[en] Inelastic X-ray scattering requires an energy determination before and after the scattering process together with a technique to vary at least one energy continuously in a controlled way. Sufficiently monochromatic beams can only be produced by Bragg reflection from single crystals. Stationary X-ray monochromators are standard equipment of conventional X-ray generators to select a particular characteristic line. Quite often they are curved to focus on the sample or the detector. Devices with variable Bragg angle have been and are used as analyzers in Compton scattering which is inelastic X-ray scattering with moderate resolution. With the rapidly increasing availability of synchrotron radiation (SR) monochromators and analyzers became more and more sophisticated improving momentum (Q) resolution and only somewhat the energy resolution ΔE which stays in the order of eV. Very high energy resolution can only be obtained with Bragg angles Theta near to 90⁰. This field is the topic of the present paper