The online catalog The Clarinet Quintet (https://clarinetquintet.web.unc.edu/) is an attempt to bring together all the repertoire of one specific chamber ensemble, the string quartet with one clarinet. The website evolved from the personal records of Donald Oehler, clarinet professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who has collected information over decades of professional career in chamber music and clarinet performance and pedagogy. Graduate students and librarians at the UNC-CH library developed this idea into a WordPress website managed by Prof. Oehler.
At the time of this post, the website lists about 370 clarinet quintets, though an additional 230 have been identified and eventually will be added. Each entry includes (where this information is available) the title, composer, composer’s country of origin, year of composition, publisher(s), duration, type of clarinet, and a sample page. Users can view a list of the quintets sortable by composer, year, and duration or browse by clarinet type, range of years, duration, country of origin, female composers, and works in the International Clarinet Association’s collection. Featured works date from the late 18th century to today, beginning with the composition that inspired the genre, Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet in A (1789). Users with additional information or corrections on compositions are welcome to comment on the individual entries, subject to moderation.
Peter Shirts, guest contributor