The
Mellow Sound Of Clarinet
Music
About
The Clarinet
The
clarinet has a distinct sound
that brings a mellow tone. Mainly
used in the classical and jazz
genres, clarinet music is as
popular today as it ever was.
School children who learn the
recorder often progress to the
clarinet.
There are
different types of this musical
instrument having their own
pitch, including soprano, bass
and alto.
Clarinet
Music And Its Family -- The
Woodwind
Instruments
It is in
the woodwind family and has the
widest pitch range of that group.
Professional musicians use
clarinets made from African
hardwoods. These tend to be
expensive but cheaper plastic
resin ones are available too, so
parents don't have to worry about
it being an expensive hobby.
The
instrument uses a single reed,
traditionally made from a type of
grass but most shops will sell
reeds from synthetic materials,
again bringing down the
price.
How Many
Clarinets In An
Orchestra?
An
orchestra normally contains two
or three clarinetists and there
has been a lot of clarinet music
written as orchestral pieces or
as chamber music. It is also
favored as a solo instrument,
featured in clarinet concertos by
Mozart and Carl von Weber.
American
composer Aaron Copland has also
composed for the clarinet. There
are plenty of examples of 20th
century clarinet music by leading
composers, including Richard
Strauss, Igor Stravinsky and
Olivier Messiaen.
Popular
formats for the clarinet include
the Clarinet Quintet, made up of
a clarinet and a string quartet.
The Wind Quintet consists of
clarinet, oboe, flute, bassoon
and horn.
The Love
Triangle Of Clarinet Music And
Jazz
The
clarinet has also played a big
part in the development of jazz.
Early jazz featured the
virtuosity of players such as
Sidney Bechet and clarinet music
is an integral part of New
Orleans jazz bands. The Dixieland
sound was very popular but was
overshadowed when bebop and free
jazz dominated the airwaves. It
came back however and remains
popular with the public, if not
the critics.
Jazz music
enjoyed a big revival in the
1950s and early 1960s in the UK
with a British brand of Dixieland
records enjoying chart success.
The movement, known as Trad Jazz,
was led by Acker Bilk and his
band and they had a number one
hit with Stranger On the Shore.
With his
trademark bowler hat and black
and white striped waistcoat,
Acker Bilk made clarinet music
fashionable again.
Big
Bands Can't Live Without Clarinet
Music
Another
period of great success for the
instrument was in the big band
era of the 1930s and 1940s. Swing
music swept across the dance
halls of America to the sound of
clarinetists Benny Goodman, Artie
Shaw and Woody Herman.
The film
director Woody Allen took his
name from Herman and has his own
jazz band, helping to popularize
clarinet music once more. So,
this musical instrument belonging
to the woods still has many years
of life left and I'm sure you
will get down and mellow next
time you hear its mournful
sound.
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