Bass clarinet

The bass clarinet is a musical instrument of the clarinet family. Like standard clarinets, it is usually pitched in B flat (meaning it is a transposing instrument where a written C sounds as B flat), and plays notes an octave below the "normal" B flat clarinet and an octave above the Contrabass clarinet.

Musical compositions using bass clarinet

The most familiar piece in classical music using the bass clarinet is probably "The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" from Tchaikovsky's ballet The Nutcracker, in which its low tones contrast with the tinkling higher pitches of the celesta. Other pieces featuring this instrument include:

Related Topics:
Classical music - Tchaikovsky - The Nutcracker - Celesta

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• Rapsodie espagnole, by Maurice Ravel
• Die Walküre and Tristan und Isolde, by Wagner, have solos for the A bass clarinet.
• Pelleas and Melisande, by Arnold Schoenberg
• Symphony No. 3, by William Schuman has a large duet for bass clarinet and snare drum in the final movement
• The slow movement to Aram Khachaturian's Piano Concerto contains several bass clarinet solos
• Chemins IIc by Luciano Berio has a solo part for the instrument
• "Afro-American Symphony", by William Grant Still

Karlheinz Stockhausen's In Freundschaft (1977) can also be played on the bass clarinet (among other instruments).

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"Symphony No. 1 (Genome) for Band" by Ryan Fraley (2004). Solo in the last movement.

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