clarinet developed from a Baroque instrument called the chalumeau. This instrument was similar to a recorder, but with a single-reed mouthpiece and a cylindrical bore. Lacking a register key, it was played mainly in its fundamental register, with a limited range of about one and a half octaves. It had eight finger holes, like a recorder, and two keys for its two highest notes. At this time, contrary to modern practice, the reed was placed in contact with the upper lip.

Around the turn of the 18th century, the chalumeau was modified by converting one of its keys into a register key to produce the first clarinet. This development is usually attributed to German instrument maker Johann Christoph Denner, though some have suggested his son Jacob Denner was the inventor. This instrument played well in the middle register with a loud, shrill sound, so it was given the name ''clarinetto'' meaning "little trumpet" (from ''clarino'' + ''-etto''). Early clarinets did not play well in the lower register, so chalumeaux continued to be made to play the low notes. As clarinets improved, the chalumeau fell into disuse and these notes became known as the ''chalumeau register''. The original Denner clarinets had two keys, and could play a chromatic scale, but various makers added more keys to get improved tuning, easier fingerings, and a slightly larger range. The classical clarinet of Mozart's day typically had eight finger holes and five keys.

Clarinets were soon accepted into orchestras. Later models had a mellower tone than the originals. Mozart (d. 1791) liked the sound of the clarinet (he considered its tone the closest in quality to the human voice) and wrote numerous pieces for the instrument., and by the time of Beethoven (c. 1800–1820), the clarinet was a standard fixture in the orchestra.

Pads

The next major development in the history of clarinet was the invention of the modern pad. Early clarinets covered the tone holes with felt pads. Because these leaked air, the pads had to be kept to a minimum, so the clarinet was severely restricted in what notes could be played with good tone. In 1812, Iwan Müller, a Russian-born clarinetist and inventor, developed a new type of pad that was covered in leather or fish bladder. This was completely airtight, so the number of keys could be increased enormously. He designed a new type of clarinet with seven finger holes and thirteen keys. This allowed the clarinet to play in any key with near-equal ease. Over the course of the 19th century, many enhancements were made to Mueller's clarinet, such as the Albert system and the Baermann system, all keeping the same basic design.

Arrangement of keys and holes

The final development in the modern design of the clarinet used in most of the world today was introduced by Hyacinthe Klosé in 1839. He devised a different arrangement of keys and finger holes, which allow simpler fingering. It was inspired by the Boehm System developed for flutes by Theobald Boehm. Klosé was so impressed by Boehm's invention that he named his own system for clarinets the Boehm system, although it is different from the one used on flutes. This new system was slow to gain popularity because it meant the player had to relearn how to play the instrument. To ease this transition, Klose wrote a series of exercises for the clarinet, designed to teach his fingering system. Gradually it became the standard, and today the Boehm system is used everywhere in the world except Germany and Austria. These countries still use a direct descendant of the Mueller clarinet known as the Oehler system clarinet. Also, some contemporary Dixieland and Klezmer players continue to use Albert system clarinets, as the simpler fingering system can allow for easier slurring of notes. At one time the reed was held on using string, but now the practice exists primarily in Germany and Austria.

Usage and repertoire

Use of multiple clarinets

The modern orchestral standard of using soprano clarinets in both B and A has to do partly with the history of the instrument, and partly with acoustics, aesthetics and economics. Before about 1800, due to the lack of airtight pads ''(see History)'', practical woodwinds could have only a few keys to control accidentals (notes outside their diatonic home scales). The low (chalumeau) register of the clarinet spans a twelfth (an octave plus a perfect fifth), so the clarinet needs keys to produce all nineteen notes in that range. This involves more keywork than is necessary on instruments that "overblow" at the octave — oboes, flutes, bassoons, and saxophones, for example, which need only twelve notes before overblowing.

Clarinets with few keys cannot therefore easily play chromatically, limiting any such instrument to a few closely related key signatures. For example, an eighteenth-century clarinet in C could be played in F, C, and G (and their relative minors) with good intonation, but with progressive difficulty and poorer intonation as the key moved away from this range. In contrast, for octave-overblowing instruments, an instrument in C with few keys could much more readily be played in any key.

This problem was overcome by using three clarinets — in A, B and C — so that early 19th century music, which rarely strayed into the remote keys (five or six sharps or flats), could be played as follows: music in 5 to 2 sharps (B major to D major concert pitch) on A clarinet (D major to F major for the player), music in 1 sharp to 1 flat (G to F) on C clarinet, and music in 2 flats to 4 flats (B to A) on the B clarinet (C to B for the player). Difficult key signatures and numerous accidentals were thus largely avoided.

With the invention of the airtight pad, and as key technology improved and more keys were added to woodwinds, the need for clarinets in multiple musical keys was reduced. However, the use of multiple instruments in different keys persisted, with the three instruments in C, B and A all used as specified by the composer.

The lower-pitched clarinets sound more "mellow" (less bright), and the C clarinet — being the highest and therefore brightest of the three — fell out of favour as the other two clarinets could cover its range and their sound was considered better. While the clarinet in C began to fall out of general use around 1850, some composers continued to write C parts after this date, e.g. Bizet's Symphony in C (1855), Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 2 (1872), Smetana's ''Vltava'' (1874), Brahms Symphony No. 4 (1885), and Richard Strauss deliberately reintroduced it to take advantage of its brighter tone, as in ''Der Rosenkavalier'' (1911).

While technical improvements and an equal-tempered scale reduced the need for two clarinets, the technical difficulty of playing in remote keys persisted and the A has thus remained a standard orchestral instrument. In addition, by the late 19th century the orchestral clarinet repertoire contained so much music for clarinet in A that the disuse of this instrument was not practical. Attempts were made to standardise to the B instrument between 1930 and 1950 (e.g. tutors recommended learning the routine transposition of orchestral A parts on the B clarinet, including solos written for A clarinet, and some manufacturers provided a low E on the B to match the range of the A), but this failed in the orchestral sphere.

Similarly there have been E and D instruments in the upper soprano range, B, A, and C instruments in the bass range, and so forth; but over time the E and B instruments have become predominant.

The B instrument continues to be dominant in wind ensemble music and in jazz, with both B and C instruments used in some ethnic traditions, such as klezmer music.

Classical music

In classical music, clarinets are part of standard orchestral instrumentation, which frequently includes two clarinetists playing individual parts — each player is usually equipped with a pair of standard clarinets in B and A (see above) and clarinet parts commonly alternate between B and A instruments several times over the course of a piece or even, less commonly, of a movement (e.g. 1st movement Brahms 3rd symphony). Clarinet sections grew larger during the last few decades of the 19th century, often employing a third clarinetist, an E or a bass clarinet. In the 20th century, composers such as Igor Stravinsky, Richard Strauss, Gustav Mahler and Olivier Messiaen enlarged the clarinet section on occasion to up to nine players, employing many different clarinets including the E or D soprano clarinets, basset horn, alto clarinet, bass clarinet and/or contrabass clarinet.

