 Heinrich Grenser invented an early form of bass clarinet in 1793, and may have been the inventor of the alto clarinet, beginning production in 1808.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.