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The rackett, raggett, cervelas, or sausage bassoon is a Renaissance-era double reed wind instrument, introduced late in the sixteenth century and already superseded by bassoons at the end of the seventeenth century.
There are four sizes of rackett, in a family ranging from descant (soprano), tenor-alto, bass to great bass. Relative to their pitch, racketts are quite small (the descant rackett is only 4½ inches long, yet its lowest note is G2). This is achieved through its ingenious construction; the body consists of a solid wooden cylinder into which nine parallel bores are drilled. These are connected alternately at the top and bottom, resulting in a long, cylindrical wind passage within a compact body so that one can carry in one's pocket an instrument that will descend as low in pitch as a modern bassoon.
However, its unusual construction requires its fingering to be somewhat different from other period woodwinds; it is similar to the front seven holes of the crumhorn and blends well with recorders and krumhorns, but with the hands placed side by side. Additional holes are covered by the thumbs and second joint of the index finger in order to extend the range a perfect fourth below the nominal scale, like the curtal. Thus the descant rackett is considered to be in C, but its range covers a perfect twelfth from d' to G. The ranges for the rest of the family as given by Praetorius are: tenor alt: g to C; bass: c to FF; great bass: A to DD or G to CC. The range could be extended upward by several more notes since the Renaissance rackett overblows at the twelfth like a clarinet. Praetorius writes in Syntagma Musicum II: "if a rackett is well drilled and is played by a good musician, it then can be made to produce a few more tones." The three extant renaissance racketts are housed in two European collections; one is in the Musikinstrumenten Museum in Leipzig, and two are in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.
Renaissance racketts surround the reed with an openwork cylindrical pirouette; Baroque ones are closed-in, with a bocal. [1]
The baroque rackett (developed by the Nuremberg maker Johann Christoph Denner) combined the folded bore concept with a conical (or pseudo-conical) bore profile; in essence, it is a bassoon in rackett form. It has ten parallel cylindrical bores whose diameters increase in succession to function as a true conical bore and allow overblowing at the octave. A number of tetines were added, which are tubular metal extensions covered by the middle joint of the index fingers as well as the pinkies. Condensation usually remains in the coil of the removable brass crook, thus it is fairly simple to expel during pauses. Despite its idiosyncrasies, the baroque rackett is a versatile instrument with a wide range of notes and dynamics. With an appropriate reed, the baroque rackett has a similar chromatic range to the baroque bassoon (g' to BB♭), and with its agility, can perform most bass-instrument repertoire from the time in which it was in vogue. Extant specimens of the baroque rackett can be found in the Musikinstrumenten-Museum Berlin , the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum in Munich.
The inventor of the rackett is unknown. The first historical mention can be found in German sources Wurttemberg inventories of 1576 (listed as a Raggett) and the Graz inventory of 1590 (listed as Rogetten). [3] Early paintings of the Munich Court band and a carved cabinet by Christof Angermair depict a single rackett being played in a mixed consort of other instruments. Prior to the late seventeenth century, the rackett had a cylindrical bore and the reed was surrounded by a pirouette. The later baroque rackett had an expanding pseudo-conical bore and was blown through a coiled crook inserted into the top of the instrument. A separate bell joint is added to extend the sounding length. People always used to play the Rackett back in the 15th century.
Praetorius noted: "In sound [ Renaissance ] racketts are quite soft, almost as if one were blowing through a comb. They have no particular distinction when a whole set of them is used together, but when violas da gamba are used with them, or when a single rackett is used together with other wind or stringed instruments and a harpsichord or the like, and is played by a good musician, it is indeed a lovely instrument. It is particularly pleasing and fine to hear on bass parts." [4]
The tone is versatile, with good dynamic and tonal range, and has a warm, rich, vibrating sound. [5] The timbre has been described as "combination of a bassoon and a kazoo". [6]
The baroque rackett, sometimes called a "pocket bassoon" or "sausage bassoon", conversely, sounds much like a dulcian or baroque bassoon, and can easily blend with the same kind of ensemble instruments—violas da gamba, cornetti, historical keyboards, baroque recorders, and small baroque orchestras.
The bassoon is a musical instrument in the woodwind family, which plays in the tenor and bass ranges. It is composed of six pieces, and is usually made of wood. It is known for its distinctive tone color, wide range, versatility, and virtuosity. It is a non-transposing instrument and typically its music is written in the bass and tenor clefs, and sometimes in the treble. There are two forms of modern bassoon: the Buffet and Heckel systems. It is typically played while sitting using a seat strap, but can be played while standing if the player has a harness to hold the instrument. Sound is produced by rolling both lips over the reed and blowing direct air pressure to cause the reed to vibrate. Its fingering system can be quite complex when compared to those of other instruments. Appearing in its modern form in the 19th century, the bassoon figures prominently in orchestral, concert band, and chamber music literature, and is occasionally heard in pop, rock, and jazz settings as well. One who plays a bassoon is called a bassoonist.
The recorder is a family of woodwind musical instruments in the group known as internal duct flutes: flutes with a whistle mouthpiece, also known as fipple flutes, although this is an archaic term. A recorder can be distinguished from other duct flutes by the presence of a thumb-hole for the upper hand and seven finger-holes: three for the upper hand and four for the lower. It is the most prominent duct flute in the western classical tradition.
