While on my way to the 1978 Annual Meeting of the International Double Reed Society in Los Angeles, I was able to stop off in Menlo Park, California, to visit Mr. D. C. Perfumo of that city. Mr. Perfumo is a warm and gracious man who has been a professional musician his entire life and has collected an incredible number of rare musical instruments over the years especially wind instruments. Included in his collection are a complete family of Rothphones, a Heckelphone, a Buffet contrabassoon in metal, at least three Heckel 'world model" bassoons (with French fingerings in the left thumb area), and his prized possession--a bassoon by C. Kruspe of Erfurt, dating from around 1892.
Attention was first brought to this instrument by Dr. Jerry Vorhees of Hammond, Louisiana, in an article: "A Privately Owned Boehm Bassoon in the U.S.A.!," which was published in the Journal of the International Double Reed Society, Number 5, 1977 (p. 79-80). On page 81 of the same Journal, I published a short article, "Recent Additional News on the Missing Boehm Bassoon in the U.S.A.," establishing the identity of this bassoon. (The reader is referred to these articles for background to this article.) I was later able to locate and contact Mr. Perfumo in Menlo Park, and to arrange to inspect, photograph, and measure this bassoon in August, 1978.
This completes the "leg work" for research that I have been doing on the Boehm-Sax and related-system bassoons for a book on these instruments. The following article will be one of the chapters in this forthcoming book.
After the gradual decline in interest in a remodeled Boehm-system bassoon from the Mid-to-Late-Nineteenth Century, many instrument makers turned their attention once more to the general improvement of the Almenraeder-Heckel and French Conservatory system bassoons. Rather than drastically alter the old instrument the tendency was to improve its playability by adding keys and/or rollers and to improve its life span by lining the wing side of the bore with hard rubber or caoutchouc, as the Heckel firm did after taking out a patent for this technique in 1890.
Two notable examples of revised Almenraeder-Heckel system bassoons by makers in the late Nineteenth Century bear mentioning - the first one only briefly. This is a bassoon developed by the musician, Reinhold Lange, of Wiesbaden in the late 1880's. Lange advertised his "Lange' schen System-Fagott" in 1890 with an article in the Zeitschrift für Instrumentenbau entitled "A New Bassoon System''. [1] The instrument that Lange described, however, was not really new, for its revisions were few and rather insignificant. First of all, he re-drilled the tone hole for the left hand third finger c in a more acoustically correct position and covered it with a pad and key, much like one finds on the modern Fox plastic bassoon. This enabled him to tuck the tone holes, e and d, closer together for a more comfortable overall position for the three fingers of the left hand. Secondly, he drilled the tone hole for C# right through the tenon to the long joint and the boot cup in a more favorable acoustical position. This enabled C# to be played by a key for the right hand first finger, in the same place where one finds the C# trill key on a modern German system bassoon. This enabled one to play e-flat either with a forked fingering or with the first two fingers of the left hand and the C# key for the right hand first finger. (The normal C# key is also still on this instrument, however, probably to cover b-natural -C# situations where the right hand first finger can't be used.) The final change in this bassoon is somewhat cosmetic -- metal ends for the tenons to provide a more airtight seal.
Despite Lange's boasting of the popularity of his "new" system, this bassoon achieved little success and adoption. Indeed a brief article in a later issue of the Zeitschrift für Instrumentenbau strongly refuted the originality of the instrument. It cited a Mr. A. Schmidt, first bassoon of the Mainz Theatre Orchestra, who claimed that the patent bureau turned down Lange's application for a patent- on the instrument because it was not original, but merely an Almenraeder-Heckel system bassoon with only minor changes. Moreover, Schmidt stated that the repositioned c and C# tone holes collected water drastically, a disadvantage far outweighing their rather minor contribution. [2]
A fingering chart and an illustration of the Lange-system bassoon was actually published in the Ozi Bassoon Method, by Johann Andre of Offenbach am Main during this time. A brief study of this fingering chart, however, can only lead one to the conclusion that Herr Schmidt's judgment of this instrument was indeed correct.
