A Liebesfuss or Liebesfuß (; ; ) is a pear- or bulb-shaped element that narrows to a small opening in
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 and ...
instruments such as the
oboe d'amore
The ; (), less commonly (), is a double reed woodwind musical instrument in the oboe family. Slightly larger than the oboe, it has a less assertive and a more tranquil and serene tone, and is considered the mezzo-soprano of the oboe family, betw ...
,
cor anglais
The cor anglais (, or original ; plural: ''cors anglais''), or English horn (mainly North America), is a double-reed woodwind instrument in the oboe family. It is approximately one and a half times the length of an oboe, making it essentially ...
and
heckelphone,
as well as on some single reed instruments. It serves as a damper that gives these musical instruments a characteristically soft
timbre
In music, timbre (), also known as tone color or tone quality (from psychoacoustics), is the perceived sound of a musical note, sound or tone. Timbre distinguishes sounds according to their source, such as choir voices and musical instrument ...
.
It is the eponymous characteristic of the oboe d'amore, which was developed in the
baroque
The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...
alongside other particularly sweet-sounding instruments such as the
viola d'amore and the
clarinet d'amore, which originated around 1740, died out in the mid-19th century, and was redeveloped from 2017 to 2020 on the basis of a basset clarinet in G.
A slightly larger and 90-degree angled love foot, which can be rotated both forwards and backwards, can be found on historical
basset clarinets,
as well as on a modern basset clarinet that adopts this detail from a historical clarinet, as
Charles Neidich did.
References
Oboes
clarinets
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