Heinrich Grenser and the Development of Keywork for the Clarinet. This work is the product of nine months of research for the Pamela Weston Scholarship studying the surviving clarinets of a German instrument maker, and the other makers connected to his workshop.

Illustration 1 – An example of a six-key clarinet by Heinrich Grenser made between 1806 and c.1813, in the Edinburgh University Collection of Historical Musical Instruments, Ex-Shackleton (EUCHMI 4805).

Heinrich Grenser (1769-1814) was active at a time of great advances in the design of the clarinet, when instrument makers and composers wanted a more chromaticallyable instrument (the design of the earliest clarinets left them only able to play in a few keys). This in itself makes Heinrich Grenser an interesting subject, observing how his instruments differ from those of his contemporaries. However, in 1811 Grenser wrote an article for a famous German music journal of the period, the Allegemeine musikalische Zeitung, berating many of the inventions to improve woodwind instruments (largely the flute), and highlighting the importance of getting the basic design of the instrument right before adding extra keys or devices. To put Heinrich’s work into context, it is first important to consider the history of both the clarinet, and of the workshop in which he was apprenticed and later inherited. His uncle August (also know as August the Elder) began his apprenticeship as a woodwind instrument maker under Johann Pörschmann in Leipzig. He is known to have moved to Dresden in 1739, although for whom he was working between this date and 1744 when he set up his own workshop is unclear. In 1753 August applied for, and was granted the privilege of Hof-Instrumentenmacher that involved providing the woodwind instruments for the court, but was also a symbol of prestige. August altered his makers’ mark to reflect this new position by adding the crossed swords that were the symbol of the Electorate of Saxony. August Grenser is also known to have supplied instruments to other court musicians from elsewhere, including making a number of wind instruments for Leopold Mozart in Salzburg,

Other than his nephew, it is known that August Grenser trained several apprentices; firstly his own son Karl Augustin Grenser (known as the Younger) who appears to have had a rather unremarkable career; and Friedrich Gabriel August Kirst, who was apprenticed between c. 1763-90. Kirst was far more successful than August the younger, firstly setting up his own workshop in Potsdam, and later being granted an important privilege to make instruments for the Prussian army. August’s second son Johann Friedrich Grenser became a musician rather than an instrument maker and, after emigrating to Sweden in 1778, proceeded to have a successful career as musician and composer at the Swedish court. This link between the Grensers and the Swedish court was strengthened later when the Swedish composer and clarinet virtuoso, Berhard Henrik Crusell, bought a clarinet from Heinrich Grenser some time around 1810. Crusell’s eleven-keyed instrument in B-flat, for which he wrote a series of Concerti (recently recorded by Eric Hoeprich), survives in the Musikmuseet in Stockholm (N43554). After completing his apprenticeship, Heinrich Grenser married his cousin Henrietta Regina in 1789, securing his continued place in the family business and eventually allowing him to take over from his Uncle on August’s retirement in c. 1796. Although Heinrich does seem to have gained control of the workshop in this year, there are instrument later than this which are signed by August the Elder including a flute dated 1798 (this instrument was last known in a private collection in the UK). August Grenser the Elder died in 1807 at the rather grand old age of 87. In a book published in 1796 (Neuest. gehekertes Dresden), a German by the name of Kläbe wrote that August had ‘won fame throughout the whole of Europe for his flutes.’ However, it is clear from examining a number of surviving clarinets by August the Elder, that these were also of very high quality. Although August Grenser the Younger is not himself particularly well regarded as an instrument maker, his three sons Karl August III, Friedrich Wilhelm, and Friedrich August Grenser all pursued successful careers as musicians in Leipzig around the turn of the nineteenth century. Karl Augustin III married Heinrich’s daughter Emma Caroline, eventually inheriting through her the house that his father had grown up in (which had been passed on to Heinrich Grenser along with the workshop). Upon Heinrich Grenser’s death in 1813, his young son by his second wife, Heinrich Otto, was of no age to take over the workshop (being only five at the time of

his father’s death). Grenser’s widow Caroline Wilhemine née Frost ran the workshop for a few years until her marriage to Heinrich’s journeyman, Samuel Wiesner, in 1817. Samuel Wiesner added his name to Heinrich’s mark until he was granted his own mark in 1826.

Illustration 2 - The Grenser family and Workshop tree including the known apprentices trained.

