Chalumeau

From Music-Web Encyclopedia

The word "chalumeau" comes from Latin "calamellus" resp. Greek "calamos", both meaning "reed". The chalumeau was used for folkmusic in the Middle Ages and had its origin in the Orient. It consisted of an about 20 cm long cylindrical tube with nine fingerholes. At the upper] end of the tube, three cuts were made that together formed a rectangle, so that the resulting "reed" was part of the tube. This mouthpiece was surrounded by a capsule. Soon after this type of chalumeau became fashionable in urban society, about 1700, Johann Christoph Denner of Nürnberg added an extra finger hole and two keys; his further experimentation led to the clarinet.

The chalumeau was a stopped pipe (an octave lower in pitch than a comparable open pipe) and, unlike the clarinet, did not overblow to a register above the fundamental (the clarinet's low range is still termed its chalumeau range).