Basset-horn
Encyclopedia
Musical instrument
A musical instrument is a device created or adapted for the purpose of making musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can serve as a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. The history of musical instruments dates back to the...
, a member of the clarinet
Clarinet
The clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed...
family.
Construction and tone
Like the clarinet, the instrument is a wind instrumentWind instrument
A wind instrument is a musical instrument that contains some type of resonator , in which a column of air is set into vibration by the player blowing into a mouthpiece set at the end of the resonator. The pitch of the vibration is determined by the length of the tube and by manual modifications of...
with a single reed and a cylindrical bore
Bore (wind instruments)
The bore of a wind instrument is its interior chamber that defines a flow path through which air travels and is set into vibration to produce sounds. The shape of the bore has a strong influence on the instruments' timbre.-Bore shapes:...
. However, the basset horn is larger and has a bend near the mouthpiece
Mouthpiece (woodwind)
The mouthpiece of a woodwind instrument is that part of the instrument which is placed partly in the player's mouth. Single-reed instruments, capped double-reed instruments, and fipple flutes have mouthpieces while exposed double-reed instruments and open flutes do not.-Single-reed instruments:On...
rather than an entirely straight body (older instruments are typically curved or bent in the middle), and while the clarinet is typically a transposing instrument
Transposing instrument
A transposing instrument is a musical instrument for which written notes are read at a pitch different from the corresponding concert pitch, which a non-transposing instrument, such as a piano, would play. Playing a written C on a transposing instrument will produce a note other than concert C...
in B or A (meaning a written C sounds as a B or A), the basset horn is typically in F (less often in G). Finally, the basset horn has additional keys for an extended range down to written C, which sounds F at the bottom of the bass staff. Its timbre
Timbre
In music, timbre is the quality of a musical note or sound or tone that distinguishes different types of sound production, such as voices and musical instruments, such as string instruments, wind instruments, and percussion instruments. The physical characteristics of sound that determine the...
is similar to the clarinet's, but darker and less brilliant. Basset horns in A, G, E, E, and D also were made; the first of these is closely related to the basset clarinet
Basset clarinet
The basset clarinet is a clarinet, similar to the usual soprano clarinet but longer and with additional keys to enable playing several additional lower notes...
.
The basset horn is not a horn
Horn (instrument)
The horn is a brass instrument consisting of about of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. A musician who plays the horn is called a horn player ....
; its name probably derives from the resemblance of early, curved versions to a horn.
Some of the earliest basset horns, which are believed to date from the 1760s, bear an inscription "ANT et MICH MAYRHOFER INVEN. & ELABOR. PASSAVII", which has been interpreted to mean they were made by Anton and Michael Mayrhofer of Passau
Passau
Passau is a town in Lower Bavaria, Germany. It is also known as the Dreiflüssestadt or "City of Three Rivers," because the Danube is joined at Passau by the Inn from the south and the Ilz from the north....
.
Modern basset horns can be divided into three basic types, distinguished primarily by bore size and, consequently, the mouthpieces with which they are played:
- The small-bore basset horn has a bore diameter in the range of 15.5 to 16.0 mm (still somewhat larger than a soprano clarinet bore, though it is often erroneously thought to be the same; even a large bore English clarinet, such as the old B&H 1010 design has a smaller bore of 15.3 mm). It is played with a B/A clarinet mouthpiece. Only SelmerThe Selmer CompanyHenri Selmer Paris company is a French family-owned enterprise, manufacturer of musical instruments based in Paris, France in 1885. It is known for its high-quality woodwind and brass instruments, especially saxophones, clarinets and trumpets...
(Paris) and Stephen FoxStephen Fox (clarinet maker)Stephen Fox is a clarinetist, saxophonist and clarinet maker based in Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada. He is widely regarded as one of the world's foremost makers of custom, hand-built professional clarinets. Born in England, Fox completed a master's degree in physics at the University of...
(Canada) currently make this model.
- The medium-bore basset horn has a bore diameter in the region of 17.0 mm or slightly less. This is the most common type made by German-system manufacturers (e.g., Otmar Hammerschmidt (Austria)). Since no French-style mouthpiece with an appropriate bore is mass produced, this model requires a matching German basset-horn mouthpiece. (This model is not usually recognized in North America, where it is confused with the large bore type described below.) Stephen Fox (Canada) currently makes this model also.
