Bassoon

Maker: Giosue Esposito (Naples, active late 19th century)

Date: 1881

Geography: Naples, Italy

Culture: Italian

Medium: Maple, nickel-silver

Dimensions: 51 3/4 × 3 1/2 × 2 in. (131.4 × 8.9 × 5.1 cm)
Width (With bocal): 11 in. (27.9 cm)

Classification: Aerophone-Reed Vibrated-double reed

Credit Line: Purchase, Clara Mertens Bequest, in memory of André Mertens, 2003

Accession Number: 2003.150a–g

Description

A revolutionizing model of basson, with twenty-four nickel-silver keys, was developed by the bassoonist Luigi Caccavaio in Naples. Its novelty concerns all major aspects of the instrument: bore, length of the wooden sections, and the key system which incorporates elements of the Boehm system. The Caccavaio-Esposito model was too different from the mainstream bassoons to be adoptable by bassoonists.

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