Introducing the Chalumeau
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 19 มิ.ย. 2024
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"I've no idea why it sounds so low and like an owl singing in the breeze.."
Katharine Spencer tells us all about the beautiful and mysterious single reed instrument, the chalumeau.
0:00 Intro, 'Irish Tune' by Sam Haywood
0:48 History
2:23 Composers who wrote for the chalumeau
3:06 First Suite, La Speranza by Graupner
4:53 The most interesting thing about the chalumeau
5:31 The development of the instrument
6:49 First Suite, Gavotte by Graupner
Watch Katharine and friends perform with chalumeaux live at our Night Shift event on 22 February 2022 at The George Tavern, Shadwell, London.
Buy tickets here: oae.co.uk/event/the-night-shi...
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What a beautiful sounding instrument!
Thank you
The reason why it so low is the cylindrical bore/single reed configuration.
It means in terms of physics the air in the instrument resonates with a primary wave than is two times longer than the instrument. This is two times lower than most other wind instruments like recorders and oboes which are conical (or closed at one end like flutes) and resonate at the length of the instrument.
Modern clarinet also have that feature, and they indeed have a very low register compared to the size of the instrument as well. An oboe for example, is more or less the same size as a clarinet but the clarinet goes much lower.
Interestingly enough, this cylindrical shape is also why the clarinet overblows to the twelfth and not the octave like other wind instruments.
In the case of the chalumeau, that means there is no attainable high register, which makes for a instrument very low for its size, but also unable to go to the high notes that you would expect.
Well thank you very much for that I’m very much enlightened.
Your analysis is correct, but I don't think the single reed has anything to do with it. The Duduk is a double reed, and because of its cylindrical bore it also has that low sound. (Btw, it took me forever to find an explanation of what's going on with the oboe. "r sin(r)" is the operative term.) It's the fact that the reed of whatever type makes it a stopped pipe.
@Flexprog thank you so very much for the science behind this instument! 🎶🎉🎶. I have always loved the lower register instruments and as beautifully surprised by this one.
Actually they can play in the high register, the Fasch concerto goes quite high, I know from experience having performed it on soprano chalumeau
Really interesting thanks. Just a side query... the modern flute is cylindrical, not conical. Yet has the same properties you describe as being inherent in conical bore instruments. Is there something different about the modern flute, is it because it is metal usually?
the woman explaining this is adorable, so passionate
I know, it's a pleasure to watch.
...and an excellent musician to boot!
A pleasure to watch and to listen.
indeed
I actually made a chalumeau for a music appreciation class I took: had to make an instrument, and, as an amateur woodworker, figured I could do it. Jumped almost 10 feet when I blew the first note on it (I knew it was supposed to be low, but it still surprised me). I should get it out again, and maybe make the rest of the consort....
Sounds a very good plan go for it
Please do. 🎼🎶💕
If you got to manufacture a chalumeau you are quite a skilled amateur woodworker :O
where did you find the plans?
I am a retired instrument maker - made harps for Lyon and Healy for about 15 years and did violin restoration in Chicago and built mechanical action pipe organs in Melbourne Australia. I'd love to know where you found the information to make one of these.
BRAVO! As a retired oboist, I am thrilled to say that I have never heard of the Chalumeau family. What a lovely sound. I am glad you touched upon the reed. Oddly enough, after a year as a clarinetist I switched to oboe and found the oboe much easier for me (other than the reed making ... 🙂
I really like the sound of this instrument, a lot more than I thought I was going to. It sounds to me like a clarinet, but slightly warmer and sweeter. At first I thought 'it sounds like the clarinet's low range' and then they mention at 6:20 that the clarinet's low range was actually based off it.
Utterly fantastic sound and color and I've been playing bassoon for 47 years!
I love Graupner's music - he wrote a brilliant Sinfonia featuring the timpani. It's apparently thanks to him rejecting the position at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig that Bach gained the recognition he had in his lifetime.
