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The subcontrabass flute is a member of the Western concert flute family. With the length of tubing ranging from 4.6 metres (15 ft) (when in G) to 5.5 metres (18 ft) long (when in C), it is the second largest instrument of the family after the hyperbass flute .
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Including and derived from the instruments built by H.F. Meyer from 1850 to the late 1890s, it could have up to 12 keys and was built with head joints of either metal-lined ivory or wood. The final form was a combination of a traditional keyed flute and the Viennese flute, and became the most common throughout Europe and America .
The first instrument of this sort was designed by Parisian instrument maker Adolphe Sax. [1] He built a bourdon saxhorn in 52′ E♭ and exhibited it at the Paris Exposition Universelle of 1867 , although there is evidence that it was in fact built some years earlier, and possibly appeared at the 1851 Great Exhibition in London .
Although described in Adolphe Sax's patent in 1846, a practical, playable subcontrabass saxophone did not exist until the 21st century. [2] An oversized saxophone that might have qualified was built as a prop circa 1965; it could produce tones, but its non-functional keywork required assistants to manually open and close the pads, and it was reportedly incapable of playing a simple scale.
Contrabass (from Italian: contrabbasso) refers to several musical instruments of very low pitch—generally one octave below bass register instruments. While the term most commonly refers to the double bass (which is the bass instrument in the orchestral string family, tuned lower than the cello), many other instruments in the contrabass register exist.
The contrabass flute is one of the rarer members of the flute family. Typically seen in flute ensembles, it is sometimes also used in solo and chamber music situations.Its range is similar to the regular concert flute, except it is pitched two octaves lower; the lowest performable note is two octaves below middle C (the lowest C on the cello).
This distinctive-sounding instrument is rarely found at present. A few American publications for flute choir currently include a part for an E ♭ (soprano) flute, an instrument pitched a minor third higher than the standard C flute. In these publications, an alternative part is provided either for the C flute or for the piccolo.