- The large-bore basset horn, with a bore diameter of about 18.0 mm and played with an alto-clarinet mouthpiece, is in constructional terms an alto clarinet pitched in F and with the extra basset notes. The LeblancLeblanc (musical instrument manufacturer)Leblanc, Inc. is a musical instrument manufacturer based in Kenosha, Wisconsin.The company was purchased on 1 August 2004 by Steinway Musical Instrument Company, which now operates Leblanc as a division of its Conn-Selmer subsidiary.Leblanc inc...
basset horns (bores c. 18.0 to 18.2 mm) are of this type
The current Buffet
Buffet Crampon
Buffet Crampon et Compagnie is a French manufacturer of woodwind musical instruments, including oboes, flutes, saxophones, and bassoons; however, the company is perhaps most famous for their clarinets, as Buffet is the brand of choice for many professionals....
basset horn could be called a hybrid "medium-large bore" model, since it uses an alto-clarinet mouthpiece but has a bore diameter around 17.2 mm.
Repertoire
A number of composers of the classical period wrote for the basset horn, and the famous 18th-century clarinettist Anton StadlerAnton Stadler
Anton Stadler was an Austrian clarinet and basset horn player for whom Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote both his Quintet for Clarinet and Strings and Clarinet Concerto....
, as well as his younger brother Johann
Johann Stadler
Johann Nepomuk Stadler was an Austrian clarinet and basset horn player and younger brother of the clarinet player Anton Stadler....
, played it. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
was by far the most notable composer for the basset horn, including three basset horns in the Maurerische Trauermusik
Maurerische Trauermusik
The Maurerische Trauermusik in C minor, K. 477 , for orchestra, is a piece composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 1785 in his capacity as a member of the Freemasons. According to Mozart's own catalogue, the piece was composed in July 1785...
(Masonic Funeral Music), K.
Köchel-Verzeichnis
The Köchel-Verzeichnis is a complete, chronological catalogue of compositions by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart which was originally created by Ludwig von Köchel. It is abbreviated K or KV. For example, Mozart's Requiem in D minor was, according to Köchel's counting, the 626th piece Mozart composed....
477, and two in both the Gran Partita
Serenade No. 10 for winds
The Serenade No. 10 for winds in B flat major, K. 361/370a, is a serenade by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart scored for thirteen instruments . The piece was probably composed in 1781 or 1782 and is often known by the subtitle "Gran Partita", though the title is a misspelling and not in Mozart's hand...
, K. 361, and the Requiem
Requiem (Mozart)
The Requiem Mass in D minor by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was composed in Vienna in 1791 and left unfinished at the composer's death. A completion by Franz Xaver Süssmayr was delivered to Count Franz von Walsegg, who had anonymously commissioned the piece for a requiem Mass to commemorate the...
, K. 626, and several of his operas, like Die Entführung aus dem Serail
Die Entführung aus dem Serail
Die Entführung aus dem Serail is an opera Singspiel in three acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The German libretto is by Christoph Friedrich Bretzner with adaptations by Gottlieb Stephanie...
, La Clemenza di Tito
La clemenza di Tito
La clemenza di Tito , K. 621, is an opera seria in two acts composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an Italian libretto by Caterino Mazzolà, after Metastasio...
which features Vitellia's great aria "Non più di fiori" with basset-horn obbligato, and Die Zauberflöte, where they prominently accompany the March of the Priests, as well as chamber works. He wrote dozens of pieces for basset horn ensembles. (His Clarinet Concerto in A Major
Clarinet Concerto (Mozart)
Mozart's Clarinet concerto in A major, K. 622 was written in 1791 for the clarinetist Anton Stadler.It consists of the usual three movements, in a fast–slow–fast form:# Allegro# Adagio# Rondo: Allegro...
, KV 622, however, appears originally to have been written for a clarinet with an extended lower range, a basset clarinet
Basset clarinet
The basset clarinet is a clarinet, similar to the usual soprano clarinet but longer and with additional keys to enable playing several additional lower notes...
in A, though there is an earlier version of part of the first movement, KV 621b in the Köchel catalogue of Mozart's works, scored for G basset horn and pitched a major second lower, in the key of G major.) Other early works for basset horn include a concerto for basset horn in G and small orchestra by Carl Stamitz
Carl Stamitz
Karl Philipp Stamitz , who later changed his given name to Carl, was a German composer of partial Czech ancestry , and a violin, viola and viola d'amore virtuoso...
