All this talk about the cimbasso has made me bold to ask about another rare instrument.
The swing band I play with (The Peninsula Retired Mens Club Band) has a 'band tie' on which is an image of a Sarrusophone. Often people ask about the instrument. After the initial questions about "is there really such a thing?" and the literature for the instrument come the questions about general availability and players.
There really is such an instrument family ... note, "family." My understanding is that it was an attempt to apply the Boehm fingering system to the bassoon, as it had previously been applied to the (older) clarinet and the new saxophone. In the case of the oboe and bassoon the attempt was a failure, at least in terms of keeping the original tone quality while simplifying the fingering. The Heckle and Conservatory systems did result in improved oboes and bassoons. The Boehm system created the sarusaphone family. You can think of them as double-reed saxophones, with what appears to be a bore taper more similar to the saxophone than the bassoon. (And recall that Adolphe Sax's drawings show that he was working from the keyed bugle family or ophicleid family to which he added a clarinet mouthpiece.)
The place I actually saw two (2) sarusaphones in the flesh (bass or maybe contrabass; I've never seen a whole family together) was in an inner city public school in Indianapolis. Whether they were actually in use, I don't know, but there were reeds with them.
I'd say the general availability and players would be about the same as for oboes d'amore when you program Bach. Or lutes. No, there's an international lute society, and probably a lot more of them around than sarusaphones. Where's John Philip Sarusa when we need him!?
This is also tangential to the question of the bass oboe and the other instruments that get confused with it.
So...when you are doing "Rhapsodie Espagnole" or "L'Heure Espagnole" where do the instruments come from and who plays them?
Ummm, maybe try the Indianapolis Public Schools? Whadaya bet there's a Sarusaphone website someplace. (I just checked; pretty slim pickins.)
John
-- John & Susie Howell Virginia Tech Department of Music Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A 24061-0240 Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034 (mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]) http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
