History             

The first true single reed instrument was the chalumeau, which appeared in the late 1600s.  It had a range of about 1.5 octaves.

Johann Christoph Denner is credited with the invention of the speaker, or register key, which extended the range of the chalumeau, by allowing it to sound a 12th higher. This is the first true clarinet. He also gave it a separate mouthpiece and developed the bell.

The clarinet was experimented with more and more in the late 1700s, until Ivan Muller developed a 13 keyed model, which remained popular until the late 1800s. In the early 1840s, Klose and Buffet developed the Boehm fingering system.

The next major development in the history of clarinet was the invention of the modern pad. Early clarinets covered the tone holes with felt pads. Because these leaked air, the number of pads had to be kept to a minimum, so the clarinet was severely restricted in what notes could be played with a good tone. In 1812, Iwan Muller, another German instrument maker, developed a new type of pad which was covered in leather or fish bladder. This was completely airtight, so the number of keys could be increased enormously. He designed a new type of clarinet with seven finger holes and thirteen keys. This allowed the clarinet to play in any key with equal ease. Over the course of the 19th century, many enhancements were made to Muller's clarinet, such as the Albert system and the Baermann system, all keeping the same basic design. The Muller clarinet and its derivatives were popular throughout the world.

The Boehm system is used everywhere in the world except Germany and Austria. These countries still use a direct descendant of the Muller clarinet known as the Oehler system clarinet.

By 1800 few orchestras would have been without the clarinet. In chamber music, its place had been assured by Mozart. Early works featuring the instrument include the overture for two clarinets and horn (1748) by the German-English composer George Frideric Handel and the clarinet concerto (1791) by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who wrote the first symphony featuring the clarinet. As a solo instrument it had already had by 1800 a fairly long career. The years 1800 to 1840 were a period of soloists and concerto players and mechanical development. In 1812 Ivan Muller presented a newly designed clarinet to the Paris Conservatoire. The new instrument was one of 13 keys and the furthest advance since the work of Denner. Muller is said to have been the second great figure in the world of development of the clarinet.

The earliest known clarinet music appeared in books published by Estienne Roger.