What's a Basset Clarinet? 

Okay, so I'm watching this video, and I didn't pay attention to your name at the beginning. As I watched it, I was like, "Hey, I know that guy!" Then I backed up and saw your name again. You were in grad school at Florida State my first year there as an undergrad, and you coached the undergrad clarinet quartet that I was in. All I remember is that you wore a funny hat and maybe something like a dashiki. :)

I play b flat clarinet and I'm in 7th grade. I love the sound of it but the basset clarinet is beautiful

קלרינט.. כלי נהדר.. תודה על ההדגמה. מתגעגעת לקלרינט שלי.

In the 18th C Mozart’s clarinets and basset horn designed by Anton Stsdler were designed for playing more expressively his concerto and quintet in the authentic style at that time. Most performances these days go for virtuosic speed , not as Mozart intended.

A basset clarinet would only be a museum piece today if it weren't for these divine late works of Mozart, among the greatest music ever written.

I had one of the basset horns in it was created for the Strauss opera called😮 Electra. Apparently there were three Basset horns made for that performance of the piece, two of them were destroyed during World War Two. They were pitched so their “C” would sound as “F”.

BTW the fragment that Mozart wrote of the concerto for basset horn -- in G -- was of the first, not third movement.

Thanks for this video! Great explanation about the differences

@PoopTruffles you might want to try using a more open mouthpiece. but use the same reeds. youll notice more resistance, but maybe not enough that you cant get used to. if youre talking about a basset clarinet, those low notes can kill a reed very quickly.

You Are A very good player

Hello, I have a Leblanc Basset Clarinet and I have been looking to get a fingering chat for this instruments. Any suggestions. I would really appreciate some help. Thank you.

What's the difference between a basset horn and an alto clarinet in E flat?

Thanks! Good to know.

Is there more resistance in the A basset clarinet than in the A clarinet?

Thanks for the video! What brand of Basset is this? I'm looking to buy one and my prime candidate right now is a Ridenour Lyrique.

Can’t beat the low sound of my Bass Clarinet 😉

rossi clarinets are the best because they're all hand made and the wood is naturally aged. The buffets are mass produced and the wood is artificially aged. However because rossi clarinets are hand made, he can only 5 a month and that's why they're less common. I would have a rossi but they're like $6,000 and i'm a student so i use an r13. I really love buffet, it's that i would much prefer a rossi.

How can the basset clarinet go down to written low C? I see only 2 additional keys in the right pinky, presumably low Eb and low D. Where are low C# and low C?

Is the basset horn similar to the alto clarinet or does it go lower in pitch or range? It looks similar.

Love the donkey show!!

Anyone know what note you play with the register key and low c?

this is like a straight bass clarinet, right?

Is the basset clarinet and basset horn the same instrument?

No. O.o I didn't know.

The lowest notes on these basset clarinets sound terrible! It is no more full and of singing quality like the clarinet or the bass clarinet but full of torsion.

If I could have any A Clarinet, it would be the basset clarinet!!

A basset clarinet is like a Low C Soprano Clarinet pretty much.

Some quick links for sound comparison: Bb: 0:49 A: 1:05 A basset: 0:05 2:33 2:46 Basset horn: 4:48 5:37

nice!! The more I practice the clarinet, the more I like it! 9 months old beginner here!! :D

I love the sound of the basset. I wish I could make the Mozart concerto sound as effortless as you do.

Actually, no. The A clarinet is longer overall, and all of the toneholes are different sizes and in different places on the instrument than the Bb...the barrels are often interchangeable, and in some cases, the barrels that ship with A clarinets are actually a bit shorter than barrels for Bb instruments. (I use the same mouthpiece and Backun barrel on both my Bb and A clarinets, and some clars, like the Selmer Privilege, was specficially designed to use the same barrel on both clarinets)

well, strange that I came across this video (this is my teacher haha)... anyway, for those of you that were asking his set up and all that, he plays on a hawkins mp (the R model I think) and the eddie daniels ligature. The Bb he was using in the video is his old R13, but these days he's playing on a prestige

I WANT SO BAD! I can play the clarinet concerto thats why i want one!

Omg! I have played the clarinet and didn't know there are different ones!

IIRC The fragment that we have of the original score for basset horn is for the beginning of the first movement, not the third movement.

My god. That is awesome!!

Thanks for introduction of the basset clarinet and basset horn !

