Clarinet/Orchestration

From Music-Web Encyclopedia

Flutes and clarinets are the most flexible wood-wind instruments (the flutes in particular), but for expressive power and subtlety in nuances the clarinet supersedes them; this instrument can reduce volume of tone to a mere breath.

Characteristics of the clarinet: Pliable and expressive, suitable, in the major, to melodies of a joyful or contemplative character, or outbursts of mirth; in the minor, to sad and reflective melodies or impassioned and dramatic passages.