This practice of using a variety of clarinets to achieve coloristic variety was common in 20th century music and continues today. However, many clarinetists and conductors prefer to play parts originally written for obscure instruments on B or E clarinets, which are often of better quality and more prevalent and accessible.

The clarinet is widely used as a solo instrument. The relatively late evolution of the clarinet (when compared to other orchestral woodwinds) has left solo repertoire from the Classical period and later, but few works from the Baroque era. Many clarinet concertos have been written to showcase the instrument, with the concerti by Mozart, Copland and Weber being well known.

Many works of chamber music have also been written for the clarinet. Common combinations are: Clarinet and piano (including clarinet sonatas) Clarinet, piano and another instrument (for example, string instrument or voice) Clarinet quartet: various combinations including four B clarinets, three B clarinets and bass clarinet, two B clarinets, alto clarinet and bass, and other possibilities such as the use of a basset horn, especially in European classical works. Clarinet quintet, generally made up of a clarinet plus a string quartet. Wind quintet, consists of flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and horn. Trio d'anches, or ''trio of reeds'' consists of oboe, clarinet, and bassoon. Wind octet, consists of pairs of oboes, clarinets, bassoons, and horns.

Concert bands

In wind bands, clarinets are a central part of the instrumentation, occupying the same space (and often playing the same notes) in bands that the strings do in orchestras. Bands usually include several B clarinets, divided into sections each consisting of two or three clarinetists playing the same part. There is almost always an E clarinet part and a bass clarinet part, usually doubled. Alto, contra-alto, and contrabass clarinets are sometimes used as well, and, rarely, a piccolo A clarinet.

Jazz

The clarinet was a central instrument in early jazz starting in the 1910s and remained popular in the United States through the big band era into the 1940s. Larry Shields, Ted Lewis, Jimmie Noone and Sidney Bechet were influential in early jazz. The B soprano was the most common instrument, but a few early jazz musicians such as Louis Nelson Delisle and Alcide Nunez preferred the C soprano, and many New Orleans jazz brass bands have used E soprano.

Swing clarinetists such as Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, and Woody Herman led successful and popular big bands and smaller groups from the 1930s onward. With the decline of the big bands' popularity in the late 1940s, the clarinet faded from its prominent position in jazz, though a few players (John Carter, Buddy DeFranco, Eric Dolphy, Jimmy Giuffre, Perry Robinson, Theo Jorgensmann and others) used clarinet in bebop and free jazz. The clarinet's place in the jazz ensemble was usurped by the saxophone, which projects a more powerful sound and uses a less complicated fingering system.

During the 1950s and 1960s, Britain underwent a surge in the popularity of traditional jazz. During this period, a British clarinetist named Acker Bilk became popular, founding his own ensemble in 1956. Bilk had a string of successful records, including the popular "Stranger on the Shore".

In the U.S., the instrument has seen something of a resurgence since the 1980s, with Eddie Daniels, Don Byron, and Marty Ehrlich and others playing the clarinet in more contemporary contexts. The instrument remains common in Dixieland music; Pete Fountain is one of the best known performers in this genre. Bob Wilber, active since the 1950s, is a more eclectic jazz clarinetist, playing in several classic jazz styles. Filmmaker Woody Allen is a notable jazz clarinet enthusiast, and performs New Orleans-style jazz regularly with his quartet in New York. Jean-Christian Michel, French composer and clarinetist has initiated a jazz-classical cross-over on the clarinet with the drummer Kenny Clarke. See also Gilad Atzmon whose 21st century jazz style has been described as bebop/hard bop, with forays into free jazz and swing, influenced by Arabic music.

In Canada, John Malmstrom performs in various mid-20th-century styles as well as writes original jazz compositions featuring clarinet and saxophone.

Other genres

In rock the clarinet is used very rarely.

Clarinets also feature prominently in klezmer music, which entails a distinctive style of playing. The use of quarter-tones requires a different embouchure. Some klezmer musicians prefer Albert system clarinets.

The popular Brazilian music styles of choro and samba use the clarinet. Prominent contemporary players include Paulo Moura, Naylor 'Proveta' Azevedo, Paulo Sérgio dos Santos and Paquito D'Rivera.

The clarinet is prominent in Bulgarian wedding music, an offshoot of Roma/Romani traditional music. Ivo Papazov is a well-known clarinetist in this genre. In Moravian dulcimer bands, the clarinet is usually the only wind instrument among string instruments.

In the Republic of Macedonia, old-town folk music -called chalgija ("чалгија"), the clarinet has the most important role in wedding music; clarinet solos mark the high point of dancing euphoria. One of the most renowned Macedonian clarinet players is Tale Ognenovski, who gained worldwide fame for his virtuosity.

In Greece the clarinet (usually referred to as "κλαρίνο" - "clarino") is prominent in traditional music, especially in central, northwest and northern Greece (Thessaly, Epirus and Macedonia). The double-reed zurna was the dominant woodwind instrument before the clarinet arrived in the country, although many Greeks regard the clarinet as a native instrument. Traditional dance music, wedding music and laments include a clarinet soloist and quite often improvisations. Petroloukas Chalkias is a famous clarinetist in this genre.

The instrument is equally famous in Turkey, especially the soprano clarinet in G. The soprano clarinet crossed via Turkey to Arabic music, where it is widely used in Arabic pop, especially if the intention of the arranger is to imitate the Turkish style.

Groups of clarinets

Groups of clarinets playing together have become increasingly popular among clarinet enthusiasts in recent years. Common forms are: Clarinet choir, which features a large number of clarinets playing together, usually involves a range of different members of the clarinet family (see Extended family of clarinets). The homogeneity of tone across the different members of the clarinet family produces an effect with some similarities to a human choir. Clarinet quartet, usually three B sopranos and one B bass, or two B, an E Alto Clarinet, and a B Bass Clarinet, or sometimes four B sopranos.

Clarinet choirs and quartets often play arrangements of both classical and popular music, in addition to a body of literature specially written for a combination of clarinets by composers such as Arnold Cooke, Alfred Uhl, Lucien Caillet and Václav Nelhýbel.

