. In the lowest octave the
instrument speaks slowly and is chiefly used for sustained bass or melody
notes; rapid passages are impossible.

The modern orchestral model may be fitted with almost every kind of
key-mechanism, including the Boehm, and the degree of perfection and
ingenuity attained has removed the all but insuperable difficulties which
stood in the way of the original inventors who, not understanding key-work,
made many futile attempts to bridge the necessarily great distance between
the finger-holes by making the bore serpentine, boring the holes obliquely,
&c.

The low pitch of the bass clarinet (8 ft. tone) contrasted with the
moderate length of the instrument--whose bore measures only some 42 to 43
inches from mouthpiece to bell, whereas that of the bassoon, an instrument
of the same pitch, is twice that length--is a puzzle to many. An
explanation of the fact is to be found in the peculiar acoustic properties
of the cylindrical tube played by means of a reed mouthpiece characterizing
the clarinet family, which acts as a closed pipe speaking an octave lower
than an open pipe of the same length, and overblowing a twelfth instead of
an octave. This is more fully explained in the articles CLARINET and AULOS.

The construction of the bass clarinet demands the greatest care. The bore
should theoretically be strictly cylindrical throughout its length from
mouthpiece to bell joint; the slightest deviation from mathematical
accuracy, such as an undue widening of the bell from the point where it
joins the body to the mouth of the bell, would tend to muffle the lower
notes of the instrument and to destroy correct intonation.

The origin of the bass clarinet must be sought in Germany, where Heinrich
Grenser of Dresden, one of the most famous instrument-makers of his day,
made the first bass clarinet in 1793. The basset horn (_q.v._) or tenor
clarinet, which had reached the height of its popularity, no doubt
suggested to Grenser, who was more especially renowned for his excellent
fagottos, the possibility of providing for the clarinet a bass of its own.
One of these earliest attempts in the form of a fagotto, stamped "A.
Grenser, Dresden," with nine square-flapped brass keys working on knobs, is
in the Grossherzogliches Museum at Darmstadt and was lent to the Royal
Military Exhibition, London 1890.[1] Two other early specimens,[2]
belonging originally to Adolphe Sax and to M. de Coussemaker, are now
respectively