Editing Alto clarinet (section)

=== Notability ===
The alto clarinet band part remains in 20th and 21st century wind band literature. Band directors looking to add color to a large clarinet section will often move clarinet players to this instrument.  Many times the alto clarinet serves an important role in the harmonic scoring of the clarinet section within the broader scope of the concert band.

There is a notable alto clarinet solo in [[Percy Grainger]]'s wind-band piece ''[[Lincolnshire Posy]]''.

An important orchestral example is [[Igor Stravinsky]]'s [[Threni (Stravinsky)|''Threni'']], which calls for an instrument in F instead of the usual E{{Music|flat}}, and with extension keys to fingered low C (therefore indistinguishable from a basset horn).<ref>{{cite journal
 | last = Pauli
 | first = Hansjörg
 | title = On Strawinsky's 'Threni'
 | series = New
 | journal = Tempo
 | volume = Ser., No. 49.
 | pages = 16–17+21–33
 | date = Autumn 1958| issue = 49
 | doi = 10.1017/S0040298200044806
 | s2cid = 145162755
 }}</ref><ref>Igor Stravinsky, ''Threni: id est Lamentationes Jeremiæ Prophetæ'', Hawkes Pocket Scores no. 709 (London: Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers Limited, 1958). The fingered low C (sounding low F) occurs in b. 234 and 237, on pp. 37–38.</ref> Stravinsky calls for the usual alto clarinet in E{{Music|flat}} in the ''[[Elegy for J.F.K.]]'' (1964).<ref>{{cite book
| last = White
| first = Eric Walter
| year = 1979
| title = Stravinsky: The Composer and His Works
| edition = second
| location = Berkeley and Los Angeles
| publisher =The University of California Press
| isbn = 0-520-03985-8
| page = 533}}</ref>

[[Joseph Holbrooke]] seems to have liked the instrument.  He wrote an elaborate part for alto clarinet in his Symphony No. 2 ''[[Apollo and the Seaman]]''.<ref>The woodwind section in ''[[Apollo and the Seaman]]'' includes three [[oboe]]s, [[cor anglais]], [[E-flat clarinet|E{{music|flat}} clarinet]], two B{{music|flat}} clarinets, alto clarinet in F, bass clarinet, three [[bassoon]]s and a [[contrabassoon]]</ref><ref>Forsyth, Cecil, ''Orchestration'', 1955, London, Macmillan & Co. pp. 282–85.</ref>

Some contemporary composers have written full concertos for the instrment, such as Argentinian composer [[Fabricio Gatta|Fabricio Gatta's]] '' Concerto for Alto Clarinet and Orchestra'' (2024).<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yM-iWXuf12o| Concerto for Alto Clarinet and Orchestra"</ref>

In the wind band and clarinet choir the alto clarinet can add tonal strength to the ensemble, not only because it can play lower notes, but because some of the most beautiful notes (written C to F) in the upper register of the alto clarinet have the same pitch as the weaker-toned middle-register notes (written F to B{{music|flat}}) of the B{{music|flat}} [[soprano clarinet]].