Loading…
Loading…
Bass clarinet.
Labels the bass clarinet staff, abbreviated Cl. b. or Cl. basso, with its key (in B♭, occasionally in A). Two notations exist: treble clef, sounding a major ninth below written (the French system, now standard), and bass clef, sounding a whole step below written (the German system, used by Wagner and in many Russian scores). Check the clef before reading.
Abbreviations: Cl. b., Cl. basso
Also spelled: Clarinetti bassi
An octave below the B-flat clarinet, sounding down to D-flat2, or B-flat1 on instruments with the low-C extension, with a velvety, dark low register and a hollow middle. It makes a supple bass for woodwind chords, a shadowy solo voice (the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker) and a soft doubling for cellos or basses. A clarinetist often doubles it; mark the change in the part, and do not lean on its thin top register.
Clarinetto basso is one of 1755 terms in the Gradus musical dictionary: the words, abbreviations and instrument names that appear in printed scores, plus the vocabulary composers use to talk about them.
Browse the full dictionary →