Manufacturer: Vienna Symphonic Library
Format: KONTAKT
Quality: 24 bit Frequency 44.1 kHz Channels stereo
Description: Bass clarinet in all its glory with an abundance of articulation.
23.000 high-quality samples with all elements of gaming technology.
As is evident from the name, the bass clarinet is the bass instrument of the clarinet family.
It has been used to provide the bass voice in the orchestra woodwind section since the middle of the 19th century, a role it shares with the bassoon. The bass clarinet is appreciated for its expressive timbre, which is often poetically described as “dark velvet”. Generally one bass clarinet is used in the orchestra, only rarely are two found.
The bass clarinet is not only an established member of the full orchestra but also of clarinet orchestras and military bands. In addition, it is now also found in chamber music ensembles.
Articulations :
– 23,000+ samples
– Basic Set (with full articulations patch)
– Short/Long Notes
– Multiple dynamics
– Trills
– Legato
– Staccato
– Flutter
– Portamento
– Repetitions
– Other Variables
The history of the origin and development of the instrument
Attempts to create a bass instrument related to the clarinet have been made since the middle of the 18th century. The earliest surviving instrument is kept in the Munich Museum and is the work of the Passau craftsmen brothers Anton and Michael Mayrhofer in the early 1770s. In structure, it resembles a basset horn, but it has an additional crown that allows you to extract the lower sound “do” (there is no valve for extracting “re”). Bass clarinets made by Heinrich Grenzer in 1793 and his uncle August in 1795 are known. They were tuned in B and had a range extended down to A1 (A contra-octave in actual sound), while the lower part of the valve mechanism was diatonic, not chromatic. These instruments resembled bassoons in shape and were supposedly intended to replace the bassoons in military bands.
The bass clarinet acquired its modern look in the late 1830s through the efforts of Adolphe Sax, who also improved the valve system, improved intonation and extended the range, thus creating a full-fledged classical music instrument. In 1836, the bass clarinet was first introduced to the orchestra, Giacomo Meyerbeer did it in the opera Les Huguenots, entrusting this instrument with a responsible solo in the fifth act. Since the second half of the 19th century, the bass clarinet has been an almost constant member of the symphony orchestra, where it usually doubles the bass voices. Sometimes the specific thick, somewhat gloomy timbre of the bass clarinet was in demand by composers in solo episodes: Liszt – the symphonic poem “Tasso”, Wagner – the opera “Tristan and Isolde” (second act), Verdi – the opera “Ernani” (the beginning of the third act), Tchaikovsky – the symphony “Manfred”, the opera “The Queen of Spades” (scene in the barracks), Bartok – Concerto for Orchestra, Shostakovich – Symphony No. 13, etc. Responsible bass clarinet parts are also in the works of Mahler, Schoenberg, Stravinsky and other composers. The orchestra usually uses one bass clarinet (rarely two), and often its part is a temporary replacement for one of the clarinets (usually the last one in number).
From the beginning of the 20th century, composers of the neo-Viennese school began to use the bass clarinet in chamber ensembles, and with the advent of the avant-garde era, as a solo instrument (the first composition for bass clarinet and piano was Otmar Schök’s Sonata; 1931). Works for bass clarinet have also been written by Slava Vorlova, Sofia Gubaidulina, Viktor Ekimovsky and other composers. Many works are dedicated to the outstanding performer Josef Horak.
The bass clarinet is used by some performers in jazz. Eric Dolphy was one of the first jazz musicians to play it, and John Serman is well-known among modern ones. Of the Russian non-academic bass clarinet players, Nikolai Rubanov can be noted, who uses this instrument both during the performances of his main group Auktyon and in his own side projects.
Bass clarinet technique
The technique of playing the bass clarinet is almost identical to that of a conventional clarinet, but due to the larger size and slightly different structure of the valve system, the bass clarinet is less technically mobile. The attack of the sound in the lower register is slightly delayed.
Like the clarinet, the bass clarinet has wide gradations of sound strength: both pianissimo and fortissimo are available to it. In the last measure of the exposition of the first movement of Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony, the four notes written for the bassoon in the pppppp nuance are often played on the bass clarinet, which can easily achieve such dynamics.
The bass clarinet is notated primarily in B (in B-flat tuning): notes are written either in the treble clef one major note higher than the actual sound, or in the bass clef one tone higher. In works of the 19th century there are bass clarinet parts in C and in A, but these instruments have fallen out of use, and currently all such parts are played in B. Exceptions: Wagner – “Lohengrin” – bass clarinet part “in A”, notated the same way in both bass and treble clefs – a third higher than the actual sound.
The actual sound range of the bass clarinet used is from D (D of the major octave; on some models the range is extended down to B1 – B-flat counter-octave) to B1 (B-flat of the first octave). Higher sounds are used by solo performers, while in the orchestra only the lower and middle registers of the instrument are usually in demand (a peculiar exception is the symphonic poem by Richard Strauss “Thus Spoke Zarathustra”, where the bass clarinet part contains the note G of the third octave, sounding like F second).
