Recently, my attention has been called to an instrument which its owner claims to be a Boehm system bassoon.
I first heard of this bassoon from Mr. Curtis Guckert of Dallas, Texas, who owns an outstanding collection of Twentieth century woodwind instruments which he keeps in excellent playing condition. Perhaps the most outstanding instruments in his collection are a complete set of Rothophones - from soprano through bass - in impeccable condition; but there are also octavins, bass flutes, Heckelphones. and complete sets of Saxophones and Sarrusophones, not to mention the more usual woodwinds.
Mr. Guckert does not own the bassoon in question, but has two excellent photographs of it, which he very kindly lent me. According to his recollection, this instrument was owned by a Mr. Perfumo, who lived in California.
Not long ago, I received a letter from Mr. Stuart-Morgan Vance, of Louisville, Ky., which directed my attention to an ad, dated 1965, for a Boehm system bassoon for sale by Mr. D.C. Perfumo of 1122 Elder Ave., Menlo Park, Calif. Mr. Vance sent an inquiry concerning this ad, but received no reply. I do not know the present location of the instrument.
Whether or not one considers this to be a Boehm system instrument depends upon how one defines the term "Boehm system". When Boehm revised the flute, he made the tone holes quite large, and arranged the key mechanism in such a way that they should be open in their "rest" position (except for the E-flat key, which must be held open). He also placed the holes in their acoustically correct positions, and devised a mechanism which included a feature permitting the first finger of the right hand (in conjunction with a fully employed left hand) to give the note "F" instead of the traditional "F# ". All other woodwinds which have subsequently claimed the Boehm system have employed a similar right hand arrangement, and it seems to me that this is one of the most important factors to consider in determining whether a mechanism may be called "Boehm".
Mr. Perfumo's bassoon does employ large tone holes, in their acoustically correct positions, controlled by open-standing keys, but for the most part this arrangement is found only on the lower (bass) side of the instrument. The right hand fingerings on the tenor side of the instrument closely resemble those of the conservatory oboe, and include a large "F" key (actually a Bb key on the bassoon), along with provisions for improving the forked "f" (Bb). It is clearly impossible to play Bb with the first finger, right hand. The left hand fingerings on the instrument's "wing" (tenor side) closely resemble those of a Boehm clarinet, even to including two side keys for E-flat and C. The E-flat may also be played by the key for the left ring finger, or forked.
The compensating mechanism for the forked notes E-flat and Bb is noteworthy because of its originality. In both cases, the third finger of the 'forking" hand rests on a touch which controls a large pad cup located far down the instrument's body. Directly below that pad cup lies another almost identical to it, but controlled by the middle finger's "ring" so that it opens when the forked note is played. I wonder how effective such a compensating device would be.
In the photograph, the instrument appears to be somewhat crudely carved but has rather elegant keywork. I would suppose that it is a "one off" experimental model constructed in an established factory. The photo shows part of a maker's mark, which I will attempt to sketch below.
There is no indication that any part of the mechanism has been tampered with, nor that any holes have been shifted or plugged.
Jerry L. Voorhees
Hammond, La., 1976
