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Information About

Alto Clarinet




The keys of the alto are similar to the keys on smaller clarinets, and are played with virtually identical fingerings. Commonly, however, an additional key gives a low (written) E♭, absent on most soprano clarinets. The range of the alto clarinet is from the G♭ in the second octave below middle C (i.e. bottom line of the bass staff) to the middle of the second octave above middle C.

Invention of the alto clarinet has been attributed to Iwan Müller and to Heinrich Grenser . Adolphe Sax made notable improvements to the instrument.

The alto clarinet has not been commonly used in orchestral scoring. It is used mostly in Concert Band s and clarinet choirs, where it often doubles other parts; since at least the 1950s some musicians have opined that the alto clarinet could and should be eliminated from the standard wind band. A few jazz musicians, Hamiet Bluiett , Vinny Golia , J. D. Parran , and Joe Lovano among them, have made use of the alto clarinet.