Talk:Bass oboe

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The Grove entry for baritone oboe cross references to bass oboe. Del arte 20:00, 22 Apr 2005 (UTC)

In its present form, I think this article risks compounding the confusion between the bass oboe and the heckelphone. E.g. Havergal Brian's "bass oboe" (in symphonies 1 & 4) was certainly meant to be the heckelphone (his writing shows an awareness of the extended range of the heck., and his musical horizons tended to be thoroughly Germanic, and in his early period Straussian in particular - he was well aware of Salome and Elektra, both of which use the heck.) I can't speak with the same authority about other composers, but as things stand Holst, Brian and Delius are all claimed by both the "bass oboe" and "heckelphone" articles. Assuming the Delius info given here is correct (I have no reason to doubt it), does anyone have anything definite on which instrument Holst and others would have intended? (Or is it the case that, as I wrote in the heck. article, "In some cases, it is possible that the composers themselves were unclear as to the distinction between the two instruments"?)

Two other issues: as I understand it, each heckelphone is produced to the individual specification of the one placing the order, so one can't generalise about the fingering being different. (Let us know if you have any different info.) Also, a contrabass oboe would be of similar range to the bassoon, not the contrabassoon. Vilcxjo 01:37, 3 August 2005 (UTC)