FoMRHI Comm. 1918M. van der Most

Questions about the origin of curtal and bassoon.

During a discussion about curtal and bassoon it was said that these are totally different instruments. They only have in common the double reed and the double bore.

I think this proposition is only musically acceptable. The curtal-player aims after a sound rich of harmonics: reedier and buzzing. The bassoon-player wants a clear fundamental, a sonorous sound.The reed wil assist a bit. A curtal with basson-reed buzzes less, a bassoon with curtal-reed loses some of its sonority. Still, both will sound as a curtal of bassoon.

White pag. 3 says that according to bassoon historicans the curtal spawned from the bass shawn by folding it up. The fold is between the 6th fingerhole and the valve for the 7th fonger (fingering 123456 = G; 1234567 = F). The folded instrument is half as long as the straight one. The vent holes of the bass shawn are closed by clumsy valves. After folding these holes are in reach of the thumbs.

They are angled and lead in the same directions. The fingerholes in the curtal and the butt of the bassoon aresituated on the

Fig. 1

.

central line.In fact they follow the run of the wood between the bores (the septum). The wing of the bassoon has an extension for the fingerholes and they too lie in the above mentioned central line. This phenomenon is still present in the modern bassoon.

Al in al this is a story of the development from bass shawn to curtal and bassoon. I should like to know more recent facts. My most important source is White 1993 and the most recent is Kilbey 2002.

What can be proved of this nice story?

Is the curtal spawned from the bass shawn and the bassoon from the curtal?

Or are curtal and bassoon spawned separately from the bass shawn?

Who knows sufficient facts and likes to write about it?

References:

Kilbey, Maggie: Curtal, dulcian, Bajón: A History of the Precursor to the Bassoon, St. Albans 2002

Lejeune, Jerôme: A Guide to Period Instruments, Ricercar 2009

Lyndon-Jones, Graham; Harris, Peter: Reconstructing Mersenne's Bassoon from 1636, FoMRHI Quarterly nr. 64(1991) Comm. 1048

Munrow, David: Instruments of the Middel Ages and Renaissance, Oxford Universitiy Press 1976

White, Paul: The early Bassoon-Reed in Relation to the Development of the Bassoon from 1636, DPhil Thesis Oxford 1993