Who made the clarinet famouse?

Answer 1

Initially, Wolfgang Mozart and Anon Stadler

The Clarinet was not very well known in the Baroque period of music (this was when Bach wrote music). Generally, clarinet players would have to travel all around Europe looking for a job. One extremely talented clarinet player was Anton Stadler, who played the Bass Clarinet. When Wolfgang Mozart heard Stadler play, he was inspired to write his Clarinet Concerto, still known as one of the greatest masterpieces of the clarinet repertoire. The two also became close friends. Most importantly, a famous composer like Mozart writing a concerto for clarinet brought attention to the instrument. This led to many composers writing for the clarinet. While composers such as Weber, Spohr and Crusell did make the clarinet more famous by writing for it, Mozart was the one who initially made the clarinet well known. So, the answer is, the clarinet was initially made famous by either Mozart, for writing his Concerto, or Anton Stadler, indirectly, by inspiring him to do so. The clarinet was made more famous later in time by many people, such as those aforementioned composers and clarinet players like Simon Hermstedt, Heinrich Baermann, Artie Shaw, and Benny Goodman (the last two for making clarinet famous within the jazz genre).