Bass Clarinets in the Musée de la Musique, Paris — An update from 2012¹

Albert R. Rice

During a recent visit to the Paris, I was able to spend two days at the Musée de la Musique and with the assistance of Jean Jeltsch, studied and photographed thirty-two instruments from this important collection.² The bass clarinets studied are: 1) the earliest dated bass clarinet by H. Desfontenelle of Lisieux (1807, E.1055, C.1136); 2) the ophicleide-shaped bass clarinet by Martin Frères of Paris (ca. 1850, E.1154); and 3) an anonymous bass clarinet attributed to Angelo Gaëtan Philippe Marzoli of Paris (ca. 1860-65, E.2462).

The first instrument is a unique experimental bass clarinet made of stained maple with wide brass ferrules. The large maple mouthpiece has groves for a cord or string ligature and fits into a barrel with a tenon. There is a second, curved barrel which fits into a section with two tenons, and the lower tenon fits into a joint that holds the register key (ill. 1). This curved neck in several parts is inserted into the left-hand section and the A key fits over a hole on the opposite side. The right-hand section is followed by a U-joint at the botton, and a long conically expanding bell (ill. 2), eight sections in all. It carries ten brass keys with flat, round key heads; seven use brass saddles mounted on the wide ferrules and on the wood of the U-joint; and three are pillar mounted on the wood of the left and right-hand finger hole sections. The following lists the keys and corresponding fingers:
L0 (thumb): register key
L1: A
L2: G#
L3: Eb/Bb
L4: F#/C#, E/B
R1: C#/G#
R3: B/F#
R4: Ab/Eb, F/C
The remains of a wooden platform and an adjacent depression in the wood indicate that another key was planned for Bb/F (for R3) but was not added. The curved linkage attached from the long keys to the levers of the F#/C# and E/B keys, for L4, are unusual in their design. There is also a wide flat plate on the bottom of the instrument for convenience in placing it on a wooden stool for support (ill. 3). The speaker key’s touch piece is close to a second, redrilled thumb hole; the lever is on the dorsal side. A metal plate with a small hole mounted on two posts was likely used with a strap in combination with a ring on the the dorsal side.

This bass clarinet is unusual for its very wide bell, its exceptionally wide finger holes, and particularly for its placement of the C#/G# key which must be operated by the first finger of the right hand (R1). This key position requires that the instrument be assembled with the upper joint moved to the right and the finger holes not lined up in the usual fashion on contemporary clarinets and later bass clarinets (ill. 4). Although awkward, the author was able to cover the finger holes and hold the instrument. According to Pillaut, the instrument is pitched in B-flat, one octave below the B-flat soprano clarinet.³ The maker’s mark is: “H / DESFONTENELLES / A / LISIEUX / (five-pointed star)”; on the U-joint and barrel the date “1807” in large numbers was added (ill. 5). It is remarkable because on the U-joint, the last name of the maker was mistakenly reversed (ill. 6). On the left-hand joint, right-hand joint, and bell, the last name is stamped correctly. Perhaps the letter H stands for Henri, more research needs to be accomplished to verify this assumption.

Measurements: bore diameter at the opening of mouthpiece, 20 mm; diameter at the beginning of the bell, 35 mm, and widest bell diameter, 101 mm.⁴ Diameter of finger holes (taken with a micrometer by the author):
L0: 11 X 20 mm
L1: 13 X 14
L2: 8 X 14
L3: 13 X 13
R1: 9 X 14
R2: 11 X 11
R3: 6 X 11

The second instrument is an ophicleide-shaped bass clarinet made in six sections: a brass mouthpiece (not shown), brass curved neck (not shown), a right-hand finger hole section of stained maple, a brass U-joint, and a bell section (ill. 7). The arrangement of keys is quite similar to that found on Buffet-Crampon’s ophicleide-shaped bass clarinet in the Stearns Collection, the University of Michigan (no. 635, ca. 1850).⁵ The instrument includes 13 keys and 7 plateau keys. Two plateau keys are missing for L2 and L3 on the left-hand joint, and the bell is broken on its upper section. The maker’s stamp appears on both finger-hole sections: “(bee) / MARTIN F^ES / Brevetés (cursive) / A PARIS / MF (monogram)”.⁶ An unusually large unstamped metal mouthpiece features two screws, one for a movable or adjustable lay, the second to hold the reed on the opening of the mouthpiece. It also has a curved back (ill. 8) (ill. 9) and appears very similar to Triebert’s brass mouthpiece which first appeared with his combination C, B-flat, and A clarinet French patent of 1847 (no. 6937)⁷ and was given a separate certificate d’addition (1 September 1851) for a metal clarinet mouthpiece with a movable lay and a screw ligature. In French, it is called a ‘Bec-pompe’ and is illustrated in Soullier’s 1855 Dictionnaire (ill. 10).⁸ In German, it is called a ‘Pumpenmundstück’ and is illustrated by Schebeck in his report of the 1855 Paris Exposition (ill. 11).⁹ Schebeck provided prices for these mouthpieces from 10 to 35 Francs depending on the amount of silver used.

