Hear a Contraforte

[Enthalpy]

Hello everybody!

The contrabassoon is the usual contrabass in the woodwind section of a symphonic orchestra. Alas, it's not very loud, and most often a single one shall make the contrabass line for all woodwinds. The contrabass sarrusophone replaced it in the 19th century, mostly in France, but has disappeared. Other attempts were less known. And the excellent contrabass clarinet has a completely different sound.

But presently, a loud alternative exists: the contraforte, by Guntram Wolf and Benedikt Eppelsheim
guntramwolf.de and eppelsheim.com
whose wider bore and wider tone holes give the expected louder sound. Fingerings differ, I ignore by how much. It can use a contrabassoon reed or a special one. The range is reportedly wide, but I trust the contrabassoon too for that.

Here's a direct sound comparison. Lewis Lipnick plays both professionally and demonstrates Erwin Schulhoff's Bass Nightingale on both
voices.washingtonpost.com
More samples are available on Youtube (ymmv) and at Eppelsheim's linked page.

The significant timbre difference is what you would expect. I feel replacing one by the other in a solo would need approval by the composer, but for the contrabass line among the woodwinds, you won't hear the timbre difference, and at least the contraforte is audible.