Clarino [clairon, clarion etc.]

The high register of a trumpet; in its variant forms, the term also designates a kind of trumpet. During the 12th and 13th centuries ‘clario’, ‘clarone’ and ‘clarasius’ figure as instruments in glossaries, chronicles and similar writings, in some instances being equivalent to the ‘tuba’ (the long straight trumpet), but in others implying a different form. ‘Claro’ and ‘clario’ are derived from clarus (Lat.: ‘clear’, ‘penetrating’, ‘loud’, ‘shrill’); ‘clarasius’ is also derived from clarus, but the origin of the ending ‘-asius’ is not certain. (Heyde’s derivation from classicum has no philological support.) If a trumpet is made shorter and given a narrower bore, its tone will become clearer and more penetrating. Thus ‘claro’ etc. may have been shorter than the tuba, a hypothesis contradicted, however, in many sources. The precise meaning of these terms may never be understood completely.

From the medieval Latin clario and claro, the French form ‘claron’ was developed, and in the 14th century such forms as ‘clairin’, ‘clarin’, ‘clerain’, ‘clerin’, ‘clairon’ (with the diminutives ‘claroncel’, ‘claronchiel’ etc.) began to appear. ‘Clairon’ became the most common of these. Very often clairon and trompette (or the like) are mentioned in pairs, suggesting two distinct instrument forms. In 1468, for example, Margaret of York was greeted ‘à son de trompes et de clarons’. Since pictorial sources from the same period show trumpets of different sizes, long and short, zigzag and straight, it is possible that the short forms were in fact the clairon etc., as they must have given the most penetrating and shrill sound. In 1606 Nicot wrote that the clairon formerly served as a treble to a group of trumpets and had a narrower bore, but it now meant the high notes on the trumpet (any trumpet). From 1822 the clairon was a conical-bore instrument in the French army, related to the flugelhorn but with a narrower mouthpipe; during the 1830s it was fitted with keys and somewhat later with valves, but it still exists as a natural instrument as well.

Terms like ‘clarioune’, ‘claryon’ and ‘clarion’ appeared after 1325 in England, these forms being derived from the French. Chaucer spoke in the Knightes Tale of ‘Pypes, trompes, nakers, clariounes, That in the bataille blowen blody sounes’. In the Squyr of Lowe Degre he mentioned the ‘claryon clere’ – a shrill or clear, hence probably a short, trumpet. The records of the Goldsmiths’ Company of London show that in 1391, 1420 and about 1510 the clarion was lighter than the trumpet (in a ratio of 7:10). In that case, the clarion was either shorter and narrower-bored or of a thinner metal than the trumpet, or a combination of both. Cotgrave (Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues, 1611/R) wrote that it was a small and straight trumpet with an acute sound, and Burney defined the clarion as an octave trumpet. (Other comparisons between clarion and trumpet – in a translation from Vegetius, c1420, and that of the historian Horman, 1529 – can be disregarded, as Baines pointed out, since they merely represent efforts to translate Latin into English.)

In Spain the instruments ‘clarín’ and ‘clarón’ (Catalan ‘clarí’ and ‘claron’) appeared around 1400. The terms were taken over from the French, and probably meant a short trumpet. In 1611 Covarrubias (Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española) wrote that clarín was a ‘trompetilla’ (little trumpet) playing the high part in trumpet ensembles. This is impossible, for as a small trumpet it could not play melodies but at best could only repeat the sounds of the other trumpets a 5th or an octave higher. However, he also stated that clarín could be interpreted as the high register of the trumpet. During the 16th century it should have meant both an instrument and a treble part on the ordinary trumpet (as in France). In Portugal ‘clarim’ has designated the trumpet, without any connotation of register, since the 17th century.

During the 16th century the term ‘chiarina’ (also ‘chiarino’) appeared in Italy as the name for a high and shrill trumpet or trumpet part. The word is derived from the French ‘clarin’ and ‘clairon’. The high and clear trumpet part could also be called ‘claretto’ (from the French claret: ‘clear’). According to Bendinelli’s tutor for the trumpet (1614, based on material compiled in the 1580s and 90s) the term ‘claretto’ was old-fashioned towards 1600, and he designated the highest part in the trumpet ensemble with the term ‘clarino’ (also spelt ‘chlarino’). This term was also used by Monteverdi in the Toccata to his Orfeo (published in 1609).

