The dulcian is a Renaissance woodwind instrument, with a double reed and a folded conical bore. Equivalent terms include English: curtal, German: Dulzian, French: douçaine, Dutch: dulciaan, Italian: dulciana, Spanish: bajón, and Portuguese: baixão.

The dulcian is a Renaissance-era woodwind instrument, recognized as the direct predecessor to the modern bassoon. Its rich, reedy timbre and versatility made it a staple in both secular and sacred music from the mid-16th to the early 18th centuries.

The name dulcian (also dulzian, dulzian, dolzone, delzan, dulcan, dolcan) is from the Latin dulcis (sweet). This instrument was also called the curtal (or curtoll, curtail) from the Latin curtus(short). By the end of the sixteenth century the dulcian had become a part of the town band.

The Dulcian is the predecessor of the modern bassoon. It differs from early bassoons in two key respects: the number of its constituent parts, and the shape of its bell. The dulcian is made of a single piece of wood, where as early bassoons are made from four pieces of wood.

The dulcian is a double-reed instrument with a folded conical bore that doubles back on itself by way of a tight U-shaped turn at its bottom end. It is constructed from a single shaft (with an oval cross-section) of wood (often maple) with two parallel bores …

Sep 27, 2006 · The true English Dulciana is a diminutive Diapason, smaller in scale, softer and more delicate in tone. It is often the softest stop on the organ in which it is placed. It was introduced to England by John Snetzler in 1754 at the Church of …

Structure and Playing Technique of the Dulcian. Dulcians are usually made of maple or sycamore although cherrywood, cedar, ebony, oak, rosewood or walnut have been used with varying success.

Dec 4, 2024 · The dulcian was made in several sizes and has a range of about two and one-half octaves (C to g1). As the name indicates, the tone has a dolce quality when compared to the shawm. The bass size was the one which lasted as the forerunner of the bassoon.

The curtal or Dulzian (often rendered in English as dulcian) seems to be the first woodwind instrument to be double-bored, that is, to have its trunk of wood bored through in two places with a connection at the bottom so that the tube doubles back on itself.

The curtal (or dulcian as it was known in Germany) is a Renaissance bass woodwind instrument, with a double reed and a folded (doubled into a 'U') conical bore to produce a much more compact instrument than for example the larger shawms.