Developement Of The Clarinet

Dating back to 2700 B.C. the Egyptians had an instrument known as the zummara (Pino 193). It was an instrument that used a single beating reed and operated on the same principle as the modern day clarinet. The zummara had two parallel pipes, as oppose to the single pipe in the clarinet of today. This difference between the two would have caused the zummara to sound dissonant. At about this same time in history India had an instrument known as the pungi or magudi. This instrument was similiar to the zummara because it also had a double pipe. But the pungi differed from the zummara by having its reed enclosed within a wooden chamber. When played the pungi or magudi would have played melodically. In the middle ages in Scotland there was an instrument called the stock-and-horn it closely resembles the modern day clarinet with its single reed, single pipe, bell horn, and eight finger holes. Of two surviving specimens one is preserved in the Museu

The earliest mention of a piece of music composed for the clarinet is four concertos for the clarinet. Composed by Johann M. Molter and are significant because they are the oldest solo clarinet music in existence. The wind sections of most orchestras continued to grow throughout the seventeen hundreds. In 1749 Jean-Philippe Rameau introduced the clarinet to the sophisticated people of Paris when he included the clarinet in the score of his opera Zoroastre (Pino 202). Johann Christian Bach introduced the clarinet in London in 1751 by using it in several of his compositions. Most notably the great composers Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven, wrote music for the wind section for what would become the basis for the wind section of the normal classical orchestra. It would be the composer Mozart that is noted for putting the clarinet on the map so to speak.

Most of the repertoire for the clarinet during the years of between 1700 and 1790 was written by Mozart. Some of the pieces he wrote for the piano and clarinet like, Concerto and Quintet, K. 581, a piece he wrote for the clarinet, viola and piano was Trio, K. 498. He also wrote many woodwind quintets some titles are Divertimento No. 14, Divertimento No. 12, and Divertimento in E-flat. Those are just to name a few. From 1790 to 1820 Beethoven is the next great composer for the clarinet. Although he did not write any solos for the clarinet, Beethoven did however include clarinets in all of his symphonies beginning with No. 1. Some of Beethoven’s most notable works are Opus 11, No. 4, Opus 16, Eroica Symphony and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. To sum it up Beethoven did some especially fine clarinet writing. In the years between 1820 and 1910 a couple of names are worth men

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