Books › A descriptive catalogue of the musical instruments recently exhibited at the Royal Military Exhibition, London, 1890 …, 1891 › scan 122
Scan 122
A descriptive catalogue of the musical instruments recently exhibited at the Royal Military Exhibition, London, 1890 …, 1891
14 lines. Read by computer on 1 October 2026. Printed page 102. See the scan on archive.org.
1added. About the end of the 17th century Johann Christopher Denner, of Nuremberg, made some experiments upon the chalumeau of that date, and produced the first clarinet. The principle discovered by him was that by opening a key placed at the back of the instrument, the sounds produced by the successive opening of the finger-holes rose a twelfth higher in pitch. The primitive chalumeau, pierced with eight holes, gave the following series of fundamental sounds:—
3
5The sounds marked ‡ were obtained by cross-fingering. A second key giving a' was invented by Denner, and when this was employed in conjunction with the twelfth key, it gave b'b. In this state the instrument remained for a number of years; a lower key giving e♭ and its corresponding twelfth was added at a later date by Denner, and was worked by the thumb of the right hand. This key was placed upon the bell-joint, which was so arranged that it could be turned to either side so as to suit a right or left handed player. But still the instrument was frequently made with a double hole, near the bell, for this purpose; and the duplicate hole not used was stopped with wax, as in the case of the flute douce of the same period.
7The mouthpieces of the earlier clarinets were placed with the reed uppermost, and this custom was continued during the 18th century; it is uncertain when, or how, the present downward position of the reed came first into use: and many players in Italy and Spain even now use the reed uppermost.
9According to Welcker von Gontershausen (Magazin Musicalische Tonwerkzeuge, Frankfurt, 1855), two keys which gave
11
13were added to the clarinet by Barthold Fritz, a clever instrument
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.