Clarinet
or CLARIONET, a musical instrument akin to the clarion. It was modified from the ancient shawm, CLARK its first maker being John Christopher Denner, of Leipsic, who produced it after 1690. It has since been much improved.
It consists essentially of a mouth-piece furnished with a single beating reed, a cylindrical tube ending in a bell, and provided with 18 openings in the side, half of which are closed by the fingers, and half by the keys.