, which has been arranged for conventional basset horn in F (it has been recorded on this instrument by Sabine Meyer
Sabine Meyer
Sabine Meyer is a German classical clarinetist.-Biography:Meyer began playing the clarinet at an early age. Her first teacher was her father, also a clarinetist...
), and a concerto in F by Heinrich Backofen
Johan Georg Heinrich Backofen
Johann Georg Heinrich Backofen was a German clarinetist and composer.In his time Backofen enjoyed great fame; he was not only known as a composer for, and virtuoso of the clarinet but also played the harp, flute and basset horn.His year of death is not known with certainty; a year of 1839 is found...
.
In the 19th century, Felix Mendelssohn
Felix Mendelssohn
Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Barthóldy , use the form 'Mendelssohn' and not 'Mendelssohn Bartholdy'. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians gives ' Felix Mendelssohn' as the entry, with 'Mendelssohn' used in the body text...
wrote two pieces for the basset horn, clarinet, and piano (opus 113 and 114). These were later scored for string orchestra. Franz Danzi
Franz Danzi
Franz Ignaz Danzi was a German cellist, composer and conductor, the son of the noted Italian cellist Innocenz Danzi. Born in Schwetzingen, Franz Danzi worked in Mannheim, Munich, Stuttgart and Karlsruhe, where he died....
wrote the Sonata in F, for Basset Horn and Piano, Op. 62 (1824) Antonin Dvořák
Antonín Dvorák
Antonín Leopold Dvořák was a Czech composer of late Romantic music, who employed the idioms of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia. Dvořák’s own style is sometimes called "romantic-classicist synthesis". His works include symphonic, choral and chamber music, concerti, operas and many...
attempted a half-hearted revival, using the instrument in his Czech Suite
Czech Suite (Dvorák)
The Czech Suite in D major, Op. 39 was composed by Antonín Dvořák in 1879 and published later in his life. Adolf Čech, who was soon to conduct the first performance of the D major symphony that would be published as Symphony No. 1, in 1880, gave the premiere. The Czech Suite in D major, Op. 39...
(1879), in which he specifies that an English horn (cor anglais) may be used instead, but the instrument was largely abandoned until Richard Strauss
Richard Strauss
Richard Georg Strauss was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is known for his operas, which include Der Rosenkavalier and Salome; his Lieder, especially his Four Last Songs; and his tone poems and orchestral works, such as Death and Transfiguration, Till...
took it up once more in his operas Elektra
Elektra (opera)
Elektra is a one-act opera by Richard Strauss, to a German-language libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal, which he adapted from his 1903 drama Elektra. The opera was the first of many collaborations between Strauss and Hofmannsthal...
(1909), Der Rosenkavalier
Der Rosenkavalier
Der Rosenkavalier is a comic opera in three acts by Richard Strauss to an original German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. It is loosely adapted from the novel Les amours du chevalier de Faublas by Louvet de Couvrai and Molière’s comedy Monsieur de Pourceaugnac...
, Die Frau ohne Schatten
Die Frau ohne Schatten
Die Frau ohne Schatten is an opera in three acts by Richard Strauss with a libretto by his long-time collaborator, the poet Hugo von Hofmannsthal. It was written between 1911 and either 1915 or 1917...
, Daphne
Daphne
Daphne was a female minor nature deity. Pursued by Apollo, she fled and was chased. Daphne begged the gods for help, who then transformed her into Laurel.-Overview:...
, Die Liebe der Danae
Die Liebe der Danae
Die Liebe der Danae is an opera in three acts by Richard Strauss to a February 1937 German libretto by Joseph Gregor, based on an outline written in 1920, "Danae, or The Marriage of Convenience", by Hugo Hofmannsthal...
, and Capriccio
Capriccio (opera)
Capriccio is the final opera by German composer Richard Strauss, subtitled "A Conversation Piece for Music". The opera received its premiere performance at the Nationaltheater München on October 28, 1942. Clemens Krauss and Strauss himself wrote the German libretto...
