Jay's friend and fellow low-note enthusiast, Prof. Dr. Werner Schulze of Austria. He not only owns the world's lowest contrabassoon (shown here- it extends to Ab below the piano keyboard), but he has written lovely music for saxophone ensemble, contrabass sarrusophone, contrabass saxophone, contrabassoon, heckelphone, English horn, and more.

Jay's wife Adrienne with contrabassoon and Bb subcontrabass saxophone (Bb Tubax.)
The contrabassoon's lowest note is Bb at the bottom of the piano keyboard, and the subcontrabass sax descends another major 2nd to the Ab below that. Here are sound clips demonstrating their different tones, dynamic ranges, and bottom notes. In each clip the contrabassoon is the first instrument heard, the subcontra sax is second:

mp3 demo of contrabassoon and subcontrabass sax 0.7MB

mp3 demo of contrabassoon and subcontrabass sax lowest notes 0.2MB

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All material © Jay Easton 2001-2006 unless otherwise noted