Clarinets

introduction | piccolo clarinet in A-flat | piccolo clarinet in E-flat | clarinet in C | clarinets in B-flat & A | clarinet d’amore in G | basset horn in F | alto clarinet in E-flat | bass clarinet in B-flat | contralto clarinet in E-flat | contrabass clarinet in B-flat

Low-range instruments > contrabass clarinet in B-flat

General

This is the lowest instrument of the clarinet family today, pitched one octave below the bass clarinet. Despite the size and cost of contrabass clarinets, they are relatively common coming in different shapes and sizes. A lot like the bass clarinet, the sound of the contrabass clarinet can be heard quite often in new music for small to large ensembles, but also film scores and more recent orchestral works. It has a very large range offering many different colours from subsonic rumblings to glassy high harmonics.

Nearby range and tone colour pairings: bass oboe, baritone saxophone, bassoon, contrabassoon, horn, trombone, bass trombone, percussion, cello, double bass

Distant range and tone colour pairings: high woodwinds, high brass, high/small percussion, high strings

—Video example in preparation—

Notable repertoire:

Gérard Grisey — Anubis-Nout (1983) for solo contrabass clarinet
Franco Donatoni — Ombra (1984) for solo contrabass clarinet
Richard Barrett — interference (1996-2000) for solo contrabass clarinet, voice & bass drum
Liza Lim — Machine for Contacting the Dead (1999-2000) for solo bass/contrabass clarinet & cello and ensemble
Dominik Karski — the outward impulse (2007) for solo contrabass clarinet & tam-tam

Transposition hacks

sounding > written: think a major second higher then two octaves higher [ + M2 + 2Œ ] • if the sounding notation is in bass clef, read as mezzo-soprano clef • if the sounding notation is in treble clef, read as tenor clef
written > sounding: think a major second lower then two octaves lower [ - M2 - 2Π]

Low-range clarinets (bass, contralto and contrabass clarinet)

The group of low-range instruments is most commonly represented by the bass and contrabass clarinets, as well as their less well-known sibling the contralto clarinet. There were however more instruments created that today spend their lives in museums. Bass clarinets in C and A were manufactured for some time and a total of three octocontralto clarinets and one octocontrabass clarinet were made. Rising costs of materials and labour may explain the fate of these now obsolete instruments, but also streamlining in the way composers wrote for low instruments. Parts for bass clarinet in C and A became virtually non-existent after World War I. The emergence of the bass clarinet in B-flat as a solo instrument as early as 1928 (Othmar Schoeck — Sonata op. 41) piqued widespread interest and thus this instrument underwent a period of constant improvement during the 20th century. Today’s bass clarinets are masterpieces of technical ingenuity with improvements still being made.

Whilst the bass clarinet enjoyed a shining career in the symphony orchestra, the contralto and contrabass clarinets were relegated to the wind symphony, even though some works for orchestra with contrabass clarinet do exist. Nonetheless both of these instruments possess great potential as solo instruments, as already proven in some cases, and are a great asset to any kind of small to large ensemble. Makes of these instruments differ wildly to the extent that some solo pieces are written for a particular model and performances on other models have to be "adapted". The way multiphonics behave from instrument to instrument is also quite different.

Essentially all three instruments (bass, contralto, contrabass) offer strong bass voices, a wide variety of spectral, fingered and dyadic multiphonics and all other extended techniques. The character of the sound of each instrument should be investigated up close to determine which instrument is right for you. Please refer to the section on writing in bass clef for clarinet as this is most applicable to these instruments.

Bass clef

Bass clef has been used since the 18th century when writing for clarinets capable of producing notes in the basset range of the instrument (written Eb3 to C3 or e♭ to c). As basset clarinets, today’s clarinet d’amore, basset horns and some very few types of alto clarinet fall into this category, a brief excursus into the use of bass clef when writing for clarinet is necessary at this point.

Almost all music for clarinet is written in treble clef due to the practice of playing the clarinet as a transposing instrument, i.e. a written middle C4 (c’) always sounds different depending on the clarinet played (see Transposition above). Earlier examples of music for clarinet show us that sometimes bass clef was used to delineate the context of musical material in the lowest register of the instrument (chalumeau) in contrast to higher passages in eg. the clarion register, that were written in treble clef. Ensemble or orchestral works in which the clarinet part essentially played the role of a bass or tenor voice for the duration, may have been written entirely in bass clef. Over time various conventions evolved that any low clarinet player must be able to navigate. The most common of these are French, German and Italian:

French notation: if bass clef is used at all, it is written one octave lower than the standard transposition, utilising the whole stave. Treble clef is read as normal. (see the above example)
German notation: bass clef and treble clef are written one octave lower, meaning that the clarinettist needs to play passages in treble clef one octave higher.
Italian notation: bass clef and treble clef both adhere to the instruments standard transposition, however much of the bass stave is rendered unusable.

If you as a composer or arranger want to use bass clef for a low clarinet part either in-part or entirely, I would recommend that you use bass clef as shown in the example above, in which the passages in bass clef are notated one octave lower. This enables a smoother visual transition from bass to treble clefs.