I just wonder, there are so many instruments out there, which I think are woodwind, but never show up anywhere. So, what instruments are considered to be woodwind?

When I think about it, the following pop into my mind:

Recorder (Descant, Treble, Alto)
Garkleinfloetlein
Cornamuse
Bassoon
Oboe
Flute
Saxophone
Clarinett

What else?

Cor anglais

And if you want a few you've never heard of....


Woodwind Instruments

Piccolo. And what the heck is a Cornamuse and a Garkleinfloetlein?? (Not to mention a clarinett. Sorry...)

The garklein is a little recorder.

I've never heard of a cornamuse either. It appears to be some sort of double reed instrument Looks like this:

For Cornamuse look here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornamuse

For Garkleinfloetlein there is only the German Wiki page: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garklein It's the smallest of all recorders

Sorry, meant Clarinet with one t. Got confused with the German term.



Hey Babybird, great link. Thanks.

Heckelphone. Sarrusophone. Duduk.

French horn? Not really ... but it does, confusingly appear in wind quintets .... a kind of amphibian among instruments!


nick

There is also a Rackett, a mediaeval woodwind sometimes also known as a sausage bassoon. But here are also higher register ones as well.

Later edit - I see its on Babybirds very comprehensive list !

So does this mean an ordinary recorder can also be called a 'gark'?


I can imagine its name could be somewhat onomatopoeiac...

Sadly not, in this sense the 'klein' would be 'little' and the 'gar' tend to imply 'very'.

And the "lein" at the end of flotlein also means little or tiny.

So its full name is a "very small tiny flute". I think we should call them "cute flutes".

Piccolo Oboe (Musette I think)

Oboe (of course)

Cor Anglais (English Horn in the USA) eg. New world symphony (Dvorjak)

Oboe D'amore ( The Lurve Oboe) eg Bolero (Ravel)

Bass Oboe (rare and rarely used) does pop up in the Planet Suite (Holst)

Hecklephone (never seen one) but they usually double when a Base Oboe is required and one isn't available.

Bassoon..

Contra Bassoon...

Piccolo.

Flute

Alto flute

Bass Flute

All the Clarinet family

All the Saxophone family

All The Recorder family..

Ah trust you to get all the double reeds. Quite right too. I have a copy of Joppig's book on oboe & bassoon which has all sorts of related (mostly defunct) instruments. The only one which springs to mind is the Rothphone.

Speaking of the oboe d'amore, I saw and heard one for the first time the other day (courtesy of the New Noise duo). What a lovely thing that is.

Rothphone! of course .. related to the sarrusophone. And the chalemeau (sp?) and teh bombarde, adn all manner of other little folk things. And the ocarina ...

And maybe the bullroarer - or does that count as percussion...?

nick

Bombarde

Chalameau

Thought I'd mention a couple of obscure ones

What about whistles are they woodwind? I know they're not wooden but neither is Flute.

I thought the deffinition was something you blow into, and play by covering/uncovering holes rather than varying the length of tube with valves or a slide as in brass instruments?

Not sure where that would leave something like pan-pipes or a swanee whistle though!

Hopefully at more than arms length.

no ones mentioned bagpipes!

So they're generally quite small, then? Not at all large in any way...

Just remember that WIND applies to both woodwind and brass. Don't get wind and woodwind mixed up.

You probably won't see it on the internet, but Chanter is a woodwind instrument too. It uses a double reed.

Yeah but that's just the business end of bagpipes.

Oh and before anyone drones on and on (geddit?) about how awful bagpipes are, at least two of us here on the forums swoon at the sound of Northumbrian Smallpipes. So there

But i meant the chanter as in the instrument on it's own.

I have a chanter, but no bagpipes. I got it when my granddad died.

oooh i love highand bagpipes!

Yeah, and the flute is considered to be woodwind even if its made out of silver, because that's what it was originally - and still is - made of: wood.

By the way, my mother has a cornamuse. Its quite hard to play, same fingering as a recorder. And sounds like a lovesick duck. She has a Garkleinflötlein, too. It can't be longer than 6 inches (= 15 cm).

I think it is such a shame that the word bagpipe is always associated with highland bagpipes (fine if outside and a solitary piper is on the other side of a loch - massed pipes = weapon of war!) the Northumbrian pipes are gorgeous sounding things.

When people talk about bagpipes here however, they refer to the irish uilleann pipes..

Off topic: We're playing a braveheart medley in our wind band, and a flautist and the tuba guy are playing uilleann pipes! XD It's gonna be cool.