heckelphone

thumb|right|start=162|Demonstration of a heckelphone at St Cecilia's Hall, Edinburgh The heckelphone () is a musical instrument invented by Wilhelm Heckel and his sons. The idea of inventing the instrument was initiated by Richard Wagner, who suggested its concept at the occasion of a visit of Wilhelm Heckel in 1879. Introduced in 1904, the heckelphone resembles an oboe but is pitched an octave lower, similar to the bass oboe. In addition to the pitch difference, the heckelphone has a larger bore.

==General characteristics== The heckelphone is a double reed instrument of the oboe family, but with a wider bore and hence a heavier and more penetrating tone. It is pitched an octave below the oboe and furnished with an additional semitone taking its range down to A. It reads in treble clef sounding one octave lower than written. It was intended to provide a broad oboe-like sound in the middle register of the large orchestrations of the turn of the twentieth century. In the orchestral repertoire it is generally used as the bass of an oboe section incorporating the oboe and the cor anglais (English horn), filling the gap between the oboes and bassoons.