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From the Clarinet D'Amour to the Contra Bass: A History of Large Size Clarinets, 1740-1860. Albert R. Rice. 488 pages. Oxford University Press, 2009. Reviewed by Eric Hoeprich.
Although scholars make it a habit to delve into matters arcane, an entire book on "large size" clarinets might seem somewhat excessive. Even specialists (like me), who probably already know far too much about the better-known low instruments of the clarinet family, might not really need such a book. As for everyone else, anything beyond the ability to identify the bass clarinet in Wagner's operas and familiarity with a few riffs by Eric Dolphy is surely superfluous. And although that ultimate cult instrument, the basset horn, one of Mozart's favorites, deserves a healthy amount of attention, Wikipedia serves up plenty for most everyone's needs.
However in this particular case, we are dealing with the clarinet expert Albert R. Rice, author of two volumes on the history of the clarinet: The Baroque Clarinet (1992) and The Clarinet in the Classical Period (2003), both published by Oxford University Press; he has also written more than 70 articles on the subject. Rice knows the primary and secondary sources inside and out and has the unusual gift of making connections between these, as well as fleshing out the bigger picture of any...