As is quite common with early instrument (not using serial numbers), the only way that the instruments can currently be dated is by looking at the makers’ stamps on the instrument. In an essay for the German journal Tibia, on the history of the Grenser workshop, Herbert Heyde lists these stamps and gives the dates which they were used,

August Grenser Lilly/A.GRENSER (two stars) Lilly/GRENSER/DRESDEN Lilly/GRENTZER/DRESDEN Crown/GRENTZE/Saxon Swords Swords/A.GRENSER-DRESDEN before 1753 1753 to 1763 1764 to 1797/98 after 1744

Heinrich Grenser Swords/H.GRENSER/DRESDEN Crown/H.GRENSER/DRESDEN Samuel Wiesner (As journeyman) Crown/H.GRENSER/DRESDEN (As independent instrument maker) Crown/H.GRENSER & WIESNER/DRESDEN Crown/G.WIESNER/DRESDEN 1817 to 1822 1823 to 1868 1813 to 1817 ca. 1797 to 1806 1807 to 1813

NB. The substitution of a crown for the crossed Saxon swords was made in 1806 when Saxony was made a Kingdom by Napoleon, after this date Heinrich appears to have been the woodwind instrument maker to the Royal court of Saxony.

Illustration 3 - Four examples of stamps from Grenser workshop instruments (from left): B-flat clarinet by August Grenser in private ownership UK; a 5-key clarinet in A in the Shrine to Music Museum, Vermillion (4242); the A clarinet from a boxed set of three instruments in the Hague Gemeentemuseum (0841683); a basset-horn by Samuel Wiesner (trading as Grenser and Wiesner) in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (17, 1883).

However, to return to the original topic, that is the keywork of Heinrich Grenser, it is important to also consider what other clarinets of the period looked like, and how the keywork for the clarinet developed from the first instruments invented by Denner around the turn of the 18th Century. The very earliest clarinets only had two or three keys, although a fourth key was soon added to facilitate a right-hand g-sharp was soon added to make the instrument more flexible, and a key for f-sharp/c-sharp (played by the left fifth finger) followed soon afterwards. August Grenser the Elder would have been making these four- and five- key clarinets, for which music written around the middle to end of the 18th Century

was intended. This would include music by Vivaldi, Rameau, and Stamitz who all appear to have included clarinet parts in a number of ensemble pieces. However, even though these instruments had extra accidental keys which would make them more flexible, and eliminate some of the awkward forked-fingerings of notes, the instruments were still only able to play in a number of keys (the tuning of the instruments was not satisfactory in remote keys). At this time a clarinettist would have required a number of instruments in different keys to cover the repertoire, not just instruments in B-flat and A, but also C, D, and E-flat. Each of these instruments would have had it’s own individual character, and composers would usually specify which instrument they wanted in a work (or movement of a work). The most quoted example of this is from a little later, Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique of 1830, which specifically asks for an E-flat instrument for the final movement (the ‘Songe d’une nuit de Sabbath), as the instruments piercing shrill tone particularly suits the mood of the movement.

Illustration 4- An August Grenser clarinet with corps de rechange or interchangeable section for converting a B-flat instrument to A, showing the typical key mounting of four of the five keys (the speaker-key cannot be seen). This instrument is in private ownership in the UK, ex-Himmer.

A Grenser clarinet is very different to a modern instrument, the most obvious differences being the cosmetic ones. Heinrich’s instruments are made of boxwood, usually with horn ferrules, and brass keywork. The number of keys on his instruments seems to vary from five up to eleven (although Samuel Wiesner made instruments with thirteen keys), and the keys are usually of brass with a flat-square head to cover the tonehole. There are different ways of attaching the keys depending on their function: the

most common mounting for the speaker-keys and the throat A, and A-flat keys in the eighteenth century being the used of a turned wooden ring that was part of the body of the instrument; and the lowest keys of most instruments of the period passed through a fusiform swelling that was again part of the design of the instrument. Additional keys are often mounted in wooden saddles that had to be carved at the time of making the instrument (because they protrude from the main turned body). However, Heinrich Grenser mounted any additional keywork in small brass saddles that were recessed and glued into the body of the instrument. This is a distinctive method of mounting keywork, and is highly unusual. It has the advantage that one does not have to consider how many keys are going to be added to the instrument before it is turned (as the keywork and any extra tone-holes can be added at a later point in the process). This also means that Grenser would be able to have a stock of the basic fivekey instruments (with the keys mounted in the turned wooden ring at the throat, and in the swelling at the foot of the instrument), and simply add any additional keywork that was required by each individual customer.

