- Early sources on the Dulcian.
- Dulcian Iconography.
- Museums with Dulcians.
- Makers of Dulcians, Shawms and reedmaking tools.
- Dulcian Reeds and reed making.
- Dulcian Fingerings.
- Repertoire for Dulcians.
- Dulcian Literature.
- Dulcian and other early double reed Classifieds.
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 solo from Monteverdi Laetatus Sum. Wav file, mp3 file.
- Henry VIII Helas madame, bass line (wav, mp3), tenor (wav, mp3), alto (wav, mp3), soprano (wav, mp3)
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.
Links:
- Maggie Kilbey Curtal, Dulcian, Bajón: A History of the Precursor to the Bassoon.
- The Baroque Bassoon pages.
- The Basson d'Amour.
- Diabolus in Musica guide to early instruments.
Last updated:
- February 2023:
Updated Dulcian sound samples.
