The Oehler system (also spelled Öhler) is a system for

clarinet The clarinet is a Single-reed instrument, single-reed musical instrument in the woodwind family, with a nearly cylindrical bore (wind instruments), bore and a flared bell. Clarinets comprise a Family (musical instruments), family of instrume ...

keys developed by Oskar Oehler. Based on the Müller system clarinet, the system adds tone holes to correct intonation and acoustic deficiencies, notably of the alternately-fingered notes B♭ and F. The system has more keys than the Böhm system, up to 27 in the Voll-Oehler system (full Oehler system). It also has a narrower bore and a longer, narrower mouthpiece leading to a slightly different sound. It is used mostly in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

and

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

. Major developments include the patent C♯, low E-F correction, fork-F/B♭ correction and fork B♭ correction. Fingering charts can be found for example in this reference. In the case of finger systems for the clarinet, which are based on the Oehler system, one speaks today mostly of the ''German system'', and of finger systems that are based on the Boehm system (clarinet), of the ''French system.''

Oehler system clarinet makers

Oskar Oehler had three students: Friedrich Arthur Uebel, Ludwig Warschewski and K.F. Todt. Uebel and Todt are legendary clarinet makers in Germany, while Warschewski moved to

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

and became the solo clarinetist of Stockholm Philharmonic. Warschewski bought semi-finished Uebel clarinets and worked on the bore and mechanics. His clarinets are used by famous clarinetists like Dieter Klöcker. Uebel clarinets were used by Karl Leister when he first joined the Berlin Philharmonic; later he changed to Herbert Wurlitzer Clarinets made before the 1970s sounded very much like the Uebel clarinets while the bigger bore gave them better intonation. After the 1970s, Wurlitzer made some modifications to their design. Wurlitzer clarinets are now used in the great majority of German orchestras. They are very expensive, but some Wurlitzer apprentices are producing similar clarinets for less. Other Oehler clarinet manufacturers includ
YamahaSchreiberMeinel
Schwenk & Seggelke, Dietz Klarinettenbau and F. Arthur Uebel.

References

Clarinet systems Clarinet makers {{SingleReed-instrument-stub