Editing Alto clarinet (section)

== History ==
The invention of the alto clarinet has been attributed to [[Ivan Mueller|Iwan Müller]] and to [[Heinrich Grenser]],<ref>{{cite book
 | last = Rendall
 | first = F. Geoffrey
 | title = The Clarinet
 | year = 1957
 | publisher = Ernest Benn
 | place = London
 | pages = 145–46| edition = Second Revised
 }}</ref> and to both working together.<ref name=hoeprich>{{cite book
 | last = Hoeprich
 | first = Eric
 | title = The Clarinet
 | year = 2008
 | publisher = Yale University Press
 | place = New Haven and London
 | pages = 132–5, 357
 | isbn = 978-0-300-10282-6}}</ref> Müller was performing on an alto clarinet in F by 1809, one with sixteen keys at a time when soprano clarinets generally had no more than 10–12 keys; Müller's revolutionary thirteen-key soprano clarinet was developed soon after.<ref name=hoeprich />  The alto clarinet may have been invented independently in America; the [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]] has a bassoon-shaped alto clarinet in E{{music|flat}}, cataloged as an "alto clarion", attributed to an anonymous American maker circa 1820.<ref>{{cite journal
 | last = Libin
 | first = Laurence
 | title = Alto Clarion
 | journal = The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin
 | publisher = The Metropolitan Museum of Art
 | pages = 53
 | year = 1995}}</ref> This instrument bears a strong resemblance to the "patent clarions" (bass clarinets) made from about 1810 by George Catlin of [[Hartford, Connecticut]] and his apprentices.<ref>{{cite journal
 | last = Eliason
 | first = Robert E.
 | title = George Catlin, Hartford Musical Instrument Maker (Part 2)
 | journal = Journal of the American Musical Instrument Society
 | volume = 9
 | year = 1983
 | pages = 21–52}}</ref> Later, in Europe, [[Adolphe Sax]] made notable improvements to the alto clarinet.<ref>{{cite journal
 | last = Shackleton
 | author-link = Nicholas Shackleton
 | first = Nicholas
 | title = The development of the clarinet}}
In {{cite book
 | editor-last = Lawson
 | editor-first = Colin
 | title = The Cambridge Companion to the Clarinet
 | series = [[Cambridge Companions to Music]]
 | year = 1995
 | publisher = Cambridge University Press
 | location = Cambridge, UK
 | page = 32}}</ref>

Albert Rice defines clarinets in G with flared bells, which were produced as early as 1740, as alto clarinets,<ref name="rice">Albert R. Rice. ''From the Clarinet D'Amour to the Contra Bass: A History of Large Size Clarinets, 1740–1860.'' Oxford University Press, 2009, pp. 9-10.</ref> but this use of the term is uncommon.