Bass horn
The bass horn is a historical musical instrument from the family of the finger hole horns , which stands in the development between the serpent (the bass instrument of the tine family ) and the ophikleide (bass instrument from the family of the valve horns ).
Common names for the bass horn are: Serpente, Serpent forveille, Serpent à clef, Serpent à pavillon, Russian bassoon, Basson (p) russe, English bass horn, Corno inglese di basso (C.in.basso = Cimbasso ), harmony bass and others. There are many different types.
design type
Archetype
The bass horn is blown with a kettle mouthpiece according to the principle of the upholstered pipe and is equipped with tone holes . It was developed in France and England from around 1780 on from the serpent, by straightening and paralleling the tubes to give it the more manageable shape of a bassoon and to provide it with keys , which facilitates fingering and intonation .
It consisted of two wooden tubes with connecting bows, an upward-pointing bell and a long, curved metal blowpipe. There were six finger holes and up to three flaps in the wooden body . There were also designs with a metal body, such as the serpent forveille .
Chromatic bass horn
The chromatic bass horn was developed by Streitwolf in Göttingen in 1820 and had a clearer sound thanks to its improved bore ( scale length ). It had (seen from the mouthpiece) 2 finger holes, 8 flaps to open and 2 flaps to close, which were set up so that only one tone hole had to be opened or closed for each semitone . This made a very simple and relatively clean game possible.
Likelihood of confusion
The bass horn must not be confused with the English bassoon or French basson , which corresponds to the bassoon. Although there are similarities in construction, the bassoon is blown as a typical woodwind instrument with a double reed . Sometimes instruments are decorated with false mouthpieces in exhibitions that are not professionally designed.
use
The bass horn played a predominant role in military music from the late 18th century to the early 19th century, when it was generally superseded by the ophicleide and later by the tuba . Well-known orchestral works with bass horn from the 1820s and 1830s are by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy : A Midsummer Night's Dream (“corno inglese di basso”), Paulus (“Serpente”), the calm of the sea and happy journey (“Serpente”) as well as its adaptation by Handel Acis and Galathea ("corno inglese di basso").
Richard Wagner still used the bass horn in 1842 under the name Serpent in Rienzi and Das Liebesmahl der Apostle . - Whether the older Serpent, the improved bass horn or the more modern Ophikleide were used for such information can often not be precisely determined. Before the First World War, there was no longer any certainty about this, as a specialist article from 1912 shows.
French horn bass instrument
In addition, bass horn is used as a name for a wide-scaled French horn in low C. This 5- valve horn, designed by tuba player Roger Bobo , is blown with a very large cup mouthpiece in the tone range of a tuba . There are no solo pieces for this instrument, it is mainly played in a brass ensemble.
swell
- ↑ The Serpent and its transformation into the chromatic bass horn and the ophicleide . In: Zeitschrift für Instrumentenbau . Publisher Paul de Wit , Leipzig 1912th
