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Hi,

What library has Basset Horn samples ?

Thank you !

You can buy the Basset Horn Library from VSL for $75

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/VSI-VSLD51

It's also part of the Special Edition #2 and Special Edition Complete:

https://www.vsl.co.at/en/Instruments/Sp ... ument_List

Pretty sure this is what you are looking for...

https://www.soundsnap.com/tags/basset_hound

stubbsonic wrote:Pretty sure this is what you are looking for...

https://www.soundsnap.com/tags/basset_hound

Thank you Mike and thank you Stubbsonic !
I will consider the 2 suggestions !

I totally forgot that VSL has one, as it isn't on my annotation list for some reason.

At first, it did not show up when I launched Vienna Instruments Pro, even though I own everything they offer, except for the Surround Sound mics expansion for the new percussion library.

Oddly, I had to rebuild my VSL database for it to show, after bass clarinet and before bassoon -- even though I also own Special Edition I/II. I was freaking there for a moment!

Make sure you stay aware that there is a big difference between Basset Horn and Basset Clarinet. No one has a library for the latter AFAIK.

Xsample also includes Basset Horn in their excellent orchestral library (available from Best Service), but Vienna Instruments woodwinds really are the gold standard.

It is surprising that no one yet offers a G Clarinet of orchestral quality, or a C Clarinet. I now own a quality G Clarinet and have a C Clarinet on the way in a few days, but it's even stranger that the A Clarinet (which I do not yet own) is missing from all orchestral libraries.

Neocymatics Clarinet includes almost every variant, but I didn't find it very convincing yet. Maybe with more work. WIVI Band surprisingly includes an A Clarinet. No one does an Alto Clarinet.

I really love Basset Horn myself, and tried one a number of years, almost buying it, then waiting too late as it now costs twice as much. They are quite difficult to play; perhaps the hardest of the entire clarinet family. They go through a bit of a timbral transition between registers.

If you are going to use this for mock-ups and will be hiring musicians later, I am sure you are aware that there is no one standard for the Basset Horn's range, and that there are even some "extended" clarinets of other voicings that present "Basset Horn" editions. Even the transposition key varies.

Went to see SF Opera's new production of Elektra yesterday. The 100 piece orchestra includes two basset horns and a heckelphone. I never heard solo lines for either instrument but there were some interesting wind ensemble passages where you could tell. According to the program, this is the largest orchestra that SFO has ever used.

Never heard of a heckelphone. Just found a little demo on YT by a New Zealander. He referred to it as a bass oboe. It's cool because it doesn't sound like a bassoon at all. It really does sound like a bass oboe! Crazy.

Contrasted with the bass surrusophone which I just now also heard for the first time, which sounded pretty hilarious! I like it, though, the comb-and-tissue-paper version of a bari-sax/hybrid.

Awesome! My tickets to Elektra are for tomorrow night. I'll be curious to see if Clark Fobes (who made my mouthpieces and barrels) is in the clarinet section for that production, and which voicing he is playing (he plays all winds, but specializes in low clarinets).

I love the Heckelphone as well. When I first heard of it, it was misidentified as a member of the Bassoon family, when actually it's a variant of a Baritone Oboe (and thus is black and made from grenadilla vs. from maple like Bassoons). I'm thrilled that VSL includes a Heckelphone.

stubbsonic wrote:Never heard of a heckelphone. Just found a little demo on YT by a New Zealander. He referred to it as a bass oboe. It's cool because it doesn't sound like a bassoon at all. It really does sound like a bass oboe! Crazy.

Found it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14ETYis8JBA

Which was followed by this video for the Contra-forte, a modern replacement for the contra-bassoon. Pretty cool, actually.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIJT4Vzy40A

OK, I'm leaving this thread alone now...

Thank you all for these explanations and advices

I was questioning my own memory last night so went back to Stephen Fox's website for his own explanation of Basset Horn vs. Basset Clarinet, and it does indeed turn out that there remains some confusion and uncertainty as thorough investigations are still pretty recent and shallow.

In the modern era, with revived interest in historic instruments, many manufacturers make extended range versions of regular "A", "Bb" and even "C" voicings of the clarinet. Some call these Basset Clarinets, and others call them Basset Horns.

While Mozart is known to have loved both instruments and to have had friends that he wrote for specifically, the famous clarinet concerto was written for Basset Clarinet, not Basset Horn.

The differences are not as subtle as you might think, as the bore is quite different. So the Basset Clarinet USUALLY is going to sound a bit more like a darker and lower version of an "A" clarinet.

Whereas the Basset Horn, had it never fallen out of use and production, might have prevented the awful Alto Clarinet from ever being invented.

Mozart wrote an unfinished concerto for Basset Horn, and used parts of this work for his full concerto for Basset Clarinet -- one of the last few pieces he completed before his untimely death.

One of the most obvious things that one notes when listening or playing, is how much more musical and interesting the arpeggiated sections sound, as they aren't at all repetitive once one has access to the extended lower range.

Most of us have had to play transcribed versions, thinking they were authentic whereas they simply represent a compromise due to the A or Bb clarinet's limited range (relative to the Basset Horn -- the clarinet even in its basic form has the largest range of any woodwind).

Just got back from a fine Czech production of Elektra at SF Opera, which features eight clarinets so of course is one of my favourites.

1 bass clarinet
2 basset horns
2 "A" clarinets
2 "Bb" clarinets
1 "Eb" clarinet

Strauss loved woodwinds, as do I, and understood how to balance a section, which is why he also added Heckelphone to the Oboes and Bassoons.

The Basset Horn really does sound like what an Alto Clarinet SHOULD sound like -- in between the timbre of a Bass Clarinet and a "G" Clarinet (or "A" Clarinet, which is more common).

It was interesting to take note of which passages were assigned to the Basset Horn vs. the Bass Clarinet. Pretty much anything not in the lower reaches, which I personally felt made for a richer and more interesting overall timbre of the woodwinds section and especially the clarinet section.

Sometimes a phrase would jump from bass clarinet to basset horn to "A" clarinet, for more continuity of timbre across registers. Brilliant work. I think Strauss understood woodwinds better than almost anyone, up to the modern times and John Adams' revealing works.

And we get a new Adams work this season. Looking forward to that.

mikehalloran wrote:And we get a new Adams work this season. Looking forward to that.

John Adams wrote something new for Basset Horn? Or are you talking about your opera season? I'd love to hear that! (either one)

I can't remember whether we have any premiers this year; I don't think so. We usually have a modern work, a premier, a romantic work, and an old warhorse. Usually five or six operas per season, so one or two of those categories gets doubled. Just got our tickets the other day, but I've been unusually distracted from it all. I can't tell you a single work on the season. But soon I'll get to it and start getting ready for it. I think our first performance is late October.