{Palanca}

2 brass keys: Eb-key with square flat flap, type Young-A; C-key with round flat flap, type Young-S-like but cut off straight at keyhead bottom.

SATB (springs attached to the body).

Raised key rings circular.

3rd and 4th hole doubled with finger cove.

The bell is very unusual and has no vent-holes. It is very short and, like d’amore instruments, closes to a small opening of ø 10.7mm, making the bell ‘hollow’. According to Marcel Ponseele it is glued to MJ.

Huge crack in bottom joint.

Comes with a staple which looks like a cut-off modern staple.

A = c.415–425Hz with reed TL 63mm / Staple 38mm / tip width 8.2mm.

In spite of the unusual make and bell design this instrument plays like a ‘normal’ oboe. The bell has hardly any sordino effect.

Ex-Tolbecque

Soprana, Marco, (-) Un Nuovo Oboe: Carlo Palanca e Alessandro Besozzi pp.89–105.

Mahillon (R1978) Vol.I p.435.

Listed in Haynes (2001) p.86, as an example of type-D1 hautboy.

Listed in Young (1993) p.172.

Oboe from the former Tolbecque collection. Waterhouse (1993) p.290 mentions 2 other Palanca oboes in J-Tokyo "ex-Tolbecque", but these have ‘normal’ bells (private communication with Dr Kazuhiko Shima).

Young (1993) p.172: “flared but oddly compact bell; flared on exterior but not at all flared internally; bore continues basic cone of upper parts. A child's oboe?”. Checking this could only be done with an internal ‘gauge’, since the bell is glued onto the MJ tenon. The bell is indeed flared internally. The “child’s oboe” hypothesis can hardly be sustained either. The distance between the finger-holes is the same as on a normal oboe. It is only the very short bell which makes the instrument somewhat lighter.