Bass clarinet is from the family of clarinets, also in Bb but one octave lower. It is around a meter tall and with keys almost half a meter in length. Many people (including me) are fascinated by the beautiful low sound by the bass clarinet. But when was it appeared. and when it started being popular?
At first, In Paris in 1772 Gilles Lot created a clarinet with several keys and a compass of more than three octaves, which he called a ”basse-tube”. At first, there were bass clarinet in the pitch of A and Bb, but later on, bass clarinet in Bb was more commonly used in orchestra, wind band, and even military band.
It was first being used by Giacomo Meyerbeer scored for a bass clarinet in his opera Les Huguenots, and even included various solo parts. Since then, bass clarinet is more widely used in orchestra.....though sometimes bass clarinet players count a lot empty bars before their entries.
Some might think that there's very limited range for bass clarinet to play, and almost difficult to play fast. However, with a lot practice and wisely use of alternative fingerings, there are a lot possibilities and color tone made by bass clarinet!
Flight of the Bumblebee on Bass Clarinet. Boom.
I hope you all find out the potential and beautiful sound of bass clarinet in this article.
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