Eugène Albert (April 26, 1816 – May 11, 1890) was a

Belgian Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German *Ancient Belgian language, an extinct languag ...

woodwind instrument maker, primarily known for his

clarinet The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The instrument has a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell, and uses a single reed to produce sound. Clarinets comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitches ...

s, based in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

. His work started around 1839, and his sons, Jean-Baptiste (1845–99), Jacques (1849–1918), and E.J. Albert, continued making clarinets until the end of the

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. The model of clarinet he made is still widely known, especially in the U.S., as the "

Albert system The Albert system refers to a system of clarinet keywork and fingering developed by Eugène Albert. In the United Kingdom it is known as the simple system. It has been largely replaced by the Boehm system and Oehler system. Big Band musician Ji ...

", although this model is basically the same as

Iwan Müller Ivan Müller, sometimes spelled Iwan Mueller (1786 in Reval, Estonia – 1854 in Bückeburg), was a clarinetist, composer and inventor who at the beginning of the 19th century was responsible for a major step forward in the development of th ...

's 13-key instrument, with the addition of some improvements inspired in his tutor,

Adolphe Sax Antoine-Joseph "Adolphe" Sax (; 6 November 1814 – 4 February 1894) was a Belgian inventor and musician who invented the saxophone in the early 1840s, patenting it in 1846. He also invented the saxotromba, saxhorn and saxtuba. He played the fl ...

. Sax was the first to use ring keys on the clarinet. In 1840 he made an improvement in

's 13-key clarinet, adding two rings, or ''brille'' (glasses), to the lower joint. This resulted in the 13 keys / 2 rings clarinet. In the same year, Albert, based on Müller modifications and Adolphe Sax's rings created a new keywork system, adding more two rings to the upper joint, resulting in a 13 keys / 4 rings clarinet. His instruments are reported have had "better tone and intonation than

Boehm Boehm () is a German surname, transliterated from Böhm (literally: Bohemian, from Bohemia) or reflective of a spelling adopted by a given family before the introduction of the umlaut diacritic. It may refer to: * Aleksandra Ziółkowska-Boehm (b ...

models of the time". Albert's instruments were very well made, and finely tuned. His clarinets were very popular in England, where the leading clarinettist of the time,

Henry Lazarus Henry Lazarus (1 January 1815 – 6 March 1895) was the leading British clarinet virtuoso of the 19th century. George Bernard Shaw wrote of Henry Lazarus: He was the best clarionet ld spelling, now clarinetplayer in England; when you were si ...

, owned eight of Albert's instruments. When Boosey & Co. (now

Boosey & Hawkes Boosey & Hawkes is a British music publisher purported to be the largest specialist classical music publisher in the world. Until 2003, it was also a major manufacturer of brass, string and woodwind musical instruments. Formed in 1930 throu ...

) decided to begin making clarinets, Albert was brought to London as a consultant. Eugène Albert's instruments were almost all made for high pitch, A'=''c''452, meaning that after World War I few professional clarinettists played them. His son, E. J. Albert, made a range of models in A'=440, meaning that his reputation lasted far after his death, and his instruments were played up until the end of the 20th century. Probably it was E. J. Albert, and not Eugène, who about 1890 built an early

contra-alto clarinet The contra-alto clarinet, E♭ contrabass clarinet, is a large clarinet pitched a perfect fifth below the B♭ bass clarinet. It is a transposing instrument in E♭ sounding an octave and a major sixth below its written pitch, between the ...

in F.

References

External links

Albert System Metallic Clarinet
1816 births 1890 deaths Belgian musical instrument makers Clarinet makers {{Belgium-music-bio-stub

See also

References

External links