A thumb rest is a device that helps the player of certain woodwind instruments to keep them in the correct position and to facilitate his playing (embouchure, posture, fingerings). The instruments are mainly clarinets, oboes, saxophones and flutes. [1]
Historically, woodwind instruments were first made from boxwood and fruitwood; they were relatively compact and light, and they did not have a thumb rest. [2] The need arose from about 1830 with the increase in the number of keys in wind instruments and the switch to exotic woods, especially grenadilla from Mozambique, which made the instruments heavier. [3]
Around 1860, the co-inventor of the Boehm clarinet Hyacinthe Klosé made the thumb rest generally accepted in France by means of his méthode complète de clarinet, after he too had switched to making his clarinets from grenadilla. [4] [5]
The thumb rest was either carved from the solid wood or screwed onto the body of the instrument as a metal part. [6] The clarinetist and clarinet maker Iwan Müller is considered the inventor of the thumb rest. [7] [8] In fact, however, it was developed independently by various woodwind instrument makers. In the time before that, many clarinettists put the mouthpiece on the clarinet in such a way that the reed was on top (over-blowing instead of the under-blowing with the reed on the lower lip that is common today), because they could hold the instrument better that way. [9] [10]
The saxophone has had a thumb rest since its creation in 1849. [11] [12] The Selmer Mark VI saxophone model from Henri Selmer Paris, which revolutionised the ergonomics of this instrument when it was introduced in 1954, had an adjustable thumb rest made of plastic or metal. [13]
The side of the thumb rest that comes into contact with the finger is usually fitted with a glued-on cork or rubber pad to protect the finger. Some musicians develop a callus in this contact area. [14] Some thumb rests have a device that allows the use of a strap to relieve the thumb. [12]
Instead of a thumb rest, bassoonists use a hand rest on the German bassoon (Heckel system). [15] [16] The French bassoon does without one. [17]
To counter musculoskeletal disorders (chronic pains), there are now ergonomic thumb rests that distribute the weight of the instrument over the whole thumb and/or the thumb and wrist. [18] [19] Some of these supports can also be combined with a strap. [20]
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.
Embouchure or lipping is the use of the lips, facial muscles, tongue, and teeth in playing a wind instrument. This includes shaping the lips to the mouthpiece of a woodwind instrument or the mouthpiece of a brass instrument. The word is of French origin and is related to the root bouche, 'mouth'. Proper embouchure allows instrumentalists to play their instrument at its full range with a full, clear tone and without strain or damage to their muscles.
A musical ensemble, also known as a music group or musical group, is a group of people who perform instrumental and/or vocal music, with the ensemble typically known by a distinct name. Some music ensembles consist solely of instrumentalists, such as the jazz quartet or the orchestra. Other music ensembles consist solely of singers, such as choirs and doo wop groups. In both popular music and classical music, there are ensembles in which both instrumentalists and singers perform, such as the rock band or the Baroque chamber group for basso continuo and one or more singers. In classical music, trios or quartets either blend the sounds of musical instrument families or group together instruments from the same instrument family, such as string ensembles or wind ensembles. Some ensembles blend the sounds of a variety of instrument families, such as the orchestra, which uses a string section, brass instruments, woodwinds and percussion instruments, or the concert band, which uses brass, woodwinds and percussion.
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.
A reed is a thin strip of material that vibrates to produce a sound on a musical instrument. Most woodwind instrument reeds are made from Arundo donax or synthetic material. Tuned reeds are made of metal or synthetics. Musical instruments are classified according to the type and number of reeds.
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 contrabassoon, also known as the double bassoon, is a larger version of the bassoon, sounding an octave lower. Its technique is similar to its smaller cousin, with a few notable differences.
The bass clarinet is a musical instrument of the clarinet family. Like the more common soprano B♭ clarinet, it is usually pitched in B♭, but it plays notes an octave below the soprano B♭ clarinet. Bass clarinets in other keys, notably C and A, also exist, but are very rare. Bass clarinets regularly perform in orchestras, wind ensembles and concert bands, and occasionally in marching bands, and play an occasional solo role in contemporary music and jazz in particular.
The contra-alto clarinet, E♭ contrabass clarinet, is a large clarinet pitched a perfect fifth below the B♭ bass clarinet. It is a transposing instrument in E♭ sounding an octave and a major sixth below its written pitch, between the bass clarinet and the B♭ contrabass clarinet.
Conn-Selmer, Inc. is an American manufacturer of musical instruments for concert bands, marching bands and orchestras. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Steinway Musical Instruments and was formed in 2003 by combining the Steinway properties, The Selmer Company and United Musical Instruments.
Buffet Crampon SAS is a French manufacturer of wind instruments based in Mantes-la-Ville, Yvelines department. The company is the world market leader in the production of clarinets of the Boehm system. Its subsidiary, Buffet Crampon Deutschland GmbH, founded in 2010 and based in Markneukirchen, Vogtland, Sachsen, is the world market leader in the manufacture of brass instruments. To manufacture and sell its products, the BC Group employed around 1000 people worldwide at the beginning of 2021, 470 of them as employees of BC Germany alone. The management of the group has been in the hands of Jérôme Perrod since 2014.
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.
Howarth of London is a company specialising in the manufacture and retail of woodwind instruments and associated accessories. The company was formed in 1948 when its first oboe was produced, and continues to produce instruments today. The first oboe, serial number 1001, was purchased by Edward Selwyn, who at the time was principal oboist for the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Today the Howarth XL, the professional model, is played by soloists and orchestral players around the world, including Gordon Hunt, Roy Carter, Richard Woodhams, Elaine Douvas, Martin Schuring and Emily Pailthorpe. The retail shop and repair workshops are based in Chiltern Street, London, whilst the manufacture of instruments takes place in Worthing on the south coast of England. The London shop is divided into three sections: the oboe and bassoon specialists; saxophone and flute specialists; and clarinet specialists. There is also a small retail outlet attached to the Worthing factory. The company is owned by Jeremy Walsworth.
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.
Steinway Musical Instruments, Inc. is a worldwide musical instrument manufacturing and marketing conglomerate, based in Astoria, New York, the United States. It was formed in a 1995 merger between the Selmer Industries and Steinway Musical Properties, the parent company of Steinway & Sons piano manufacturers. From 1996 to 2013, Steinway Musical Instruments was traded at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the abbreviation LVB, for Ludwig van Beethoven. It was acquired by the Paulson & Co. private capital firm in 2013.
Gemeinhardt Co. is a manufacturer of flutes and piccolos. These musical instruments are developed by this company for all levels of musicians, beginners to professionals. It is owned by its major supplier, Angel Industries Co. Ltd of Taiwan, widely acknowledged as the premier manufacturer of woodwind musical instruments. The Gemeinhardt Company is headquartered in Elkhart, Indiana, where many of its instruments are still made.
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
Backun Musical Services Ltd. (BMS) is a Canadian manufacturer of clarinets in B♭ and A and accessories, based in Burnaby, British Columbia.
Seggelke Klarinetten, is a German clarinet manufacturer based in Bamberg in the Bavarian Upper Franconia. The company manufactures clarinets according to the German system and the French system as well as in a combination of both systems, starting from the Boehm system. A specialty of the company is the reproduction of historical clarinets.