basset horn

• Name — Basset horn • Names — it: corno di bassetto, de: Bassetthorn, fr: cor de basset • Classification — Woodwind, clarinet family • Range — Basset horn in F { \override Score.TimeSignature #'stencil = ##f c2 \glissando \ottava #1 d'2 \ottava #-1 f,2 \glissando g2 } written: C3-D7, sounding a perfect fifth lower: F2-G6 • Related — Clarinet d'amore, Alto clarinet, bass clarinet, tenor saxophone. Distinguish: Basset clarinet • Musicians — Suzanne Stephens, Sabine Meyer, Stephan Siegenthaler, Alessandro Carbonare Clarinet Trio • Composers — Carl Stamitz, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Alessandro Rolla, Felix Mendelssohn, Richard Strauss, Roger Sessions, Karlheinz Stockhausen • Builders — Schwenk & Seggelke, Herbert Wurlitzer, Leitner & Kraus, Buffet Crampon, Selmer Company • Sound Sample — * Illustration — The Creatures of Prometheus by Ludwig Van Beethoven, Op. 43 — 14. Andante (Solo della signora Cassentini), performed by Laila Storch (oboe), William McColl (basset-horn) and Anita Cummings (piano). The basset-horn begins playing about 30 seconds in.

• Illustration — Angled barrel of a modern basset horn (German System) Like the clarinet, the instrument is a wind instrument with a single reed and a cylindrical bore. However, the basset horn is larger and has a bend or a kink between the mouthpiece and the upper joint (older instruments are typically curved or bent in the middle), and while the clarinet is typically a transposing instrument in Bflat or A (meaning a written C sounds as a Bflat or A), the basset horn is typically in F (less often in G). Finally, the basset horn has additional keys for an extended range down to written C, which sounds F at the bottom of the bass staff. In comparison, the alto clarinet typically extends down to written E♭, which sounds G♭, one semitone higher than the basset horn. The timbre of the basset horn is similar to the alto clarinet's, but darker. Basset horns in A, G, E, Eflat, and D were also made; the first of these is closely related to the basset clarinet. The basset horn is not related to the horn, or other members of the brass family (Sachs-Hornbostel classification 423.121.2 or 423.23); it does, however, bear a distant relationship to the hornpipe and cor anglais. Its name probably derives from the resemblance of early, curved versions to the horn of some animal. Some of the earliest basset horns, which are believed to date from the 1760s, bear an inscription "ANT et MICH MAYRHOFER INVEN. & ELABOR. PASSAVII", which has been interpreted to mean they were made by Anton and Michael Mayrhofer of Passau. Modern basset horns can be divided into three basic types, distinguished primarily by bore size and, consequently, the mouthpieces with which they are played: • The small-bore basset horn has a bore diameter in the range of 15.5 to(-) (still somewhat larger than a soprano clarinet bore, though it is often erroneously thought to be the same; even a large bore English clarinet, such as the old B&H 1010 design has a smaller bore of 15.3 mm). It is played with a Bflat/A clarinet mouthpiece. Only the Selmer Company (Paris) and Stephen Fox (Canada) currently make this model. • The medium-bore basset horn has a bore diameter in the region of 17.0 mm or slightly less. This is the most common type made by German-system manufacturers (e.g., Otmar Hammerschmidt (Austria)). Since no French-style mouthpiece with an appropriate bore is mass-produced, this model requires a matching German basset-horn mouthpiece. (This model is not usually recognized in North America, where it is confused with the large-bore type described below.) Stephen Fox currently makes this model also. • The large-bore basset horn, with a bore diameter of about 18.0 mm and played with an alto-clarinet mouthpiece, is in constructional terms an alto clarinet pitched in F and with the extra basset notes. The Leblanc basset horns (bores about 18.0 to(-)) are of this type. The current Buffet basset horn could be called a hybrid "medium-large bore" model, since it uses an alto-clarinet mouthpiece but has a bore diameter around 17.2 mm.

• Illustration — Mozart Divertimento for 3 Basset Horns (Kay Lipton - "Art Informed By Music") • Illustration — Museum of Musical Instruments, Berlin: 18th-century basset horns (with clarinets, a flute, and bassoons) • Illustration — Basset horn by Jakob Friedrich Grundmann (1787) • Illustration — Chromatic basset horn after Theodor Lotz (replica) • Illustration — Romantic basset horn, elongated shape, 13 keys (replica)

• "Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind" for solo clarinetist (soprano clarinets, basset horn, and bass clarinet) and string quartet by Osvaldo Golijov; later arranged for solo clarinetist and string orchestra. • Serenade on Carl Maria von Weber's Oberon for basset horn and two guitars, op. 28, written by Heinrich Neumann. • Etudes for Piano and Orchestra, Op. 39 (1992) by Peter Schat calls for 3 basset horns in the orchestra. • Serenade for 12 Instruments, Op. 61b (1915) by Josef Holbrooke calls for both corni di bassetto and oboe d'amore. • Alessandro Rolla – Concerto in F Major BI. 528 for basset horn and orchestra • Bertold Hummel – Concertino for basset horn and strings Op. 27a (1965) • George Benjamin's first opera Into the Little Hill • In his enormous Gothic Symphony Havergal Brian enlists two basset horns. • Samuel Andreyev – La pendule de profil for basset horn, bassoon, viola, cello and double bass • Michael Schneider – Licht bei Vermeer for basset horn, vibraphone and 8 voices • Howard J. Buss – "In Memoriam" for basset horn and piano (2015)

• Illustration — Suzanne Stephens with a modern basset horn (made by Leblanc, 1974) The Lotz Trio performs on replicas of the basset horns made by the 18th-century instrument maker Theodor Lotz of Pressburg (Bratislava) and Vienna. The ensemble presents a repertoire of popular 18th-century wind harmonias (known in German as Harmoniemusik) represented predominantly by Mozart's music. However, the ensemble also performs music by other central European composers including Georg Druschetzky, Martín I Soler, Anton Stadler, Vojtech Nudera, Johann Josef Rösler and Anton Wolanek. The Prague Trio of Basset Horns, based in the Czech Republic, has a repertoire of music written or transcribed for three basset horns, by composers including Mozart, Scott Joplin, and Paul Desmond. Suzanne Stephens is a leading basset horn specialist in contemporary music. Starting in 1974, the German Karlheinz Stockhausen composed many new works for her, including a large number for basset horn with a solo role in his opera LIGHT. Other interpreters of Stockhausen's music include the Dutch Fie Schouten and the Italian Michele Marelli.

The Italian name for the instrument, corno di bassetto, was used by Bernard Shaw as a pseudonym when writing music criticism.