It is the purpose of this thesis to present a study of the development of writing for the clarinet in chamber music during the period from Mozart (1756-1791) through Brahms (1833-1897). The first part is a brief history of the clarinet showing the stages of development of the instrument from its beginning to its present form and also surveys the field of chamber music in general, with special attention to the chamber music for the clarinet, and to the performers for whom many of these works were written.

This document is designed to accompany the writer's Lecture-Recital performed on June 6, 1983. It presents all the material from the lecture in a more detailed and extensive account. A discussion of clarinet solo material, representative of four periods and/or styles in the development of the clarinet repertoire, is featured: an unaccompanied twentieth-century work, Heinrich Sutermeister's Capriccio; an early classical concerto, Karl Stamitz's Concerto in E-flat Major; a French Conservatory Contest Piece, Charles Lefebvre's Fantaisie-Caprice; and a late romantic sonata, Johannes Brahms' Sonata in E-flat Major, Op. 120, No. 2. Sutermeister's Capriccio (1946), for A clarinet, was commissioned as a contest piece for the Geneva Conservatory. The composition is of a quality particularly suitable for a contest, for two contrasting ideas permeate the entire work: one is rough and crisp with staccato passages; the other is smooth and calm with legato passages. It is this writer's opinion that Capriccio reflects the influence of Sutermeister's cinematic works. Karl Stamitz's Concerto in E-flat reflects the features of the French school of clarinet playing as exhibited by the first well-known clarinet virtuoso, Joseph Beer. This concerto also shows the influence of Mozart, as many mutual features occur between Stamitz's Concerto in E-flat and Mozart's Concerto in A. Significant contributions to woodwind literature have been made by French composers. This is, in part, attributable to the Paris Conservatory, which since the late nineteenth century has commissioned French composers to write contest pieces for the final performance examinations. Such works have included Debussy's Première Rhapsodie, and Lefebvre's Fantaisie-Caprice. Johannes Brahms' fascination with Richard Mühlfeld, eminent clarinetist of the Meiningen Orchestra, manifests itself in four chamber works he wrote for the clarinet. Brahms' Clarinet Quintet Op. 115 is regarded as one of his greatest masterpieces. The Two Sonatas for Clarinet and Piano Op. 120 offer quite a contrast. The first, in F minor, is predominantly the more passionate of the two, whereas the second, in E-flat major, is of greater intimacy of expression. / Arts, Faculty of / Music, School of / Graduate

The lecture recital was given on July 25, 1977. Transcriptions and arrangements for clarinet and piano of nineteenth-century Italian opera were popular during the virtuoso wind era and are representative of an important phase in the history of clarinet playing. Arias of Rossini and Verdi and a fantasia based on Rigoletto were performed during the lecture recital. In addition to the lecture recital, three other public recitals were performed, including solo compositions for clarinet and chamber works including clarinet.

In an appendix section, three notable arias have been transcribed for two clarinets, voice, and piano. A further evaluation of Classical period opera orchestration will aid modern performers and musicologists in their understanding of what clarinets and clarinetists were able and expected to do.

Beginning in 1939, the Concours International d'Exécution Musicale de Genève (CIEM; Geneva International Music Competition) is unique among international music competitions in its multidisciplinary approach. To date, fifteen works have been commissioned for clarinet for the years in which the clarinet was involved. The most well-known of these works is the unaccompanied work by Heinrich Sutermeister, Capriccio for Solo Clarinet in A, written in 1946 for the 1947 competition. This work is a staple in the unaccompanied clarinet repertoire. However, the other fourteen works commissioned for the competition are little known and to date no document has been prepared that examines each of these works in the context of the competition and clarinet literature. While perhaps less notable, works were also commissioned for a sight reading portion of the competition for many of the years in which the clarinet was a discipline chosen for the competition, two of which were published. These works are examined as well. This survey provides a critical, analytical, historical, performance-related and biographical review of the published and unpublished works commissioned for the clarinet by CIEM. The composers, competitors and the significance of these works and winners in the clarinet literature and history are included. A chapter is dedicated to each piece which includes performance considerations, critical, analytical, and historical information as well as biographical information regarding the composer and the competitors where available.

Harry Sparnaay was a major contributor to the development of unaccompanied works for the bass clarinet and commissioned over 100 pieces for bass clarinet alone. While Sparnaay's book, The Bass Clarinet: A Personal History, includes a list of works written for him, there is minimal information available regarding most of these pieces. This project fills the information gap for this repertoire by providing publication status/score availability, performance challenges, recording history, program notes, and composer information. Each work is classified into three categories based on its publication status and recording history, providing a framework for understanding which works have entered the standard repertoire for the instrument.

Clarinet works by Taiwanese female composers are not well researched or catalogued, and to date, and no comprehensive research codifies this subcategory in Taiwan or elsewhere. A comprehensive research and bibliography is necessary to the international community. It is hoped that through this annotated bibliography, readers will gain a deeper understanding of this genre. This study contains a brief history of Taiwan's Western music history, the female composers' history in Taiwan, and literature review. A total of twenty compositions by eighteen different Taiwanese female composers are discussed in the annotated bibliography, including thirteen for unaccompanied clarinet and seven for clarinet and piano. Information includes a brief biography of the composer, the date of composition, duration, premiere, dedication, commission, location of the score, difficulty and commentary on the piece.