In Germany the instrument ‘clareta’ is met during the 15th century and the first half of the 16th. According to the woodcuts in Virdung (Musica getutscht, 1511/R) it should be a trumpet of a narrower bore than the field trumpet, a fact which should yield a more acute tone (cf Nicot above). ‘Claret’ (again derived from the French) could also mean a high, clear or shrill trumpet part, and was then called ‘Claret-Stimme’. During the second half of the 16th century the Germans began to use the term ‘clarin’ for a high trumpet part, but ‘claret’ as a designation of a trumpet part existed into the 17th century. The first documented appearance of the term ‘clarin’ as a trumpet register is dated 2 April 1561, when a ‘Clarin-Trumeter’ played in Annaberg (now Annaberg-Buchholz), Saxony. Praetorius (2/1619) wrote that ‘clarien’ (or ‘clarin’) was the highest, or treble, part on the trumpet. In his setting of In dulci jubilo (1619) he referred to the two highest trumpet parts as first and second ‘clarien’ (in the register c''–a'').

‘Clarin’ appears to be a short form of ‘clarino’; however, in 1600 an Italian composer, trumpeter and cornettist, Alessandro Orologio, who served in Germany and Austria, stated that ‘clarin’ was the German word for the highest trumpet part. This makes it difficult to believe that ‘clarino’ was a common term among Italian trumpeters around 1600. It seems more probable that German trumpeters had taken over the term from Spain when the German empire and Spain were united under Charles V. Italian trumpeters working in Germany then made ‘clarín’ into an Italian word by adding the ending ‘-o’, possibly with ‘chiarina’ or ‘chiarino’ as a model.

The term ‘clarino’ never took root in Italy to designate high trumpet part(s); despite the example of Bendinelli and Monteverdi, later Italian composers did not use the term at all. (Some sonatas for two trumpets, in I-MOe, are labelled Clarino 1 and 2, but they are most probably of German origin.) The virtuoso Fantini did not use the word in his method of 1638: he wrote instead of the ‘soprano’ register. The Bologna school of composers (Cazzati, Gabrielli, Torelli and others), as well as Stradella, A. Scarlatti, Vivaldi etc., all used the term ‘tromba’. It is true that various German theorists, beginning with Mattheson (Das neu-eröffnete Orchestre, 1713/R), stated that ‘clarino’ was an Italian alternative for ‘tromba’. However, they may have meant it as a variant of ‘chiarina’, a shorter and shriller trumpet, since from before the middle of the 18th century (Vivaldi) clarino meant the clarinet in Italy; the term is still used today in the vernacular.

In England composers indicated parts for ‘trumpet’ or ‘tromba’, and in France for ‘trompette’, while in Spain the term ‘clarín’ designated the treble trumpet part(s) from the late 16th century to the early 19th. Thus it was only in Spain and in Germanic countries (as well as in Poland, the Netherlands and Scandinavia) that the terms ‘clarin’ and ‘clarino’ were used during the 17th, 18th and early 19th centuries to denote a treble trumpet part.

After the middle of the 17th century German composers gradually began to use the Italian form ‘clarino’. In two-part trumpet writing, the parts were generally labelled Clarino 1 and 2, Clarino 1 ascending at first to a'' or c''', sometimes d''', but in solo parts from about 1720 (especially in C major) to e''', f''' and g''', Clarino 2 ascending to g'', a'' or even c'''. During the 16th and early 17th centuries the clarin(o) part did not descend below c'', but after 1650 composers more frequently wrote lower notes in the clarino parts, [b',] g', e', c', later even g. J.E. Altenburg (1795) thus defined the clarino part as a ‘melody which is played for the most part in the octave above c'' and is consequently high and clear’. That terminology continued up to the first decades of the 19th century; Albrechtsberger (Gründliche Anweisung zur Composition, 1790/R) advocated the nomenclature, and it was still used by Beethoven, Schubert and others. The third part was called ‘principale’ (for the designation of the lower parts see Principale). Some composers, however, including J.S. Bach, simply called all the parts ‘tromba’. In only two works did he write Clarino 1, 2 and Principale: in the parts to the Missa (Kyrie, Gloria) of the B minor Mass and at the beginning of the first chorus of Cantata no.205 (but at other places in that work he wrote ‘trombe’). His copyists, however, labelled the trumpet parts ‘Clarino 1, 2’ and ‘Principale’ more frequently. Some composers and copyists called all parts ‘clarino’, even true principale parts.