, and several later works, including two wind serenades (Happy Workshop and Invalid's Workshop). Franz Schreker
Franz Schreker
Franz Schreker was an Austrian composer, conductor, teacher and administrator. Primarily a composer of operas, his style is characterized by aesthetic plurality , timbral experimentation, strategies of extended tonality and...
also employed the instrument in a few works including the operas Die Gezeichneten
Die Gezeichneten
Die Gezeichneten is an opera in three acts by Franz Schreker, libretto by the composer.-Composition history:...
and Irrelohe
Irrelohe
Irrelohe is an opera in three acts by the Austrian composer Franz Schreker, libretto by the composer.-Composition history:Schreker wrote the libretto in a very short time in 1919. The work takes its name from a train station called Irrenlohe which Schreker passed through during a journey to...
. Roger Sessions
Roger Sessions
Roger Huntington Sessions was an American composer, critic, and teacher of music.-Life:Sessions was born in Brooklyn, New York, to a family that could trace its roots back to the American revolution. His mother, Ruth Huntington Sessions, was a direct descendent of Samuel Huntington, a signer of...
included a basset horn in the orchestra of his Violin Concerto
Violin Concerto (Sessions)
Roger Sessions' Violin Concerto was composed between 1927 and 1935, and is scored for violin and orchestra .-History:The concerto was begun, at the suggestion of Serge Koussevitzky, in the summer of 1927—although the composer later postdated the beginning of this work to his years at the American...
(1935), where it opens the slow movement in a lengthy duet with the solo violin. In the last quarter of the 20th century and first decade of the 21st, Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. Another critic calls him "one of the great visionaries of 20th-century music"...
wrote extensively for basset horn, giving it a prominent place in his cycle of operas Licht
Licht
Licht , subtitled "The Seven Days of the Week," is a cycle of seven operas composed by Karlheinz Stockhausen between 1977 and 2003. In total, the cycle contains over 29 hours of music.-Origin:...
and other pieces.
Other works
- "Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind" for solo clarinetist (soprano clarinets, basset horn, and bass clarinetBass clarinetThe bass clarinet is a musical instrument of the clarinet family. Like the more common soprano B clarinet, it is usually pitched in B , but it plays notes an octave below the soprano B clarinet...
) and string quartetString quartetA string quartet is a musical ensemble of four string players – usually two violin players, a violist and a cellist – or a piece written to be performed by such a group...
by Osvaldo GolijovOsvaldo GolijovOsvaldo Noé Golijov is a Grammy award–winning composer of classical music.-Biography:Osvaldo Golijov was born in and grew up in La Plata, Argentina, in a Jewish family that had emigrated to Argentina in the 1920s from Romania and Russia.Golijov has developed a rich musical language, the result of...
; later arranged for solo clarinetist and string orchestraString orchestraA string orchestra is an orchestra composed solely or primarily of instruments from the string family. These instruments are the violin, the viola, the cello, the double bass , the piano, the harp, and sometimes percussion...
. - Serenade on Carl Maria von WeberCarl Maria von WeberCarl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber was a German composer, conductor, pianist, guitarist and critic, one of the first significant composers of the Romantic school....
's OberonOberonOberon is a legendary king of the fairies.Oberon may also refer to:-People:* Merle Oberon , British actress* Oberon Zell-Ravenheart , Neopagan activist-Media and entertainment:* Oberon...
for basset horn and two guitars, op. 28, written by Heinrich Neumann. - Etudes for Piano and Orchestra, Op. 39 (1992) by Peter SchatPeter SchatPeter Schat was a Dutch composer.Schat studied composition with Kees van Baaren at the conservatories in Utrecht and The Hague from 1952 until 1958, and then went on to study in London with Mátyás Seiber in 1959 and with Pierre Boulez in Basle in 1960–61...
calls for 3 basset horns in the orchestra. - Alessandro RollaAlessandro RollaAlessandro Rolla was widely acknowledged in his time as a violin and, especially, viola virtuoso, composer and teacher. His contribution to technique, repertoire and history of music is greatly underestimated...