The cornett (Italian: cornetto, German: Zink) is a lip-reed wind instrument that dates from the Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque periods, popular from 1500 to 1650. Although smaller and larger sizes were made in both straight and curved forms, surviving cornetts are mostly curved, built in the treble size from 51 to 63 cm (20 to 25 in) in length, usually described as in G. The note sounded with all finger-holes covered is A3, which can be lowered a further whole tone to G by slackening the embouchure. The name cornett comes from the Italian cornetto, meaning "small horn".
The crumhorn is a double reed instrument of the woodwind family, most commonly used during the Renaissance period. In modern times, particularly since the 1960s, there has been a revival of interest in early music, and crumhorns are being played again. It was also spelled krummhorn, krumhorn, krum horn, and cremorne.
The shawm is a conical bore, double-reed woodwind instrument made in Europe from the 12th century to the present day. It achieved its peak of popularity during the medieval and Renaissance periods, after which it was gradually eclipsed by the oboe family of descendant instruments in classical music. It is likely to have come to Western Europe from the Eastern Mediterranean around the time of the Crusades. Double-reed instruments similar to the shawm were long present in Southern Europe and the East, for instance the ancient Greek, and later Byzantine aulos, the closely related sorna and zurna, and the Armenian duduk.
The dulcian is a Renaissance woodwind instrument, with a double reed and a folded conical bore. Equivalent terms include English: curtal, German: Dulzian, French: douçaine, Dutch: dulciaan, Italian: dulciana, Spanish: bajón, and Portuguese: baixão.
The soprano recorder in C, also known as the descant, is the third-smallest instrument of the modern recorder family and is usually played as the highest voice in four-part ensembles. Since its finger spacing is relatively small, it is often used in music education for children first learning to play an instrument.
A rauschpfeife is a capped conical reed musical instrument of the woodwind family, used in Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries. In common with the crumhorn and cornamuse, it is a wooden double-reed instrument with the reed enclosed in a windcap. The player blows into a slot in the top of the windcap to produce the sound.
The kortholt is a musical instrument of the woodwind family, used in the Renaissance period.
The cornamuse is a double reed instrument dating from the Renaissance period. It is similar to the crumhorn in having a windcap over the reed and cylindrical bore. The only evidence for the cornamuse comes from a description and a few comments by Michael Praetorius in Syntagma musicum II, published in 1619. Since the paragraph by Praetorius is the only clear description of the cornamuse and no period specimen or picture has been found, all reconstructions of the instrument rely on a certain amount of conjecture.
The bassanello was a Renaissance double reed woodwind instrument which was described in 1619 by Michael Praetorius in his Syntagma Musicum II:
The violin family of musical instruments was developed in Italy in the 16th century. At the time the name of this family of instruments was viole da braccio which was used to distinguish them from the viol family. The standard modern violin family consists of the violin, viola, cello, and (possibly) double bass.
During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603), English art and high culture reached a pinnacle known as the height of the English Renaissance. Elizabethan music experienced a shift in popularity from sacred to secular music and the rise of instrumental music. Professional musicians were employed by the Church of England, the nobility, and the rising middle-class.
The tenor bassoon or tenoroon is a member of the bassoon family of double reed woodwind instruments. Similar to the alto bassoon, also called octave bassoon, it is relatively rare.
In music, the bore of a wind instrument is its interior chamber. This defines a flow path through which air travels, which is set into vibration to produce sounds. The shape of the bore has a strong influence on the instrument's timbre.
The tenor cornett or lizard was a common musical instrument in the Renaissance and Baroque periods. This instrument was normally built in C and the pedal (lowest) note of the majority of tenor cornetts was the C below middle C. A number of surviving instruments feature a key to secure the lowest note. The instrument has a useful range of approximately two and a half octaves, however, an experienced player with a strong embouchure may be able to push the instrument higher.
The cornettino is the small descant instrument of the cornett family of lip-reed wind instruments, a fourth or fifth higher than the larger, more common treble cornett. Cornettini were built in two sizes, usually described as in D or C, although the note sounded with all finger-holes covered is E or D, respectively, which can be lowered a further whole tone to D or C by slackening the embouchure. The name cornettino in Italian means a small cornetto, which in turn means "small horn".
Doedelzak is the name for bagpipes in the Netherlands and the Flemish (Dutch) speaking northern part of Belgium. This is the region where painter Pieter Bruegel the Elder lived and worked. Formerly pijpzak and moezelzak were common. The latter two names, generic at one time, survive in the piposa from Picardy and muchosa in the actual Belgian province of Hainaut. According to certain sources, muse once was the earliest generic name for this family of instruments in a large part of Europe and survives itself in the actual French generic name of cornemuse for all bagpipes.
The alto recorder in F, also known as a treble (and, historically, as consort flute and common flute) is a member of the recorder family. Up until the 17th century the alto instrument was normally in G4 instead of F4. Its standard range is F4 to G6.
A bass recorder is a wind instrument in F3 that belongs to the family of recorders.
For Cant and Baroque Rackett plans : Trevor Robinson : The Amateur Wind Instrument Maker :University of Massachusetts Press : ISBN 0-87023-312-2 : Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 80-5381 / ML930.R62 1980 788
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