Loading...
 

clarinet

367 years ago, Monday, August 13, 1655, noted German Baroque-Era woodwind instrument maker Johann Christoph Denner (1655-1707), credited as the inventor of the clarinet, was born in Leipzig, Germany.
Denner combined the body of a Baroque recorder with the mouthpiece of a duck call (a heteroglot single-beating reed in a wind-cap), thus creating a new instrument, the “chalumeau.” By omitting the wind-cap Denner took the most important step from wild-game call to musical instrument: the reed was now controlled by the player’s lips. The new instrument was capable of rich nuances, dynamics, and expression.
Around the turn of the 18th Century, Denner invented the clarinet by adding a register key to his chalumeau, which enables the instrument to play in the second register; that is, it raises the pitch of most first-register notes by a twelfth (19 semitones) when pressed. Over time, additional key-work & airtight pads were added to improve tone & playability - eventually leading to the modern clarinet as it is known in the present day.

See Also


air column resonance
Cavity Resonator
organ pipe

Created by Dale Pond. Last Modification: Saturday August 13, 2022 12:59:00 MDT by Dale Pond.