Extended family of clarinets

There is a family of many differently pitched clarinet types, some of which are very rare. The following are the most important sizes, from highest to lowest:

! Name !! Key !! Commentary !! Range (concert)
Piccolo clarinet	A	Now rare, used for Italian military music and some contemporary pieces for its sonority;
Sopranino clarinet	E	Characteristic timbre, used in concert band repertoire because its tonality is considered "compatible" with other instruments, especially those in B.
Sopranino clarinet	D	Obscure because of its limited repertoire in Western music.
Soprano clarinet	C	Rare because its timbre is considered too bright.
Soprano clarinet	B	The most common type: used in most styles of music.
Soprano clarinet	A	Has a richer sound than B, frequently used in orchestral and chamber music.
Basset clarinet	A	Clarinet in A extended to a low C; used primarily to play Classical-era music. Mozart's Clarinet Concerto was written for this instrument, though it is frequently played in a version for the ordinary A clarinet. Basset clarinets in Bb also exist; this instrument is required to play the obbligato to the aria "Parto, parto" in Mozart's La Clemenza di Tito.
Basset-horn	F	Similar in appearance to the alto, but differs in that it is pitched in F, has an extended range to low C, and has a narrower bore on most models. Mozart's Clarinet Concerto was originally sketched out as a concerto for basset horn in G. Rarely used today.
Alto clarinet	E	Used in chamber music and wind ensembles.
Bass clarinet	B	Used in contemporary music, concert band and jazz; sometimes used in orchestral music.
Contra-alto clarinet (also called E Contrabass Clarinet)	EE	Used in clarinet choirs.
Contrabass clarinet (also called B Subcontrabass or Double-bass Clarinet)	BB	Used in clarinet choirs and sometimes in orchestras and wind ensembles.

Experimental EEE and BBB octocontra-alto and octocontrabass clarinets have also been built. There have also been soprano clarinets in C, A, and B with curved barrels and bells marketed under the names Saxonette, Claribel, and Clariphon.

See also

List of Clarinet concerti

List of clarinetists

Clarinet makers Lists of makers of clarinets, clarinet mouthpieces, and clarinet reeds.

Double clarinet A Middle Eastern instrument, not a true clarinet in the western sense of the term

Quarter tone clarinet

International Clarinet Association

Notes

Further reading

Nicholas Bessaraboff, ''Ancient European Musical Instruments.'' Boston: Harvard University Press, 1941.

"Woodwind Instruments and Their History" by Anthony Baines, Dover Publishing.

Jack Brymer, ''Clarinet''. (Yehudi Menuhin Music Guides) Hardback and paperback, 296 pages, Kahn & Averill. ISBN 1-871082-12-9.

David Pino, ''The Clarinet and Clarinet Playing.'' Providence: Dover Pubns, 1998, 320 p.; ISBN 0-486-40270-3.

F. Geoffrey Rendall, ''The Clarinet.'' Second Revised Edition. London: Ernest Benn Limited, 1957.

Cyrille Rose, ''Artistic Studies, Book 1.'' ed. David Hite. San Antonio: Southern Music, 1986.

Nicholas Shackleton, "Clarinet", ''Grove Music Online'', ed. L. Macy (accessed 21 February 2006), grovemusic.com (subscription access).

Buffet Crampon Greenline website

Jennifer Ross, "Clarinet", "Ohio: Hardcover Printing Press, 1988.

Fabrizio Meloni, ''Il Clarinetto'', ill., 299 pages, Zecchini Editore, zecchini.com Italy, 2002, ISBN 88-87203-03-2.

Bărbuceanu Valeriu, "Dictionary of musical instruments", Second Revised Edition, Teora Press, Bucharest, 1999.

"Fundamentals of Musical Acoustics" by Arthur H. Benade, Dover Publishing.

SELMER Paris : the clarinet family

External links

The International Clarinet Association

The-Clarinets.net - Comprehensive clarinet info-site, non-commercial

Clarinets in the Edinburgh University Collection of Historic Musical Instruments

Clarinet acoustics

UNM List of Clarinet Repertoire

Clarinet Fingering Chart

Interactive Clarinet Fingering Trainer

Comprehensive list of fingerings for Kinderklarinettes and Boehm-, Albert-, and Oehler-system clarinets

Professional Orchestral Clarinetists Worldwide List

Category:Clarinets Category:French loanwords Category:Clarinetists Category:B-flat instruments Category:Reed aerophones

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Coordinates	29°57′53″N90°4′14″N
Name	Artie Shaw
Background	non_vocal_instrumentalist
Birth name	Arthur Jacob Arshawsky
Born	May 23, 1910New York City, New York, U.S.
Died	December 30, 2004Thousand Oaks, California, U.S.
Instrument	Clarinet
Genre	Swing, big band
Occupation	Bandleader, composer
Years active	1925–2004
Notable instruments	}}

Arthur Jacob Arshawsky (May 23, 1910 – December 30, 2004), better known as Artie Shaw, was an American jazz clarinetist, composer, and bandleader. He was also the author of both fiction and non-fiction writings.

Widely regarded as "one of jazz's finest clarinetists," Shaw led one of America's most popular big bands of the late 1930s and early '40s. Their signature song, a 1938 version of Cole Porter's "Begin the Beguine," was a wildly successful single and one of the era's defining recordings. Musically restless, Shaw was also an early proponent of Third Stream, which blended classical and jazz, and recorded some small-group sessions that flirted with be-bop before retiring from music in 1954.

Early life

Born Arthur Jacob Arshawsky in New York City, Shaw grew up in New Haven, Connecticut, where, according to his autobiography his natural introversion was deepened by local antisemitism. Shaw began learning the saxophone when he was 13 years old, and by the age of 16, he switched to the clarinet and left home to tour with a band. Returning to New York, he became a session musician through the early 1930s. From 1925 until 1936, Shaw performed with many bands and orchestras, including those of Johnny Caverello and Austin Wylie. In 1929 and 1930 he played with Irving Aaronson's Commanders, where he was exposed to symphonic music, which he would later incorporate in his arrangements.

Shaw first gained critical acclaim with his "Interlude in B-flat" at a swing concert at the Imperial Theater in New York in 1935. During the swing era, his big band was popular with hits like "Begin the Beguine" (1938), "Stardust" (with a trumpet solo by Billy Butterfield), "Back Bay Shuffle", "Moonglow", "Rosalie" and "Frenesi". He was an innovator in the big band idiom, using unusual instrumentation; "Interlude in B-flat", where he was backed with only a rhythm section and a string quartet, was one of the earliest examples of what would be later dubbed third stream.

