The chalumeau (pl. chalumeaux) is a wind instrument, the immediate ancestor of the clarinet. While the word was in use in French from the twelfth century to refer to various sorts of reed pipes, the specific instrument that became known as the chalumeau seems to have been developed in the late seventeenth century. It represents the link between the recorder and the clarinet, and is essentially a cylindrical bore recorder with the mouthpiece of a clarinet. Like the recorder, the instrument was built in families, from bass to sopranino. The chalumeau has a large repertoire in 18th century orchestral and chamber music. As the instrument developed through the 18th century, the terms chalumeau and clarinet were used interchangeably, with the usage of "chalumeau" dying out by the 19th. A wind instrument is a musical instrument that contains some type of resonator (usually a tube), in which a column of air is set into vibration by the player blowing into (or over) a mouthpiece set at the end of the resonator. ... Two soprano clarinets: a Bb clarinet (left) and an A clarinet (right, with no mouthpiece). ... Various recorders The recorder is a woodwind musical instrument of the family known as fipple flutes or internal duct flutes—whistle-like instruments which include the tin whistle and ocarina. ... Bass (IPA: [], rhyming with face), when used as an adjective, describes tones of low frequency or range. ... (17th century - 18th century - 19th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 18th century refers to the century that lasted from 1701 through 1800. ... (17th century - 18th century - 19th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 18th century refers to the century that lasted from 1701 through 1800. ... Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ...

The chalumeau and clarinet were two distinct instruments during the baroque period, although the clarinet quickly proved itself to be the more versatile of the two, leading to the unfortunate demise of the chalumeau. The unusual acoustic properties of both instruments, consisting of a cylindrical bore closed at one end, result in the instrument overblowing at the twelfth, meaning that the upper register sounds one and a half octaves higher than the lower, unlike other woodwind instruments, which overblow at the octave. The chalumeau, with its two opposing keys to extend the range up to sound A and B, was in fact used only in its fundamental range, therefore having a compass of only slightly more than an octave. This limited range was overcome by building intruments in different keys, often F and C, and from sopranino down to bass. Adoration, by Peter Paul Rubens. ... In music, an octave (sometimes abbreviated 8ve or 8va) is the interval between one musical note and another with half or double the frequency. ...

The clarinet was developed from the chalumeau primarily by displacing the back key (speaker key) up towards the mouthpiece, where it produces B flat rather than B natural, but functions in addition as a register key, allowing the upper range to be easily sounded. Due to inherent acoustical limitations of the instrument, it could be constructed with either the upper or the lower range well tuned, but not both. The baroque clarinet therefore was primarily used in its upper range, which had a bright sound and better projection than the mellow sounding chalumeau, aided also by the enlargement of the bell for resonance. The two keyed baroque clarinet soon gained a third key at the bottom of the instrument to help sound the missing B natural (now placed at the bottom of the upper register, rather than the top of the fundamental register), which also served to extend the low register by one tone down to E. Further developments in the keywork allowed better intonation throughout the range of the clarinet, contributing to its increased popularity throughout Europe, and to the decline of the chalumeau.

Both the improvement of the chalumeau and the invention of the clarinet have been attributed to Johann Christoph Denner of Nuremberg. Although only 8 original chalumeaux are known to have survived, modern craftsmen are now producing replicas based on these original instruments. Makers of replica chalumeaux include Daniel Deitch, Guntram Wolf and Stefan Beck, while Moek makes modern chalumeaux with slightly different acoustical characteristics. Johann Christoph Denner (August 13, 1655–April 20, 1707), was a famous woodwind instrument maker of the Baroque era, to whom the invention of the clarinet in 1690 is attributed. ... Nuremberg (German: Nürnberg) is a city in the German state of Bavaria, in the administrative region of Middle Franconia. ...

The chalumeau register can also refer to the fundamental register of the clarinet. Two soprano clarinets: a Bb clarinet (left) and an A clarinet (right, with no mouthpiece). ...

In the 1970s, a similar instrument called xaphoon (also called "Maui bamboo sax" or "pocket sax") was developed by Hawaiian craftsman Brian Wittman. Bamboo xaphoons The Xaphoon (also known as Maui Xaphoon or Bamboo Sax) is a single-reed keyless bamboo wind instrument. ...

Additionally, in French children's slang, a chalumeau is the term used for a small firecracker that has been broken in the middle and lit in the crack for the sparks and the small flames. Slang is the non-standard or non-dialectal use of words in a language of a particular social group, and sometimes the creation of new words or importation of words from another language. ... Image showing the 4 stages of a 3 inch (7. ...

See also

• Clarinet
• Xaphoon

Two soprano clarinets: a Bb clarinet (left) and an A clarinet (right, with no mouthpiece). ... Bamboo xaphoons The Xaphoon (also known as Maui Xaphoon or Bamboo Sax) is a single-reed keyless bamboo wind instrument. ...

External links

• Essay on the repertoire for chalumeau from the International Clarinet Association
• Stefan Beck
• Daniel Deitch Historical Woodwinds
• Guntram Wolf
• Moek Music