Klarinet Archive - Posting 000751.txt from 1997/12

From: "Edwin V. Lacy" <el2@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: Tenoroon, baritone oboes, and other oddities
Date: Mon, 15 Dec 1997 08:49:52 -0500

On Mon, 15 Dec 1997, Roger Shilcock wrote:

> Writing with no boox in front of me --- there *was* a bass oboe in the
> late 19th cent., an octave below the oboe.

Oh, yes, this instrument still exists. The best name for it is the
baritone oboe, although the terms baritone oboe and bass oboe are often
used interchangably. The oboe family currently consists of 5 instruments:
the musette (a small oboe, I think in Eb or F), the oboe, the oboe d'amore
in A, the English horn in F, and the baritone oboe in C.

> There also was and perhaps still is the heckelphone, which has a much
> wider bore (certainly at the bottom end) than the bass oboe.

Yes, the instrument is still being produced. Heckel will make one on
order. A few years ago, the magazine of the International Double Reed
Society, the Double Reed, featured a photo of a heckelphone on its
cover.

Ed Lacy
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Dr. Edwin Lacy University of Evansville
Professor of Music 1800 Lincoln Avenue
Evansville, IN 47722
el2@-----.edu (812)479-2754
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