Revolution Aftermath on French Musical Culture, The Twelve Key Classical Clarinet, and Travelling Virtuosi, 1800-1820

    In the wake of the nineteenth century, following the French Revolution (1789-1799), as many patrons and upper-class supporters of the arts went bankrupt, many musicians who had previously been employed in courts across Europe were left without the security of such a post. As a result, many musicians turned to a career in the Military, as wind bands grew in popularity and in size. Others dedicated the rest of their lives to musical education, including the group of renowned clarinetists who taught at the newly established Paris Conservatory.
With the collapse of feudal social structures and the rise of the middle class, the number of amateur musicians had risen substantially, which had a number of important implications on the European musical culture, and particularly on the French musical scene. For example, the establishment of many amateur wind ensembles, bands, and orchestras, which were now led by a conductor.1 The rise of the amateur musician also led to the publishing of many method books and treatises for all instruments and in various languages. In the first decade alone, at least twelve method books were written for the Paris Conservatory; These include Jean-Xavier Léfevre’s Méthode de clarinette (1802), Étienne Ozi’s Nouvelle Méthode de bassoon (1803), Antione Hugot’s Méthode de flûte du Conservatoire (1804), and Louis Adam’s Méthode de Piano du Conservatoire (1805).
Furthermore, because of the lack of proper and thorough musical education of amateur musicians, composers increasingly included specific performance instructions, which might have been unnecessary for the professional musician of previous generations.2

    While all these significant events happened in the musical culture across Western Europe, the clarinet continued to evolve and develop as more keys were added to the basic five-key clarinet, making it more capable of playing in distant tonalities and creating a more even tone throughout the range of the instrument. The addition of keys also contributed to the ease by which players could execute fast, intricate passages in a clear, agile, and graceful manner, without complicated combinations of fork fingerings. This alone inspired an entirely new, brilliant, and virtuosic writing style for the clarinet.
During the first two decades of the century, also often described as the “golden age” of the clarinet, some of the most prolific composer-virtuoso relationships were formed; these resulted in the most significant pieces in the clarinet literature. The friendship between Carl Maria von Weber and Heinrich Baermann resulted in two Concertos, Op. 73 and 74, the Concertino, Op. 26, a clarinet Quintet, Op. 34 and a set of variations on a theme from the opera Silvana, Op. 33, all composed between 1811-1815. The collaboration between Louis Spohr to Johann Hermstedt resulted in four concertos, Op. 26 and 57 (1808, and 1810 respectively) and WoO. 19 and 20 (1821, and 1829 respectively), a Potpourri for Clarinet and Orchestra Op. 80, and a set of variations on Spohr’s opera, Alruna, WoO. 15 (1809).
Some clarinet virtuosi ventured into writing their own repertoire. For example, the Finnish clarinetist and composer Bernhard Crusell. On top of being an established and well-known artist all over Europe, Crusell was also a renowned composer. Amongst his works are three concertos, Op. 1, 5, and 11 (1811, 1818, 1829 respectively), three clarinet quartets, Op. 2, 4, and 7 (1807, 1804, and 1821 respectively), and three clarinet duos, as well as a Sinfonia concertante for clarinet, horn, bassoon and orchestra, Op. 3 (1804), and an Introduction and Variations for Clarinet and Orchestra, Op. 12 from the same year.

As reflected by these examples, the early nineteenth-century clarinet culture in the European continent was dominated by musicians born or trained in Germany. These musicians traveled around Europe and naturally arrived at Paris, which was still an important cultural center.
The French were highly impressed by this new generation of clarinetists, which had many consequences on some technical aspects discussed later. One of the most significant clarinet virtuosos who arrived in Paris was Heinrich Baermann, whose tour in 1818 had a wide impact on both the French audience and French musicians. Apart from receiving enthusiastic press reviews, renowned clarinetists like Amand Vanderhagen, who mentioned him in his 1819 method book, talked fondly of Baermann’s concerts in Paris. Frédéric Berr was even more passionate after hearing Baermann in Paris, to the point of encouraging his students to abandon the traditional “French embouchure” with a reed-above position and adapt the German reed-down position once and for all.

    This investigation of the French clarinet culture would not be complete without discussing one of the most important steps of the instrument’s evolution: the invention of clarinet virtuoso and instrument maker Iwan Müller - the Clarinette Omnitonique - or The Müller System, thirteen-key clarinet. Müller started experimenting and constructing his clarinet in Paris around 1811 with the intention of creating an instrument able to be played in all keys. Among the innovations he applied is relocating the tone holes to achieve improved and even intonation in all registers. In order to do so, Müller had to combine the right-hand joint and the stock into one piece and thus he annulled the corps de rechange, which enabled the conversion of Bb to A clarinet. In addition, Müller changed the mechanism of the keys and mounted the keys on pillars screwed to the body of the clarinet instead of wooden blocks, so the keys pivoted on small screws that were attached to the pillars. Furthermore, Müller was the one that changed the pads from flat leather to soft, wool-stuffed leather cushions that created a better seal against air leakage. This innovation was adapted to the keywork of other woodwinds, and on which modern woodwinds’ key padding is based.3

    With all these changes and advances in the clarinet culture across Europe, and with all the technical and mechanical innovations - particularly in Paris - it is no surprise that the older generation of French clarinetists resisted some of the new trends and pushed away German influences. The faculty of the Paris Conservatory rejected Müller’s clarinet, primarily on the basis that the inventor aimed to eliminate the use of all clarinet transpositions and remain only with the Bb clarinet, which he considered superior in tone and comfortably located between C and A clarinets.4 French methods continued to feature mainly the classical five-key clarinet, and highlighted the merits of the reed-above position. It can be determined, thus, that clarinetists in Paris during the first decades of the nineteenth century were in disagreement regarding different aspects and topics, concerning embouchure and production to a key system, and the acceptance of Germanic influences.

It is quite clear that Amand Vanderhagen belonged to the conservative camp, as in his last clarinet method, dated 1819, he focused on the twelve-key clarinet, as opposed to the Müller System clarinet, which was growing in popularity across France. This, in addition to the clarinet illustration showing the reed positioned above, provides sufficient evidence for that assumption.