The chalumeau (; ; plural chalumeaux) is a single-reed woodwind instrument of the late baroque and early classical eras. The chalumeau is a folk instrument that is the predecessor to the modern-day clarinet. It has a cylindrical bore with eight tone holes (seven in front and one in back for the thumb) and a broad mouthpiece with a single heteroglot reed (i.e. separate, not a continuous part of the instrument's body) made of cane. Similar to the clarinet, the chalumeau overblows a twelfth.
alt=An old chalumeau|thumb|Chalumeau by Klenig (early 1700s), M141 [[Swedish Museum of Performing Arts|Scenkonstmuseet, Stockholm. NB: There is no reed on this instrument.]]
History
The word chalumeau first begins to appear in writing during the 1630s, but may have been in use as early as the twelfth century. Several French dictionaries in the sixteenth century use the word to refer to various types of simple, idioglot reed-pipes all with tone holes. The heteroglot style reed (detached from the reed-plant's sidewall) was later adopted in the seventeenth and into the eighteenth centuries. These single-pipe instruments probably evolved from earlier multiple-pipe instruments through the abandonment of the drone tube. (See Similar instruments, below. The etymology is discussed in detail at Shawm#Etymology.)
The use of the chalumeau originated in France and later spread to Germany by the late seventeenth century. The Denners were among the few instrument builders known to produce both chalumeaux and clarinets. Another was Philip Borkens of Amsterdam.
Similar instruments
Similar single-reed folk instruments with single, cylindrical tubes are found in many Arabic and European cultures throughout history. Examples include the albogue, alboka, diplica, hornpipe, pibgorn, and sipsi.
In England, by 1698 a similar instrument was known as the mock trumpet. The mock trumpet predated the chalumeau and may be one of the primary predecessors of both the chalumeau and clarinet.
Notes
The name 'chalumeau' is used by European organ-builders to denote an eight-foot short-resonator organ stop used for color effects. This was first encountered in the organ of the Frauenkirche at Dresden and was built by celebrated organ builder Gottfried Silbermann between 1732 and 1736. Silbermann was so pleased with the sound of this new invention that he included it in most of his later organs.