CH-Sonogno
Museum/Collection
City:
Sonogno
Repository:
Museo di Val Verzasca
Inventory Number:
CH-Sonogno
Date
ca. 1780-1800
Measures
| Type | Unit | Value |
|---|---|---|
| bore (diam.) | mm | ca. 18 |
System
Simple
Keymount type:
Block-mounted
Saddle-mounted
Keyhead type:
Round and flat
Key type:
Padded plate
Keys:
3
Fingering
| Notes | Finger | Key |
|---|---|---|
| S | LT | speaker key (missing) |
| A | L1 | key |
| E/B | L4 | key |
Materials
| Items | Material |
|---|---|
| ferrules, keys | brass |
| body | wood |
Sections
straight wooden tube stained dark brown with an attached wing joint
a brass ferrule toward the top of a downward-pointing wooden bell
Missing parts
mouthpiece
brass crook
register key
Description(s)
The earliest attempts to construct a bass clarinet are designated prototypes. They have three to six keys and are limited in musical use by their simple construction.20 […] The second prototype, an unstamped three-key bass clarinet (CH-Sonogno), shares a similar design with the examples from the Berlin and Brussels museums in its use of a wing joint or excrescence like that of the bassoon. The instrument is missing its mouthpiece, brass crook, and register key and consists of a long, straight wooden tube stained dark brown with an attached wing joint, and a brass ferrule toward the top of a downward-pointing wooden bell. The left thumb hole opens into the cylindrical bore, and the seven finger holes are bored like the earlier prototype, through the wing joint at oblique angles for convenient finger placement. The A and E/B keys are mounted in metal saddles, and the key head of the E/B key is mounted in a wooden knob. According to Kalina, the speaker and A key tone holes were probably moved from their original locations, although a photo of the instrument indicates the speaker hole on the front of the instrument, which could be an original design. Van der Meer dates this instrument to around 1750, but Kalina believes the construction is more sophisticated, reflecting a late-eighteenth-century date. The use of round, flat key heads, a brass saddle, and block mounting suggest a date of about 1780 to 1800.23
Footnotes
20. Two single reed instruments are sometimes included in discussions of bass clarinet history. The first is a five key bass chalumeau by W. Kress (A-Salzburg, 8/1) and the second is an anonymous plank-shaped one key chalumeau (D-Berlin, 2810, destroyed during World War II). Neither of these instruments were designed to overblow as all bass clarinets are designed, thus, they are both bass chalumeaux. See discussions of these instruments in Rice, The baroque clarinet, 32–35; Van der Meer, “The typology and history of the bass clarinet,” 65–68.
23. Van der Meer, “Vivaldi’s esoteric instruments,” 138. Also see the descriptions in Rendall, The clarinet, 140; the description and photo in Kalina, “The structural development of the bass clarinet,” 10, 11, fig. 3, 12. I thank Francesco Carreras for tracing the location of this bass clarinet to the Museo di Val Verzasca in 2007.
Rice, From the clarinet d’amour to the contra bass, 252-253.
A third specimen, less well preserved, may be seen in the Museo Storico Civico at Lugano [now in Museo di Val Verzasca (CH-Sonogno), ed.] which differs little from the others, but has a downward-pointing bell. The bore, approximately 18 mm. in diameter, is contrived at the back, the longer side, of the instrument. The left thumb-hole opens directly into it, while the seven finger-holes, grouped within convenient reach of the fingers on the upper surface, are bored obliquely through the full and increasing width of the wood to reach the bore at the back at much more widely-spaced intervals. The Maker no doubt borrowed the idea from the wing-joint of the bassoon, relying on slanting holes of small diameter and on impedance, to gain depth of pitch and to economize thereby in the length of the body. The result is far from happy according to Mahillon, who found the tone of the Brussels specimen, pitched in A (or a flat B flat ?),1 lacking in timbre and vigor. In this specimen the three keys are mounted in saddles; two of them are for the first finger and thumb of the left hand; the third, for the low E, is mounted on the left side, and manipulated by the little finger of the same hand. The instrument was plainly intended to overflow and to have a clarinet register. Not so the Berlin specimen in which the solitary key is designed to give the bottom note only. [D-Berlin, 2810 is a bass chalumeaux, ed.] It is unfortunately to date these interesting instruments [D-Berlin, 2810; B-Bruxelles, 0939; CH-Sonogno, ed.] It is unfortunately impossible to date these interesting instruments, since the maker and even the country of origin are unknown. To judge by the paucity of keys they may well be not later than 1750; [now dated ca. 1750-1800, ed.]
Footnotes
1. R.M.E. Cat. 261, where the instrument is well illustrated. The illustration is reproduced in Plate 7.
Rendall, The clarinet, 140
Bibliography
| Author | Title | Edition | Year | Vol, Page(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rice, Albert R. | From the Clarinet d'Amour to the Contra Bass | Oxford University Press | 2009 | 252-253 |
| Rice, Albert R. | The baroque clarinet | Oxford University Press | 1992 | 32–35 |
| Meer, John Henry van der | The typology and history of the bass clarinet | JAMIS | 1987 | Vol. XIII, 65–68 |
| Meer, John Henry van der | Vivaldi’s esoteric instruments | Oxford Journals - Early Music | 1979 | 138 |
| Rendall, F. Geoffrey | The Clarinet | Williams and Norgate Ltd. | 1954 | 140 |
