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The A-flat (A♭) clarinet is the highest-pitched instrument of the clarinet family still manufactured. It is just over half the length of the common soprano clarinet and pitched a minor seventh higher, a perfect fourth higher than the E-flat clarinet. As a transposing instrument it sounds a minor sixth higher than written, thus the lowest written note E sounds as Concert pitch C (middle C). Around the beginning of the 19th century, several small clarinets in different pitches appeared. The A♭ clarinet was adopted in European , particularly in Italy where it has appeared in Giuseppe Verdi opera banda parts and survived to the present day in . It is sometimes called for in contemporary classical music, in works by composers Béla Bartók and John Tavener, and in large clarinet choir works. It is manufactured by Italian makers Ripamonti, Mario Corso, and Orsi, and in Germany by Dietz Klarinettenbau (in G), Foag Klarinetten, Herbert Wurlitzer, and Schwenk & Seggelke.
The group contains clarinets built in several pitches, the largest being the sopranino clarinets in D and E-flat clarinet, to the smallest in high A, B♭ and C, sometimes called , built an octave above the more common instruments in those keys. British organology Albert Rice in his 2017 survey counted eleven pitches of high clarinets, but noted that while the D♭ soprano and sopraninos in E and G♭ are mentioned in literature and catalogs, no known instruments in these pitches exist in museums or private collections.
Of the three highest and smallest "octave" clarinets, the A and B♭ clarinets found some use in 19th century and . The smallest, in C, was probably experimental, only found with simplified key work due to the tight fingering required of an instrument only long. Above the E♭ sopranino clarinet and below the octave clarinets, this leaves three small clarinets, in F, G, and A♭.
The F clarinet was used mainly in military bands from around 1780 until the mid-19th century; French composer Hector Berlioz noted in his 1843 landmark Treatise on Instrumentation that it had been all but replaced by the E♭ clarinet. British composer and musicologist Cecil Forsyth in his 1914 orchestration treatise associated the high clarinets with Austria, saying "Clarinets in (high) F, and even in (high) A♭ are occasionally used abroad. The latter instrument is regularly employed in the Austrian military bands."
The G clarinet found some brief fame in Vienna small ensembles, particularly the Schrammelmusik of 1880s Vienna, where it gained the nickname picksüsses Hölzl, possibly Viennese slang for "fabulous matchstick". The music was originally performed by a quartet of two violins (the brothers Johann and Josef Schrammel), a contraguitar, and the G clarinet played by Georg Dänzer. It was first recorded by players of the Vienna Philharmonic, with principal clarinet Richard Schönhofer playing the high G clarinet, after the original parts were found in the 1960s.
The A♭ clarinet first appeared in the early 19th century and was adopted mainly by European . It survived in military bands, particularly in Spain and Italy at least through the middle of the 20th century. In Italy, particularly in band scores, the terms sestino and occasionally settimino referred to the A♭ clarinet, the pitch being a sixth or seventh above the C or B♭ clarinets, respectively. In some manuscripts, a clarinet with the term Alafà indicated the piccolo in A♭. It has found a niche in contemporary art music and , and the A♭ and G clarinets are the only sizes of clarinet higher than the E♭ sopranino still manufactured.
Several manufacturers produce A♭ clarinets: Italian makers L. A. Ripamonti, Mario Corso, and Orsi, and in Germany, Foag Klarinetten, Herbert Wurlitzer, and Schwenk & Seggelke; German maker Dietz Klarinettenbau also produce a clarinet in G. French-American maker Leblanc made A♭ clarinets until at least the 1980s. Ripamonti, Foag, Wurlitzer and Schwenk & Seggelke produce A♭ clarinets with both Oehler system and French system key work, and the German makers also make German system G clarinets.
The A♭ clarinet has appeared occasionally in 20th-century music. Béla Bartók wrote for it in his 1905 Scherzo for Piano and Orchestra op. 2 ("mostly in unison with the E♭ or piccolo flute"). Dutch composer Matthijs Vermeulen's Fourth Symphony, published in 1941, includes a part for A♭ clarinet, as does the 1969 A Celtic Requiem by English choral composer John Tavener. German avant-garde composer Hans-Joachim Hespos uses the A♭ clarinet in his 1972 large orchestral work, Interactions. Several of his chamber music also employ the A♭ clarinet; his 1978 work go also includes soprano sarrusophone, heckelphone, and tárogató. Canadian composer Samuel Andreyev includes A♭ "piccolo clarinet" in his chamber works Vérifications (2012) and Iridescent Notation (2017).
The A♭ clarinet is sometimes used in clarinet choir arrangements, including several by French-American composer Lucien Cailliet, though the instrument is often optional or cued in other voices.
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