Books › A descriptive catalogue of the musical instruments recently exhibited at the Royal Military Exhibition, London, 1890 …, 1891 › scan 144
Scan 144
A descriptive catalogue of the musical instruments recently exhibited at the Royal Military Exhibition, London, 1890 …, 1891
14 lines. Read by computer on 1 October 2026. Printed page 124. See the scan on archive.org.
1263.
3Bass Clarinet, in B♭. Stamped "Widerman, à Paris." This instrument is doubled at the butt into a semi-circular brass bend, at about half its total length. The bore is very large, and measures 1 1/4 inches. There are 20 brass keys on pillars; but as the pads do not stop the holes, and the instrument is out of order, it is impossible to examine it in detail. Length 27 inches.
5Lent by M. Césare Snoeck.
7264.
9Batyphone, in E♭. This is a sort of contra-bass clarinet, and was one of Wieprecht's endeavours to produce a reed contra-bass. It is a fifth below the ordinary bass clarinet, and therefore of the same pitch as the E♭ tuba of the present day. There are 18 brass keys, some of which stand open. The thumb of the left hand manipulates the keys 15, 16, and 18; the fingers of the same hand taking Nos. 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, and 17; the thumb of the right hand takes the keys 1, 2, and 4; the remainder 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, being taken by the fingers of the right hand. The first key is of course the bell key. The whole instrument is made of wood, in one piece, the bore being doubled near its centre. The crook and bell are of metal, the latter being engraved "W. Wieprecht and E. Skorra, Patentirte Erfinde." Outside length 3 feet 3 1/2 inches, diameter of bore 1'33 inches.
11Wieprecht has given the following description of this invention in a MS. treatise upon Instrumentation, which is now in the possession of Herr Otto Lessmann:—
13"This is an invention of our own in conjunction with Sporra, the Court instrument manufacturer of Berlin; it was completed in 1839, and patented for ten successive years throughout the Prussian Monarchy. The demand for a contra-bass wind instrument bearing technical resemblance to the clarionet, flute, oboe, and bassoon, induced us, after many experiments, to construct this instrument. We made it to a scale twice the size of that of the c' clarionet, the divisions of the chromatic scale being arranged according to acoustical principles. Those holes which were too far apart to be covered by the fingers, were made accessible by means of so-called
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