Bass Oboe, Heckelphone and Musette
Bass Oboe, Heckelphone and Musette
Bass oboe
The bass oboe is in C but written an octave above its sounding pitch. It can be heard most notably in several movements from The Planets by Gustav Holst ( the bass oboe starts at 1:22).
The longest and most exposed bass oboe solo in all of the orchestral literature, at nearly a full minute in length, is from Percy Grainger’s The Warriors.
The bass oboe is very heavy, with a large finger stretch, particularly when playing written C#4 and 5. It has a more limited functional range than the oboe, and sounds most idiomatic in the low and middle register, where most of its solos are written. The bass oboe has very limited orchestral and only some solo and double reed ensemble repertoire.
However, it is very fun to play!
For more information on the bass oboe
Heckelphone
The Heckelphone was developed by the bassoon maker Heckel, and has a slightly larger and lower range than a bass oboe, and a louder, fuller sound from a bigger, more saxophone-like bore. It is quite rare. While many instruments still exist, and are used in some performances, no new instruments are being made.
The Heckel company originally made oboe family instruments of all different sizes, but the bass is the only one that gained popularity.
The first, and one of the only orchestral pieces written for Heckelphone is from Salome by Richard Strauss. Paul Hindemith also wrote Trio op.47 which included Heckelphone.
The Heckelphone is considered a substitute for the bass oboe. As they have a similar range (the Heckelphone goes a bit lower to an A) they are often considered interchangeable but there are significant differences, and the original literature is different.
What to call the instrument is one thing, its use is something different. It was designed as a large oboe that descends to the low A the bottom space of the bass clef. Most orchestrators have called the Bass Oboe and the Heckelphone interchangeable, but I have not found this to be the case. The Heckelphone is a powerful instrument capable of great projection due to the cross-section of its bore which is twice the diameter of the Oboe and not twice the area like Bass Oboe. This makes a huge difference. The Heckelphone is more of a soloist while the Bass Oboe is more of a team player. For most works, I prefer the Bass Oboe.
(from https://bandestration.com/tag/heckelphone/)
For more information on the Heckelphone (in German).
Musette
The musette, or piccolo oboe, is pitched in F or Eb, and is quite rare except at International Double Reed Society conventions (https://www.idrs.org/). There are only a very few solo or ensemble pieces written for it.