The existing fragment for basset-horn is of the exposition of the first movement- not the rondo. Check your info, son!

Tom Ridenour makes a basset extension that's not overly pricey

haha.. funny! its true though~

WHAT MOUTHPIECE YOU USE

Is it an extension that one has to buy separate or does one get the whole instrument including the basset attachment?

Actually, it's not known for certain if the quintet was written for the basset clarinet. It isn't even known if the Stadler had had the basset clarinet made at that time. Awww, man! You stopped the extract from the concerto right before the best bit to show off the low range!

Fascinating! My niece plays clarinet with the UofA Wildcat's Pride of Arizona marching band., but I never knew too much about it so this was very educational.

Parts. Spares

Do you think Mozart wrote his music for the same person to high range and low range? Seems like it would be a good idea to have two bassets playing these ranges. A nice video. Thanks.

No, if the only difference were the barrel, you could take a B flat clarinet and make an A clarinet only changing the barrel, but it's not possible. The A clarinet is a bit longer in general. You can use the same mouthpiece and reeds in both clarinets, of course.

Depends on the bass clarinet... the basset is pitched an octave higher, but reaches the same written C as higher-end bass clarinets do. Some bass clarinets can only play to Eb.

Black stick of death. Fucking reeds keep on going soft on me.

wouldnt it be crazy if the mozart was written for some crazy saxophone.... een though it technically hadnt been invented yet,,,

IM A CLARINETIST HAVE ALWAYS WANTED A CLARIENT IN A,,, WHAT IS YOUR LIKE WIT THE A CLARIENT VS THE Bb CLARIENT

Search for Ridenour Clarinet Products here. Tom Ridenour sells an extended range clarinet at a very good price.

Your playing of the 2nd movement of KV. 622 sounds a bit different from that of NMA. What version did (or do) you use?

No it is a clarinet with a low c extension, it does not sound any lower then a normal soprano Bb clarinet.

Re: the "fancy" basset horn...yes, all basset horns are keyed to low C. That is the purpose of the "basset" moniker. If it weren't keyed to low C, it would just be an alto clarinet in F. (And there HAVE been low Eb bassets made, but very very few. I've only ever seen or heard of 2, and they both had low C extensions added, because basset horn repertoire requires those notes, as they are the entire raison d'etre for the instrument in the first place.)

do the basset clarinet and basset horn use right-hand thumb keys for the last 3 low notes?

yet you never showed the clarinet in full, that was really annoying. I wanted to see it.

I love the basset clarinet to bad no High school band director care about them.

Thanks. This was great because I was not familiar with what the Basset looked like. What about the E Flat Clarinet? Does anyone use it anymore. In the 1970s, when I was in College. the E Flat was played a lot in Band. BRIAN

Unfortunate that I cannot here his words. But the clarinets sounds nice!

What an sound congratulation....you have an realy dark mozart clarinet sound :D

What's the difference between the alto clarinet and the basset horn?

This video, while well intentioned, is completely misleading. There is no surviving manuscript in Mozart's hand of the so called clarinet in A. You reference that "this is the clarinet wrote is concerto for" is pure speculation. The clarinet of Mozart's day only had a handful of key, for starters. What you are playing is a MODERN clarinet with an additional four semitones.

@venskus2009 Sounds expensive.

@pianomancuber91 Buffet Crampon Prestige basset in A

which configuration is he using in his rovner versa?

DANKE -sehr interessant und lehrreich. Ein sehr schoenes Video.

You just made me enjoy the video less.

too bad the basset horn is expensive

Need to get better chops to play alto

I think the only difference between the B flat and A clarinets is the barrel, but I'm not entirely sure.

Its the Basset Horn.

Wow!! Amazing!

Are you kidding?

no it cant.

The A clarinet is much nicer. These extra notes on the basset clarinet makes for overall nasty hoarse sounding clarinet.

I want it.

You dont.

excellent!

i like

high G

You said that "Clementzia" was Mozart's last opera? I thought his last opera was "Magic Flute"?

como faço para ter uma dessa no brasil

Anton Stadler used basset clarinets that went to low written B, rather than C. There are several passages in Mozart's clarinet concerto where the original went to low B. I've also spotted at least one passage in the quintet where the clarinet probably went to low B as well. As far as I know, the only one to make basset clarinets to low B is Stephen Fox.

Is a basset horn in f lower than a bass clarinet in c

whats is he song of the intruduccion