History

Introduction

An important discussion between Stefano Cardo and Elisa Marchetti on history of the bass clarinet and the absence of an homogeneous and coherent list of the repertoire of the bass clarinet on early summer 2010 gave the initial impetus to the foundation of the International Bass Clarinet Research Center - C.I.R.C.B..

Phase 1: Bass Clarinet Repertoire and History (2010-2011)

An independent web-based project entitled International Bass Clarinet Research Center, the purpose of which was to publish a list of all compositions where the bass clarinet is involved, to publish documents on the history of this musical instrument in a scholarly, digital edition, was launched in 2010. This was co-ordinated by Professors Stefano Cardo, Elisa Marchetti, Alessandro Monitillo and Roberto Bocchio, the editing done by them, the data held on a small server using the "Joomla!" content management system.

2010–2011 marked phase 1 of the project, and served as a pilot for an eventually larger, more comprehensive undertaking. For phase 1, 2500 composition were listed by Prof. Elisa Marchetti and 6 copies of full scores manuscripts of 1800's operas were added by Prof. Alessandro Monitillo. Some prominent researchers began to permit to reproduce their works: Prof. Fabrizio Della Seta gave his study on bass clarinet history "From the Glicibarifono to the Bass Clarinet: a Chapter in the History of Orchestration in Italy", Prof. Albert R. Rice wrote an article on the history of the earliest music for bass clarinet and the instruments of August and Heinrich Grenser.

The first, slight basis for recordings, videos, and books was created. An early section dedicated to transcription of old operas "a Solo" was defined.

Phase 2: New engine, social media & networks (2011-2012)

Thank to Prof. Alessandro Monitillo, a new important collaborator joined the project: Salvatore d'Alonzo. With him as leader of the website development team, the site have been rebuilt on "Drupal" open source framework, opening an important way for future developments. The library of repertoire approached 4400 compositions, and the connection with the world of social network like Facebook or Twitter was established. The social media Flikr improve the project on the side of the virtual tour on private collections. The new web environment was released in its first version in April 2012.

For phase 2, C.I.R.C.B. entered into collaboration with new researchers like D. Keith Bowen and Daniel N. Leeson. It is during this phase that important players like Mr. Harry Sparnaay begun to consider the project worthy of attention.

Phase 3: New projects (2012-2015)

According to our long-term plans, we started some projects:

• Patents - a catalog of some of the most interesting patents related to the instrument
• Instruments - a descriptive, chronological catalog of historical instrument with technical details and biographical informations on their makers.
• Dissertation - acquisition of important dissertation from ex-student of some important univerity and, for most of them, free redistribution

Phase 4: Consolidation (2014-2015)

To permit to C.I.R.C.B. To live more indipendently, to increase its sustainability and to find a real chance to become a Promoter of studies on the instrument in all its meanings and Publisher of research works and compositions for bass clarinet, we begun some side-projects. The unvaluable resources carried by Prof. Claudia Tacchino, professor at SDA Bocconi School of Management is giving a new power and vision to the entire project.
In the late 2015, the creation of biographical contents on important players of the present and past started.

Long-term Plans

There are plans to improve the user experience on the Recording contents.

Policy Matters

Without exception, from the beginning to the present day, all transcribing, translating, and interpreting of documents contributed to C.I.R.C.B. by scholars in the USA, UK, and Europe, has been done entirely out of the goodwill of those scholars and C.I.R.C.B. collaborators, without payment of any sort. (For further details, see "Contributing Scholars" and "Teams".)

A vital part of the work of C.I.R.C.B. from the outset has been the obtaining of permission from the holders of intellectual copyright to publish documents to the web. To date, there have been no refusals, and no limitations have been placed on C.I.R.C.B. by the descendants and representatives of the authors of these materials, who have shown only cooperation and generosity to the project. (For further details, see "Clearances".)