Position:Home>Performing Arts> The albert, boehm, mazzeo, and oehler clarinet systems?

Originally, there was no real "system" other than a wood tube with some holes drilled!.!.!. but as more notes and scales were used, 6 or 7 keys were added, but it made the tone really bad!. Iwan Muller invented a different type of pad and came up with the idea of countersunk tone holes, and by around 1815, there were 13 keys added, and the system was popularized!. This was the basis for all of our systems today!.!.!.

So that being said!.!.!. In Germany, the common system is the Oehler system; In America, the common system used is the Boehm system!.

The Boehm system was actually invented for flute, but adapted for the clarinet by Klose (wrote the clarinet "bible") and Buffet (greatest clarinet maker in history) in the 1840's!.
This system allowed tuning to be better on certain notes, and elliminated the need for "cross-fingerings", flip fingerings, and so forth!.!.!. basically, the system made playing the clarinet more logical and fluid, and allowed for faster fingering patterns while maintaining inntonation!.

"Better than what!?" you ask!. Well, the Albert system!. The Albert system had very few keys and rings, and LOOKED less confusing, but the fingering patterns needed to play it were not streamlined, and it was crazy out of tune! To make the instrument in tune, the tone holes needed to be too far apart for a person to reach them!.!.!. so it remained out of tune!. The Albert system is also known as "the simple system", and is really an off-chute of the Muller system, and is the basis for the Oehler system still popular in Germany (I'll get to that in a sec!.!.!.)!. The one benefit to this system is when playing jazz- listen to the opening lick in Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue"!. There is a huge gliss that goes for more than an octave (even if you have no clue what I'm talking about, you'll know it when you hear it, lol), and on an Albert system clarinet, it is a TON easier to do because you don't have to fight the system "correcting" for you!.

Now, the Oehler system!.!.!. HA! This is a stange system, to my American-trained hands! It has some advantages, mostly when dealing with inntonation!. There have been keys added to further negate the need for flip-flop fingerings, and the tone holes are more accurately positioned for the greatest tuning and smallest pitch tendancy variations!.
The downside, is that even though there are more keys, there are less alternate fingering positions!. The pinkys of either hand only have 2 or 3 keys to push, instead of 4, and in MANY runs, the player is forced into some very unnatural patterns for their fingers! The fingers can get tied in knots quickly, and there is no way out! lol However, this system took hold in Germany in the early 1900's, and has stuck, so obviously there's something great about it!

The Mazzeo system, isn't really a system, in my mind!. In all actuality, it is an over-glorified Boehm system!.!.!. it has all the same keys of the Boehm system, but a couple of additives for alternate fingerings!. For example, on a normal Boehm system clarinet, you can play middle "B", "C", "C#" with either pinky!.!.!. but you can only play "Eb" with your right, and "G#" with your left!. So in particular passages, you are forced to play certain notes with certain hands!.!.!. the Mazzeo system just added an extra key EXTENSION to both, and now even the "Eb" and "G#" can be played on either side!.

Many companies and other clarinetists have apparently felt the same way I do about the Mazzeo "system", as it really hasn't caught on in popularity since its introduction in the 1950's!. I guess most of us feel that a good clarinetist can play just as well without the extra keys, and the need for these extra keys is pretty rare!.

I hope this helped, and if you need more detailed info, you can email me!Www@QuestionHome@Com

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