Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Grenser (5 March 1764 – 12 December 1813) was a German
musical instrument maker.
From 1779 to 1786 he was apprenticed to his uncle, August Grenser, a
Dresden
Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label= Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth ...
instrument maker, and after his apprenticeship he continued to work in August's shop, taking it over himself in 1796.
[Friedrich von Huenen. "Grenser", '' Grove Music Online'', ed. L. Macy (accessed November 16, 2006)]
grovemusic.com
(subscription access). Heinrich Grenser invented an early form of
bass clarinet in 1793, and may have been the inventor of the
alto clarinet, beginning production in 1808.
Grenser died in Dresden in 1813.
A 1978 inventory lists 127 surviving instruments by Grenser, most of them
bassoons and
flutes, but also including
basset horns,
clarinets,
oboe
The oboe ( ) is a type of double reed woodwind instrument. Oboes are usually made of wood, but may also be made of synthetic materials, such as plastic, resin, or hybrid composites. The most common oboe plays in the treble or soprano range.
...
s,
fagottini, and one each of bass clarinet,
cor anglais,
oboe d'amore,
bass horn,
contrabassoon,
hunting horn
A horn is any of a family of musical instruments made of a tube, usually made of metal and often curved in various ways, with one narrow end into which the musician blows, and a wide end from which sound emerges. In horns, unlike some other br ...
, and
recorder
Recorder or The Recorder may refer to:
Newspapers
* ''Indianapolis Recorder'', a weekly newspaper
* ''The Recorder'' (Massachusetts newspaper), a daily newspaper published in Greenfield, Massachusetts, US
* ''The Recorder'' (Port Pirie), a news ...
.
References
1764 births
1813 deaths
German musical instrument makers
Clarinet makers
People from the Principality of Halberstadt
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