This is a favorite solo stop on British and American organs, and can be one of the most successful organ imitations of an orchestral instrument. It is usually found at 8' pitch, occasionally at 16', and rarely at 4'. Since this organ stop is, generally speaking, imitative, the history of the orchestral instrument of the same name may help provide some perspective. While the invention of the clarinet can be traced to Denner at the end of the 17th century, the name clarinet did not appear until around 1732, having been known earlier by the name chalumeau. However, these early clarinets were tonally closer to the oboe than the modern clarinet, whose tone did not develop until the early 1800's. While Grove dates the organ stop from 1790 (Clarinetto in southern Germany), it does not appear with any frequency until the mid-1800's. Grove traces its origin to the Cromorne. The Clarinet is usually constructed with half-length cylindrical metal resonators, which reinforce the odd-numbered harmonics (as with a stopped flue pipe), and give the stop much of its characteristic hollow tone. This construction is especially common in France, England and America, where it is usually made as a striking reed. Audsley provides the illustration reproduced to the right. In German and Swiss Romantic instruments it was usually a free reed, with a tone that Audsley and Wedgwood disparaged as feeble, thin, and not imitative. Some examples have bells, which enhance the even-numbered harmonics, and some have inverted-conical resonators, which produce tones which are even less imitative. The resonators may be open, shaded, or capped. Wooden resonators have occasionally been used, either square or cylindrical. Audsley gives the Clarinet a medium-scale closed shallot with a triangular opening. While generally imitative to a greater or lesser degree, the tone of the Clarinet varies a good deal. In its treble range it has been described as being even better than its orchestral prototype, but the bass is difficult to voice properly, and seldom approaches the richness of the original. Wedgwood reports that the Clarinet has occasionally been voiced as a soft Trumpet. Bonavia-Hunt describes three types of Clarinet tone:

Bass Clarinet Bell Clarinet Clarinet à Pavillon

Clarinette-Aigue Clarinette-Basse Double Clarinet

Flue Clarinet Labial Clarinet Major Clarinet

Minor Clarinet Solo Clarinet

Clarinet 8', Great; Westville United Methodist Church, New Haven, Connecticut, USA; Hook 1852. Compass from f1. Originally built for Chapel St Church, New Haven. Clarinet 8', Orchestral Solo; Town Hall, Leeds, England; Gray & Davison 1859. Clarinette 8', Manual II; Ochsenhausen, Baden-Württemburg, Germany; Gabler 1755.

Clarinette 8', Positif; St. Sulpice, Paris, France; Clicquot 1781. Original name may have been Chalumeau. Clarinette 8', Positif; St. Clotilde, Paris, France; Cavaill´-Coll 1859. Clarinette 8', Choir; St. Bartholomew, Armley, England; Schulze 1866-69.

Clarionet 8', Choir; St. John's Cathedral, Providence, Rhode Island, USA; Hook 1851. May have been a later addition. Clarionet 8', Solo; Town Hall, Glasgow, Scotland; Gray & Davison 1853, 1855, 1876. Clarionet 8', Choir; First Congregational Society (Unitarian), Jamaica Plain (Boston), Massachusetts, USA; Hook 1854.

Orchestral Clarinet 8', Solo; Alexandra Palace, London, England; Willis 1875. Orchestral Clarinet 8', Solo; St. Andrew's Halls (The Public Halls), Glasgow, Scotland; Lewis 1877. Clarinetto 16'; San Pietro, Parre, Bergamo,Italy; Balicco-Bossi 1898.