Wieprecht, Friedrich Wilhelm

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Wieprecht, Friedrich Wilhelm

Wieprecht, Friedrich Wilhelm, German trombonist and inventor; b. Aschersleben, Aug. 8, 1802; d. Berlin, Aug. 4, 1872. He studied in Dresden and Leipzig, where he was already famous as a trombonist. He invented the bass tuba (1835, with the instrument maker Moritz), the bathyphon, a contrabass clarinet (1839, with Skorra), the “piangendo” on brass instruments with pistons, and an improved contrabass bassoon. His claim of priority over Sax, in the invention of the saxhorns, remains moot.

Bibliography

A. Kalkbrenner, W. W., Direktor: Sein Leben und Wirken nebst einem Auszug seiner Schriften (Berlin, 1882).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire

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