George Arthur Clinton (1850–1913) was a British clarinettist. He was a member of Queen Victoria's private ensemble beginning at age 17. He was the principal clarinettist for the Philharmonic Society and The Crystal Palace, and taught at the Royal Academy of Music and several universities. In the early years of the 20th century he was clarinet professor at the Royal Military School of Music, Kneller Hall, in Twickenham.O. W. Street. 'The Clarinet and its Music', in Proceedings of the Musical Association, 42nd Session, 1915-1916, p. 109
His family included several notable clarinettists. His father Arthur was a bandleader and clarinettist. His brother James created a 13-key "combination" clarinet in 1892; its extensible head joint enabled the instrument to transpose from A to B-flat and vice versa.Albert R. Rice. Four Centuries of Musical Instruments: The Marlowe A. Sigal Collection (2015) George Clinton also worked on developing clarinet mechanisms. "The Clinton system", introduced around 1885, continued to be popular into the mid-20th century.
Clinton organised a series of chamber music concerts at Steinway Hall.'George Clinton’s Chamber Concerts', at the Queen’s (Small) Hall, 1890s He popularised the Weber, Spohr and Mozart concertos in England, and performed the Brahms Quintet in May 1892, only shortly after it was first published in Britain. He performed Richard Walthew's Trio (clarinet, violin and piano), and The Song of Love and Death (clarinet and soprano), in 1898. He also performed William Hurlstone's Clarinet Sonata, a piece which is now missing. Hurlstone dedicated his Four Characteristic Pieces of 1899 to Clinton, and it's possible that this work is the Sonata renamed.Pitfield, Spenser Simpson. British Music for Clarinet and Piano: 1880-1945 (Ph.D, University of Sheffield (2000), pp. 53, 69
His pupils included the composer Sam Hartley Braithwaite.
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