1690-1704:Denner began by modifying the chalumeau, adding two keys that resulted in an instrument that could be overblown to produce higher harmonics in addition to the lower register’s fundamental pitches. 1710:the earliest clarinets Nuremberg records of clarinets date from 1710, three years after J.C Denner died.
1730-1740:Makers including a son of Denner, Johann David, added an extended bell and a third key that produced a low e. 1750:the fourth and fifth keys were added to the clarinet by Brunswick organ builder Barthold Fritz. The a-flat/e-flat key was operated by the right hand, fifth finger and the f#/c’’# was played by the left hand, fifth finger. By, 1770 this instrument was called the five-keyed clarinet.
1770-1780:most clarinets were in C and Bb. In England, just before 1790, a key between a’ and b’ was added. Continental clarinets had holes that were larger and a better sound in the chalumeau register.This was important as mozart started writing solo passages for the clarinet in the chalumeau register. 1791: Jean-Xavier Lefevre, a parisian clarinetist made the sixth ket on the clarinet popular. He did not invent it. 1808:the contra-bass clarinet was created.
1812: Johann Pfaff created a clarinet with 13 keys and better intonation because of improved placement of the tone holes. 1818: first ever record of a metal clarinet
1820: mostly German players would play the clarinet with their bottom lip touching the reed. Only Germans would do this. Everywhere else the reed would be placed on top. German Friederich Berr started teaching at the Paris conservatory, the French caught on to the trend of playing with the reed placed on the underside of the mouthpiece. Soon after, the English played with the reed on the bottom. 1820 pitch was about A-433 in London orchestras, but bands would play higher. Pitch in bands raised until 1850.
1823: César Janssen from the Paris Opera created “roller keys” which allowed a clarinettist to slide their fingers from one key to another.
1830: German experiments led to the production of combined Bb/A clarinets. 1837: The “needle spring” mounted on posts that were screwed into the clarinet was introduced by August Buffet.
1840: Adolphe Sax created a clarinet from Müller’s clarinet that had used the Boehm rings that were able to move. It still kept the need for cross-fingering. Mouth pieces did not become the present ones they are today until the 1840’s. On early clarinets the mouthpiece wasn't considered a separate object from the clarinet and therefore was made from the same type of wood.
1830-1840 clarinets were marked by fine-tuning the bore to result in more evenness among the different notes. The various pitched clarinets size became more standard. Boxwood or ebony were the normal body materials. The keys consisted of brass or silver. Other models continued to become popular outside of France. The Belgian developed a Albert System, which was a refined version of the earlier “simple systems” but without rings that moved, like Müller’s 13 key instrument. Instruments created by Eugène Albert were thought to have better intonation and tone than the Boehm clarinets.
1845: Müller collaborated with Heckel and added rings around the finger holes of his clarinet’s lower joint. These rings help to open and close levers and holes that your fingers cannot reach. 1855: a five keyed clarinet was still offered in a catalog by a Viennese instrument maker. 1860:Carl Baermann improved Müller’s clarinet. He collaborated with Georg Ottensteiner, a Munich Instrument maker. Two rings around finger holes on the upper joint and double levers were added to operate the a-flat and b-flat keys with the left hand.
1862: Buffet built a combination of a Bb/A clarinet with one set of keys and two metal tubes in bore. It was mechanically sound, but had poor sound and pitch. 1869: first reeds made by a machine
1870s: Increased popularity of the Boehm system clarinets in Italy, Belgium and the U.S. 1885: a clarinet was developed by James Clinton, an Englishman. The clarinet was built by Boosey that was derived from the Müller clarinet. 1890: the Spaniard Manuel Gómez fixed the Boehm clarinet more in London, where he was well known as a clarinetist. Early 1900s: the most successful quarter-tone clarinet is created by Dr. R. H. Stein, a musicologist from Berlin. This clarinet was forgotten. 1910-1920: Müller’s clarinet was improved by Oskar Oehler, who moved specific keys and changed their shape. Today the Oehler clarinet has 22 keys, one finger plate and five rings. The finger holes are spaced farther apart then on the Boehm clarinet. A prime goal of Oehler’s was the perfection of pitch and tone quality. Oehler accomplished more improved clarinet than the Boehm clarinet
1952: the S-K mechanism granted separate holes and keys for a register key and a resonance key for the b’-flat. This resulted in more improved tune.
1973: Birsak performed playing test on many two and three-keyed instruments that were built in 1760 by G. Watch of Salzburg. He used an electronic tuner and discovered that the lowest two pitches were most commonly f and f# rather than the expected e and f. When the register key was added to the lowest note on the instruments, they produced the predicted b’ in the clarinet register. This advocates that the instruments was joined to create a usable b’ instead of the low e. Walch’s clarinets have enhanced intonation problems than other baroque clarinets that have been tested, so it is debatable to use the fingering patterns as the norm.