“It’s not the most delicate way to put it, but a heckelphone is basically the love child of an oboe and bassoon,” laughed University of Oregon School of Music and Dance professor, Dr. Steve Vacchi.
According to Steve, the heckelphone is a hybrid between those two instruments in several ways. Its range is exactly between the bassoon and oboe. The fingerings are like that of an oboe, and it is made from maple, which is the same as the bassoon.
German firm, Heckel, invented the instrument in 1904 after Richard Wagner asked Wilhelm Heckel to create an instrument that “sounded an octave lower than the oboe, and at the same time possessed the soft and powerful sound of the Alpenhorn,” according to the Heckel website.
Only 170 heckelphones are known to have been produced, so it is extremely rare. Accounting for those that have been lost, destroyed, or in private or museum collections, experts estimate only 110-120 are in circulation today.
“It’s a unicorn!” Steve said. Thanks to Steve, audience members will be able to witness the heckelphone in action this year at the Oregon Bach Festival. He will play the instrument in An Alpine Symphony.
So how did Steve Vacchi get his hands on this “rare unicorn”?
Six years ago, he saw a preview of Eugene Symphony’s program, noting An Alpine Symphony was on it. “When I saw that, an alarm bell went off,” he said. “I alerted the management and asked that they consider identifying someone who can play the heckelphone because it has a part in the symphony. It would be a tragedy to omit this voice from the sound since the composer intended to have it to give the full picture of the piece.”
Steve gave the management a few names of people he knew who may possess the instrument, to no avail. That is when he went on the hunt himself. He contacted oboe expert and dealer, Peter Hurd, who just so happened to have two heckelphones.
He bought one of the instruments from Hurd two months before the concert. He quickly got to work, not only learning how to play it, but also learning to play the heckelphone’s part in the 50-minute-long An Alpine Symphony. “It was kind of fun!” Steve said. “I like puzzles to a certain degree.” A woodwind doubler growing up, Steve has never shied away from learning to play different instruments.
He played the heckelphone in the Eugene Symphony performance six years ago and has done so four more times since then. His next performance will be on July 13 at Oregon Bach Festival.
The heckelphone will not be the only “unicorn” on stage, either. Strauss uses a wind machine, thunder sheets, sheep bells, and Wagner tubas in the work. “The symphony tells the story of the ascent up a mountain and then the descent. It takes all day, and you pass through a storm and then the meadows, so that is where all the interesting instruments come into play.”
“If you want to experience something unique, and a symphony that is rarely performed, this show is for you!” Steve said. You can attend An Alpine Symphony at Silva Concert Hall on July 13 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets can be purchased here. Join a pre-concert lecture at 6:45 in The Studio at the Hult Center.