Carl Almenräder (3 October 1786 – 14 September 1843) was a German bassoonist, inventor and composer. The design of the modern

bassoon The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family, which plays in the tenor and bass ranges. It is composed of six pieces, and is usually made of wood. It is known for its distinctive tone color, wide range, versatility, and virtuo ...

owes a great deal to Almenräder, who, assisted by the German

acoustics Acoustics is a branch of physics that deals with the study of mechanical waves in gases, liquids, and solids including topics such as vibration, sound, ultrasound and infrasound. A scientist who works in the field of acoustics is an acoustician ...

researcher

Gottfried Weber Jacob Gottfried Weber (March 1, 1779 – September 21, 1839) was a prominent German writer on music (especially on music theory), composer, and jurist. Biography Weber was born at Freinsheim. From 1824 to 1839, he was the editor of ''Cäcilia'', ...

developed the 17-key bassoon whose

range Range may refer to: Geography * Range (geographic), a chain of hills or mountains; a somewhat linear, complex mountainous or hilly area (cordillera, sierra) ** Mountain range, a group of mountains bordered by lowlands * Range, a term used to i ...

spanned three

octave In music, an octave ( la, octavus: eighth) or perfect octave (sometimes called the diapason) is the interval between one musical pitch and another with double its frequency. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been refer ...

s and a half.

Early years

The son of a teacher, Carl Almenräder was born in

Ronsdorf Ronsdorf is a district of the German city of Wuppertal. It has population of about 22,500. Ronsdorf was first mentioned in 1494, and in 1745 it received its town charter. It was founded only a few years before by Elias Eller when he relocated the ...

near (

Wuppertal Wuppertal (; "''Wupper Dale''") is, with a population of approximately 355,000, the seventh-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia as well as the 17th-largest city of Germany. It was founded in 1929 by the merger of the cities and to ...

. He taught himself to play the bassoon after he was given one when aged just 13. He started out in 1810 playing in a theatre orchestra in

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...

, but he switched to an orchestral position in

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

in 1812 where by 1814 he was also obtaining solo work. He studied composition with

Aloys Schmitt Aloys Schmitt (26 August 1788 – 25 July 1866) was a German composer, pianist and music teacher. He was born in Erlenbach am Main. He studied composition with Johann Anton André in Offenbach. In 1824 he was appointed court composer in Muni ...

, and in 1814 he gave a public performance in Frankfurt of a rondo which he had himself written.

Career progress

In 1817 Almenräder joined the

Mainz Mainz () is the capital and largest city of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Mainz is on the left bank of the Rhine, opposite to the place that the Main (river), Main joins the Rhine. Downstream of the confluence, the Rhine flows to the north-we ...

theatre orchestra Theatre music refers to a wide range of music composed or adapted for performance in theatres. Genres of theatre music include opera, ballet and several forms of musical theatre, from pantomime to operetta and modern stage musicals and revues. Ano ...

as a bassoonist. He was now working seriously on a year-long project to develop a technically improved bassoon featuring moving keys and an improved level of balance across the tonal range. By 1819 he had temporarily moved down river to

where he joined his brothers in their workshop which focused on producing

flutes The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...

and

clarinets The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The instrument has a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell, and uses a single reed to produce sound. Clarinets comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitches. ...

. In 1822 Almenräder joined the court orchestra of the Dukes of

Nassau Nassau may refer to: Places Bahamas *Nassau, Bahamas, capital city of the Bahamas, on the island of New Providence Canada *Nassau District, renamed Home District, regional division in Upper Canada from 1788 to 1792 *Nassau Street (Winnipeg), ...

which was based at Biebrich am Rhein (today a suburb of Wiesbaden), and he was also engaged by the

based music publisher

Schott Music Schott Music () is one of the oldest German music publishers. It is also one of the largest music publishing houses in Europe, and is the second oldest music publisher after Breitkopf & Härtel. The company headquarters of Schott Music were fou ...

to advise on wind instrument production. He died in Biebrich.

Bassoon development

Almenräder's improvements to the bassoon began with an 1823 treatise in which he described ways of improving intonation, response, and technical ease of playing by means of augmenting and rearranging the keywork; subsequent articles further developed his ideas. Working at the Schott factory gave him the means to construct and test instruments according to these new designs, the results of which were published in ''Caecilia,'' Schott's house

journal A journal, from the Old French ''journal'' (meaning "daily"), may refer to: *Bullet journal, a method of personal organization *Diary, a record of what happened over the course of a day or other period *Daybook, also known as a general journal, a ...

. Almenräder continued publishing and building instruments until his death, and

Ludwig van Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classical ...

himself requested one of the newly made instruments after hearing of the papers.

His own instrument production facility

In 1831 Almenräder started his own factory along with partner Johann Adam Heckel (1812-1877), producing woodwind instruments. He nevertheless continued to work with Schott as a proof reader, and as a tubing supplier. In 1843 he produced a comprehensive teaching manual for his 17-key bassoon which had a chromatic range of 4 octaves. After Almenräder's death in 1843 his business partner, Heckel continued the manufacturing business. Following several further upgrades today's German Almenräder-Heckel bassoon comes with between 25 and 27 keys. It has spread far beyond German speaking central Europe, defining during the twentieth century the international standards for the instrument.

Media

References

Sources

*''Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians'', by Theodore Baker, Alfred Remy, G. Schirmer, 1919, p. 15.

External links

* 1786 births 1846 deaths 19th-century classical composers 19th-century German composers 19th-century German male musicians German classical bassoonists German male classical composers German music educators German musical instrument makers German Romantic composers Musicians from Wuppertal {{Germany-composer-stub