Decidedly more important than the Lange- system bassoon was the one developed a few years later by the firm of C. Kruspe and exhibited by them at the World's Columbia Exposition in Chicago in 1893. The creative force behind the development of this instrument was Friedrich Wilhelm Kruspe, born in Erfurt, Germany, on September 26, 1838, the second son of the instrument maker, Carl Kruspe, who had founded the C. Kruspe firm in Erfurt in 1836. The family was a very musical one--Friedrich's father played both violin and flute, and Friedrich himself became an accomplished cellist and often sang in church as well, with his full, rich, bass voice. Both he and his older brother, Edward, chose to follow in their father's profession as makers of instruments. Edward chose to specialize in the brass instruments, and his work and success in this area, especially with the French horn, is well documented. Friedrich, therefore, chose to specialize in woodwind making.
Their father, Carl Kruspe, had studied with the famous instrument maker, Streitwolf of Gottingen prior to setting up his own shop, so it was logical for the sons to begin their apprenticeship with him. This Friedrich did until 1855, when he decided to travel to other firms to further broaden his knowledge of instrument making. His first job was with the firm of Ferdinand Hell and Son in Vienna. This shop made violins as well as woodwind and brass instruments. In 1856 Friedrich became employed by the firm of Nechwalsky, also in Vienna. This firm specialized in making clarinets and was famous for incorporating metal into the construction of the bass clarinet.
In 1857, Friedrich left Vienna in order to go to work for the firm of Georg Ottensteiner in Munchen. This position proved to be one of the most advantageous of his life, because it was here that he met a frequent visitor to the Ottensteiner factory, Theobald Boehm. By this time Boehm was already famous for his revision of the flute, and this gave Friedrich the opportunity to become completely familiar with Boehm's early flute model and the acoustical principles which governed the design of this instrument. At the same time, he also met Karl Barmann and was directly involved with the development of the Barmann-system clarinet at the Ottensteiner shop.
Friedrich left Munchen in 1860 and went to Paris. Here he came into the employment of the famous firm of Frederic Triebert where the Boehm-system oboe and the Triebert- Marzoli-Boehm (TMB)-system bassoon had been developed, along with the production of the conventional French-system oboes and bassoons. From Triebert, Freidrich learned the technical side of instrument making to match the theoretical acoustical knowledge which he learned from Boehm. Triebert was particularly innovative in the area of improved key mechanism.
By the time Friedrich completed his apprentice years and returned home to Erfurt to take over his father's firm in 1861, he had the experience and expertise to expand this well known firm into a world renowned company. Through the high quality of the firm's craftsmanship and its attitude of constant experimentation and improvement, as well as frequent participation in exhibitions and expositions, the C. Kruspe firm maintained an excellent reputation throughout Friedrich's life. He was constantly attempting to improve all the woodwind instruments. Many of the ideas that he incorporated into instruments in the 1860's and 70's became standard on instruments by other makers twenty or thirty years later.
One of the highlights of the history of the Kruspe firm was its participation in the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. By that time Kruspe instruments were considered to be among the finest imported to the United States. This period brought many honors and awards both to the firm and to Friedrich himself. In 1902 the firm was taken over by his second son, Edward, and Friedrich retired. In 1904, he suffered a mild heart attack, and following a long period of ill health, he died of heart failure on October 25, 1911. [3]
The firm continued under the Kruspe name until 1920 when it was taken over by the G. H. Huller Company of Schoneck. [4] The Huller Company is currently still making bassoons in Eastern Germany and these instruments are readily available in the West in cities such as London, England.
