History of the Clarinet From the 19th Century

While composers had already begun to write music for the clarinet, such as Mozart with the Clarinet Concerto and Clarinet Quintet, it was the 19th century that saw an explosion of use of the clarinet in the music of most composers of the day. This was mainly due to two factors.

Firstly, the further development of the clarinet by Iwan Műller in the first half of the century had resulted in a more reliable and agile instrument, which was later combined with the Boehm fingering system, adopted from the flute. Also, the tonal qualities suited the Romantic era, able to express a gamut of emotions as music moved from the formality of the Classical era to the Romantic.

As with Mozart, many composers of the Romantic era were inspired to write their great clarinet music by virtuosic clarinetists of their day. Carl Maria von Weber wrote two concertos and a concertino for the great clarinet player Heinrich Baermann, including some of the most technically difficult passages yet written for the clarinet.

Brahms wrote some sublime chamber music for the clarinet when inspired by another great clarinetist, Richard Muhlfield, who is credited with inspiring Brahms to compose again when he had claimed to have retired. Other composers who used the clarinet to great effect were Berlioz and Rossini.

The 20th century continued the popularity of the clarinet, which was now used in jazz as well as 'art' music. One of the most famous orchestral pieces of the 20th century, Rhapsody in Blue by Gershwin, begins with a memorable clarinet glissandos, perhaps the most well known instance of a clarinet used in orchestral music.

Written by Marc Hofkens - if you are interested in finding hundreds of articles about the clarinet go and find it at 1st-clarinet-music.

Lots of sheet music for the clarinet to download!

Latest News


Metacafe Invites Viewers to Get Their Groove On With New Music Channel
MarketWatch - 2 hours ago
Metacafe's more than 38 million unique monthly viewers(1) are now invited to watch, comment on and share their favorite music videos. ...

Nokia Music Store Italy: More Than 4 Million Songs
MarketWatch - 5 hours ago
has announced the launch in Italy of its new digital music site, Nokia Music Store, which already has a catalogue of more than 4 million songs amongst which ...

New York Times

He Can Bring the Wine and the Music
New York Times, United States - 10 hours ago
By ERIC ASIMOV FOR music and for wine, David Chan says, language has its limitations. He should know. THE RIGHT NOTES David Chan, violinist and Burgundy ...

Product Reviews

Microsoft slashes prices of several Zune music players
Seattle Post Intelligencer - 12 hours ago
By JOSEPH TARTAKOFF Microsoft slashed the prices of several of its Zune music players Tuesday, hoping to drive holiday sales despite the weak economic ...
Crispin Unveils Push for Zune Adweek
Microsoft Hopes Price Cuts Will Help Zune in the Holiday Season Profy
Microsoft hiding from the Zune? CNET News
Yahoo! Tech - SlashGear
all 24 news articles

Music Review | Kirov Orchestra and Chorus Prokofiev Did Relish a ...
New York Times, United States - 10 hours ago
By JAMES R. OESTREICH It’s too bad, as Harlow Robinson points out in program notes, that Prokofiev never got around to reshaping his music for the two-part ...

MTV.com

Music Review: Chinese Democracy
Entertainment Weekly - 2 hours ago
This is unapologetically huge music, not fit for tiny iPod earbuds. At times it's possible to hear the world-changing CD that Rose — whose banshee howl ...
Axl Rose's Most Amazing MTV Moments, In Bigger Than The Sound MTV.com
Official UK Chinese Democracy premiere announced MusicRadar.com - The place for music makers
'Chinese Democracy' review: Ancient Chinese secret, huh? Hilton Head Island Packet
Idolator - MSNBC
all 108 news articles

paidContent.org - Gaming Roundup: NatGeo; Music Mogul; Square Enix ...
Washington Post, United States - 6 hours ago
?Music-focused virtual world to launch in February : Is there room for another virtual world?and a music-focused one at that? The founders of Music Mogul ...

Telegraph.co.uk

Sleater-Kinney's guitarist tries out Wii Music.
Slate - 4 hours ago
That's what I thought of the first time I played Nintendo's new game Wii Music. Unlike Rock Band and Guitar Hero, where the fun is derived from living ...
"BANDthology-This Game Rocks!" MarketWatch
Wii Music fails to find an audience at launch Ars Technica
Wii Music video game review Telegraph.co.uk
Blabbermouth.net - GamePro Arcade
all 41 news articles

Top Cyberspace Lawyer Challenges RIAA's Music-Sharing Lawsuits
InformationWeek, NY - 22 hours ago
By W. David Gardner The legions of online music sharers, often forced to defend themselves in expensive litigation filed by recording industry interests, ...

ABC News

A Little Bit of Country Music Goes a Long Way for Nontraditional ...
ABC News - 17 hours ago
By IMAEYEN IBANGA Country music has given birth to some of the nation's best songs, artists and has helped give birth to rock-'n'-roll. ...
Country Music Finds New Star In Darius Rucker NPR
all 2 news articles

Resources