(Hung. csákány: ‘cane flute’).
(1) Duct flute in the shape of a walking stick or an oboe, popular in and around Vienna from about 1807 until the 1840s. The instrument is related to the shepherds' flutes of Hungary, Slovakia and Croatia, which combine duct flute and walking stick, and to the other variously shaped instruments, such as the 18th-century iron ‘csákányfokos’ which is both a weapon and a duct flute (Budapest, Hungarian National Museum), which appeared in this region.
The
first known appearance of the csakan was at a concert in Budapest on 18
February 1807; the performer, Anton Heberle (fl 1806–16), is identified
as the inventor of the instrument in concert announcements from 1810 on.
Heberle's Scala für den Ungarischen Csakan appeared in 1807 and he was
the first to publish music for it. The early csakan was shaped like a walking
stick, with the mouthpiece in the handle. Most such instruments were pitched in
A
or G, although a few
were pitched in A; they were played as transposing instruments, in C. The
fingering was like that of a recorder. The instrument of Heberle's Scala
had no keys, but by 1815 up to 13 keys might be added (Klingenbrunner), along
with a tuning-slide and a device for narrowing the thumb-hole. A keyless csakan
in the collection of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna is a gift from
‘Eberle in Pápa’.
In the 1820s there appeared a new csakan ‘in the pleasing shape of an oboe’, usually in three pieces. This instrument appeared in both a ‘simple’ form, with one key, and a ‘complex’ form, with seven. The Viennese court oboist Ernst Krähmer (1795–1837) was the foremost performer on this instrument, appearing frequently in concerts in Vienna from the 1820s. His further distinction between the ‘Viennese’ and ‘Pressburg’ models (Tonleiter) simply refers to the narrowing of the thumb hole on the Pressburg type, which makes it possible to leave the thumb hole open for overblowing.
Well-known makers of the csakan included Johann Ziegler and Stephan Koch in Vienna and Franz Schöllnast in Pressburg. Schöllnast's accounts provide detailed information about his customers, revealing that the csakan was primarily a dilettante's instrument, purchased by those who wanted something simple and inexpensive. Between 1807 and 1845 around 400 works for the csakan were published, mainly for csakan solo, csakan duet or csakan with guitar or piano.
(2) A type of duct flute made in Markneukirchen towards the end of the 19th century. It was shaped like a recorder but had one to eight keys and no thumb-hole. This instrument, sometimes also called a ‘Schulflöte’, was popular in the early 20th century because of its simple fingering.
A. Heberle: Scala für den Ungarischen Csakan (Vienna, 1807)
W. Klingenbrunner: Csakanschule (Vienna, 1815)
E. Krähmer: Tonleiter für den Wiener und Pressburger Csakan (Vienna, 1822)
H. Moeck: ‘Spazierstockinstrumente: Czakane, Englishe und Wiener Flageolette’, Festschrift to Ernst Emsheimer on the Occasion of his 70th Birthday, ed. G. Hilleström, Studia instrumentorum musicae popularis, iii (Stockholm, 1974), 149–280
M. Betz: Der Csakan und seine Musik: Wiener Musikleben im frühen 19. Jahrhundert dargestellt am Beispiel einer Spazierstockblockflöte (Tutzing, 1992)
MARIANNE BETZ