The third instrument is an unstamped bass clarinet that appears to have a Boehm-system mechanism with a lowest written note of E-flat (ill. 12). However, the highest finger touch of the three touches for L4 produces low E-flat rather than the usual note, F/C (ill. 13). There are 17 nickel-silver keys with salt-spoon key heads, four plateau keys for L1, L2, L3, and R1, and two ring keys for R2 and R3 (ill. 14). The following lists the keys and the corresponding fingers.
L0: register (on body), second register (on brass crook)
L1: plate
L2: plate
L3: plate, Eb/Bb (cross)
L4:C#/G#, Eb, F#/C#, E/B
R1: plate, f/c, Eb/Bb
R2: ring key
R3: ring key for Bb/F, Bb/F (cross)
R4: Ab/Eb, F/C, F#/C#, E/B, Eb

This bass clarinet has a very large brass bell that points outward toward the audience and a second register key positioned on the brass crook (ill. 15). It also includes a low E-flat key (now missing) on the U-joint of the bell (ill. 16). The Paris instrument corresponds in all the keywork, in the type of wood, shape of the crook and large bell, and in the shape of the thumb rest to an instrument in the collection of Rocco Carbonara (ill. 17) (ill. 18). Mr. Carbonara’s instrument is stamped on the wood: “BREVETÉ / TMB (intertwined) [Triebert-Marzoli-Boehm] / A. MARZOLI / A PARIS” and may be dated 1860 to 1865 (ill. 19). Even after Marzoli’s death in 1865, his bassoons were sold in London as second-hand instruments. The sales records of the Rudall Carte firm in London indicates that Marzoli bassoons and others by Albert, Gautrot, Triebert, and Goumas were sold during 1870 to 1877 mostly to military bands.¹⁰

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

END NOTES

¹ This information includes some additions and corrections to the author’s book, From the clarinet d’amour to the contra bass: A history of large-size clarinets: 1740-1860 New York: Oxford University Press, 2009, 286-287; 316-317.

² The author thanks Joël Dugot for bringing these instruments from the Museum’s storage and some from their display in the Museum’s exhibition.

³ Léon Pillaut, Le Musée du Conservatoire National de Musique, 1^er Supplément au Catalogue de 1884, Paris: Fischbacher, 1894, 31.

⁴ Constant Pierre, La Facture Instrumentale à L’Exposition Universelle de 1889: Notes d’un musicien sur les instruments à souffle humain nouveaux & perfectionnés. Paris: Librairie de l’art indépendant, 1890, 51.

⁵ Rice, From the clarinet d’amour to the contra bass, 315-316, photos of front and back are on www.oup.com/us/clarinetdamour, nos. 22-23.

⁶ See the very clear color illustation of this stamp and a clarinet by Martin Frères, Paris in the important, new index of French makers, William Rousselet and Denis Watel, Le Livre d’Or de la Clarinette Française: Index des facteurs et des marques illustré par les instruments de l’ancienne colleciton Rousselet. Larigot no. XXIV spécial (september 2012) [Paris: B. Kampmann], 116.

⁷ See the sketch of the patent reproduced by Günter Dullat in Klarinetten: Grundzüge ihrer Entwicklung, Frankfurt, E. Bochinsky, 2001, 127.

⁸ Charles Soullier, Nouveau Dictionnaire de musique illustré: élémentaire, théorique, historique, artistique professionnel et complet a l’usage des jeune Amateurs, des Professeurs de Musique, des Institutions et des Familles, Paris E. Bazault, 1855, 34.

⁹ Bericht über die Allgemeine Agricultur- und Insustrie-Ausstellung zu Paris im Jahre 1855, ed. E.A. Jonák, Wien: Kaiserlich-Königlichen Hof- und Staatsdruckerei, 1857-1858, 41-42.

¹⁰ James B. Kopp, The Bassoon. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2012, 135.