Interesting
He implemented a major development in composition for the timpani which sadly, due to the impounding of his music after his death, did not spread to the developing classical style. I am talking about the use of more than the "baroque standard" of two timpani. In fact he composed 68 cantatas which included 3, 4 and on three occasions, 5 drums. With the latter, the timpani can often play along with the bass instruments! Here is one of his last works, the 1753 Christmas cantata which includes 4: th-cam.com/video/DM6aKtNAuZA/w-d-xo.html
This is a really fantastic introduction to this wonderful instrument - thank you! I do have to set the record straight on Graupner though. I don't understand why he is so often introduced as a "harpsichord player" and not a "composer" or as the capellmeister (for nearly 50 years!) of the court of Hesse-Darmstadt. In fact he was one of the most prolific composers that history has produced. He probably did not compose quite as much as Mr Music himself (Telemann) but a closer inspection of Graupner's music reveals significantly more invention, emotional depth, and, over his lifetime, style development, than his contemporary. His around 1400 cantatas (83 involving at least one chalumeau) would take over 2 weeks to play through if performed 24/7! Moreover, his collaboration with his librettist brother in law, Johann Conrad Lichtenberg, amounts to the most productive librettist-composer relationship in German and possible any language *of all time*! So one wonders how much more he would have to have composed to be properly recognised as a composer!
And then the portrait. There is sadly no portrait of Graupner - we will never see his likeness. However, due to the double edged sword that is the image search engine, many people now mistakenly use one of two portraits of other men for Graupner. The first is the portrait of his boss, Landgrave Ernst-Ludwig. The second, the one in your video, is actually of Johann Christoph Bach. That portrait has become associated with Graupner because of another common misconception (not propagated in your video!), that Graupner's full name is Johann Christoph Graupner. In fact his name is just Christoph Graupner. However, he did have a son with the name Johann Christoph Graupner, which is how the name confusion first arose!
Here is a wonderful example of the chalumeau in action in a Graupner cantata (video starts at 1.29.52): th-cam.com/video/eEVQ7-nWfCM/w-d-xo.html (I call it the "peppa pig chorale")
It's lovely. Like a reedy recorder, but without the brassy conical sound of the sax. Sounds like it can hold its own nicely, in a consort or not.
I think you’re trying to say clarinet
@@mattmiller8614 : No. I meant sax.
Ahhh... you meant as compared to the recorder... no, a reedy recorder is not a clarinet. Rather different.
@@argonwheatbelly637 this is basically a clarinet :) without high register and with few keys, even the tone is very similar, especially compared not to modern instruments, but to 5 keyed instruments of Mozart's era. there is even a clarinet register named "chalameau" after this instrument (and covering basically its extension). a reedy recorder is a non sense (I think you are distracted by the shape of the instrument), a saxophone is not a good parallel (in my opinion) - this could be compared to popular clarinets or to duduk (in tone).
@@argonwheatbelly637 he means that what you are describing (in between saxofone and recorder) is a clarinet :)
What a lovely use of vibrato in the first tune. I also love the slightly less dense sound as compared to the modern clarinet; The owl analogy is super accurate. This combined with the oboe sounding like a duck if a duck could sing like a lark and the flute sounding like a regular songbird, I'm really starting to fill out my woodwind ornithology catalogue😇. It's nice that some instruments aren't meant to sound like the human voice.
th-cam.com/video/3cHwsMWksSw/w-d-xo.html
You miss Vox Humana stop on pipe organ. It is supposed to mimic male voice, but to my ears it sounds more like kermit the frog.
I think some organs have a mode called vox humana
Lovley🎶🙏🎶
The performance here of La Speranza is just so so good. Please post more videos of Chalumeau pieces like that
Lovely tone. The consort pieces were utterly charming. And thank you for the history of the instrument
My pleasure
What an absolute delight. Have always wanted to know about the chalumeau. An owl singing in the breeze. Thank you!
I love her enthusiasm.
I 3d printed one that uses a regular clarinet mouthpiece, and the low register always gets a wow from people!
Where did you get the directions for this?
Are the STLs for this public? Ngl I wouldn't mind seeing what it's like to play one of these
Thanks for your video. I have three C chalumeaux ( two from Sansluthier, Spain, and a Tupian chalumeau, German, I think). They are marvellous instruments and I can asure you I have a great time playing them. Best wishes from Spain.
