BASS CLARINET is practically the A, Bb, or C clarinet speaking an octave lower; what therefore has been said concern ing the fingering, transposition, acoustic properties, and general history of the clarinet (q.v.) also applies to the bass clarinet. Owing to its greater length the form of the bass clarinet differs from that of the other clarinets in that the bell joint is bent up in front of the instrument, terminating in a large gloxinia-shaped bell, and that the mouthpiece is attached by means of a strong ligature and screws to a serpent-shaped crook of brass or silver.
The quality of tone is less reedy in the bass clarinet than in the higher instru ments. It resembles the bourdon stop on the organ, and in the lowest register, more especially, the tone is somewhat hollow and wanting in power, although it is, curiously enough, mellower than that of the bassoon.
The low pitch of the bass clarinet (8ft. tone) contrasted with the moderate length of the instrument—the bore of which meas ures only some 42 to 43in. from mouthpiece to bell, whereas that of the bassoon, an instrument of the same pitch, is twice that length—is a puzzle to many. An explanation of the fact is to be found in the peculiar acoustic properties of the cylindrical tube played by means of a reed mouthpiece characterizing the clarinet family, which acts as a closed pipe, speaking an octave lower than an open pipe of the same length, and overblowing a twelfth in stead of an octave.
The origin of the bass clarinet must be sought in Germany where Heinrich Grenser of Dresden, one of the most famous instrument-makers of his day, made the first bass clarinet in which was subsequently developed by Adolphe Sax and others into the instrument as we know it to-day.
The bass clarinet made its first appearance in opera in 1836 in Meyerbeer's Huguenots, act v., where in a fine passage the lower register of the instrument is displayed to advantage, and later in Dinorah. Two years later (1838), at the theatre of Modena, a bass clarinet, by P. Maino of Milan, differing in construction from the Sax model, was independently introduced into the orchestra. Wagner employed the bass clarinet in Tristan and Isolde, where, at the end of act ii, it is used with great effect to characterize the reproachful utterances of King Mark.