NMM 2525, 2526, and 2527.  Clarinets in C, B-flat, and A by Georg Ottensteiner, Munich, ca. 1860-1879. Four sections. Stained boxwood, silver ferrules. Eighteen silver touchpieces, four silver rings. Improved simple system. Original case. Arne B. Larson Collection, 1979. This set of clarinets features an improved simple system of fingering (essentially Iwan Müller's 13-key system with several additions) that resulted from a collaboration between Carl Baermann and Ottensteiner that began in 1860. Baermann's tutor, Vollständige Clarinett-Schule (Offenbach:  1864-1875), written for this system, achieved wide circulation during Baermann's lifetime. Richard Mühlfeld (1856-1907) of Meiningen, the clarinetist for whom Brahms composed, was one of its proponents. Click on image at left to see an enlargment.

Click on images below to see larger images.

Top-Joint Images from Ottensteiner Clarinet in C (NMM 2525).
Link to Top-Joint Images for Ottensteiner Clarinet in B-flat (NMM 2526) and A (NMM 2527)

The system includes extra levers to open the same toneholes for alternate fingerings (rather than having separate toneholes for those alternates).   Fingerings are as follows:

• First, right-hand side-key is e-flat¹/b-flat², as is banana-key between second and third toneholes
• Left-hand side key for f¹/c³ is same as small banana-key between first and second toneholes
• Left-hand thumb-hole plus middle, right-hand side-key = g¹/c³
• Top right-hand side-key and a¹ key:  b-natural¹ and top, right-hand side-key plus b-flat¹ = c²
• e¹ plus middle, right-hand side-key = f-sharp¹
• Left-hand thumb-register-key, when depressed, engages lever that activates top-joint brille, which in turn closes first tonehole vent-key; same first tone-hole vent is also closed when a¹ key is depressed
• Left-hand c-sharp¹/g-sharp²-key has alternate touchpiece for right hand (formed on key)

Bottom-Joint Images from Ottensteiner Clarinet in C (NMM 2525).
Link to Bottom-Joint Images for Ottensteiner Clarinet in B-flat (NMM 2526) and A (NMM 2527)

Fingerings are as follows:

• Roller on a-flat/e-flat² key
• Four, left-hand, little-finger keys:
• Top two touchpieces:  e/b¹ and f-sharp¹/c-sharp²
• Bottom two touchpieces:  b/f² and a-flat/e-flat²
• Right-hand, thumb-key for f-sharp/c-sharp²:  levers interconnected so that f-sharp/c-sharp² tonehole closes if e/b¹ is depressed, allowing for a quick passage between those two notes, since the thumb does not have to be lifted

Lit.:  Jerry E. Kramer, Clarinets Made Between 1800 and 1880 from the Collections of the Shrine to Music Museum, M.M. thesis (University of South Dakota, 1983), pp. 44, Plate V.

Deborah Check Reeves, "The Clarinets at the Shrine to Music Museum," The Clarinet, Vol. 24, No. 3 (May/June 1997), pp. 44-45.

Deborah Check Reeves, "Historically Speaking," The Clarinet, Vol. 30, No. 3 (March 2003), p. 30.

Go to Checklist of Clarinets by Georg Ottensteiner

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