In his quest to revise and improve all the woodwind instruments, Friedrich had turned his attention to the bassoon last, inspired no doubt, by the prospect of success at the Exposition in Chicago. Perhaps he felt he could capture the imagination of the judges with a new, radically designed bassoon, much as Adolphe Sax had done with his metal bassoon at the Great London Exhibition of 1851 or as Boehm and Triebert had done with their prototype Boehm-system bassoon at the Paris Exposition of 1857 and the London Exhibition of 1862. Whatever his reasons, there is no question that he did revise the bassoon, for he received a patent approval from the "Reichgebrauchsmuster" (Number 9008) for the instrument, probably in October, 1892. Further attempts to trace this patent have failed, however, because the records were lost in the destruction of Berlin during the Second World War. [5] At any rate, Friedrich is definitely known to have exhibited this new Kruspe-system bassoon at Chicago in 1893, for the instrument is described in detail by C. von Hartmann in an article reviewing the German musical instruments at the Chicago Exposition in the October, 1893 issue of the Zeitschrift für Instrumentenbau. [6]
But here the history of this bassoon begins to get sketchy. The Official Catalogue for the German Empire lists the firm of C. Kruspe as one of the exhibitors in Group 158 with the following entry:
#4252, KRUSPE, C. (In". F. W. Kruspe) Erfurt, Predigerstrasse 13/1 5 -- Represented by World's Exposition Exhibitor's Representing Company, Chicago--Flutes, clarinets, oboes, bassoons. [7]
The firm did win an award, but not for the Kruspe-system bassoon as he had undoubtedly hoped. Instead the Report of the Committee on Awards contains the following general entry:
Exhibitor Group 158, Class 932 C. Kruspe, Erfurt Flutes, Clarionettes, Oboes, Bassoons. This exhibit deserves an award: For progress as shown by improvements in clarionettes. For excellent display of all kinds of woodwind instruments. Approved: K. Buenz President Departmental Committee (Signed Prospel Lamel Individual Judge.) [8]
It is strange that this unique bassoon didn't catch the fancy of the judges. One wonders what next happened to this instrument, for it appears to have either been sold to someone in the United States after the fair, or for an order to have been placed for a Kruspe-system bassoon by an American, because such a bassoon surfaced (literally!) in California early in the 20th Century.
The fact that it was sold or ordered is quite understandable, because the Kruspe firm had a unique policy of allowing people to play on their instruments at these exhibitions. This was not the common practice in those days. This phenomenon is commented upon by Von Hartmann in his previously mentioned review of instruments at the Chicago Exhibition. Von Hartmann pointed out how the Kruspe firm had a Mr. Wiesenbach at the exhibit who would not only play the instruments for the interested observer but permitted the visitors to try them as well -- a policy normally followed only by the piano exhibits. [9]
An article describing the Kruspe exhibit at the Thuringer Factory and Industrial Exhibition in Erfurt a year later than the Chicago Exhibition, in 1893, also describes the Kruspe-system bassoon in detail. [10] The conclusion, therefore, has to be either 1) that the single model of the Kruspe-system bassoon was sold to an American after the Erfurt Exhibit in 1894 and returned to this country, or 2) that more than one Kruspe- system bassoon was built, and perhaps the one in California is the one exhibited in Chicago in 1893. (This has proven actually to be the case! On a trip to Leipzig in March, 1979, William Waterhouse fortunately uncovered a second Kruspe reformed bassoon among a recently-acquired collection of miscellaneous instruments from the Kruspe factory. This bassoon is numbered 4456 and appears to be identical to the Perfumo/ Kruspe instrument. It even contains the instrument's original crook, having a manually operated pinhole valve.)
From Mr. Perfumo I learned that the Kruspe-system bassoon in his collection was dug out of the rubble of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake by a clarinet player named Harry (?) Williams, and it was traded to Mr. Perfumo by Williams around 1946 in exchange for some music lessons.
When I inspected and photographed this bassoon in August 1978, I found the instrument to be in excellent playing condition--Mr. Perfumo is a fine repairman as well as a performer. The tone of the instrument is incredibly even and true both in volume and pitch. The wood is hard maple for two of the joints and grenadilla of the short tenor joint. The instrument has only one crack in the tenor joint, and this has been repaired. Mr. Perfumo has altered the straight finish to include burnished "tiger stripes" along the bass tube piece.
The design of the instrument (see Illustration #1 and #2) is most striking in that it consists of 3, not 4, main pieces, a bass tube joint (Bassrohrenstück), a short tenor joint (Oktav--Klappenstück), and single-pieced boot joint (Shaftstück). There is no separate bell joint. The instrument is divided higher than a traditional bassoon, so that the short tenor joint has only the keys for the high a and c tone holes. The bass tube joint is divided above the low C key tone hole and contains only the tone holes for low D b, B and B b . There is no "flare" in the area of the tube. The main bulk of the keywork, therefore, is contained in the unique, single-pieced "Schaftstück" which encompasses the range from open tone hole f to the low C key.
