The Dulcian

Curtal, Korthol, Dolcian, Dulzian, Dulciaan, Bajon, Baixão, Basson, Fagotto, Dulciana, Chorist-Fagott

Overview   Discussion List  Links  New

Bass dulcian by Graham Lyndon-Jones

 

Gedacktbass Dulcian by Eric Moulder

 

Contrabass dulcian by Guntram Wolf

Overview:

The Dulcian or Curtal is the renaissance predecessor of the bassoon, developed in the first half of the 16th century. The Dulcian has the conical expanding bore from the Shawm, and the folded two parallel bores from the Sordune and Kortholt.

Like many other instruments in the renaissance, Dulcians were made in a family, soprano until contrabass. The smaller instruments up to the bass, are in general made from one piece of wood. Larger instruments are in many cased made from two or three pieces of wood.

In the 17th century, the small Dulcians are getting less and less important. At the same time the baroque Bassoon is developed, while the bass Dulcian is still in use.
A special situation is found in Spain1, where still in the 19th century various sizes Dulcians are in use.

1 See B. Kenyon de Pascual. in Galpin Society Journal 1984.


Dulcian sound samples:

  • Bass dulcian in the lowest voice. Wav file (273 kByte), mp3 file (101 kByte).
  • Tenor dulcian in the lowest voice and an f-alto dulcian in one of the middle voices. Wav file (426 kByte), mp3 file (156 kByte).
  • G-alto dulcian, playing in its upper range, in the highest voice. Wav file (157 kByte), mp3 File (58 kByte).
  • Soprano dulcian in the highest voice. Wav file (216 kByte), mp3 file (80 kByte).


Early sources:

  • The description of the Dulcian in Syntagma Musicum by Michael Praetorius, published in Germany in 1619.
  • Some information on Dulcians from Marin Mersenne's Harmonie Universelle published in France in 1636/1637.
  • Although a very late (1697) source for dulcians, the Vierfaches Musicalisches Kleeblatt by Daniel Speer contains a dulcian fingering chart and two sonatas for three dulcians.



Email discussion list:


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Links:

 

 

What's new:

25 June 2009Additions to the workshops listing
15 February 2009New workshop listing
1 September 2008 New pictures on the Iconography page for the "Dulcian playing Angel in Palermo".
23 August 2008 Addition to the 2008 workshops list.
17 December 2007 First version of the 2008 workshops list.
16 December 2007 Addition to the Iconography page: Sallaert 172, Sallaert 173 and new pictures of van der Horst
14 November 2007 Addition to the makers list.
6 November 2007 Addition to the Iconography page: Rombouts
25 October 2007 Additions to the Iconography page: Obidos, Lisbon
6 October 2007 Addition to the Iconography page: Kircher Musurgia Universalis
15 July 2007 Additions to the Iconography page: Burgos, El Escorial, Salamanca, Santiago de Compostella.
12 July 2007 Updated makers list.
19 June 2007 A bit late, but here is the 2007 workshops list.
18 March 2007 Update of the makers list.
20 January 2007 Addition of Castello Libro II Sonata 8 to the repertoire page.
15 January 2007 Addition of Castello Libro II Sonata 7 to the repertoire page.
10 January 2007 Addition to the Iconography page.
4 October 2006 Updated workshops list.
18 August 2006 Addition to the Iconography page.
12 August 2006 Addition to the list of reedmakers.
Changes in the reeds and reedmaking page.
30 June 2006 Updated workshops list.
30 March 2006 Updated workshops list.
15 March 2006 Additions to the makers list.
9 March 2006 Updated workshops list.
22 January 2006 Addition to the Iconography page.
28 December 2005 Painting with a Phagotus added to the iconography page.
11 December 2005 New workshops list for 2006.
20 September 2005 Corrections to some of the museum pages.
18 September 2005 Additions ot the literature page.
16 July 2005 Additions to the makers page.
17 June 2005 Additions to the workshops list for 2005.
9 March 2005 Additions to the Iconography page.
25 February 2005 More pictures of the contrabass dulcian by Martin Praetorius.
24 February 2005 Additions to the Iconography page.
22 February 2005 Page with pictures added for the museum in Prague.
19 January 2005 Pictures of a contrabass dulcian by Martin Praetorius added.
1/2 January 2005 Additions to the Iconography page.
30 December 2004 New workshops list for 2005.
1 October 2004 Page about the dulcian in the Waterhouse collection updated with pictures.
27 August 2004 A page with pictures from Eric Moulder's 2004 instrument making course added.
31 July 2004 Additions to the fingering chart.
20 May 2004 Pages for the dulcians in Assisi and Conceptión added
19 May 2004 Link added to the CurtalBook web site, here and here.
5 January 2004 Addition to the Iconography page.
22 December 2003 New workshops list for 2004.
15 December 2003 Some photos added to the page of the museum in Dresden.
30 November 2003 Updated page for the museum in Dresden with photos of the contrabass dulcian.
3 November 2003 The first workshops in 2004 added.
14 October 2003 De Selma canzona 19 added to the repertoire page.
11 September 2003 De Selma canzonas 11..14 added to the repertoire page.
6 September 2003 Additions to the Iconography page: 1, 2, 3
28 August 2003 Link to the website of Leslie Ross added to the makers page.
14 August 2003 Additions to the reed making page.
30 June 2003 Additions and corrections to: makers page, museum in Dresden, workshop list, some new pictures from the workshop of Martin Praetorius.
3 June 2003 Additions to the workshop list.
2 June 2003 Additions to the workshop list.
29 May 2003 Fontana sonatas added to the repertoire page.
18 May 2003 Additions to the workshop list.
5 March 2003 Additions to the Classifieds page.
25 February 2003 Additions to the workshop list.
2 February 2003 Workshop list for 2003.
23 December 2002 Corrections and additions to the: Museums, Augsburg, Brunswick, Brussels and Leipzig pages.
2 December 2002 Addition to the Literature page.
28 November 2002 Additions to the Iconography page.
5 November 2002 Addition to the Classifieds page.
10 September 2002 Additional information and corrections about the dulcians in Albarracin, Avila, Borja, El Escorial and Paris
22 August 2002 Correction of the Vienna museum web address.
14 August 2002 Additions to the Classifieds page.
6 July 2002 Additions to the Workshop list 2002
7 May 2002 Pictures from Eric Moulder's instrument making class.
4 May 2002 Fingerings added for the dulcian in Lisbon.
25 April 2002 Changes to the Classifieds page.
2 March 2002 Additions to the Workshop list 2002
17 February 2002 Workshop list 2002 added.

More Dulcian Website history.

Bass dulcian by Eric Moulder

 

Soprano dulcian by Eric Moulder

 

Quart bass dulcian by Eric Moulder

 

Contrabass dulcian by Martin Praetorius



Remarks and comment to: Hans Mons

© Copyright 1998-2009 by Hans Mons.
Last updated on 25 June 2009


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