Traditionally a clarinet quintet is a chamber musical ensemble made up of one clarinet, plus the standard string quartet of two violins, one viola, and one cello. Now the term clarinet quintet can refer to five B♭ clarinets; four B♭ clarinets and a bass clarinet; three B♭ clarinets and two bass clarinets; one E♭ clarinet, two B♭ clarinets, and two bass clarinets; or one E♭ clarinet, two B♭ clarinets, one E♭ alto clarinet, and one bass clarinet. The term is also used to refer to a piece written for one of these ensembles.
One of the earliest and most influential works for this combination of instruments is Mozart's Quintet for Clarinet and Strings, K. 581, written for the clarinetist Anton Stadler in 1789. Although a few compositions for this ensemble were produced over the following years, including the Op. 34 clarinet quintet by Carl Maria von Weber, a composer famous for his solo clarinet compositions, it was not until Johannes Brahms composed his Clarinet Quintet in B minor, Op. 115 for Richard Mühlfeld that the clarinet quintet began to receive considerable attention from composers.
The Farallon Quintet claims to be the only professional chamber music group that is focused exclusively on performing the repertoire for string quartet plus clarinet.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Clarinet Quintet in A major, K. 581 (1789)Carl Maria von Weber – Clarinet Quintet in B♭ major, Op. 34 (1811–1815)Giacomo Meyerbeer – Clarinet Quintet in E♭ major (1813)Anton Reicha – Clarinet Quintet in B♭ major, Op. 89 (1820); Quintet in F major for clarinet or oboe and string quartet, Op. 107 (1829)Heinrich Baermann - three clarinet quintetsThomas Täglichsbeck - Clarinet Quintet in B♭ major, Op. 44 (1863)Ferruccio Busoni – Suite in G minor, BV 176 (1880)Alexander Glazunov – Rêverie orientale, Op. 14 (1886)Johannes Brahms – Clarinet Quintet in B minor, Op. 115 (1891)Samuel Coleridge-Taylor – Clarinet Quintet in F♯ minor, Op. 10 (1895)Henri Marteau – Clarinet Quintet in C minor, Op. 13 (1908)Joseph Holbrooke – Cavatina and Variations, Clarinet Quintet No. 1 in D minor, Op. 15b (1910); Clarinet Quintet No. 2 Ligeia in G major, Op. 27 (1910, revised 1939 and c.1956; original title Fate)Robert Fuchs – Clarinet Quintet in E♭ major, Op. 102 (1914)Alexander Krein - Three Sketches on Hebrew Themes for Clarinet Quintet, Op. 12 (1914)Alexander Krein - Two Sketches on Hebrew Themes for Clarinet Quintet, Op. 13 (1914)Max Reger – Clarinet Quintet in A major, Op. 146 (1915–1916)Herbert Howells – Rhapsodic Quintet, Op. 31 (1917)Arthur Somervell - Clarinet Quintet in G major (1919)Paul Hindemith – Clarinet Quintet, Op. 30 (1923, revised 1954)Günter Raphael – Clarinet Quintet in F major, Op. 4 (1924)Quincy Porter – Clarinet Quintet (1929)Arthur Bliss – Clarinet Quintet, F. 20 (1932)Gordon Jacob – Clarinet Quintet in G minor (1939)Kurt George Roger – Clarinet Quintet, Op. 116 (1966)Jean Françaix – Clarinet Quintet (1977)Edison Denisov – Clarinet Quintet (1987)Dan Welcher - Quintet for Clarinet and String QuartetEllen Taaffe Zwilich - Quintet for Clarinet and String Quartet (1990)Sean Osborn - Clarinet Quintet (1995) and Quintet for Clarinet and Strings, "The Beatles" (2004)Milton Babbitt - Clarinet Quintet (1996)Jennifer Higdon - SoliloquyHoward J. Buss - Millennium Visions (1999)David Hernández Ramos - Quinteto con clarinete (2001)Geoffrey Gordon – Quintet for Clarinet and Strings (2015)Javier Pérez Garrido - Clarinet Quintet nº1, Op. 19 (2006-07)