Basset Horn in F late 18th century Simon Unglerth ClarinetsTradition attributes the invention of the clarinet about 1700 to Johann Christoph Denner, an instrument maker and musician in Nuremberg.The clarinet operates with a single reed mouthpiece and has a cylindrical bore. This acoustical setup causes the clarinet to overblow into the twelfth, rather than the octave, as do flutes and oboes. Therefore, the keywork and fingering system are different. The pitch of a clarinet, for example, "in A" or "in F," refers to the tone C as a standard pitch. When c1 is notated, a clarinet in F sounds a fourth higher (f1), an alto clarinet in F a fifth lower (f).About 1760, the clarinet entered the classical orchestra; during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, it spread to virtually all forms and styles of music making. Since the eighteenth century, several variants in size, bore, and sound have evolved: clarinet d'amour (ca. 1760), basset horn (ca. 1770), alto clarinet (ca. 1810), bass clarine