1. = CLARINET 1.
1784. Cowper, Task, II. 260. Breathe soft Ye clarionets, and softer still ye flutes.
1820. Keats, Eve St. Agnes, xxix. The kettle-drum and far-heard clarionet.
1842. Mrs. Carlyle, Lett., I. 163–4. There arose … a shrill clear sound…. The strange instrument was ‘a clarionet’!
b. fig. A sound like that of the instrument.
1831. T. Peacock, Crotchet Castle, xviii. (1887), 191. A mellifluous concert of noses, from the clarionet of the waiting-boy … to the double bass of the Reverend Doctor.
1867. Emerson, May-Day, etc. Wks. (Bohn), III. 406. Was it a squirrel’s pettish bark, Or clarionet of joy?
c. A player on the clarionet.
1876. ‘Ouida,’ Moths, II. 121. I was fourth clarionet at the Opéra Comique.
2. = CLARINET 2.
1880. Grove, Dict. Mus., s.v. Krummhorn, Cromorne, Cremona, Clarionet … various names given to an Organ Reed Stop of 8 feet size of tone.
Hence Clarionetist, -ettist [see -IST], a player on the clarionet.
1865. trans. Spohr’s Autobiog., 68. The third Count assisted as Clarionetist in the orchestra.