- Concerto in F Major BI. 528 for basset horn and orchestra
Basset horn soloists and ensembles
Lotz Trio - performs on replicas of basset horns made originally by a phenomenal instrument maker Theodor Lotz from Pressburg (Bratislava) and Vienna. The ensemble endeavours to follow up with popular wind harmonias from the 18th century. The repertory of the Lotz Trio ensemble is formed by original music called by a German name Harmoniemusik. It is presented predominantly by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s music, nevertheless, the ensemble performs also music by other Central-European composers – Georg Druschetzky, Martín I Soler, Anton Stadler, Vojtech Nudera, Johann Josef Rösler and Anton Wolanek.The Prague Trio of Basset-horns, based in the Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
, has a repertoire of music (originally written for, or transcribed for, three basset horns) by composers including Mozart, Scott Joplin
Scott Joplin
Scott Joplin was an American composer and pianist. Joplin achieved fame for his ragtime compositions, and was later dubbed "The King of Ragtime". During his brief career, Joplin wrote 44 original ragtime pieces, one ragtime ballet, and two operas...
, and Paul Desmond
Paul Desmond
Paul Desmond , born Paul Emil Breitenfeld, was a jazz alto saxophonist and composer born in San Francisco, best known for the work he did in the Dave Brubeck Quartet and for penning that group's greatest hit, "Take Five"...
.
Suzanne Stephens
Suzanne Stephens
Suzanne Stephens is an American clarinetist, resident in Germany, described as "an outstanding performer and tireless promoter of the clarinet and basset horn" .-Biography:...
is a leading basset-horn specialist in contemporary music. Starting in 1974, the German Karlheinz Stockhausen composed many new works for her, including a large number for basset horn.
Trivia
The Italian name for the instrument, corno di bassetto, was used by Bernard ShawGeorge Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...
as a pseudonym
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
when writing music criticism.
Media
See also
- Alto clarinetAlto clarinetThe alto clarinet is a wind instrument of the clarinet family. It is a transposing instrument pitched in the key of E, though instruments in F have been made. It is sometimes known as a tenor clarinet; this name especially is applied to the instrument in F...
(a somewhat similar instrument, pitched one whole step lower and without the lower extension keys)
Further reading
- Dobrée, Georgina. 1995. "The Basset Horn". In The Cambridge Companion to the Clarinet, edited by Colin Lawson, 57–65. Cambridge Companions to Music. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521470668 (cloth); ISBN 0521476682 (pbk).
- Grass, Thomas, Dietrich Demus, and René Hagmann. 2002. Das Bassetthorn: seine Entwicklung und seine Musik. Norderstedt: Books on Demand. ISBN 3831144117.
- Hoeprich, Eric. 2008. The Clarinet. The Yale Musical Instrument Series. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-10282-6.
- Jungerman, Mary C. 1999. "The Single-reed Music of Karlheinz Stockhausen: How Does One Begin?". The Clarinet 27: 52.
- Weston, Pamela TPamela WestonPamela Theodora Weston was a British clarinetist, teacher and writer....
. 1997. "Stockhausen's Contributions to the Clarinet and Basset Horn....". The Clarinet 25, no. 1:60–61.
External links
- Lotz Trio
- Lotz Trio on Facebook
- "The Basset Horn" by Georgina Dobrée, Music Associates of America
- Stephen Fox (maker of basset horns)
- "National Music Museum" (more images and info)
Recordings
- CD: George Druschezky: Divertissement Pour Trois Cors de Bassett by Lotz Trio
- CD: Mozart, Stadler, and the Basset Horn by Michael HarrisMichael HarrisMichael Harris is an award-winning Canadian author, investigative journalist, and radio personality who hosts an afternoon radio talk show, "Michael Harris Live", on Ottawa-based CFRA, and was a columnist for The Ottawa Sun newspaper until March 2011.Born in Toronto, Ontario, to Audrey McDonald ...
, Colin Lawson, and Timothy Lines - CD: Mozart Divertimenti for Three Basset Horns by the Mannheim Ensemble
- CD: Mozart Music for Winds by the New World Bassett Horn Trio
- LP: "Mozart: Music for Basset Horns", a double LP by members of the Chicago SymphonyChicago Symphony OrchestraThe Chicago Symphony Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Chicago, Illinois. It is one of the five American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five". Founded in 1891, the Symphony makes its home at Orchestra Hall in Chicago and plays a summer season at the Ravinia Festival...
Winds. This 1986 CBS Masterworks RecordsCBS Masterworks RecordsCBS Masterworks Records was a subsidiary of CBS Records, producing classical and spoken-word releases as well as Broadway albums.It was started in 1927 as Columbia Masterworks Records, a subsidiary of the Columbia Records label...
release was nominated for a Grammy awardGrammy AwardA Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
. (out of print)