Heinrich Grenser

Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Grenser (5 March 1764 – 12 December 1813) was a German musical instrument maker.

Grenser was born in Lipprechtsroda, Thuringia. From 1779 to 1786 he was apprenticed to his uncle, August Grenser, a Dresden instrument maker, and after his apprenticeship he continued to work in August's shop, taking it over himself in 1796.Friedrich von Huenen. "Grenser", "Grove Music Online", ed. L. Macy (accessed November 16 2006), [http://www.grovemusic.com/ grovemusic.com] (subscription access).] Heinrich Grenser invented an early form of bass clarinet in 1793, [cite book
last = Rendall
first = F. Geoffrey
date = 1971
title = The Clarinet (Third Edition)
place = London
publisher = Ernest Benn
pages = 140-1] and may have been the inventor of the alto clarinet, beginning production in 1808. [Rendall, 136.]

Grenser died in Dresden in 1813. A 1978 inventory lists 127 surviving instruments by Grenser, most of them bassoons and flutes, but also including basset horns, clarinets, oboes, fagottini, and one each of bass clarinet, cor anglais, oboe d'amore, bass horn, contrabassoon, hunting horn, and recorder. [cite journal
last = Young
first = Phillip T.
title = Inventory of Instruments: J. H. Eichentopf, Poerschman, Sattler, A. and H. Grenser, Grundmann
journal = The Galpin Society Journal
volume = 31
date = May, 1978
pages = 100–134
doi = 10.2307/841193]

References