Soprano clarinet
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The term soprano clarinet is used occasionally to refer to those instruments from the clarinet family that occupy a higher position, both in pitch and in popularity than subsequent additions to the family such as the basset horns and bass clarinets. The B♭ clarinet is by far the most common type of clarinet and indeed the unmodified word "clarinet" usually refers to this instrument. However, due to a tendency for writers and historians to imitate the terms used to denote instruments in other instrumental 'family groups' the term soprano is sometimes used to apply not only to the B♭ clarinet but also to the clarinets in A and C, sounding respectively a semitone lower and a whole tone higher than the B♭ instrument, and even the low G clarinet—rare in Western music but popular in the folk music of Turkey—sounding a whole tone lower than the A. While some writers reserve a separate category of sopranino clarinets for the E♭ and D clarinets, these are more usually regarded as soprano clarinets as well. All have a written range from the E below middle C to about the C three octaves above middle C, with the sounding pitches determined by the particular instrument's transposition.
It is worth bearing in mind though that the only instrument of the clarinet family whose name is undisputed and always required is that of the bass clarinet. The use of the terms 'soprano', 'piccolo', 'sopranino' etc. is, at best, relatively rare and of debatable accuracy These terms came about specifically to distinguish the 'clarinet' from its lower pitched, younger siblings and have been applied later and only in that context. Even the term 'alto' (for the E♭ instrument a fifth below the B♭ 'soprano') is open to discussion and indeed the alternative term 'tenor' might appear, from the point of view of pitch at least, to be more appropriate.
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