Herbert Wurlitzer
| Herbert Wurlitzer Manufactory for Woodwind Instruments GmbH
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|---|---|
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| legal form | GmbH |
| founding | 1959 by Herbert Wurlitzer |
| Seat |
Neustadt an der Aisch , Germany
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| management | Frank-Ulrich Wurlitzer, Bernd Wurlitzer, managing director |
| Branch | Woodwind instrument maker |
| Website |
Wurlitzer clarinets 7 clarinets: 
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The Herbert Wurlitzer factory for woodwind instruments is a German clarinets - manufacturer based in Neustadt an der Aisch in Bavaria and a further production facility in Markneukirchen in Vogtland . It was founded in 1959 by Herbert Wurlitzer, whose father Fritz Wurlitzer had been running a clarinet manufacture in Erlbach, today a district of Markneukirchen, since the 1930s. The company produces clarinets with the German fingering system ( Oehler system and variants) and clarinets with the so-called Reform Böhm system developed by Fritz Wurlitzer in the late 1940s , an instrument with a “French” fingering and the sound of a “German” clarinet . This type of clarinet also made Wurlitzer clarinets internationally known.
Products
Wurlitzer manufactures the entire family of clarinets in both systems, with the exception of the extremely rare double bass and double alto clarinets. In the photo on the right, the alto clarinet in Eb with a similar appearance to the basset horn and the basset clarinets in A and B, which are about 18 cm longer than the normal clarinets in A and B, and the C clarinet are missing.
All instruments are made exclusively from wood, mainly from grenadilla wood, but cocobolo and boxwood are also available. They are only made to order.
history
The widespread Wurlitzer family (there are relatives to Rudolph Wurlitzer , the founder of the Rudolph Wurlitzer Company , which is known for its cinema organs, jukeboxes and electric pianos) has been manufacturing musical instruments since 1659. Herbert Wurlitzer, who was initially a clarinetist in the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra , fled with his family from the GDR to the Federal Republic of Germany in 1959, where he set up a workshop in Bubenreuth in which he manufactured and further developed clarinets in the tradition of his father. In 1964 he moved the company to Neustadt an der Aisch. In 1992 the company opened another production facility in Markneukirchen, where numerous musical instrument makers are based. At the same time, she also took over Fritz Wurlitzer's former workshop, which was integrated into the new production facility after a while.
The company achieved a reputation for the high quality of the clarinets it manufactures and the extensive range of products, and probably also achieved market leadership in Germany and an important international position. The main export countries were the Netherlands, Spain, Italy and Japan. To a lesser extent there are Reform Boehm clarinets by Wurlitzer in the USA.
Herbert Wurlitzer ran the company from 1959 until his death in 1989 together with his wife Ruth Wurlitzer, who then continued to run it, with her son-in-law Bernd Wurlitzer as commercial director and her son Frank-Ulrich Wurlitzer as artistic director. Frank-Ulrich left his position as clarinetist and section leader with the Berliner Philharmoniker after twenty years in order to devote his knowledge and experience to the family business. At the same time, he held a professorship for clarinet until 2009. Since the death of Ruth Wurlitzer in September 2014, Frank-Ulrich and Bernd Wurlitzer have continued to run the company.
Wurlitzer clarinets are represented in numerous cultural orchestras in Germany and some other countries and are played by many artists .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Eric Hoeprich, The Clarinet, Yale University Press, 2008, pp. 211, 271 and 367
- ↑ a b c d website of the company
- ↑ a b c City of Neustadt an der Aisch, Herbert Wurlitzer Clarinets - From Neustadt an der Aisch to the concert halls of the world
- ^ City of Markneukirchen: Musical instrument construction
- ↑ a b Jane Ellsworth, A Dictionary for the Modern Clarinetist, December 23, 2014, p. 120
- ↑ A Clarinet (Everything about the Clarinet) -> Knowledge and Instrument -> Systems -> The German System -> On the Immortality of German Traditions
- ↑ In Margarete Zander, Sabine Meyer, Weltstar mit Herz, 2013, and in other publications, the clarinetist Sabine Meyer emphasizes the special quality of Wurlitzer clarinets
- ^ Charles Stier: The Wurlitzer Reform-Boehm Clarinet in America . In: International Clarinet Society (Ed.): The Clarinet . 18, No. 4, July – August 1991, p. 18.
