Other names | Taragot, Töröksíp |
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Classification | |
Playing range | |
Written Range: B♭3 to C6 (scientific pitch notation) | |
Related instruments | |
The tárogató (töröksíp, Turkish pipe; plural tárogatók or, anglicized, tárogatós; or torogoata) is a woodwind instrument commonly used in Hungarian folk music. The modern tárogató was intended to be a recreation of the original tárogató, but the two instruments are thought to have little in common. [1]
Mention of the tárogató in Hungarian writings dates back at least as long ago as the 15th century. It is not clear whether it was first brought into Europe by the Hungarians when they first emigrated from the east in the 9th century. It is certain, however, that instruments of this type, descended from the Middle Eastern zurna, were introduced into Eastern Europe by the Turks in the Middle Ages, as evidenced by the term töröksip—"Turkish pipe"—which was used as a synonym for tárogató. [1] It is possible that instruments from both traditions were combined into one entity. The tárogató has a Turkish origin, and it appeared in Hungary during the Turkish wars. [2] Up to about the 18th century, the tárogató was a type of shawm, with a double reed, conical bore, and no keys.
Being a very loud and raucous instrument, the tárogató was used as a signaling instrument in battle (like the bugle or the bagpipe). However, depending on the type of reed used, it can also give off a very subtle, and yet, deep, mellow sound when played at a relaxed, steady pace. [1] Because the tárogató was representative of the Rákóczi's War for Independence (1703–1711), its use was suppressed in the 18th century by the Habsburg monarchy. [1] [2] The instrument was eventually abandoned, being considered too overpowering for a concert hall. [2]
In the 1890s, a modern version was invented by Vencel József Schunda, a Budapest instrument maker. [2] It uses a single reed, like a clarinet or saxophone, and has a conical bore, similar to the saxophone. The instrument is made of wood, usually black grenadilla wood like a clarinet or oboe. The most common size, the soprano tárogató in B♭, is about 29 inches (74 cm) in length and has a mournful sound similar to a cross between an English horn and a soprano saxophone. Other sizes exist: one maker, János Stowasser, advertised a family of seven sizes of which the largest was a contrabass tárogató in E♭. [1] The new tárogató bears very little resemblance with the historical tárogató and the two instruments should not be confused. [1] [3] It has been suggested that the name schundaphone would have been more accurate, but tárogató was used because of the nationalistic image that the original instrument had. [4]
This instrument was a symbol of Hungarian aristocracy, and the favorite woodwind instrument of Governor Miklós Horthy. [4] Manufacturing in Hungary ceased after World War II, though tárogatós continued to be made in Romania and other countries. In the 1990s several Hungarian makers started producing the instrument again.
A modern tárogató may occasionally be heard in Act 3 of Tristan und Isolde by Richard Wagner where it has become traditional in some opera houses (e.g. the Royal Opera House, London) to use it instead of the off-stage cor anglais for the last passage (bars 999-1149) of the Shepherd's air, but Wagner did not specify this, merely suggesting in the score "a specially built simple natural instrument".
In the 1920s, Luță Ioviță, who played the instrument in the army during World War I, brought it to Banat (Romania), where it became very popular under the name taragot. [5] In 1928, the British music journal Melody Maker reported that the Oxford-based clarinettist Frank Dyer was using "a taragossa, a novelty Hungarian instrument which is a cross between a saxophone and a Cor Anglais" with his Symphonic Dance Orchestra. No such instrument as a "taragossa" exists: the rest of the journal's description fits that of the tárogató. [6]
Dumitru Fărcaș, who was born in Maramureș, made the instrument known all over the world and was considered to be the most famous tárogató player. [2] [5] German saxophonist Peter Brötzmann has used the tárogató in free jazz and free improvisation. American reed players Charles Lloyd, Scott Robinson & Michael Marcus have occasionally used the tárogató. Joe Lovano has also displayed interest in the instrument featuring it extensively in his episode of SOLOS: The Jazz Sessions , on Steve Kuhn's Mostly Coltrane , and on his own albums Trio Tapestry and Roma (with Enrico Rava) (both ECM Records). In 2015, Irina Ross, a Romanian singer, released her single "Taragot" which features the instrument in a dance-pop song. [7]
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 clarinet is a single-reed musical instrument in the woodwind family, with a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell.
The oboe is a type of double-reed woodwind instrument. Oboes are usually made of wood, but may also be made of synthetic materials, such as plastic, resin, or hybrid composites.
The saxophone is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to produce a sound wave inside the instrument's body. The pitch is controlled by opening and closing holes in the body to change the effective length of the tube. The holes are closed by leather pads attached to keys operated by the player. Saxophones are made in various sizes and are almost always treated as transposing instruments. A person who plays the saxophone is called a saxophonist or saxist.
Woodwind instruments are a family of musical instruments within the greater category of wind instruments.
The cor anglais, or English horn, is a double-reed woodwind instrument in the oboe family. It is approximately one and a half times the length of an oboe, making it essentially an alto oboe in F.
