Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A woodwind instrument having a straight cylindrical tube with a flaring bell and a single-reed mouthpiece, played by means of finger holes and keys.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A musical windinstrument consisting of a mouthpiece containing a single beating reed, a cylindrical tube with 18 holes (9 to be closed by the fingers and 9 by keys), and a bell or flaring mouth. Its tone is full, mellow, and expressive, blending well with both brass and stringed instruments. Its compass is about 3½ octaves, beginning just above tenor C, and including all the semitones. Several varieties are in use, differing in pitch and in their adaptability to extreme keys, as the C clarinet, the B♭ clarinet, the E♭ clarinet, etc. Other varieties are the alto clarinet, the basset-horn, and the bass clarinet, which together constitute the clarinet family of instruments. The clarinet is a modification of the medieval shawm, and became a recognized orchestral instrument about 1775; it is now in constant use in all orchestras and in most military bands. Its construction was decidedly improved in 1843.
- n. In organ-building, a reed-stop imitating the tone of the clarinet.
Wiktionary
- n. a woodwind musical instrument that has a distinctive liquid tone whose characteristics vary among its three registers: chalumeau (low), clarion (medium), and altissimo (high).
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A wind instrument, blown by a single reed, of richer and fuller tone than the oboe, which has a double reed. It is the leading instrument in a military band.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a single-reed instrument with a straight tube
Etymologies
- French clarinette, feminine diminutive of Old French clarin, clarion, clarion; see clarion, or of Provençal clarin, oboe (from Old Provençal clar, clear, from Latin clārus; see clear).
Examples
“To give an example — we had what we call a clarinet club.”
“Anthony McGill is the principal clarinetist of the New York Metropolitan Orchestra, a member of the Peabody Conservatory faculty in clarinet, and a much sought after soloist and chamber musician.”
Aretha Franklin to Participate in Inaugural Ceremony - The Caucus Blog - NYTimes.com
“Soho the Dog: Sometimes a clarinet is just a clarinet”
“I don't think he ever seriously considered the idea that the clarinet was a means, not an end.”
“The clarinet was the dominant and most glamourous voice of the swing era, yet it's been increasingly marginalized since the birth of modern jazz.”
“And then moving from that to clarinet, which is a B-flat instrument, and then from that to piano, which is another C instrument, helped me get, you know, the structure of music in my mind.”
“In early nineteenth-century, both works appeared in print, but by then the basset clarinet had gone out of fashion, and in the scores of both the Quintet and the Concerto the clarinet is the one we recognise today – with the musical result that several characteristic figures in the low register had been transposed upwards, so losing their original effect.”
“Although embodying a very ancient principle -- the "squeaker" reed which our little children still make, and continued in the Egyptian arghool -- the clarinet is the most recent member of the wood wind band.”
“Oh, the clarinet is the finest yet, and the uniforms are gay.”
“The clarinet was a big deal much earlier in New Orleans Jazz, where it played a mostly obbligato role (see also the page on heterophony).”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘clarinet’.
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Organ Stops
A list of pipe- and pedal-organ stops. These have variously and perhaps at times capriciously been named and labelled by organ builders in Latin, English, French, German, Italian, Dutch, Spanish, a...
diapason, double open diapason, sub-bourdon, double dulciana, bourdon, contra gamba, pyramidon, open diapason, stopped diapason, dulcis, dulciana, viol-di-gamba and 237 more...
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Cellophane and other household instruments
Well, inspired by the word 'cellophane', there must be basis for a list containing words for other arcane instruments found in the household
saxophone, clarinet, champagne flute, frying panpipes, drinking double horn, can can opener, singing bowl, milkshaker, glass harmonica, kazoorole, kettledrums, timpanino and 19 more...
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Words that make me want to drink single malt sc...
You know that feeling when you hear a word that you just want to roll it around in your mouth, experiment with it, find its edges and texture. Words that you want to clink around in a glass with so...
melt, agronomy, cartilage, vexatious, scintillating, carrion, caryopsis, crystallite, haulm, alegar, maltster, carpel and 31 more...
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