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The clarinet 〔(pronunciation of ''clarinet'' in the Oxford Learner's Dictionaries )〕 is a musical-instrument family belonging to the group known as the woodwind instruments. It has a single-reed mouthpiece, a straight cylindrical tube with an almost cylindrical bore, and a flared bell. A person who plays a clarinet is called a ''clarinetist'' (sometimes spelled ''clarinettist''). The word ''clarinet'' may have entered the English language via the French ''clarinette'' (the feminine diminutive of Old French ''clarin'' or ''clarion''), or from Provençal ''clarin'', "oboe".〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=clarinetist )〕 It would seem however that its real roots are to be found amongst some of the various names for trumpets used around the renaissance and baroque eras. ''Clarion'', ''clarin'' and the Italian ''clarino'' are all derived from the medieval term ''claro'' which referred to an early form of trumpet.〔"The Oxford Companion to Music" Percy A. Scholes. Tenth Edition. "Trumpet Family" 3: p1051〕 This is probably the origin of the Italian ''clarinetto'', itself a diminutive of ''clarino'', and consequently of the European equivalents such as ''clarinette'' in French or the German ''Klarinette''. According to Johann Gottfried Walther, writing in 1732, the reason for the name is that "it sounded from far off not unlike a trumpet". The English form ''clarinet'' is found as early as 1733, and the now-archaic ''clarionet'' appears from 1784 until the early years of the 20th century.〔Rendall, pp. 1–2, 69.〕 While the similarity in sound between the earliest clarinets and the trumpet may hold a clue to its name, other factors may have been involved. During this period of the baroque era, contemporary composers such as Bach and Handel were making new demands on the skills of their trumpeters, who were often required to be play difficult melodic passages in the high, or as it came to be called, ''clarion'' register. Since the trumpets of the era had no valves or pistons, melodic passages would often require the use of the highest part of the trumpet's range, where the harmonics were close enough together to produce scales of adjacent notes as opposed to the gapped scales or arpeggios of the lower register. The trumpet parts that required this speciality were headed by the term ''clarino'' and this in turn came to apply to the musicians themselves. It is possible that the term clarinet may partly owe to this and it has been suggested that clarino players may have helped themselves out by playing particularly difficult passages on these newly developed "mock trumpets". 〔"The Clarinet and Clarinet Playing" - David Pino (Dover Publications, 1998) pp 198 & 233〕 Johann Christoph Denner is generally believed to have invented the clarinet in Germany around the year 1700 by adding a register key to the earlier chalumeau. Over time, additional keywork and airtight pads were added to improve the tone and playability. These days the most popular clarinet is the B clarinet. However, the clarinet in A, just a semitone lower, is commonly used in orchestral music. Since the middle of the 19th century the bass clarinet (nowadays invariably in B but with extra keys to extend the register down a few notes) has become an essential addition to the orchestra. The clarinet family ranges from the (extremely rare) BBB octo-contrabass to the A piccolo clarinet. The clarinet has proved to be an exceptionally flexible instrument, equally at home in the classical repertoire as in concert bands, military bands, marching bands, klezmer, and jazz. == Characteristics == 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Clarinet」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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