In addition to hiring Buddy Rich, he signed Billie Holiday as his band's vocalist in 1938, becoming the first white bandleader to hire a full-time black female singer to tour the segregated Southern US. However, after recording "Any Old Time" she left the band due to hostility from audiences in the South, as well as from music company executives who wanted a more "mainstream" singer. His band became enormously successful, and his playing was eventually recognized as equal to that of Benny Goodman: longtime Duke Ellington clarinetist Barney Bigard cited Shaw as his favorite clarinet player. In response to Goodman's nickname, the "King of Swing", Shaw's fans dubbed him the "King of the Clarinet." Shaw, however, felt the titles were reversed. "Benny Goodman played clarinet. I played music," he said. In 1938 DownBeat Magazine's readers agreed with Shaw's evaluation and named Artie Shaw as the King of Swing.

Shaw prized innovation and exploration in music more highly than popular success and formulaic dance music, despite a string of hits which sold more than 100 million records. He fused jazz with classical music by adding strings to his arrangements, experimented with bebop, and formed "chamber jazz" groups that utilized such novel sounds as harpsichords or Afro-Cuban music.

The long series of musical groups Shaw formed included such talents as vocalists Billie Holiday, Helen Forrest and, Mel Tormé; drummers Buddy Rich and Dave Tough, guitarists Barney Kessel, Jimmy Raney, and Tal Farlow and trombonist-arranger Ray Conniff, among countless others. He composed the morose "Nightmare", with its Hassidic nuances, for his personal theme, rather than more approachable songs. In a televised interview of the 1970s, Shaw derided the often "asinine" songs that bands were compelled to play night after night. In 1994, he told Frank Prial (''The New York Times''), "I thought that because I was Artie Shaw I could do what I wanted, but all they wanted was 'Begin the Beguine.' "

Pacific overtures

During World War II, Shaw enlisted in the United States Navy and later formed a band, which served in the Pacific theater (just as Glenn Miller's wartime band served in Europe). After 18 months playing for Navy personnel (sometimes as many as four concerts a day in battle zones, including Guadalcanal), Shaw returned to the U.S. in a state of physical exhaustion, receiving a medical discharge. In the late 1940s, Shaw performed classical music at Carnegie Hall and with the New York Philharmonic under Leonard Bernstein.

Like Benny Goodman and other leaders of big bands, Shaw fashioned a small group from within the band. He named it the Gramercy Five after his home telephone exchange. Band pianist Johnny Guarneri played a harpsichord on the quintet recordings and Al Hendrickson played an electric guitar, which was unusual in jazz recordings of the time. Trumpeter Roy Eldridge later became part of the group, succeeding Billy Butterfield. The Gramercy Five's biggest hit was "Summit Ridge Drive". A CD of ''The Complete Gramercy Five'' sessions was released in 1990.

Throughout his career, Shaw would take sabbaticals from the music business. This included studying advanced mathematics, as cited in Karl Sabbagh's ''The Riemann Hypothesis.'' His first interregnum, at the height of his success, was met with disbelief by booking agents. They predicted that Shaw would not only be abandoning a million-dollar enterprise but that nightclub and theater owners would sue him for breach of contract. Shaw's offhand response was, "Tell 'em I'm insane. A nice, young American boy walking away from a million dollars, wouldn't you call that insane?"

In 1954, Shaw stopped playing the clarinet, citing his own perfectionism, which, he later said, would have killed him. He explained to a reporter, "In the world we live in, compulsive perfectionists finish last. You have to be Lawrence Welk, or, on another level, Irving Berlin, and write the same kind of music over and over again. I'm not able to do that." He spent the rest of the 1950s living in Europe.

In 1981, he organized a new Artie Shaw Band with clarinetist Dick Johnson as bandleader and soloist. Shaw himself guest conducted from time to time, ending his self-imposed retirement.

After Canadian filmmaker Brigitte Berman interviewed Shaw, Hoagy Carmichael, Doc Cheatham and others for her documentary film ''Bix: Ain't None of Them Play Like Him Yet'' (1981) about Bix Beiderbecke, she went on to create an Academy Award-winning documentary, ''Artie Shaw: Time Is All You've Got'' (1985), featuring her interviews with Shaw, Buddy Rich, Mel Tormé, Helen Forrest and others. Later in 2003, along with members of his original bands and other music professionals, Shaw was extensively interviewed by Russell Davies for the BBC Television documentary, ''Artie Shaw — Quest for Perfection'', which became his last major interview.

In 1991, Artie Shaw's band library and manuscript collection was donated to the University of Arizona. In 2004, he was presented with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

Personal life

A self-proclaimed "very difficult man," Shaw was married eight times: Jane Cairns (1932–33; annulled); Margaret Allen (1934–37; divorced); actress Lana Turner (1940; annulled); Betty Kern (1942–43; divorced), the daughter of songwriter Jerome Kern; actress Ava Gardner (1945–46; divorced); ''Forever Amber'' author Kathleen Winsor (1946–48; annulled); actress Doris Dowling (1952–56; divorced); and actress Evelyn Keyes (1957–85; divorced). He had one son, Steven Kern, with Betty Kern, and another son, Jonathan Shaw (a well-known tattoo artist who founded Fun City Tattoo), with Doris Dowling. Both Lana Turner and Ava Gardner later described Shaw as being extremely emotionally abusive. His controlling nature and incessant verbal abuse in fact drove Turner to have a nervous breakdown, soon after which she divorced him.

In 1946, Shaw was present at a meeting of the Independent Citizens' Committee of the Arts, Sciences and Professions. Olivia de Havilland and Ronald Reagan, part of a core group of actors and artists who were trying to sway the organization away from communism, presented an anti-communist declaration which, if signed, was to run in newspapers. There was bedlam as many rose to champion the communist cause, and Artie Shaw began praising the democratic standards of the Soviet constitution. In 1953, Shaw was brought up before the House Un-American Activities Committee for his leftist activities. The committee was investigating a peace activist organization, the World Peace Congress, which it considered a communist front.

He was a precision marksman, ranking fourth in the United States in 1962, as well as an expert fly fisherman. In his later years, Shaw lived and wrote in the Newbury Park section of Thousand Oaks, California. Shaw had long suffered from adult onset diabetes and eventually died of complications of the disease at age 94. In 2005, Shaw's eighth wife, Evelyn Keyes, sued Shaw's estate, claiming that she was entitled to one-half of Shaw's estate pursuant to a contract to make a will between them. In July 2006, a Ventura, California jury unanimously held that Keyes was entitled to almost one-half of Shaw's estate, or $1,420,000.

Radio

Shaw did many big band remotes, and he was often heard from the Blue Room of New York's Hotel Lincoln. It was the location of his only regular radio series as headliner. Sponsored by Old Gold cigarettes, Shaw broadcast on CBS from November 20, 1938 until November 14, 1939.

