Clariofon Bass Clarinet in B-flat

Franz Losschmidt

after 1852 · Various materials · Musical Instruments

Losschmidt developed this type of bass clarinet, which he called the clariofon, in 1852. It follows a contemporary fashion of substituting brass for wood. Serial number 8 Overall size: 850 Bore: 15.5 Technical description: Brass body with German silver keys and ferrules. Four pieces: mouthpiece, crook, one-piece-body and bell. Metal mouthpiece with integral brass bell intended for a ligature. Brass crook. Two speakers, speaker tone hole on the back of the instrument featured with a chimney. Speaker liner projects almost to the centre of the bore. Key to close thumb hole. All other tone holes coverd by plates or keys. Throat A♭ for R2 like on an English simple system clarinet. No cross B♭3/F♮5. Shaped thumb rest with sling ring above. Chromatic extension to C3. Brass protection to prevent the F♯3/C♯5 and F3/C5 keyheads from being damaged. Wooden device to fix the instrument to a string or the musicians west. 19 keys, 3 plates. Bell with a German silver rim. L0: Thumbhole; speaker1 ; speaker 2; C♯3; C3. L1: P; throat A♮. L2: P; throat A♭. L3: C4/G5. L4: C♯4/G♯5; E3/B♮4; F♯3/C♯5. R0: D3; D♯3. R1: B♮3/F♯5; side F4/ C6; side E♭4/B♭5. R2: P. R3: G3/D5; side B♮3/F♯5. R4: F3/C5; G♯3/E♭5. Keyhead type: shallow cup Keymount type: screwed in pillars with push pins. Inscribed on main section " No. 8 / FR LOSSCHMIDT / k.[aiserlich] k.[oeniglich] ausch.[leisslich] priv[iligierter] Instrumenten Fabrikant / in Olmuetz" (Heike Fricke, 2014)

Artist

Franz Losschmidt

Date

after 1852

Medium

Various materials

Culture

Czech

Department

Musical Instruments

Credit line

The Crosby Brown Collection of Musical Instruments, 1889