Chalumeau

About

Shop a professional chalumeau instrument made from apricot wood and offered in eight tuning choices. Sala Muzik currently carries the MAC-404 and MAC-505, two mouthpiece-equipped models designed for players who want the warm, direct voice associated with the single-reed chalumeau family. What is a chalumeau? A chalumeau is a single-reed wind instrument with a predominantly cylindrical bore and a low, vocal character. The historical European chalumeau became especially visible around the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries and is closely connected with the development of the clarinet. The word has also been used for different folk reed pipes, so not every instrument sold under the name has identical fingering, keywork, range or construction. The products in this collection are modern apricot-wood chalumeaux supplied with mouthpieces and offered by tuning and physical length. Always use the specific product information rather than assuming the specifications of a museum reproduction. Chalumeau history and the clarinet connection The chalumeau is often described as a predecessor of the clarinet because makers around 1700 expanded the possibilities of cylindrical single-reed pipes with keys and additional tone holes. Johann Christoph Denner of Nuremberg is frequently associated with this transition, although the instrument’s development involved a wider workshop tradition. Acoustically, a stopped cylindrical pipe sounds lower than an open pipe of a similar physical length. This helps explain the chalumeau’s low register and the later use of “chalumeau register” for the clarinet’s lowest notes. The tone is commonly described as warm, speech-like and cantabile rather than brilliant or trumpet-like. MAC-404 vs MAC-505 The main verified differences are price and the listed length for each tuning. Both models are made from apricot wood, include a mouthpiece and are available in E, D, C-sharp, C, B, A, G-sharp and G. Feature MAC-404 MAC-505 Current price $199 $249