Great bass recorder

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The large bass recorder is a recorder in a lower register than the well-known bass recorder in f 0 . It is historically proven by individual museum pieces and described in the books by Michael Praetorius (1619) and Marin Mersenne (1636).

After the revival of the recorder by Arnold Dolmetsch from around 1920, the construction of large bass recorders gradually returned. These have up to seven flaps that make it easier to use the finger holes. Their range is c 0 −d 2 (g 2 ).

history

In the Germanic National Museum at Nuremberg , there are two large bass recorders. Both can be assigned to the Renaissance type, even if the instrument by Hieronymus F. Kynseker (1636–1686) has high baroque decorations on the head joint . This flute is part of a plum wood ensemble.

The large bass recorder had a key for the lowest note, which was protected by a so-called fontanel (metal cladding). With an S-shaped blowpipe it was a little more comfortable to play than a pommer of about the same size . Since the other tone holes have no keys, they were in acoustically unfavorable places, which impaired the sound. The enormous finger span, which was still required, made fluency difficult.

The great bass recorder was only a common instrument for around 100 to 120 years. It is only described in the Syntagma musicum by Michael Praetorius (1619) - here as an instrument in Bb - and by Marin Mersenne ( Harmonie universelle , Paris 1636). Probably the earliest surviving great bass recorder belonged to the collection of the Venetian Catajo Palace. It is now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.

Mersenne describes a large bass recorder with a delicately crafted double key for the lowest note and the semitone above.

The Kynseker instrument in the Germanic National Museum is to be seen as the culmination and conclusion of the historical development. It falls short of Mersenne's ideas; possibly it was already conceived in a historicizing way, ie built deliberately “old-fashioned”.

Great bass from other instrument families

These great basses sound an octave or two lower than the great bass recorder.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hans-Peter Schmitz : Flute instruments. E. Middle Ages and Modern Times. In: The music in past and present , 1st edition, volume 4, Bärenreiter, Kassel 1955, ISBN 3-7618-5913-9 , p. 340.