Heckelphone

Best way to get that low C is using a contrabassoon. With the basses doubled an octave higher, you'll have the effect of a low C on the basses.

If the bassoon timbre is what you want, by all means, score for the bassoon. The heckelphone is a different timbre altogether. Or if timbre is of no concern, just write everything for piano. The point is rather that the heckelphone provides another color for your palette, something besides the old standards of oboe, English horn, bassoon, and contrabassoon.

Not really made for marching... ;) I think you'd be sorry if you tried :wacko:

There is an Eb flute, but it is kind of a specialty instrument. Basically, the fingerings on flute (any flute) for the lower two octaves will be very familiar to a sax player. Written "G" on both instruments (or instrument families) is fingered T | *** | OOO C on the flute is a bit different, as you actually have a thumb hole: O | *OO | OOO (instead of |O*O | OOO as on the sax) Flute is usually the easiest double for a sax player, followed by clarinet (the clarinet embouchure is hard for some). Oboe and bassoon are a bit more different still. (Look at the back of a bassoon some time: 90% of the keys are operated with the thumbs -- left and right :horrified:). Enjoy, Grant

Actually, the bass oboe is very hard to distinguish from the cor anglais. The heckelphone has a warmer timbre, and a wider useful dynamic range. In some player's hands, it can sound like a cross between cor and tenor sax (they have fairly similar bore profiles, after all). You can actually hear a heckelphone in an orchestra: with a bass oboe, one has to score pretty thinly for it to be audible (cf. The Planets). If you can hear the difference between a tenor sax and a bari sax, you should have no trouble distinguishing between heckelphone and cor anglais. Where have you heard it?

Well, you know how it goes: googlealerts says someone posted something about heckelphones, and I just have to insert my $0.02 ;) Especially if someone is considering composing for it :toothygrin:

Hi, I'm not exactly a young composer, but I do own and play a heckelphone (among other things). Even though there are approximately 100 heckelphones in use around the world, new works are still being written for the instrument (see, for example, the new contrabassoon concerto by Aho). I've played a number of orchestral works by Adam Gilberti (now at UCLA) that call for heckelphone, sarrusophone, tubax, contrabass flute, , contrabass saxophone, serpent, glass harmonica, and other similarly rare horns. I know these works have been performed at least twice, with all the rare horns included. Logistically it is not easy, but it is possible. ;) How about a contrabass saxophone quartet ? (The musicians in this video are, from left to right: Adam Gilberti, the composer, on Eb tubax; me, on Bb tubax; Jay Easton, on contrabass sax; and Blaise Garza on contrabass sax.) Sure, if you don't know musicians who play the horns you want to write for, you may have difficulty scheduling a performance. You can't just release your work to the wind and expect orchestras to pick it up and play it. Of course, this applies to every new work, whether it includes rare horns or not. On the other hand, if you are adding to the repertoire of an unusual instrument, it will be of immediate interest to the players of those instruments. Getting back to the heckelphone, the expense is mainly a result of the complicated keywork, and the fact that any professional instrument must be carefully and well made. Heckel does still make new heckelphones, perhaps 1 or 2 per year, and the price is comparable to a Heckel bassoon (not cheap, but not unreasonable). One can also now substitute the lupophone , made by Guntram Wolf in Germany. This instrument has a bore and timbre very similar to the hecklephone, with a range extended down to low F (there are a few Strauss works in which the heckelphone part descends that low, despite the fact that all heckelphones only reach A or Bb). Other substitutes for the heckelphone are the bass oboe (which has a similar timbre, but not as robust) and the tenor saxophone. Feel free to ask me about instrument ranges, fingering, and orchestration :) Grant