Bar very piercing clarinets, playing as one in the town hall? (6,7)
I believe the answer is:
public servant
'one in the town hall?' is the definition.
'bar very piercing clarinets playing' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'bar' could be 'pub' (I've seen this before) and 'pub' is found within the answer.
'very' could be 'v' (abbreviation) and 'v' is present in the answer.
an anagram of 'clarinets' is 'licserant' which is present in the remaining letters.
No letters remain.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'as' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for public servant that I've seen before include "Government worker" , "Person employed by the government" , "government employee" , "State worker" .)