What is this flute?

[Sirchronique]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ANTIQUE-FLUTE-W ... 43ca47f532

Anyone have information on what this is supposed to be? It looks like a keyed baseball bat.

[s1m0n]

My bet's on some sort of shawm. I see no embouchure hole, so I suspect we can rule out the flute family, yet that does seem to be a fairly standard 6 key simple system layout. A pre-boehm system oboe seems likeliest. I expect there's a missing mouthpiece for a double reed. Those look like nickle-silver keys, rather than sterling, so it's likely a bandsman's or student grade instrument. Don't pay a lot for it if you buy.

[an seanduine]

Pity we can't see the reed seat. Building on Sim0n's guess, I think it might be a Piccolo Heckelphone. If it is it is a very rare bird indeed. The wikipedia article hasn't any photos but states: The instrument is built in one section with a detachable bell, and has simple-system German fingering. The keywork and the distinctive heckelphone bell may be diagnostic. The instrument was pitched in Eb, which would be roughly approximate to the fourteen inch length given. Only fourteen were made. Richard Strauss wrote scores for it. If it has a serial number, this can be verified by Heckelphone, Gbmh.

Bob

[Peter Duggan]

There's a photo of a piccolo heckelphone in Woodwind Instruments and their History by Anthony Baines, and it doesn't look the same. (The heckelphone's bulbous bell is shorter/more 'spherically' differentiated) and it has more typical oboe-/clarinet-style keywork with some ring keys.)

[an seanduine]

I found a catalog picture of a piccolo Heckelphone on a defunct Geo pages site (Reo-city project) but it does not appear to be modeled on an actual instrument. Hmm. This whachumacallit is short enough to be in either F or Eb. The same seller has a simple system oboe thingy for sale, about eighteen inches in length, also stamped "made in Germany". Could be from the same trove. I don't think it is a musette or piccolo oboe.
Both are German simple system.

Bob

[s1m0n]

Hmmn. Scanning google images for "Piccolo Heckelphon" yields the following pics, which don't look too dissimilar:



And



They're from a page devoted to a hungarian instrument called a tarogato or taragot. The keywork on both examples is more complex than on strument "X", though.

[an seanduine]

Another possibility is the Catalonian Shawm family.

Bob

[Casey Burns]

These are a type of French Folk Oboe, in G usually.

[Peter Duggan]

There's a photo of a piccolo heckelphone in Woodwind Instruments and their History by Anthony Baines, and it doesn't look the same. (The heckelphone's bulbous bell is shorter/more 'spherically' differentiated) and it has more typical oboe-/clarinet-style keywork with some ring keys.)

Piccolo heckelphone (from Baines):

[an seanduine]

Casey what are the dimensions for G? Instrument X is approx 14 inches which puts it squarely in the range of Eb to F. The shawm known as El Tible can be in F. What throws me is the onion-bulb on the end as opposed to a flared bell. . . .plus the size of all the pictures of the Cobles on line show them using much larger instruments. One article says there are a variety of El Tible from Valencia as well, but with no description. They mention a Xirimita, but this sounds too old fashioned and primitive to have the key work. Apparently there is a lot of variations from province to province and village to village.

Bob

[gothicoboist]

Definitely just a simple piccolo oboe/musette (not to be confused with the musette du cour which is of course the seventeenth and eighteenth century French bagpipe.). Wikipedia knows all http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oboe_musette

[an seanduine]

Very good. So this is an ancestor to the current conservatory model piccolo oboe as made by F.Lorée.

Bob

[apossibleworld]

Yes, it's a musette. I have one just like it. Neat little thing.

[an seanduine]

apossibleworld, you have piqued my curiosity. Can you describe the reed and staple arrangement your musette uses? Does your instrument appear to play best at Eb or F? And at the same time can you judge what pitch standard it was originaly set at? L.P, H.P.,
or some other variant? Does it readily blow an octave, or does it need the use of a register or vent key?
An instrument such as yours has been suggested as a possible precursor to the uilleann chanter and I would like more information if possible.

Bob

[Gabriel]

I have seen those things marketed as "children's oboes" over here.