Heckelphone - Musical Uses

Musical Uses

The first use of the heckelphone was in Richard Strauss's 1905 opera Salome. The instrument was subsequently employed in the same composer's Elektra, as well as An Alpine Symphony (though this part frequently calls for notes that are below the range of the heckelphone), Josephslegende and Festliches Präludium. It was adopted as part of the large orchestral palette of such works as Edgard Varèse's Amériques (1918–1921) and Arcana (1925–1927), and Carlos Chávez's Sinfonía de Antígona (1933).

The heckelphone was also used by Gordon Jacob in his 'Variations on Annie Laurie' which was performed in the first Hoffnung Music Festival Concert at the Royal Festival Hall, London, UK in 1956. See Annetta Hoffnung's biography of Gerard Hoffnung and the sleeve notes to the complete Decca recording of the concert in question.

The heckelphone is often confused with Lorée's redesigned hautbois baryton which was introduced in 1889, the term "bass oboe" being widely used to describe both instruments. Among English composers of the early-20th century there was some vogue for the use of a "bass oboe", for example in Gustav Holst's orchestral suite The Planets (1916), as well as in several works of Frederick Delius (A Mass of Life, 1904-1905; Dance Rhapsody No. 1, 1908), Arnold Bax's Symphony No. 1 (1921), Havergal Brian's Gothic Symphony (1919-1927) and Symphony No. 4 (Das Siegeslied), and supposedly in the original instrumentation of Ralph Vaughan Williams' A London Symphony (1912-1913). However, it is not in all cases clear which of the two instruments is intended—indeed, it is possible that sometimes the composers themselves were unclear as to the distinction. Strauss, however, mentions both instruments in his 1904 revision of Hector Berlioz's Grand Traité d'instrumentation et d'orchestration modernes, and (like Varèse) specifies the instrument by name in his orchestral scores, so preventing any ambiguity.

The heckelphone has also been employed in chamber music, one of the most notable instances being Hindemith's Trio for Heckelphone, Viola, and Piano, Op. 47 (1928). Graham Waterhouse wrote Four Epigraphs after Escher op. 35 for the same instrumentation.

The heckelphone is also featured in the orchestral music of Finnish composer Kalevi Aho. It is heard in his operas Insect Life (1985-87), The Book of Secrets (1998), and Before We Are All Drowned (1995/99), in the Symphonies no. 6 (1979-80), 11 (1997-98), 13 (2003), 15 (2009-10), and in his Piano Concerto no. 1 (1988-89), Contrabassoon Concerto (2004-05) and Oboe Concerto (2007). American composer William P. Perry used the heckelphone as part of a double reed quartet in his score for the film The Mysterious Stranger. There is a part for heckelphone in the concert band piece Two Sketches From The Orient by composer Cecil Burleigh, Op. 55 arranged by N. Clifford Page, published by Oliver Ditson Company 1926 and 1928.