I have read recently of the contraforte, a well-thought-out proposed replacement for the hastily designed contrabassoon. Might a smaller version become a rival for the bassoon that we know and love?

Wolf have been working on one - the Bassoforte - in conjunction with Benedikt Eppelsheim & the University of Dresden. The idea being as a louder replacement for bassoon in wind bands. I don't know when or if it will be put in production. There is a long article about it in vol 37 #1 of The Double Reed from the IDRS which you can read on line if you are a member.

Thanks for the info, contra448. Since your post I've been reading everything I can find on the bassoforte. I must admit that the paper presented at a conference, talking about impedance and formants, was over my head.
I suspect that the bassoforte will not catch on with orchestral bassoonists (not the intended audience) but might become popular with doublers, in schools below the college level, in community bands and in other wind bands, if they can keep the price down. Alas I would probably not be able to afford one at the market-feasible price. :-(
I recall that the objective in inventing the saxophone was to combine the sweetness of the woodwinds with the power of the brasses. And I have read of single-reed mouthpieces for the bassoon. I wonder what could be done by mounting a double reed on a sax. I'm not sure why anyone would try this.
Regards,
Ron

I think the Sarrusaphone was a metal sax like instrument using a double reed. Used in Military bands.

I think you're correct about it not catching on - it will be rather expensive as the keywork is much more copmplex than the bassoon, it having all holes closed by keys; in fact it looks like the system used on the contraforte which is more complex than the contrabassoon. A very similar problem are the Weisberg & Fast bassoon systems - good ideas but much more complex keywork to go out of adjustment & get damaged & with an added price tag of a few thousand dollars.

Yes, there is the sarrusophone, made in various sizes from soprano to contrabass, which is a narrow bore double reed instrument with sax keywork system. It was not only used in bands but the contrabass has been used in orchestral works instead of contrabassoon. There are two vesrions of the contrabass - one pitched in C for orchestral use & the other in Bb for band use. There is also the rothphone which was very similar.