bout the Kelhorn

In thinking of musical instruments that are characteristic of the Renaissance, capped reeds, such as the crumhorn come to mind, as they are not as prevalent in other eras. It has been many centuries since luthiers made any advances in capped reeds. Time would have to wait for Georg Kelischek, master luthier and proponent of Renaissance music. His first advance was the creation of a plastic crumhorn. Along with this he made plastic reeds. To the best of my knowledge these date back to the 1960s. He has continued to refine the reeds over the years. I think he is on the seventh generation of reeds at this point. His next advance was the creation of the Kelhorn, whose prefix comes from his own name. What makes these instruments unique is their bore, which rather than being straight, winds down the path of the instrument in the pattern of a sine wave. In this respect they are something like Tartolen, with their spiral bores. This change in bore allows the instruments to have much smaller finger spacings, and for the instruments to be more compact. The narrower finger spacing is particularly important on large instruments such as the bass and great bass. It can be difficult for some performers to reach the fingerholes on bass crumhorns. Even when it is possible to make the stretch, large spacings are tiring and can lead to injuries. On Kelhorns the spacing is not a problem at all, and are very comfortable to play.

One may wonder, by what magic can one produce a bore with such an unusual shape, it cannot simply be reamed out. The magic involves cutting the instrument in half, and routing each half of the bore separately. Then halves of the instrument are then glued together.

His current range of kelhorns are made from ABS plastic. They are very durable, and do not crack when dried out. They feature rubber gaskets to seal the windcap. A great deal of care has been put into the ergonomics of the Kelhorn. The fingerholes are not simply drilled into the instrument. There are small indentations around the hole, so that your fingers have a home base. It also facilitates shading of the fingers. The is a thumb indentation on the back of the instruments. The larger instruments feature a hole to attach a neck strap.

He used to produce kelhorns out of a variety of woods. When I purchased my set, I did not inquire if he still would produce one from wood.

Kelhorns are very modestly priced in comparison to the price of other windcap instruments. They are available from his website at Susato.com. Kelischek could easily charge more for them. However he is not in it for the money. In this regard I remember calling him several years ago. I was asking about double pipes, and had some ideas regarding playing two tabor pipes simultaneously. Given his many years of experience, he tried to dissuade me from purchasing the instruments. He almost refused to sell them to me. As I said, he is not in it for the money, he is in it for the music. In the end I did manage to purchase them.

In addition to the instruments, he sells instructional materials as well. I found the capped reeds companion to be very useful. I initially thought, I already play capped reeds, and know more than a bit about music, what do I need this for? Boy was I wrong. He provides all sorts of advice about adjusting the tuning with beeswax, and adjusting the reeds, etc. I am very happy that I purchased the book.

I will post audio files of the instruments soon.