Illustration 5 - Three views of broken key from a Grenser and Wiesner basset-horn in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA 17, 1883). This illustrates how the keywork on the instruments are independant parts.

Illustration 6 - Detail of the left-hand joint of a twelve-key clarinet in C in private ownership, UK. This shows the keywork as it is attached to the instrument, the spring of the uppermost key is also attached to the brass saddle.

After the turn of the nineteenth century that great advances were made to make the clarinet a more chromatically-viable instrument. Two men in particular were pushing the design of the instrument forward around this period: the Lyonnaise maker Jacques François Simiot, and a German by the name of Iwan Müller (who worked in various countries across Europe). Both men were adding considerably more keywork to the instrument than was common at the time, and were devising other methods to make the instrument sound better, including resiteing the tone-holes to improve the tuning. Simiot re-located the speaker key on the front of the instrument to prevent it becoming blocked by condensation, as well as lining the thumb-hole with a tube of brass for the same purpose. Simiot also used brass lined barrels to allow for fine tuning of the instrument. Müller developed a thirteen-key system for the instrument, with studdedpads over counter-sunk holes, which improved the intonation – Müller’s system , know as the simple system, was popular right into the twentieth century, and is still used to some extent today. He also invented the metal ligature to hold reeds onto the mouthpiece. All these developments seem to have been made in the first two decades of the nineteenth century, and were picked up to varying degrees by other instrument makers.

Heinrich Grenser was also influenced by these developments, he seems to have made six-key instruments up until circa 1806, because none of the instruments with the earlier mark have more than six keys. We also know from the purchase date of Bernhard Crussel’s instrument that Grenser was making eleven-key instruments by about 1810. We can also surmise from the instruments of Samuel Wiesner (which follow many of the characteristics of Heinrich’s instruments) that there were some key-additions that Heinrich considered should be sited in a different place to their positions on the simple system instruments. This involves the spreading out of the keys along the instrument, and having fewer long keys than one would see either on an instrument by Müller or Simiot, or on a modern instrument. Whereas Simiot and Müller appear to have reached a standard system, and made their instruments using this system, the number of keys on Grenser clarinets varies from instrument to instrument – that is although two ten key instruments would have the same placement of keys, there are also eleven-key instrument, and eight-key instruments. This may be a result of the process of making the instrument – and the ability to turn the basic five-key clarinet into an instrument with as many keys as there is room for keywork. Simiot’s speaker-key device, which had the tone-hole relocated to the front of the clarinet to avoid clogging by water; was also used by Heinrich Grenser in at least two instruments, and then also became common for a period simple system instruments. The differences between the instrument lying in the execution of this device. Whilst Simiot used a brass collar to hide the mechanism required for the front-mounted speaker key, Grenser’s mechanism is exposed (and therefore it is much easier to discover how the system works).

Illustration 7 - Two photographs showing both Simiot and Grenser's speaker-key mechanisms. The Simiot example also shows the brass tube that extends into the barrel for purposes of tuning the instrument. This example is in the Edinburgh University Collection (EUCHMI 4919). The detail of the Grenser speaker-key mechanism is taken from the C-clarinet of a set of instruments in the Hague Gemeentemuseum.

The speaker-key is pivoted simply at the top of the joint of the clarinet, with a brass hinge that is reminiscent of Grenser’s other key-mountings. Simiot’s mechanism presumably works in a similar way, although the pivot point is at the front of the instrument, rather than round the back. The simple system mechanism usually uses a key that curves around the instrument, pivoting at the side. A modern Boehm system clarinet has the speaker key on the back of the instrument, which is lined with a small metal tube to prevent water clogging, which of course Simiot invented for the thumbhole of the clarinet for the same purpose. It is safe to say that Heinrich Grenser was innovative in his use of keywork, even if only for the persistent use of a style of mounting which allowed him to turn any fivekey clarinet into an instrument with many more keys very simply and with consistent style of mounting over the instrument. Although the additional keywork is along the same lines as the developments made elsewhere in Europe at the same time (and it cannot be concluded from the existing instruments that he made these innovations ahead of other makers) he was willing and able to accept these changes, whilst also keeping his individual style. The instruments are part of an important time in the development of the clarinet, and are well worth studying to observe the transition between the five-, and six-

key classical clarinets, and the instruments of the later nineteenth century which were more flexible and suitable for the romantic era of composition.



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