The bass sarrusophone is the bass member of the

sarrusophone The sarrusophones are a family of metal double reed conical bore woodwind instruments patented and first manufactured by Pierre-Louis Gautrot in 1856. Gautrot named the sarrusophone after French bandmaster Pierre-Auguste Sarrus (1813–1876), w ...

family of metal

double reed A double reed is a type of reed used to produce sound in various wind instruments. In contrast with a single reed instrument, where the instrument is played by channeling air against one piece of cane which vibrates against the mouthpiece an ...

conical bore In music, the bore of a wind instrument (including woodwind and brass) is its interior chamber. This defines a flow path through which air travels, which is set into vibration to produce sounds. The shape of the bore has a strong influence on t ...

wind instrument A wind instrument is a musical instrument that contains some type of resonator (usually a tube) in which a column of air is set into vibration by the player blowing into (or over) a mouthpiece set at or near the end of the resonator. The pitc ...

s. Pitched in the key of B♭, it has a range almost identical to the

bass saxophone The bass saxophone is one of the lowest-pitched members of the saxophone family—larger and lower than the more common baritone saxophone. It was likely the first type of saxophone built by Adolphe Sax, as first observed by Berlioz in 1842. It ...

, and can cover the

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 virtuos ...

range up to F. Historically it was built in the late 19th and early 20th centuries principally by its inventor Gautrot and his successor Couesnon & Co., as well as Evette & Schaeffer (now

Buffet Crampon Buffet Crampon SAS is a French manufacturer of wind instruments based in Mantes-la-Ville, Yvelines department. The company is the world market leader in the production of clarinets of the Boehm system. Its subsidiary, Buffet Crampon Deutsc ...

) and Orsi of Milan. It is currently only available by custom order from Orsi. There is very little repertoire specifically for bass sarrusophone;

Roupen Shakarian Roupen is a Western Armenian variant of Reuben or Ruben It may refer to: * Roupenids or Rubenids, an Armenian dynasty who dominated parts of Cilicia ** Roupen I of Armenia (1025/1035 – 1095), the first lord of Armenian Cilicia or "Lord of the ...

has written a piece for it called ''Sarruso Rex''.

References

Sarrusophones Single oboes with conical bore {{DoubleReed-instrument-stub