A woodwind instrument with some of the characteristics of the musette group, designed by the maker Wilhelm Heckel in an attempt to produce the particular timbre imagined by Wagner for the shepherd's rustic pipe in Act 3 of Tristan und Isolde. The sound which Wagner had in mind has in all probability been most nearly realized with the Holztrompete; the Tárogató, english horn and other instruments have also been used. As originally constructed the Tristan Schalmei had a sharply conical bore terminating in a very wide bell with an in-curved rim after the fashion of many folk instruments. Its fundamental was f'. The tube was perforated by six plain finger-holes of which the uppermost was provided with a simple ‘half-hole’ mechanism (see Speaker key). The instrument is apparently no longer in use.
PHILIP BATE