The basic instrument is, like the Lange- system bassoon, an Almenraeder-Heckel system. Von Hartmann claims that this was intentional by Kruspe so that the gifted player would have little difficulty adapting to the new system. [11] Indeed Mr. Perfumo claims that he has often played this instrument with orchestras in California with great success, and this author found little trouble in "getting a feel for playing' the instrument. The biggest differences are that the tone holes for open e, d and c are drilled straight into the instrument for the left hand fingers and key work very similar to an oboe (with a half hole key on the e tone hole) is used to cover the holes (see Illustration #3). Similarly, the right hand fingering mechanism has a touch for B, a ring key for A, over the direct-drilled tone hole and touches for G and F (see Illustration #4). Both the left and right hand mechanisms have a symmetry about them:
Von Hartmann talks about an open- standing ". . . A-Klappe am Stiefelstück und einer H-Klappe am Kopfstuck . . ." [12] and how these already improve the evenness of tone and intonation on the old system bassoon. The ring-controlled tone holes on each hand are probably for improving intonation for a forked E b for the left hand and a forked Bb (like the alternate Bb fingering on the French bassoon), for the right hand. Apparently these are the two acoustical principles that Kruspe borrowed from Boehm and incorporated into his bassoon: 1) the drilling of some of the tone holes straight into the bore in their acoustically correct position, and 2) the use of at least some open standing keys to improve the pitch and intonation. (Both these principles can easily be seen on the TMB-system bassoons earlier in the Nineteenth Century.)
There are many other keys that have been added to the Kruspe-system bassoon to facilitate ease of fingering. Two such keys are the side E b key and the E to F trill key for the right hand first finger (see Illustrations #3 and #4). Also C# for both octaves is a key for the left hand fourth finger - just as it is on the French-system and TMB-system bassoons (see Illustration #3). Finally, there is an alternate low D and E key for the right hand thumb, which enables these tones to be played with either thumb (see Illustration #5). The general keywork is of excellent quality and the layout of the keys is very natural to the touch (see Illustration #6). But most of the features of the instrument are still basic Almenraeder-Heckel system--the two B keys for thumb and the alternate right hand third finger the basic forked E fingering, etc. There are no facilities for a whisper key, nor indeed does one seem to be needed. Apparently when the tone holes are drilled straight into the bore, the "stuffy middle register" of the French-and German-system bassoons seems to disappear (as on the TMB bassoon). Mr. Perfumo was using an old Kohlert #1 bocal with the instrument. The original crook was beyond repair when he obtained the instrument.
The overall dimensions of the instrument are:
The length is about 207 cm. The bore measures 3.623 cm. at the bell and .937 at the top of the receiver for the crook. In measuring the taper of the bore in the bass joint piece, it seemed to average about .060 cm. per 2.5 cm. of length, but this was pretty inconsistent. This compares generally to the dimensions of a Heckel which are: 83 1/2 to 84 inches or 211.09 to 213. 26 cm. and a bore taper from .350 to 1.369 inches 3.477 cm. or .0355 per 2.5 cm. of length. In other words the bore is somewhat larger and the overall length somewhat shorter than a standard short bore modern Heckel. [13]
The identity markings are only to be found in the bell area of the Schaftstück (see illustration #7). These are:
The "D.R.G.M. 9008" probably refers to the "Deutsche Reichs Gebauch Muster" or the Patent number.
The tone of the instrument is quite beautiful. With a reed I used on a Buffet bassoon, I was able to produce an even scale with ease. I again noticed a kind of bass-oboe like quality to the tone - as the TMB bassoon owned by William Waterhouse. Apparently drilling the tone holes in straight angles in their acoustically correct place has contributed to this slight change in bassoon timbre. But the timbre is still definitely bassoon-like and the "trueness" of pitch and octave on the instrument are provocative indeed.
Like the German Haseneier-Boehm bassoon, the Kruspe-system bassoon would again seem to pose the question: Have we indeed come as far as we can with the development of the bassoon? Is the Heckel and/or Buffet bassoon the final answer? Or is it just that the economics of the 20th Century make the prospect of financial failure in the process of developing a new bassoon too unattractive a spectre with which to deal? To be sure, the Industrial Revolution would seem to be over! Perhaps the further development of the bassoon and a further investigation of the findings of Sax, Boehm, Triebert, Cornelius Ward, and now Friedrich Kruspe belong with professors such as myself with our access to grant money to finance such inquiry.
