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Vernooij Woodwinds

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België
Ghent
Vernooij Woodwinds

Maker and restorer of historical woodwind instruments based in Gent, Belgium.

10/11/2023

From boxwood to clarinet 🤎

08/11/2023

The Tristan Trumpet

A late post about a project I worked on at the beginning of this year along with trumpet builder Gunther Cohen. Together we built a special instrument, the Tristan Trumpet (or Holztrompete). It was commissioned by Opera Ballet Vlaanderen for the production 'Tristan & Isolde'. Through several prototypes we searched for the appropriate sonority to announce the arrival of Isolde, a turning point in the Opera, signifying the hope that things might work out for Tristan & Isolde (but it would not be Wagner if they did).

The colours of the instrument, between wood and brass, were brought to life by trumpet players Sander Kintaert and Serge Rigaumont from OBV.

You can learn more about the project in the interview with Fred Plotkin .plotkin:

https://www.youtube.com/live/7gGHOOU0Fj0?si=1Jo4ITOZ5NXme-s_

27/10/2022

Very happy with these lamps from Atelier Bram De Man - Contrabasbouw // Fine Double Basses . Now I can actually see what I’m doing 😎

20/06/2022

Flower vases turned from some old oak table legs ✨

07/06/2022

🙂

20/04/2022

Playful time in the atelier today: making small vases for dried flowers from leftover pieces of wood🌷🌺🌸🌼🌻

24/03/2022

European Boxwood (buxus sempervirens) was the wood of choice of most woodwind instruments in Europe, until exotic hardwoods took over in the nineteenth century.

The wood is very dense and has been a favourite of turners and carvers for centuries. Its use is widely attested in antiquity, and some botanists argued it was the Romans who brought the tree to northern Europe, while others consider it native.

In the low countries at the end of the Gothic and early Renaissance period a tradition of carving prayer nuts emerged, featuring elaborate carving in minute detail. The craftsmanship that went into these objects is truly astounding.

As printing presses were developed, boxwood became the medium to transfer images to paper. Up until the early twentieth century most printed images had to carved in boxwood, before they could be printed.

Finally, a collaboration between boxwood and instrument makers produced an extensive family of woodwind instruments, that to this day shape our musical life.

22/03/2022

Mouthpiece from Ebonite. Ebonite is hard rubber, used to replace tropical hardwood for instruments since the nineteenth century. It's made by crosslinking latex, the white sap most of us know from dandelions. The history of this material is wound up with South American civilizations such as the Olmec and the Maya, industrialisation and colonialism. For those curious about this wonderful material, John Loadmans 'Tears of the Tree' documents this history in detail.
Ebonite not only has an interesting past, it has a bright future too. Excellent clarinets have been made in it, rivalling or surpassing tropical hardwood (depending on who you ask). It is a durable natural material that can be grown sustainably.

16/03/2022

Much of the music for Soprano chalumeau comes the early decades of the eighteenth century. At the Habsburg court in Vienna the instrument featured prominently in many operas and oratorios. Emperor Joseph the first wrote an obbligato part for Soprano Chalumeau in 1709, in the opera Chilonida. His great passions were hunting and music.

14/03/2022

The lowest note of the soprano chalumeau is normally an f. However, some of the music preserved for instrument, by Graupner and others, goes down to e or even e-flat. The d'amore extension renders such music possible. While no instrument of this kind is extant, the Bayerische National Museum does have an anonymous alto chalumeau d'amore.
The d'amore foot, liebesfuß in German, also homogenises the timbre of the instrument, reducing the abrupt change of character when the lowest note is played on conventional chalumeaux.

13/03/2022

Chisels cabinet ✨

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Klapeksterstraat
Ghent

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+32474240126

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