At the height of his popularity, Shaw reportedly earned $60,000 per week. For a comparison, George Burns and Gracie Allen were each making US $5,000 per week during the year the Artie Shaw Orchestra provided the music for their radio show. He also acted on the show as a love interest for Gracie Allen.

Shaw's recording of "Nightmare" was used as the theme soundtrack for BBC Radio's adaptation of the Philip Marlowe novels by Raymond Chandler.

Films, TV and fiction

Shaw made several musical shorts in 1939 for Vitaphone and Paramount Pictures, and he portrayed himself in the Fred Astaire film ''Second Chorus'' (1940), which featured Shaw and his orchestra playing "Concerto for Clarinet." The film brought him two Oscar nominations, for Best Score and Best Song ("Love of My Life"). He collaborated on the love song "If It's You" sung by Tony Martin in the Marx Brothers' film, ''The Big Store'' (1941). In 1950, he was a mystery guest on ''What's My Line?'', and during the 1970s he made appearances on ''The Mike Douglas Show'' and ''The Tonight Show''.

Many of his recordings have been used in motion pictures. His recording of "Stardust" was used in its entirety in the closing credits of the film "The Man Who Fell to Earth". Also, Martin Scorsese used the Shaw theme song, "Nightmare," in his Academy Award-winning Howard Hughes biopic, ''The Aviator''.

He credited his time in the Navy as a period of renewed introspection. He entered psychoanalysis and began to pursue a writing career. His autobiography, ''The Trouble With Cinderella: An Outline of Identity'' was published in 1952 (with later reprint editions in 1992 and 2001). Revealing downbeat elements of the music business, Shaw explained that "the trouble with Cinderella" is "nobody ever lives happily ever after." He turned to semi-autobiographical fiction with the three short novels in ''I Love You, I Hate You, Drop Dead!'' (1965, reprinted in 1997), which prompted Terry Southern's comment: "Here is a deeply probing examination of the American marital scene. I flipped over it!" Shaw's short stories, including "Snow White in Harlem," were collected in ''The Best of Intentions and Other Stories'' (1989). He worked for years on his 1000-page autobiographical novel ''The Education of Albie Snow'', but the three-volume work remains unpublished. Currently, through Curtis International Associates, the Artie Shaw Orchestra is still active.

Shaw is mentioned in the CBS television show "NCIS" by Ernie Yost, the fictional Medal of Honor recipient, in the episode "Call of Silence."

References

External links

University of Arizona: Artie Shaw Collection

Biography at swingmusic.net

Swing Bandleader, Clarinetist Artie Shaw Dies, ''The Washington Post'', December 31, 2004

Category:Articles with inconsistent citation formats Category:1910 births Category:2004 deaths Category:Swing clarinetists Category:American jazz composers Category:American jazz clarinetists Category:American military personnel of World War II Category:Clarinetists Category:Deaths from diabetes Category:Disease-related deaths in California Category:Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners Category:Big band bandleaders Category:American jazz bandleaders Category:People from New York City Category:People from New Haven, Connecticut Category:Bell Records artists Category:RCA Victor artists Category:Vocalion Records artists Category:Gennett recording artists

de:Artie Shaw es:Artie Shaw eo:Artie Shaw fr:Artie Shaw it:Artie Shaw he:ארטי שו ka:არტი შოუ hu:Artie Shaw nl:Artie Shaw no:Artie Shaw nds:Artie Shaw pl:Artie Shaw pt:Artie Shaw ro:Artie Shaw ru:Шоу, Арти simple:Artie Shaw fi:Artie Shaw sv:Artie Shaw

Coordinates	29°57′53″N90°4′14″N
name	Julian Bliss
background	non_vocal_instrumentalist
origin	Harpenden, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom
instrument	Clarinet
genre	Classical, Chamber music
occupation	Soloist, chamber musician, clarinet designer
website	http://www.julianbliss.com
notable instruments	Leblanc Bliss }}

Julian Bliss (born 1989) is a British clarinetist and clarinet designer. He has performed both as a soloist and as a chamber musician, notably with his teacher Sabine Meyer. He also recently designed the Bliss Clarinet for instrument manufacturer Leblanc.

Education

Bliss started playing clarinet at age 4, when he was given a Lyons C Clarinet, a clarinet designed to let children begin the clarinet four or more years younger than usual. Most students do not play wind instruments until age 11 or 12.

Bliss earned his Postgraduate Artist's Diploma from Indiana University in 2001 at age 12, but he was not awarded his diploma until he graduated from high school. He studied first with David Johnston at Harpenden,Paul Harris, then with Howard Klug at Indiana and now with Sabine Meyer in Germany at the Musikhochschule. He studies chamber music, conducting and studio technology at the Royal Academy of Music in London.

Music career

Bliss won the 2001 Concerto Soloists Young Artists Competition in Philadelphia. In 2002, he performed at Queen Elizabeth II's Golden Jubilee (during the Prom at the Palace) by royal invitation. He also performed at the Queen's 80th birthday.

He has appeared as a soloist with many orchestras, including the London Philharmonic, BBC Symphony, Royal Philharmonic, Orchestre National de France, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, BBC Philharmonic, NHK Symphony, Malaysian Philharmonic, Bergen Philharmonic and the National Youth Orchestra of Ireland Junior Orchestra. He has performed at Lincoln Centre in New York City and the Louvre in Paris.

Bliss also has a career as a chamber musician. He has collaborated with many of the world's top classical artists, including Joshua Bell, Stephen Kovacevich, Elena Bashkirova, Julian Rachlin, and Hélène Grimaud.

He was the subject of a three-part made-for-television documentary entitled "Gifted". He also appeared on the ''Today'' program in the United States and on NHK in Japan.

Leblanc Bliss

In collaboration with Leblanc, Bliss developed the Leblanc Bliss clarinet. Says Bliss of the line: "I know I can pick up any Bliss clarinet and be able to perform at the level to which I am accustomed." He characterizes the clarinet's design as "wicked".

The design deviates from standard synthetic clarinets in that it does not use acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), but instead uses a custom composite that produces 20% more amplitude. The barrel and bell are narrower (and thus lighter) than standard clarinets, and the keys are plated in black nickel to differentiate the clarinet's appearance from those with traditional silver-colored keys. The bore has several tapers and is manufactured to tolerances of hundreds of thousandths of an inch. The right hand trill keys are above the gravity line to reduce the risk of water in the tone holes.

Discography

After his debut album with Julien Quentin, Bliss signed an exclusive recording contract with EMI's main label.

