Music for the Baroque Clarinet

Abstract This chapter presents an overview of music written by 23 composers representative of a larger repertoire written about 1715 to 1760 for the Baroque clarinet. The works examined include opera, cantata, duos, concertos, wedding music, chamber music, military music, sacred arias, requiem, and motets by Dreux, Vivaldi, Caldara, Faber, Telemann, Handel, Chinzer, Rathgeber, Münster, Glaser, Kölbel, Molter, Sparry, Rameau, Zach, Stark, Johann Stamitz, Graupner, d’Herbain, Pasterwiz, La Borde, Ulbrecht, and Arne. The music is written in a trumpet style characterized by repeated notes, incomplete arpeggios, fanfare motives, limited range, and restricted use of the low register. In works composed after about 1730, a lyrical style of melodic writing takes on a greater importance with scale passages, leaps of an octave or more, and more frequent use of the low register.