Whatever the case, I was very thrilled on that warm August day in California, to play on this strange, different, beautiful bassoon. It caught my imagination, and I couldn't help but ponder over its obscurity and to wonder . . . ''What if Kruspe had won a prize for his bassoon in Chicago 1893? Where would the state of development of the bassoon be today? Indeed where should it be?"
Seven views of the C. Kruspe Bassoon owned by D. C. Perfumo of Menlo Park, California. Photography by the author Dr. Ronald J. Klimko
Burton, James, Bassoon Bore Dimensions, Ann Arbor, Michigan, University Microfilms, 1975.
Lange, Reinhold, "Ein neues Fagott-System," Zeitschrift für Instrumentenbau, Leipzig, Nr. 15, 10. Jahrgang, 12. Feb. 1890, p. 179.
Langwill, Lyndesay G., An Index of Musical Wind-Instrument Makers, Edinburgh, 1977.
N. A., "Friedrich Wilhelm Kruspe Obituary," Zeitschrift für Instrumentenbau, Leipzig, l911,pp. 152- 154.
N. A. , "Die Musikinstrementen -- Industrie auf der Thuringer Gewerbe -- und Industrie-Ausstellung zu Erfurt 1894," Leipzig, Zeitschrift für Instrumentenbau, Nr. 34, 14. Jahrgang, 1. Sept., 1894, p. 823-825.
N.A., World's Columbian Exhibition, Chicago, Official Catalogue of the German Empire, Berlin, 1893.
N.A., World's Columbian Exposition, 1893, Report of the Committee on Awards; Special Report on Special Subjects or Groups, Vol. 1, Washington, 1901.
Von Hartmann, C., "Deutsche Musikinstrumente auf der Welt- Ausstellung von Chicago," Zeitschrift für Instrumentenbau, Leipzig, Nr. 2,14. Jahrgang, 11. Oktober, 1893, p. 25-27.
[1] Lange, Reinhold, "Ein neues Fagott-System," Zeitschrift für Instrumentenbau, Leipzig, Nr. 15, 10. Jahrgang, 21. Feb. 1890, p. 179. [return]
[2] N.A., "Gegan das neue Fagottsystem des Herrm. R. Lange in Wiesbaden . . .," Zeitschrift für Instrumentenbau, Leipzig, Nr.18,10. Jahrgang, 21 Marz 1890, p. 214. [return]
[3] N.A., "Freidrich Wilhelm Kruspe Obituary," Leipzig, Zeitschrift für Instrumentenbau, 1911, pp. 152- 154. [return]
[4] Langwill, Lyndesay, An Index of Musical Wind instrument Makers, 5th edition, Edinburgh, 1977, p. 97. [return]
[5] Ventzke, Karl, letter to author dated 23.4.1977. [return]
[6] von Hartmann, C., "Deutsche Musikinstrumente auf der Welt-Ausstellung von Chicago," Zeitschrift für Instrumentenbau, Leipzig, Nr. 2, 14. Jahrgang. 11. Oktober, 1893, p. 25-27. [return]
[7] N.A., World's Columbian Exhibition, Chicago, Official Catalogue of the German Empire, Berlin, 1893, p. 227. [return]
[8] N.A., World's Columbian Exposition, 1893, Report of the Committee on Awards; Special Report on Special Subjects of Groups, vol. 1, Washington, 1901, p. 246. [return]
[9] Von Hartmann, op. cit., p. 26. [return]
[10] N.A., "Die Musikinstrumenten - Industrie auf der Thuringer Gewerbe - und Industrie - Ausstellung zu Erfurt 1894," Leipzig, Zeitschrift für Instrumentenbau, Nr. 34, 14. Jahrgang, 1. Sept., 1894, p. 823-825. [return]
[11] Von Hartmann, op. cit. p.27. [return]
[12] Von Hartmann, op. cit. p. 26. [return]
[13] These dimensions are ones used by Dr. James Burton in his book, BASSOON BORE DIMENSIONS, Ann Arbor, Mich., University Microfilms, 1975. [return]
