Klarinet Archive - Posting 000201.txt from 1997/11

From: ROBERT HOWE <arehow@-----.net>
Subj: Re: Taragato
Date: Wed, 5 Nov 1997 20:24:25 -0500

All this is true. I have 3 tarogatos and they do have a delightful,
chuckling sound that reminds me of the taste of walnuts. Unfortunately,
the bore is so wide and the cut-off frequency so low with respect to the
relatively small size of the horn that the usable range is only about 2
octaves. The several tarogato recordings I have rarely use a range of
more than a twelfth in folk music.

I would like to buy any tarogatos that anyone on the listserv has
available. I am still looking for the ideal tarogato!

RObert Howe

DYungkurth and Andrew Seigel said, in part:
> >I will probably purchase a taragoto - essentially a
> Hungarian folk clarinet.
>
> I've seen pictures of taragatos and have one recording. It looks more like a kind of Bb soprano saxophone made of wood. with vent holes in
> the bell, plain finger-holes and keywork arranged in German simple-system
> fashion. The mouthpiece fits into the instrument instead of over it as on
> the saxophone, and an ordinary clarinet reed can be used on it. . . . . .
>
> Baines also says, "It has an amusing 'woody' tone, mellower than that of the
> soprano saxophone". He also indicates it was originally a double reed
> instrument, with the single reed mouthpiece coming into use in the 1890s.
>