Boehm System Tarogato

For information about the history of the tarogato, and its development from a double-reed shawm to the modern single-reed instrument, undertake a search of the web taking care to spell the word correctly. For the maker, József Tóth, from whom I bought mine - and whom I would highly recommend - see www.tarogato.net.

József offers several options, and I went for the following (made to order):
 - Boehm-system fingering, as befits a sax or clarinet player (German clarinettists may have a different view);
 - open, not covered*, tone holes, making the instrument appear more like a clarinet and less like a soprano sax;
 - certain other keywork options (single register key; G# closure link)
 - cocobola wood: a very attractive choice
* for small hands I suspect that the covered option may be better as the hole spacing is quite wide.

My instrument is a joy to play. Though I mainly play it at home for my own pleasure, I have written a suite of 5 minutes duration with piano accompaniment which I have performed in a concert: anyone may download it (below). The piece is suitable also for soprano sax or clarinet, and the transposed version  for oboe.

Boehm system tarogato

Tarogato & Spinet Click on the picture for  a full-sized version.

A Suite for Tarogato or other instrument

"Conceits for Tarogato" by John Kilpatrick
  A suite of 6 short pieces for solo instrument and accompaniment - free to download, copy and perform.

For solo Bb instrument with piano accompaniment	PDF	Key F (solo instrument in written G); intended for Tarogato but suitable also for Soprano Saxophone or Clarinet. 8 pages including front cover with no awkward page turns.
	MP3	Performance by John Kilpatrick accompanied by Maki Sekiya (John's contribution is a little flawed!).
For solo Bb instrument with clarinet trio (2 x Bb + Bass)	PDF- Score PDF- Parts	Key F, as above; not compatible in all places with the piano version, but the same solo part. Score 8 pages including cover. Parts 2 pages each, best printed as 2-across to avoid page turn issues.
	MIDI	Computer realisation.
For C instrument with piano accompaniment	PDF	Key G, i.e. with the piano part transposed up a tone; intended for Oboe (too low for Flute). 8 pages, as with F version.