2002: ''Prom at the Palace'', with various artists, EMI Classics

2003: ''Music for Clarinet and Piano'', with Julien Quentin, EMI Classics

2007: ''Krommer Concerto for two clarinets, Spohr Clarinet Concerto No. 4'', with Sabine Meyer (Clarinet) and Kenneth Sillito and Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, EMI Classics

2009: ''Best Encores 100'', with various artists, EMI Classics

References

External links

Julian Bliss Website

Leblanc Bliss

Category:1989 births Category:Living people Category:British classical musicians Category:Clarinetists

Mitchell and Webb are a British comedy double act, comprising David Mitchell (born 14 July 1974) and Robert Webb (born 29 September 1972). They are best known for starring in the Channel 4 sitcom ''Peep Show''.

They met whilst students at Cambridge University. They have also performed three sketch shows, ''Bruiser'' for BBC2, ''The Mitchell and Webb Situation'', on the short-lived Play UK channel, and their own Radio 4 sketch show, ''That Mitchell and Webb Sound'' – which was later adapted for television on BBC Two as ''That Mitchell and Webb Look''. Mitchell and Webb have written for Armstrong and Miller and ''Big Train''. They often appear with Olivia Colman, James Bachman, Mark Evans and Paterson Joseph.

Mitchell and Webb have also appeared in the short-lived U.K. regional versions of the 'Get a Mac' advertisements for Apple. They also voiced a pair of peas on the Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway sponsorship adverts for Birds Eye.

''Magicians'', a film starring the pair was released on 18 May 2007.

In 2008, the duo wrote a pilot script for their first original sitcom; in ''Playing Shop'', the two star as Eric and Jamie, friends who set up a business together after they are made redundant from their old jobs. Hartswood Films recorded the pilot episode on 20 December, with a view to producing a full series for BBC Two. They have also released the book This Mitchell and Webb Book.

References

Category:British comedy duos Category:Apple Inc. advertising

Coordinates	29°57′53″N90°4′14″N
Name	Ástor Piazzolla
Background	non_vocal_instrumentalist
Birth name	Ástor Pantaleón Piazzolla
Born	March 11, 1921 Mar del Plata, Argentina
Died	July 04, 1992 Buenos Aires, Argentina
Genre	Nuevo tango
Occupation	Composer, Bandoneón player
Instrument	}}

Ástor Pantaleón Piazzolla (March 11, 1921 – July 4, 1992) was an Argentine tango composer and bandoneón player. His oeuvre revolutionized the traditional tango into a new style termed ''nuevo tango'', incorporating elements from jazz and classical music. A virtuoso bandoneónist, he regularly performed his own compositions with different ensembles.

Biography

Piazzolla was born in Mar del Plata, Argentina, in 1921 to Italian parents, Vicente "Nonino" Piazzolla and Asunta Manetti. His grandfather, a sailor and fisherman named Pantaleone Piazzolla, had immigrated to Mar del Plata from Trani, a seaport town in the southeastern Italian region of Apulia, at the end of the 19th century. Ástor Piazzolla spent most of his childhood with his family in New York City, where he was exposed to both jazz and the music of J. S. Bach at an early age. While there, he acquired fluency in four languages: Spanish, English, French, and Italian. He began to play the bandoneon after his father, nostalgic for his homeland, spotted one in a New York pawn shop. At the age of 13, he met Carlos Gardel, another great figure of tango, who invited the young prodigy to join him on his current tour. Much to his dismay, Piazzolla's father deemed that he was not old enough to go along. While he did play a young paper boy in Gardel’s movie ''El día que me quieras'' , this early disappointment of being kept from the tour proved to be a blessing in disguise, as it was on this tour that Gardel and his entire band perished in a plane crash. In later years, Piazzolla made light of this near miss, joking that had his father not been so careful, he wouldn't be playing the bandoneon—he'd be playing the harp.

He returned to Argentina in 1937, where strictly traditional tango still reigned, and played in night clubs with a series of groups including the orchestra of Anibal Troilo, then considered the top bandoneon player and bandleader in Buenos Aires. The pianist Arthur Rubinstein—then living in Buenos Aires—advised him to study with the Argentine composer Alberto Ginastera. Delving into scores of Stravinsky, Bartók, Ravel, and others, he rose early each morning to hear the Teatro Colón orchestra rehearse while continuing a gruelling performing schedule in the tango clubs at night. In 1950 he composed the soundtrack to the film ''Bólidos de acero''.

At Ginastera's urging, in 1953 Piazzolla entered his ''Buenos Aires'' Symphony in a composition contest, and won a grant from the French government to study in Paris with the legendary French composition teacher Nadia Boulanger. In 1954 he and his first wife, the artist Dedé Wolff, left Buenos Aires and their two children (Diana aged 11 and Daniel aged 10) behind and travelled to Paris. The insightful Boulanger turned Piazzolla's life around in a day, as he related in his own words:

Piazzolla returned from New York to Argentina in 1955, formed the Octeto Buenos Aires with Enrico Mario Francini and Hugo Baralis on violins, Atilio Stampone on piano, Leopoldo Federico as second bandoneon, Horacio Malvicino on electric guitar, José Bragato on cello and Juan Vasallo on double bass to play tangos, and never looked back.

Upon introducing his new approach to the tango ''(nuevo tango)'', he became a controversial figure among Argentines both musically and politically. The Argentine saying "in Argentina everything may change – except the tango" suggests some of the resistance he found in his native land. However, his music gained acceptance in Europe and North America, and his reworking of the tango was embraced by some liberal segments of Argentine society, who were pushing for political changes in parallel to his musical revolution.

During the period of Argentine military dictatorship from 1976 to 1983, Piazzolla lived in Italy, but returned many times to Argentina, recorded there, and on at least one occasion had lunch with the dictator Jorge Rafael Videla. However, his relationship with the dictator might have been less than friendly, as recounted in ''Ástor Piazzolla, A manera de memorias'' (a comprehensive collection of interviews, constituting a memoir):

In 1990 he suffered thrombosis in Paris, and died two years later in Buenos Aires.

Among his followers, his own protégé Marcelo Nisinman is the best known innovator of the tango music of the new millennium, while Pablo Ziegler, pianist with Piazzolla's second quintet, has assumed the role of principal custodian of nuevo tango, extending the jazz influence in the style. The Brazilian guitarist Sergio Assad has also experimented with folk-derived, complex virtuoso compositions that show Piazzolla's structural influence while steering clear of tango sounds; and Osvaldo Golijov has acknowledged Piazzolla as perhaps the greatest influence on his globally oriented, eclectic compositions for classical and klezmer performers.

