A-flat clarinet
Smallest piccolo clarinet still in current use / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The A-flat (A♭) clarinet is the highest-pitched instrument of the clarinet family still manufactured. It is just over half the length of the common B♭ clarinet and pitched a minor seventh higher, a perfect fourth higher than the E♭ clarinet. As a transposing instrument it sounds a minor sixth higher than written, thus the lowest written note E3 sounds as concert C4 (middle C). Around the beginning of the 19th century, several small clarinets in different pitches appeared. The A♭ clarinet was adopted in European wind bands, particularly in Italy where it has appeared in Verdi's opera banda parts and survived to the present day in military bands. It is sometimes called for in contemporary classical music, in works by composers Béla Bartók and John Tavener, and in large clarinet choir works. It is manufactured by Italian makers Ripamonti and Orsi, and Foag Klarinetten and Schwenk & Seggelke in Germany.
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Classification | Single-reed |
Hornbostel–Sachs classification | 422.211.2–71 (Single-reeded aerophone with keys) |
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Clarinet family |