The Adorable Ab Piccolo Clarinet 

btw he stops yapping and plays at 12:40

I love this video. The Ab clarinet is so cute and usless.

I was genuinely surprised how the E-flat turned out to be a giant. When I've first got an E-flat I thought it was tiny - and the A-flat clarinet shocked me by its existence. Now all needed is a contrabass vs piccolo clarinet comparison!

We need more Ab Piccolo content

There are Ab parts in some of the off-stage bands in Verdi operas. Both Rigoletto and La traviata have "party music" that is played by a band in the wings that includes Ab, Eb, and Bb clarinets along with the brass and percussion. I would guess that the recordings from Italy in the 1960s probably have the authentic instrumentation, squeaky parts and all.

I can't believe I missed this video! You officially have the greatest Ab command I've ever heard.

Excellent demo! The best I’ve seen.

First time I have heard one of these, I've seen plenty of old photographs (turn of the last century) of Italian concert bands that had an Ab. I always assumed it was a piccolo substitute.

Awesome. Enjoyed your talk and playing!

Thanks for this! Been playing a lot of fun orchestral pieces on the Eb clarinet, and it gets incredibly high for the instrument. I can only imagine what it’s like to play this instrument. Intonation must be impossible, even the Eb is very difficult to play in tune for altissimo notes.

The Bartók Scherzo for piano and orchestra makes a fair case for using the Ab clarinet, alongside Eb and Bb clarinets. Some of the passages are unison with the Eb, but some take the effect of the scherzo to new heights, highlighting the possible effect of the instrument. Sadly I can only find one recording from the 60s and the playing could be better. There’s absolutely no reason why the instrument should/could not be used in new works for orchestra, except for availability. The gradually flatter high notes on your instrument can be solved by shortening the mouthpiece, widening the mp chamber and barrel and then adjusting the bore size at the opening of the main piece. Intonation needs to be practiced and so discounting the instrument on this basis is unfair, a few physical changes can make a world of difference. The Leblanc I have is more in tune than a new instrument I had made, on which the 12ths were in fact augmented 11ths. So there is a lot to be said for the ingenuity of Leblanc clarinets. I have now also performed and recorded two contemporary works on Ab clarinet: Samuel Andreyev’s Verifications and Oren Boneh’s Municipal Shuffle, the latter being a concerto for Ab piccolo clarinet doubling Eb contralto clarinet and ensemble. Great video, was interesting to hear the instrument being played by someone else.

I really, really want one! 🥰

I have always wanted to play one of these!

Thank you. I believe it was played in particular in Italian wind bands. Someone gave me an old Albert System model but it has been impossible to find a mouthpiece Leblanc made clarinets in many keys. I have a bass descending to low c made in the 60 s by Leon Leblanc and also a Leblanc Cclarinet. Leblanc of course no longer exist but you can sometimes pick them up from Clarinets Direct. Once again thank you for letting us see and hear this piccolo clarinet. God bless you. Bill. UK

Thanks so much for making this video! I think it's so interesting how this is thought of as such a high-pitched instrument, yet it has the same exact bottom note (middle-C or concert C4) as a standard concert flute with a C-foot!

Thanks for uploading this. I have known of them since I got Anthony Baines's book "Woodwind Instruments And Their History", but this is the first time I have heard one. Keeping the altissimo notes in tune must be very hard. That high (written) F, which should be concert Db, came out as a concert C. The reason for the rare key of Ab? They would have made a Bb, an octave above the regular clarinet, but it would have been too small for fingers and the Boehm keywork. Ab was as close as they could get. Baines says that the Ab clarinet is used in Italy.

Love the horn. I'm about 40 years too old to even think about picking it up, but I did love playing the Eb, even if I tended to be a bit flat with it. Which probably had more to do with the reeds that I had available to me. I got much better on the Bb after getting some reeds that were more to my liking. Then I became first chair, and my hopes of continuing the Eb, or even my hopes that I could at least TRY a contrabass were dashed (high school. Sigh...)

When I played in the UB band about 1965, the conductor Frank Cippola added that Ab clarinet after he spent time in Italy.

Such a cutie 😍

I’ve always wanted one of these… unfortunately they’re rather hard to come by

I bought a used Leblanc Ab clarinet, which I'm told was new c. 1976. It turned out to be nightmarishly out of tune with itself, most octaves being closer to a seventh. But the seller refused to refund, so I was stuck with it. The tech who refurbished it replaced the barrel in his efforts to fix the tuning. Mine came with the stock mouthpiece, but I also got the Vandoren, which seems preferable. Overall, the experience was quite discouraging, though I'd be warily curious to know if other companies' Abs are any better in tune.

Great video. The Leblancs do have awful intonation unfortunately, the Orsi is much better but can be hard to find. If you want a ligature that doesn't scratch the Rovner slim sopranino ligature works well.

I want to plateau the ring keys on my Eb Sop Cl, because I have rheumatoid arthritis in my hands, which makes it difficult for me to cover the holes. Thank you

How about a B Flat Piccolo Clarinet which would be an Octave above the Standard B Flat Clarinet?

Si tuviera tanto dinero, me compraría toda la familia de clarinetes, pero solo me puedo conformar con el soprano😅

Awesome video! I’m interested in trying to 3-D print an Ab. Do you have any ideas where I can find measurements?

Ugh...I want one so bad!

Pls pls pls where to you buy one I really want one

It s great with bass clarinet

Wow, I never knew there was such an animal! I imagine only the most skillful players could play it with any success.

How long are the parts of the instrument?

SO WE DONT NEED 5 PARTS TO PUT OUR INSTRUMENT TOGETHER!!!!

just find an opera company putting on La Traviata, it's used in the off stage band in act 1

where did you buy it I've been trying to find one 💀

nice, where can i get one? or are there no more of them?

Where can i find one

LoveThose!!🎶*.⋆ .

the LA studio doubler Marty Krystall found one of these in a Hollywood music store; he happened to mention to film composer Michael Kamen that the had one; next thing he knew, he was booked for Kamen's '101 Dalmations' scoring sessions and had an Ab piccolo clarinet cue on 'Pup-Pup-Puppies.' The cue is here, around 3:40 in. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-7r0-i6Neb1w.html

Why am Ab? I would think an A or Bb piccolo would be more useful… add to that we are used to those transpositions!

Quanto que custa um clarinete ab ???

If there was a cheap Chinese one I’d buy one, but otherwise they aren’t worth the money. Cute though.

I am sure you will never need to, but Joe Clark (ClarkProductions118 on RU-vid) did a concert with Ab clarinet, and he has a list of at least 3 pieces of repertoire for it.

Hi Michael

Yikes 😢

Very cool. For my ear, the banda parts in the Verdi operas are best done a bit out of tune and honky as they are meant to imitate street or amateur musicians. When the off-stage band is played by the regular (and excellent) orchestra players, I feel the effect is ruined by too perfect playing. Composers like Verdi and Rossini were so skilled at writing music that evoked nature and scenes, that I wonder if that is what this instrument was designed to do. Many composers wrote idiosyncratic character parts for singers (Tales of Hoffman, Daughter of the Regiment, etc.), so perhaps this instrument was a musical joke or trick to make the off-stage band sound amateurish to enhance the stage affect. Just a speculation on my part.

High pitched.

no way they made a clarinet more annoying

Your playing out of tune / why ?