Loading…
Loading…
Basset horn: a narrow-bored clarinet in F with extra low keys, sounding a fifth below written; scored by Mozart (Requiem, Gran Partita) and later by Richard Strauss.
Labels the basset horn, usually with its key: Corno di bassetto in F, plural Corni di bassetto, abbreviated C. di bass. The part is written in treble clef a perfect fifth above the sound. Do not confuse it with Corno, the horn, or with the alto clarinet in E-flat, a different instrument.
Abbreviations: C. di bass., Cor. di bass.
Also spelled: Corni di bassetto
A narrow-bored clarinet in F with extra keys reaching down to written C3 (sounding F2) and a veiled, reedy, slightly melancholy tone. Mozart loved it: a pair darkens the Requiem and the Masonic Funeral Music and enriches the Gran Partita. Strauss revived it in Elektra and in his late wind sonatinas. Use it as a soft alto-tenor voice that blends with clarinets and bassoons; it does not project like a clarinet.
Corno di bassetto 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 →