...you know you have a bassoon? well is there such a thing as a sappranosoon, or a tenorsoon, or an altosoon!

i promise i'm not taking the !***! i am genuinly interested if these isturments exist (or have ever existed in the histopry of music?)

heaps of love jamjar jacob

It's not a crazy question - i'm pretty sure there's no such thing as a sopranoon, but the bassoon family ranges from...

the mini bassoon (the smallest, designed for children not big enough for the normal bassoon)
Altoon might exist... i'm not 100% sure on that.
Teneroon is a little bigger than the mini bassoon
the normal bassoon
the contra bassoon.

Somebody somewhere might have invented something bizarre like an octocontrabassoon or something, but if they have i don't know about it.

This entry in the wikipedia might be of help :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenoroon

Cheers
James

cheers chaps that has now settled a drunken conversation had with a friend of my!

Actually there WAS an octocontrabassoon.... called the Sub-Contra Bassoon made in the 18th century it sounds an octave lower than the contrabassoon.... but its about as rare as a two-headed dalmation. I have yet to ever see or hear one... likely they have not survived, or else they are in grandma's attic with a lampshade on top....

I do agree that it would be a wonderfully intriguing sound.... but I can't imagine they worked that well or had very good itonation. The only instrument maker alive with the mastery to make such an instrument is Benidict Eppilshiem in Germany... maybe someday he will make it... there was also an octocontrabass clarinet made by Leblanc... apparently there is only one of them... but there is about 9 pieces with parts for them.

Can't say the same for the octocontrabassoon.... but if you are interested in this stuff, check out the string octobass and the subcontrabass tuba played by Gerald Hoffnung.

-Cheers