hpiece joint by a bulb, thus
restoring one of the characteristic features of the tibia,[25] known as
the [Greek: holmos]. There are a few of these improved chalumeaux in
existence, two being in the Bavarian national museum at Munich, the one
in high A, in a bad state of preservation, the second in C, marked J.C.
Denner, of which V. Mahillon has made a facsimile[26] for the museum of
the Brussels Conservatoire. There are two keys and eight holes; the
first consists of two small holes on the same level giving a semitone if
only one be closed. If the thumb-key be left open, the sounds of the
fundamental scale (shown in the black notes below) rise a twelfth to
form the second register (the white notes). This early clarinet or
improved chalumeau has a clarinet mouthpiece, but no bulb; it measures
50 cm. (20 in.), whereas the one in A mentioned above is only 28 cm. in
length, the long cylindrical tube between mouthpiece and key-joint,
afterwards turned into the bulb, being absent. Mahillon was probably the
first to point out that the so-called invention of the clarinet by J.C.
Denner consisted in providing a device--the speaker-key--to facilitate
the production of the harmonics of the fundamental. Can we be sure that
the same result was not obtained on the old chalumeau before keys were
added, by partially uncovering the hole for the thumb?

The Berlin museum possesses an early clarinet with two keys, marked J.B.
Oberlender, derived from the Snoeck collection. Paul de Wit's collection
has a similar specimen by Enkelmer. The Brussels Conservatoire possesses
clarinets with two keys by Flemish makers, G.A. Rottenburgh and J.B.
Willems[27]; the latter, with a small bulb and bell, is in G a fifth
above the C clarinet. The next improvements in the clarinet, made in
1720, are due to J. Denner, probably a son of J.C. Denner. They
consisted in the addition of a bell and in the removal of the
speaker-hole and key nearer the mouthpiece, involving the reduction of
the diameter of the hole. The effect of this change of position was to
turn the B[natural] into B flat, for J. Denner introduced into the
hole, nearly as far as the axis of the bore, a small metal drainage
tube[28] for the moisture of the breath. In the modern clarinet, the
same result is attained by raising this little tube slightly above the
surface of the main tube, placing a key on the top of it, and bending
the lever. In order to produce the missing B[natural], J. Denner
l