Contrabass clarinet

Contrabass clarinet (Fr.: clarinette contrebasse; Ger.: Kontrabassklarinette; It.: contraclarone, clarinetto contrabasso), clarinet at 16' pitch, either in C or in B♭, 2 octs. below the ordinary clarinet. Attempts to create such an instr. date from the early 19th c., but were not successful until Fontaine Besson of Paris produced their model ca. 1890 (patented 1891). Since then various other satisfactory models have been made, either of wood or of metal, usually with conical bore, 3 U-bends…