Around 1690, a German man named Johann Christoph Denner, and his son Jacob, added two keys to the chalumeau, which was a Baroque single-reed wind instrument invented earlier in the century, around the same time as the double-reed oboe, then known as the hautbois. The chalumeau itself was probably derived from the reedless woodwind known as the recorder and other single-reed hornpipes used in Europe and the Mideast since Medieval times,...Continue Reading