Thank you for making a video that does its job! No distractions, no clickbait, no nonsense.
Before I saw this video, I knew nothing about the chalumeau, and I didn't know there even was a Graupner. So this wins for instruction and delight.
I first heard about this instrument when in discussion with a great jazz tenor saxophone player from England called Don Weller, around fifty years ago. Don was a great fan of J.S.Bach, and himself was taught to play the clarinet at the British army school of music. Don became one of the legends of British jazz, and once or twice when we played together at a jazz gig, he would lean across to me and whisper the word" Chalumeau" which meant that he was going to play his horn at very low pressure, and in the lower register. I subsequently learned that the word chalumeau had nothing to do with pressure, but was related to the sound that Don wanted to hear from his saxophone. The chalumeau is a beautiful instrument, and I send thanks for this lovely upload. More of these films please.
That’s a wonderful story
How could you not love this alluring instrument? Truly it' s charming enough to melt the heart of the fiend.
A lion tamer indeed !
BEAUTIFUL sound. Between recorder and oboe, I believe. I love this. It is very sad that we have lost it in modern times. We need this sound!! With the thee together= my ears are in love.
er -- we do have it -- it is the lower register of the clarinet.
Everything I ever learned about chaleumeau was from a Carthusian monk named Carl. Miss Carl eternally haven't seen him for over 40 years. He's long gone to Heaven. He was a loving and kind teacher. Would play chaleumeau for us and make glass. He loved Graupner. Jesus blessed us when he made Carl.
What a wonderful and lovely introduction to the chalumeau. This goes straight to my "favorites" playlist 👌
So interesting & Wonderful to listen to!
Lovely Introduction to the Chalumeau--Bravo to Katherine and her musician friends! Best wishes, Albert (Al) Rice
Gorgeous sound! THANK YOU for introducing this lovely instrument to the world. Fantastic sound.
Liebe Katherine Spencer, schöner läßt sich eine solche Instrumentenvorstellung nicht denken: genau richtig in der Länge, dabei SO VIEL (augenzwinkender) CHARME! Einfach wunderbar, auch das Trio: DANKE an Alle fürs Teilen! - Dear Katherine Spencer, such an instrument presentation couldn't be more beautiful: just right in length & with SO MUCH sparkling CHARM! Simply wonderful, including the trio: THANK YOU ALL for sharing!
What an absolute delight to the ears! And such a lovely "show and tell" generously given by Mrs Spencer (and her two colleagues)! 🥰
How delightful! I knew about the chalumeau and listen to recordings of Telemann, Vivaldi et al, but I imagined them to be much bigger instruments. I might get some recordings of Graupner too.
wonderful video - thank you!
This was a beautiful discovery of a rainy afternoon. Thank you so much!
Twas my pleasure
it has such a pleasing tone
I can easily picture the jaunty medieval musicians gallivanting about
while they play a lively gigue
8 months later...what an achingly evocative pleasing sound
Thank you.
I love the tone of this instrument!
Your interpretation of Graupner's La Speranza is not only the best I've ever heard but brings whole new light.
Such a beautiful sounding trio. I have to get one now!
I'm more than delighted to have just discovered your channel. You all play so beautifully and I'm looking forward to a lot of wondrful listening and learning as I go through all of your epsisodes. Thank you!
Thanks for sharing. What a beautiful sound!
This is amazing! thank you
Fascinating. Thank you for sharing your passion
How gorgeous! Thank you!
Such a beautiful sound!
Very instructive.
I loved it!
Thank you.
Beautiful sound, I love it!
What a tender sound!! Very nice! Thank you!
I like this instrument. Very nice color to it.
These guys are amazing!!!!! 😍😍😍
You play beautifully!! And such character in your trio! This video is one of those that really puts out not as known info that needs to get out there, thank you!!
I love this series of videos. The music is beautiful, and the history of these instruments is fascinating.
Wonderful demonstration and overview of this unusual instrument. Thank you.
I enjoyed this immensely! Thanks to you and your chalumeau!
Lovely video, very interesting! They first Graupner was just perfection.
So beautiful
Lovely video. The music is enchanting and the commentary delightful. Thank you.
love this! didn't know ! thank you so much!
