What's a Chalumeau have to do about Clarinets?
Chalumeau are the predecessors of the clarinet we know today. Invented in the early 1600's, and was used mostly for folk music. The Chalumeau was like an earlier version of the recorder, and sounded like the lower octave of today's clarinets. The Chalumeau was considered uninteresting and therefore not used by a lot of major composers and musicians. This instrument was used primarily by shepherds.
There are only eight original Chalumeaux from the beginning of the eighteenth century to around 1760 in existence today. The more known Chalumeau makers where, J.C. Denner, W. Kress, Liebau, Klenig, and Muller. These instruments are all in different keys. One is a soprano, another is a bass chalumeau, there are several alto and tenor chalumeaux, along with one rare chalumeau d'amour.