The sarrusophones are a family of metal double reed conical bore woodwind instruments patented and first manufactured by French instrument maker Pierre-Louis Gautrot in 1856. Gautrot named the sarrusophone after French bandmaster Pierre-Auguste Sarrus (1813–1876), whom he credited with the concept of the instrument, though it is not clear whether Sarrus benefited financially. The instruments were intended for military bands, to serve as replacements for oboes and bassoons which at the time lacked the carrying power required for outdoor marching music. Although originally designed as double-reed instruments, single-reed mouthpieces were later developed for use with the larger bass and contrabass sarrusophones.
The oboe d'amore (Italian for 'love oboe';, less commonly hautbois d'amour, is a double reed woodwind musical instrument in the oboe family. Slightly larger than the oboe, it has a less assertive and a more tranquil and serene tone, and is considered the mezzo-soprano of the oboe family, between the oboe and the cor anglais or English horn. It is a transposing instrument, sounding a minor third lower than it is notated, i.e. in A, so it can also be known as a Mezzo-Soprano Oboe. The bell is pear-shaped and the instrument uses a bocal, similar to but shorter than that of the cor anglais, also known as the English horn.
The alto clarinet is a woodwind instrument of the clarinet family. It is a transposing instrument pitched in the key of E♭, though instruments in F have been made. In size it lies between the soprano clarinet and the bass clarinet. It bears a greater resemblance to the bass clarinet in that it typically has a straight body, but a curved neck and bell made of metal. All-metal alto clarinets also exist. In appearance it strongly resembles the basset horn, but usually differs in three respects: it is pitched a whole step lower, it lacks an extended lower range, and it has a wider bore than many basset horns.
The xaphoon is a chromatic keyless single-reed woodwind instrument invented in 1972, and a registered trademark of its inventor, Brian Lee Wittman. It has a closed cylindrical bore and a very slightly flared bell. The xaphoon has a full chromatic range of two octaves, and overblows at the twelfth like the clarinet.
A single-reed instrument is a woodwind instrument that uses only one reed to produce sound. The very earliest single-reed instruments were documented in ancient Egypt, as well as the Middle East, Greece, and the Roman Empire. The earliest types of single-reed instruments used idioglottal reeds, where the vibrating reed is a tongue cut and shaped on the tube of cane. Much later, single-reed instruments started using heteroglottal reeds, where a reed is cut and separated from the tube of cane and attached to a mouthpiece of some sort. By contrast, in a double reed instrument, there is no mouthpiece; the two parts of the reed vibrate against one another. Reeds are traditionally made of cane and produce sound when air is blown across or through them. The type of instruments that use a single reed are clarinets and saxophone. The timbre of a single and double reed instrument is related to the harmonic series caused by the shape of the corpus. E.g. the clarinet is only including the odd harmonics due to air column modes canceling out the even harmonics. This may be compared to the timbre of a square wave.
The octavin is a 19th century woodwind instrument with a conical bore and a single reed.
The mezzo-soprano saxophone, sometimes called the F alto saxophone, is an instrument in the saxophone family. It is in the key of F, pitched a whole tone above the alto saxophone. Its size and the sound are similar to the E♭ alto, although the upper register sounds more like a B♭ soprano. Very few mezzo-sopranos exist—they were only produced in 1928 and 1929 by the C.G. Conn company. They were not popular and did not sell widely, as their production coincided with the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression. Harsh economic conditions forced Conn to reduce the range of saxophones they produced to the most popular models.
The heckelphone-clarinet (or Heckelphon-Klarinette) is a rare woodwind instrument, invented in 1907 by Wilhelm Heckel in Wiesbaden-Biebrich, Germany. Despite its name, it is essentially a wooden saxophone with wide conical bore, built of red-stained maple wood, overblowing the octave, and with clarinet-like fingerings. It has a single-reed mouthpiece attached to a short metal neck, similar to an alto clarinet. The heckelphone-clarinet is a transposing instrument in B♭ with sounding range of D3 (middle line of bass staff) to C6 (two ledger lines above the treble staff), written a whole tone higher. The instrument is not to be confused with the heckel-clarina, also a very rare conical bore single reed woodwind by Heckel but higher in pitch and made of metal, nor with the heckelphone, a double reed instrument lower in pitch.
The heckel-clarina, also known as clarina or patent clarina, is a very rare woodwind instrument, invented and manufactured by Wilhelm Heckel in Wiesbaden-Biebrich, Germany. Heckel received a patent for the instrument on 8 December 1889. It was apparently intended to be used for the shepherd’s pipe solo in Act III of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde. It was used beginning in 1891 at the Festspielhaus, Bayreuth as a substitute for Wagner's Holztrompete; the clarina was found more practical and more effective in producing the desired tone-colour.
Dumitru Fărcaș was a Romanian taragot player. He played on all major stages in the world and made the taragot known all over the world.
Reed aerophones is one of the categories of musical instruments found in the Hornbostel-Sachs system of musical instrument classification. In order to produce sound with these Aerophones the player's breath is directed against a lamella or pair of lamellae which periodically interrupt the airflow and cause the air to be set in motion.
The woodwind section, which consists of woodwind instruments, is one of the main sections of an orchestra or concert band. Woodwind sections contain instruments given Hornbostel-Sachs classifications of 421 and 422, but exclude 423
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