The range of most contra-alto clarinets extends downwards to low E♭ (sounding contra G♭ 1).
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Today's contra-alto clarinets are mainly based on the Boehm system, although models with the German system also existed in the past.
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This is the case with a contra clarinet tuned in E♭, whose written lowest tone is the small E♭ (E-flat 3), as with most clarinets.
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In 1851, Adolphe Sax applied for a patent for an instrument, he called "contrabass clarinet in E♭" in order to replace the bowed contrabass of symphony orchestras in wind bands with an instrument whose lowest sounding note is contra-G or G1, like the contrabass.Albert also developed an alto clarinet in F, but without the additional basset notes typical of the basset horn notated C to it. Around 1890 the Belgian clarinet maker Eugène Albert or his son E.In 1829, Johann Heinrich Gottlieb Streitwolf, an instrument maker in Göttingen, introduced an instrument tuned in F in the shape and fingering of a basset horn, which could be called a contrabasset horn because it played an octave lower than it.The contra-alto clarinet is largely a development of the 2nd half of the 20th century, although there were some precursors in the 19th century: 5 CD recordings with contra-alto clarinet.4.2 Contemporary solo and chamber music.