It was, however, the successive improvements of Adolphe Sax (Paris, 1814-1894), working probably from Grenser's and later from Streitwolf's models, which produced the modern bass clarinet, and following up the work of Halary and Buffet in the same field, he secured its introduction into the orchestra at the opera. The bass clarinet in C made its first appearance in opera in 1836 in Meyerbeer's Huguenots, Act V., where in a fine passage the lower register of the instrument is displayed to advantage, and later in Dinorah (Le pardon de Ploermel). Two years later (1838) at the theatre of Modena a bass clarinet by P. Maino of Milan, differing in construction from the Sax model, was independently introduced into the orchestra.[[7]] Wagner employed the bass clarinet in B♭ and C in Tristan und Isolde,[[8]] where at the end of Act II. it is used with great effect to characterize the reproachful utterance of King Mark, thus:
etc.
(K. S.)
[1] See Captain C. R. Day, Descriptive Catalogue (London, 1891), No. 266, p. 125.
[2] See Victor Mahillon, Catalogue descriptif, vol. ii. (1896), pp. 224-226, No. 940.
[3] See Captain C. R. Day, op. cit. p. 123, pl. v. B. and p. 123, No. 262.
[4] See Dr Schafhäutl's report on the Munich exhibition, Bericht der Beurtheilungscommission für Musikinstrumente (Munich, 1855), P. 153.
[5] See Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung (Leipzig, 1834), Bd. xxxvi. March, p. 193.
[6] See Wilhelm Altenburg, Die Klarinette (Heilbronn, 1904-1905), p. 33.