Into the Black Hole (part 2)

There’s a problem with playing English country dance tunes, or generally music that isn’t specifically for clarinet, on a clarinet. If it’s a B♭ clarinet, as most clarinets lying around are, or an A clarinet, which most professional clarinettists own at least one of, or an E♭ clarinet or an E♭ alto or a B♭ bass or just about any other sort of clarinet, then there’s the problem of sight reading. They’re transposing instruments, meaning that what the clarinettist thinks of as “C” is really B♭ or A or E♭, and they end up playing in the wrong key if they don’t sight transpose everything. There are reasons for that, but this post would be about three or four times longer if I went into them, so just take it on faith.

This isn’t a problem if you’re just playing on your own for your own amusement, and that may be all I ever do. But it’s big stumbling block to playing with other, non-transposing instrument musicians.

Unless you play a C clarinet. Which is not a transposing instrument. A “C” is really a C. Problem solved — if you have a C clarinet. I don’t. Do you? Probably not.

C clarinets were commonly used alongside the B♭ and A instruments in the classical era, but by the early twentieth century they were generally regarded, at least in symphonic music, as obsolete. Though they never really disappeared, and apparently they’re popular in klezmer and jazz. Starting in mid century the historically informed performance movement made C clarinet use more common, and in recent years some music educators have advocated starting beginner students on C clarinets, which, being smaller, are easier for children to handle, and there isn’t the transposition thing to confuse them.

So C clarinets are around, being made and sold. I started looking recently. Specifically for a Boehm system instrument, priced toward the low end but of decent quality. It’d pretty much have to be new; there just aren’t many used C clarinets on the market. And not wood, because I don’t want to worry about cracking. I live where it gets cold in winter, and the indoor humidity plummets; wood clarinets don’t like that. Besides, wood instruments tend to be expensive. No, I was looking for plastic or hard rubber.

(Really? Buy a new clarinet for a speculative use case like this? But of course the whole English Country Dance tunes thing is an excuse. I’m interested in clarinets, I’ve wanted to have a C clarinet, and I just needed something resembling a reason.)

Here’s what I found:

Among the bigger names in clarinets, Selmer and Yamaha seem not to have any C horns. Buffet makes two wood C clarinets, one student and one professional. You can get the student instrument for around $3400, or pick up the pro for around twice that. Nothing in plastic. Let’s keep looking, shall we? Some lesser known brands.

Clarinet designer Tom Ridenour runs Ridenour Clarinet Products, importing clarinets from China which are made of hard rubber to his design. And, he says, he personally goes over each one, tuning them up and making sure they’re up to his standards. Then he sells them at much lower prices than the big clarinet makers’ wood instruments. There are professionals who speak highly of Ridenour clarinets — and I own a low-end Ridenour B♭. I don’t have the skills to really judge, but I kind of think it at least holds its own against my Evette (plastic, made for Buffet). Ridenour has the Lyrique 570 C, a C clarinet, selling at $1200. Or had, when I started looking, but a week later the price went up to $1500. Tariffs, I assume.

Can we go cheaper?

Hanson lists a hard rubber C clarinet at £500, though they say it’s out of stock at this writing, and from the description it’s not clear they’ll ever have more.

Thomann has a couple of C clarinets, a plastic one for $264 and a wood one for $555. John Packer has a $522 hard rubber horn. I’d assume these are made in China, and I’d bet they don’t have anyone stateside doing tuneup before sale. I’ve seen a few… okay reviews.

The Nuvo Clarinéo is, well, interesting. Designed for kids, plastic body and keys, simplified Boehm, innovative design, and $127 on Amazon. Not for me, thanks.

C clarinets are also available from Oscar Adler, Amati, Martin Foag, Stephen Fox, Leitner & Kraus, Orsi (plays sound), Patricola, RZ, W. Schreiber, Seggelke, F. Arthur Uebel, and Wurlitzer, as well as probably many other companies, but none of these is what I was looking for. Mostly wood, many expensive, many German system, and some are custom builds.

And then there’s another option — for which see part 3, upcoming.