32 BULLETIN L36, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



of the reed. It is on the vibration of the reed against this curved 

 table that the sound of the instrument depends. The reed itself 

 (a thin, flat strip of the grass already named) is flattened on one 

 side and thinned on the other to a feather edge. The older players 

 secured this to the table with a waxed cord, but the present method 

 is by a double metallic band with two small screws. This use of 

 the beating, single reed was invented late in the seventeenth century 

 by John Christopher Denner, of Nuremberg, Saxony. The Boehm 

 system was adopted to the clarinet by Klose in the early part of the 

 last century. 



At present the clarinet family is the most complete among wind 

 instruments in range of compass, color, mobility of tone, and me- 

 chanical facilities. The tonal range covers six and one-eighth oc- 

 taves, and the group comprises seven instruments. The four highest 

 in pitch are straight tubes, and the E-flat alto, the bass, and the con- 

 trabass have the tube bent upward and the bell at a slight angle to 

 the tube. 7 



Among the clarinets exhibited are 55620, a C clarinet with 13 

 keys, and 55621, a B-flat clarinet, 3 inches longer than the C clarinet 

 and, like it, having 6 finger holes, 1 thumb hole, and 13 German 

 silver keys. An alto clarinet in F (95296) from Italy is believed 

 to have been made early in the nineteenth century. 



The "Basset horn" (properly called " Corno de Bassetto") was 

 a tenor clarinet standing in F, furnished with additional low keys 

 and a prolonged bore, enabling it to reach the octave C which is 

 equivalent to F below the bass clef. A specimen of this horn is 

 95295, probably made between 1790 and 1800, obtained in Florence 

 by Dr. G. Brown Goode. 



The saxophone is a single-reed instrument made of brass and has 

 a conical tube, its mouthpiece being similar to that of the clarinet. 

 The ophicleide (see p. 49) is supposed to have given the ingenious 

 Sax the idea for the saxophone, as he substituted a reed mouthpiece 

 for the cupped mouthpiece of the ophicleide and made certain 

 other changes, producing the early forms of saxophone about the 

 year 1840. Several of these instruments are exhibited. They resem- 

 ble the clarinet in mouthpiece but differ from it in fingering. The 

 tone is composite in quality, seeming to unite the tone of reed and 

 brass instruments. 



A curious instrument with single reed is the Welsh pibgorn. Speci- 

 mens of this old instrument are extremely rare, and 214490 (pi. 17a) 

 is a reproduction. It is a tube of wood with a cylindrical bore, hav- 

 ing six finger holes and a thumb hole. The lower end of the tube 

 is inserted in a cow's horn for a bell, the open end of which is cut 



'See Arthur A. Clappe, The wind band and its instruments. New York, 1011, pp. 

 49-59. 



