The clarinet was invented in the 17th century by Johann Christoph Denner, a German instrument maker from Nuremberg. In 1690, after many years of hard work, he unveiled a new instrument. By adding a barrel and two keys to the chalumeau, he allowed musicians to play on different registers. One key allows the player to go up a fifth, going from the chalumeau’s register to that of the clarion, while the other allows the musician to go even higher in the clarion register. A similar instrument-the chalumeau-was already in existence. However, although the chalumeau sounded fine at lower registers, the clarinet boasted rich sound quality at both low and high registers. The fact that the name "clarinet" originally meant "small trumpet" ("clarino" means trumpet) was probably also related to this characteristic of the clarinet.