Musical style

Piazzolla's ''nuevo tango'' was distinct from the traditional tango in its incorporation of elements of jazz, its use of extended harmonies and dissonance, its use of counterpoint, and its ventures into extended compositional forms. As Argentine psychoanalyst Carlos Kuri has pointed out, Piazzolla's fusion of tango with this wide range of other recognizable Western musical elements was so successful that it produced a new individual style transcending these influences. It is precisely this success, and individuality, that makes it hard to pin down where particular influences reside in his compositions, but some aspects are clear. The use of the passacaglia technique of a circulating bass line and harmonic sequence, invented and much used in 17th and 18th century baroque music but also central to the idea of jazz "changes", predominates in most of Piazzolla's mature compositions. Another clear reference to the baroque is the often complex and virtuosic counterpoint that sometimes follows strict fugal behavior but more often simply allows each performer in the group to assert his voice. A further technique that emphasises this sense of democracy and freedom among the musicians is improvisation that is borrowed from jazz in concept, but in practice involves a different vocabulary of scales and rhythms that stay within the parameters of the established tango sound-world. Pablo Ziegler has been particularly responsible for developing this aspect of the style both within Piazzolla's groups and since the composer's death.

With the composition of ''Adiós Nonino'' in 1959, Piazzolla established a standard structural pattern for his compositions, involving a formal pattern of fast-slow-fast-slow-coda, with the fast sections emphasizing gritty tango rhythms and harsh, angular melodic figures, and the slower sections usually making use of the string instrument in the group and/or Piazzolla's own bandoneón as lyrical soloists. The piano tends to be used throughout as a percussive rhythmic backbone, while the electric guitar either joins in this role or spins filigree improvisations; the double bass parts are usually of little interest, but provide an indispensable rugged thickness to the sound of the ensemble. The quintet of bandoneon, violin, piano, electric guitar and double bass was Piazzolla's preferred setup on two extended occasions during his career, and most critics consider it to be the most successful instrumentation for his works. This is due partly to its great efficiency in terms of sound – it covers or imitates most sections of a symphony orchestra, including the percussion which is improvised by all players on the bodies of their instruments – and the strong expressive identity it permits each individual musician. With a style that is both rugged and intricate, such a setup augments the compositions' inherent characteristics.

Despite the prevalence of the quintet formation and the ABABC compositional structure, Piazzolla consistently experimented with other musical forms and instrumental combinations. In 1965 an album was released containing collaborations between Piazzolla and Jorge Luis Borges where Borges's poetry was narrated over very avant-garde music by Piazzolla including the use of dodecaphonic (twelve-tone) rows, free non-melodic improvisation on all instruments, and modal harmonies and scales. In 1968 Piazzolla wrote and produced an "operita", ''María de Buenos Aires'', that employed a larger ensemble including flute, percussion, multiple strings and three vocalists, and juxtaposed movements in Piazzolla's own style with several pastiche numbers ranging from waltz and hurdy-gurdy to a piano/narrator bar-room ''scena'' straight out of ''Casablanca''.

By the 1970s Piazzolla was living in Rome, managed by the Italian agent Aldo Pagani, and exploring a leaner, more fluid musical style drawing on more jazz influence, and with simpler, more continuous forms. Pieces that exemplify this new direction include ''Libertango'' and most of the ''Suite Troileana'', written in memory of the late Anibal Troilo. In the 1980s Piazzolla was rich enough, for the first time, to become relatively autonomous artistically, and wrote some of his most ambitious multi-movement works. These included ''Tango Suite'' for the virtuoso guitar duo Sergio and Odair Assad; ''Histoire du Tango'', where a flutist and guitarist tell the history of tango in four chunks of music styled at thirty-year intervals; and ''La Camorra'', a suite in three ten minute movements, inspired by the Neapolitan crime family and exploring symphonic concepts of large-scale form, thematic development, contrasts of texture and massive accumulations of ensemble sound. After making three albums in New York with the second quintet and producer Kip Hanrahan, two of which he described on separate occasions as "the greatest thing I've done", he disbanded the quintet, formed a sextet with an extra bandoneon, cello, bass, electric guitar, and piano, and wrote music for this ensemble that was even more adventurous harmonically and structurally than any of his previous works (''Preludio y Fuga; Sex-tet''). Had he not suffered an incapacitating stroke on the way to Notre Dame mass in 1990, it is likely that he would have continued to use his popularity as a performer of his own works to experiment in relative safety with even more audacious musical techniques, while possibly responding to the surging popularity of non-Western musics by finding ways to incorporate new styles into his own. In his musical professionalism and open-minded attitude to existing styles he held the mindset of an 18th century composing performer such as Handel or Mozart, who were anxious to assimilate all national "flavors" of their day into their own compositions, and who always wrote with both first-hand performing experience and a sense of direct social relationship with their audiences. This may have resulted in a backlash amongst conservative tango aficionados in Argentina, but in the rest of the West it was the key to his extremely sympathetic reception among classical and jazz musicians, both seeing some of the best aspects of their musical practices reflected in his work.

Musical career

Piazzolla, after leaving Troilo's orchestra in the 1940s, led numerous ensembles beginning with the 1946 Orchestra, the 1955 Octeto Buenos Aires, the 1960 "First Quintet", the 1971 Conjunto 9 ("Noneto"), the 1978 "Second Quintet" and the 1989 New Tango Sextet. As well as providing original compositions and arrangements, he was the director and Bandoneon player in all of them. He also recorded the album ''Summit'' with jazz baritone saxophonist Gerry Mulligan. His numerous compositions include orchestral work such as the "Concierto para bandoneón, orquesta, cuerdas y percusión", "Doble concierto para bandoneón y guitarra", "Tres tangos sinfónicos" and "Concierto de Nácar para 9 tanguistas y orquesta", pieces for the solo classical guitar—the ''Cinco Piezas'' (1980), as well as song-form compositions that still today are well known by the general public in his country, like "Balada para un loco" (Ballad for a madman) and ''Adiós Nonino'' (dedicated to his father) which he recorded many times with different musicians and ensembles. Biographers estimate that Piazzolla wrote around 3,000 pieces and recorded around 500.

In the summer of 1985 he appeared with his Quinteto Tango Nuevo at the Almeida Theatre in London for a week-long engagement. On September 6, 1987, his quintet gave a concert in New York's Central Park, which was recorded and, in 1994, released in compact disk format as ''The Central Park Concert.''