Beginning with Wagner, composers began to prefer German for musical terms from about 1840, and thus wrote ‘Trompete’. The vernacular was in fact already used by Telemann from the 1730s, a usage followed by C.P.E. Bach when he went to Hamburg in 1768, but it did not become common until after 1850.

The term ‘clarin playing’ (Clarinblasen) meant to play a melody on the trumpet in the register from c'' and upwards, with a soft and melodious, singing tone, as distinct from ‘principale playing’ (Principalblasen), which meant to play with a powerful, blasting tone. Thus clarin playing was not necessarily synonymous with a high, florid, virtuoso part, only implying these characteristics. This is why Classical composers (Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and others) could label their trumpet parts Clarino 1 and 2. Haydn called the solo keyed trumpet part in his trumpet concerto ‘Clarino solo’ as it is a clarin part, and as there was no law decreeing that clarin playing could be done only on the natural trumpet. Thus Lachner called the two valved trumpet parts in his A Andante for brass instruments (1833) Clarino 1 and 2.

The modern word ‘Clarintrompete’ to denote a natural trumpet was devised by H.L. Eichborn in 1881 and has since been repeated, in English as ‘clarin trumpet’ or ‘clarino trumpet’. The coiled reconstruction of a late Baroque trumpet manufactured by Helmut Finke has similarly been misnamed ‘clarino’. Since these terms were not in use during the period 1550–1830 to designate the natural trumpet in its folded form or in any other shape, but rather to denote a treble register or a treble part on the trumpet (or possibly a short, high-pitched natural trumpet), they should be treated with reserve, and the neutral term ‘natural trumpet’ preferred. High virtuoso horn parts from the late Baroque and Classical periods have also been called ‘clarino horn’ (‘Clarinohorn’, ‘Clarinhorn’) parts and the playing of them ‘clarin playing’ (Clarinblasen or even Clarinohornblasen). These incorrect terms are designations from the 20th century and for the same reason should be treated with caution.

See also Organ stop.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

PraetoriusSM, ii–iii

A. de Ranconnet: Thresor de la langue françoyse (Paris, 2/1606, ed. J. Nicot)

C. Bendinelli: Tutta l’arte della trombetta (MS, 1614; Eng. trans., 1975); facs. in DM, 2nd ser., Handschriften-Faksimiles, v (1975)

J.E. Altenburg: Versuch einer Anleitung zur heroisch-musikalischen Trompeter- und Pauker-Kunst (Halle, 1795/R; Eng. trans., 1974)

H.L. Eichborn: Die Trompete in alter und neuer Zeit (Leipzig, 1881/R)

H.L. Eichborn: Das alte Clarinblasen auf Trompeten (Leipzig, 1894/R; Eng. trans., 1976)

E.A. Bowles: ‘Unterscheidung der Instrumente Busine, Cor, Trompe und Trompette’, AMw, xviii (1961), 52–72

H. Heyde: Trompete und Trompeteblasen im europäischen Mittelalter (diss., U. of Leipzig, 1965)

H. Fitzpatrick: The Horn and Horn-Playing and the Austro-Bohemian Tradition from 1680 to 1830 (London, 1970)

E.H. Tarr: ‘The Baroque Trumpet, the High Trumpet and the So-Called Bach Trumpet’, Brass Bulletin (1972), no.2, pp.25–9, 40–42; no.3, pp.44–8, 54–7

D. Altenburg: Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der Trompete im Zeitalter der Clarinblaskunst (1500–1800) (Regensburg, 1973)

A. Baines: Brass Instruments: their History and Development (London, 1976/R)

E.H. Tarr: Die Trompete (Berne and Stuttgart, 1976, 3/1994; Eng. trans., 1988)

P. Downey: The Trumpet and its Role in Music of the Renaissance and Early Baroque (diss., Queen’s U., Belfast, 1983)

R. Dahlqvist: Bidrag till trumpeten och trumpetspelets historia från 1500-talet till mitten av 1800-talet, med särskild hänsyn till perioden 1740–1830 (diss., U. of Göteborg, 1988; Eng. trans. in preparation) [with Eng. summary]

REINE DAHLQVIST, EDWARD H. TARR