Chalumeau

Chalumeau
A Modern School Chalumeau
Woodwind instrument
Classification aerophone
Hornbostel–Sachs classification422.211.2
(single-reed aerophone with cylindrical bore and fingerholes)
Developedfrom earliest single-reed instruments, in which the sounding-reed and fingerholes were cut into the plant stem. In late 17th, early 18th century became a detached single-reed mounted on an instrument body of wood.[1]
Related instruments
heteroglot reed: clarinet
idioglott reed: arghul, diplica, dili tuiduk, dozaleh, cifte, launeddas, mijwiz, pilili, Reclam de xeremies, sipsi, zammara, zummara
Sound sample

The chalumeau (English: /ˈʃæləm/; French: [ʃa.ly.mo]; plural chalumeaux) is a single-reed woodwind instrument of the late baroque and early classical eras. The chalumeau is a folk instrument that is the predecessor to the modern-day clarinet. It has a cylindrical bore with eight tone holes (seven in front and one in back for the thumb) and a broad mouthpiece with a single heteroglot reed (i.e. separate, not a continuous part of the instrument's body) made of cane.[2] Similar to the clarinet, the chalumeau overblows a twelfth.

An old chalumeau
Chalumeau by Klenig (early 1700s), M141 Scenkonstmuseet, Stockholm. NB: There is no reed on this instrument.
  1. ^ Marcuse, Sibyl (1964). "Chalumeau". Musical Instruments, A Comprehensive Dictionary. New York: Doubleday add Company. p. 87.
  2. ^ Birsak, K. (1994). The Clarinet: A Cultural History. Buchloe: Druck und Verlag Obermayer GmbH.