A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Tenoroon

TENOROON, a name sometimes given to the Tenor Bassoon or Alto Fagotto in F. It is obviously a modification of the word Bassoon, for which little authority can be found. The identity of this instrument with the Oboe di Caccia of Bach has already been adverted to, and the error of assigning parts written for it by that composer, Beethoven, and others, to the Corno Inglese or Alto Oboe in the same key has been corrected. At the present time it has entirely gone out of use. A fine specimen, now in the writer's possession, was until lately in the boys' band at the Foundling Hospital: supposed to be intended, from its smaller size, for the diminutive hands of young players.

Its tone is characteristic, somewhat more reedy than that of the Bassoon. The word was used by Gauntlett for the compass of a stop.

[ W. H. S. ]