A
late 18th-century member of the clarinet family (see Clarinet,
§II, 1; it is
classified as an Aerophone). It was usually pitched in A
, G or F, and was
distinguished by a globular or pear-shaped bell with a narrow opening (Liebesfuss).
A fair proportion of surviving examples appear to be originally three-key
instruments that have been modernized by the addition of an extra key or two.
Some later instruments with five or more keys also survive, but very few were
made after about 1810.
The
early instruments usually had a short, curved brass crook between the
mouthpiece and the body of the instrument. They were straight-bodied in
contrast to contemporary basset-horns, which were curved. The history of the
lower-pitched clarinets is poorly known but there exist a number of three-key
examples, some of which probably date back to 1760 or even earlier. On the
basis of surviving specimens their history cannot be separated from that of the
clarinets in B and A
that appeared at about the same time. On the other hand the lack of surviving
specimens does not exclude the possibility that such larger instruments, either
as chalumeaux or as clarinets, existed throughout the 18th century.
Very little music is known that explicitly specifies the clarinette d’amour, and it may be more appropriate to regard the term as making a visual distinction (recognizing that lower-pitched clarinets were built with globular bells) rather than a functional one. Early sources also use the name douce clarinet or simply clarinet in G. In his treatise of 1764 Valentin Roeser states that clarinets in G are rare because one can play in that key using clarinets of other sizes; on the other hand he commends the sweet tone of the instrument, and it is probably on that account that instruments were purchased. The earliest documented use of the instrument is Gossec’s Missa pro defunctis, first performed in 1760.
(see also Clarinet, §II)
V. Roeser: Essai d’instruction à l’usage de ceux qui composent pour la clarinette et le cor (Paris, 1764/R)
A.R. Rice: ‘The Clarinette d’Amour and Basset Horn’, GSJ, xxxix (1986), 97–111
NICHOLAS SHACKLETON