Absolutely love your style!
What a fantastic sound, thanks for sharing 😊😊😊😊
Delightful! I really enjoy the warmth of the instrument - very pleasant to listen to. …great performance as well. Thank you.
Such a lovely instrument....and the lady ♥
This chalumeau looks like it's fingered just like a recorder, except i couldn't figure out what that brass piece just under the mouthoiece is used for. Thanks for showing us something most of us have never seen before!
Love the video!
Beautiful!!!
Awesome video, thanks!
What a beautiful sound!
Super great teaching skills on musical history. 🤔
Thank you for such beautiful playing! La Speranza brings tears to my eyes.
What an amazing instrument. Never knew they even existed but I'm glad I found them.
What a lovely sound! No wonder you love it!
Very very beautiful video. Bellísimo vídeo. Muchas gracias.
Being a baroque music lover, I've come to know a thing or two about instruments from that era; but I didn't know anything serious about the chalumeau until I saw this video, so thank you so much, Katherine!
Magical time capsule!!
And the lady herself is pretty expressive 😀
Beautiful!
I need one
Fascinating!
Love this video. I'm currently learning the chalumeau (i have only a tenor) and its such a joy playing graupners works. Vivaldis writing for tenor (the little there is) has eluded me though, its so difficult and very high. Graupner seems to understand the instrument better imo.
Incredible musical instrument,never heard of it
You are not alone!
brilliant!
Wow a beautiful sound xx
oh boy 😁... something new under the sun for me... I worked at learning the clarinet many years ago... I'm in love... thanks so very much for sharing ❣️
I would like the specifications for making one of these excellent instruments ... maybe my lovely wife will even let me practice in the house this time 😉
That was terrific!
It took a lot of keywork to close the gaps between registers, and produce the clarinet as we now know it.
I have experimented with cylindrical bore instruments, using a membrane reed: the result sounds much like a crumhorn, although a bit louder. Since I made them of copper pipe, using plumbing fixtures for a reed cap, I dubbed them "plumbhorns". I even once made a set of smallpipes based on the same principle...
As soon as you started playing, I thought I need to play this!
Beautiful sound coming from this instrument! It appears to be a Recorder, but, w/a reed - sounding very much like a Clarinet.
That Graupner trio is exquisite!
Lovely! If I wasn't already busy working on my shawm, cornamuse and crumhorn playing, I would be very tempted.
Go on !
Soulful sound.
What a coincidence! I just ordered my new chalumeau yesterday. I can't wait for it to arrive!
How exciting !
I love You!! Thank you all for this video. I love my chalumeau too 💙
Sometime I use fluo cotton cord for holding my reed :)
Wow, great!
Well done Katherine, excellent programme. Your chalumeau sounds and looks rather like the Duduk, an eastern moorish six holed thing which is played with a massive double reed rather like a bassoon reed.
That too has a beautiful haunting sound but much wilder and Arabesque than your chalumeau.
Like the flute, oboe or bassoon these simple instruments have a much more appealing sound quality but more limited in scope than a full Boehm system. It seems the more holes they have the more it looses its beauty in favour of efficiency.
Angela and I love your playing and miss it lots.
Keep up the good work on the 'Liquorice Stick', or Gobbo'! (clarinet nick names!)
Many cheers, James
Dearest James and Angela. How wonderful to hear from you. I often think on you both. Glad you liked my little video and I loved reading your comments. As you know I ALWAYS learn something important when I talk to you both. Hope to see you over Easter time when playing subsides a bit to allow space to do other fun and wonderful things. See you both then. Much love Katherine
I used to have a clarinet trio. We played both Graupner's suites but they didn't like the first. I'm sure with the help of this video they will love it.
Evangelise
I love the pony tail ligature!
Beautiful and unexpected sound. Would be wonderful to see these old instruments return to popularity
There is/was a gentlemen in the Cape area of South Africa, selling his home-made chalumeaus and reed flutes on the festival circuit. I bought a Chalumeau from him, but don't know what happened to it. It sounded a bit like a saxophone.
💗this harmony.
what a beautifully mournful sound it produces. I'd love to try and play one.
Delightful!
Very cool.
Claricorder. I love it!