Discography

''Two Argentinians in Paris'' (with Lalo Schifrin, 1955)

''Sinfonía de Tango'' (Orquesta de Cuerdas, 1955)

''Adiós Nonino'' (1960)

''Piazzolla Interpreta A Piazzolla'' (Quinteto, 1961)

''Piazzolla … O No?'' (canta Nelly Vazquez, Quinteto, 1961)

''Nuestro Tiempo'' (canta Hector de Rosas, Quinteto, 1962)

''Tango Contemporáneo'' (Nuevo Octeto, 1963)

''Tango Para Una Cuidad'' (canta Héctor De Rosas, Quinteto, 1963)

''Concierto en el Philharmonic Hall de New York'' (Quinteto, 1965)

''El Tango. Jorge Luis Borges – Ástor Piazzolla'' (Orquesta and Quinteto, 1965)

''La Guardia Vieja'' (1966)

''La Historia del Tango. La Guardia Vieja'' (Orquesta, 1967)

''La Historia del Tango''. Época Romántica (Orquesta, 1967)

''ION Studios'' (1968)

''María de Buenos Aires'' (Orquesta, 1968)

''Piazzolla En El Regina'' (Quinteto, 1970)

''Original Tangos from Argentina Vol. 1 & 2'' (solo bandeneon, 1970)

''Pulsación'' (Orquesta, 1970)

''Piazzolla-Troilo'' (Dúo de Bandoneones, 1970)

''Concerto Para Quinteto'' (Quinteto, 1971)

''La Bicicleta Blanca'', (Amelita Baltar y Orquesta, 1971)

''En Persona'' (recita Horacio Ferrer, Ástor Piazzolla, 1971)

''Música Popular Contemporánea de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires. Vol.1 & 2'' (Conjunto 9, 1972)

''Roma'' (Conjunto 9, 1972)

''Libertango'' (Orquesta, 1974)

''Piazzolla and Amelita Baltar'' (1974)

''Summit (Reunión Cumbre) with Gerry Mulligan'' (Orquesta, 1974)

''Suite Troileana-Lumiere'' (Orquesta, 1975)

''Buenos Aires'' (1976)

''Il Pleut Sur Santiago'' (Orquesta, 1976)

''Piazzolla & El Conjunto Electrónico'' (Conjunto Electrónico, 1976)

''Piazzolla en el Olimpia de Paris'' (Conjunto Electrónico, 1977)

''Lo Que Vendrá'' (Orquesta de Cuerdas and Quinteto Nuevo Tiempo, 1979)

''Piazzolla-Goyeneche En Vivo, Teatro Regina'' (Quinteto Tango Nuevo, 1982)

''Oblivion'' (Orquesta, 1982)

''Suite Punta Del Este'' (Quinteto, 1982)

''Live in Lugano'' (Quinteto, 1983)

''SWF Rundfunkorchester'' (1983)

''Concierto de Nácar – Piazzolla en el Teatro Colón'' (Conjunto 9 y Orquesta Filarmónica del Teatro Colón, 1983)

''Live in Colonia'' (Quinteto Tango Nuevo, 1984)

''Montreal Jazz Festival'' (Quinteto Tango Nuevo, 1984)

''Live in Wien Vol.1'' (Quinteto Tango Nuevo, 1984)

''Enrico IV'' (sound track of film ''Enrico IV (film)Enrico IV'', 1984)

''Green Studio'' (1984)

''Teatro Nazionale di Milano'' (1984)

''El Nuevo Tango. Piazzolla y Gary Burton'' (Quinteto, 1986)

''El Exilio de Gardel'' (soundtrack of film El Exilio de Gardel, Quinteto, 1986)

''Tango: Zero Hour'' (Quinteto Tango Nuevo, 1986)

''Central Park Concert'' (Quinteto, 1987)

''Concierto para Bandoneón – Tres Tangos'' with the Orchestra of St. Luke's, Lalo Schifrin (conductor), Princeton University (1987)

''Sur'' (soundtrack of film Sur, Quinteto, 1988)

''Luna. Live in Amsterdam'' (Quinteto Tango Nuevo, 1989)

''Lausanne Concert'' (Sexteto, 1989)

''Live at the BBC'' (1989)

''La Camorra'' (Quinteto Tango Nuevo, 1989)

''Hommage a Liege: Concierto para bandoneón y guitarra/Historia del Tango'' (1988) with Liège Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Leo Brouwer. The concerto was performed by Piazzolla with Cacho Tirao, the ''Historia'' by Guy Lukowski and Marc Grawels.

''Bandoneón Sinfónico'' (1990)

''The Rough Dancer and the Cyclical Night (Tango apasionado)'' (1991)

''Five Tango Sensations'' (Ástor Piazzolla and Kronos Quartet, 1991)

''Original Tangos from Argentina'' (1992)

''Lausanne Concert'' (Sexteto, 1993)

''Central Park Concert 1987'' (Quinteto, 1994)

''El Nuevo Tango de Buenos Aires'' (Quinteto, 1995)

''57 Minutos con la Realidad'' (Sexteto, 1996)

''Tres Minutos con la Realidad'' (Sexteto, 1997)

See also

''María de Buenos Aires'', a tango opera by Piazzolla

''Estaciones Porteñas'', Piazzolla’s 4 Seasons

''12 Monkeys'', a movie whose soundtrack is derived and excerpted from Piazzolla's Suite Punta del Este

Ave Maria

References

External links

[ Ástor Piazzolla] in Allmusic

Piazzolla discography

Piazzolla.Org founded by John Buckman

Todo tango:Piazzolla Piazzolla Revolucionario Querido Ástor Piazzollazzo.com.ar E-Astoria.be (Ensemble Astoria). Astorpia.com (Astorpia Tango Quintet).

Piazzolla Sheet Music For Accordion

Ástor Piazzolla biography and discography at World Music Central

see also "Tangata" – the music of Astor Piazzolla...the Manny Bobenrieth Ensemble, R&L; Records ;Video recordings

''Fuga Y Misterio'' Played by Classical Jam

''Fracanapa'' Played by Classical Jam

''Maria de Buenos Aires'' Played by Astorpia Tango Quintet.

''Libertango'' Original version by Astor Piazzolla

''Libertango'' Played by Néstor Marconi and Yo-Yo Ma.

''Oblivion'' Played by Cellistanbul and Julian Lloyd Webber

''Decarisimo'' Played by Nuevo Tango Ensamble

Performance of Oblivion http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WAclIk8Bho

Libertango Played by Glass Duo

Fugata Played by Nuevo Tango Ensamble

La muerte del angel Played by Nuevo Tango Ensamble

Category:1921 births Category:1992 deaths Category:Argentine musicians Category:Argentine people of Italian descent Category:Argentine songwriters Category:Argentine bandoneonists Category:Bandoneonists Category:Argentine classical bandoneonists Category:Argentine composers Category:Argentine film score composers Category:People from Mar del Plata Category:20th-century classical composers Category:Tango musicians

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