More Instruments!

A few more oddities:

The image shows an alto cortol, sopranino rauschpfieff, soprano shawm, and great bass sordune.

(picture of instruments)

OK, so I do have a couple of soprano range instruments. Here's a couple of crumhorns (soprano and tenor), just for good measure:

Soprano and Tenor crumhorns

The cortol is based on the renaissance-era kortholt. It employs a double reed (covered by a windcap), and has a narrow cylindrical bore doubled back on itself. The flare at the bottom of the instrument is not a bell: the bore actually ends at a hold near the top of the instrument. Like kortholts, sordunes, and racketts, it has more than one fingerhole per finger (including two for the left thumb, and one for the right). The fingerings for the descending bore are pretty similar to the alto recorder, descending to F on the bass staff with this alto instrument. The ascending bore extends the range down to Bb on the bass staff (second line). The instrument tops out around A on the treble staff.

The sopranino rauschpfieff is similar to a shawm with a windcap (there's a double reed in there). This instrument was made by Eric Moulder. It also is fingered much like an alto recorder, and extends from F (1st space treble staff) to C above the staff. It sounds much like a shawm, although without quite as much control.

This shawm I built from a kit, obtained from the Early Music Shop via Lark in the Morning. Very easy to build, and plays well enough for me.

The great bass sordune was made by Wood, and obtained from the Early Music Shop. The sordune, like the kortholt and cortol (and bassoon for that matter), has a bore that is doubled back on itself. It has a cylindrical bore (like the kortholt and cortol), but lacks a windcap. The great bass here has a reed the size of a contrabassoon reed, and ranges from F an octave below the bass clef to 4th line F. I'll post a sound clip or two once I get it under control.

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