A musical instrument consisting of a jointed wooden pipe, about 2 m 54 cm/8 ft 4 in long, doubled back on itself, and fitted with metal keys and a curved crook with a double reed. It is, in effect, a bass oboe. The larger double bassoon, or contrabassoon, sounds one octave lower than the standard instrument.
The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family that plays in the tenor range and below. Appearing in its modern form in the 1800s, the bassoon is a part of orchestral, concert band, and chamber music literature. A bassoon player is called a "bassoonist."
Development
Early history
The bassoon was developed from its precursor, most often referred to as the dulcian, a wooden instrument all in one piece. The early dulcian had many similarities to the modern bassoon: though generally constructed of only a single piece of wood rather than sections, it too consisted of a conical bore that doubled back on itself at the bottom, with a curved metal crook leading from the instrument body to the reed. The dulcian later evolved into the curtal, which featured separate joints like a modern bassoon, and gained an extra key. The English name of "bassoon" comes from a more general term referring to the bass register of any instrument, but after Henry Purcell's call for a "bassoon" in Dioclesian (1690) referring to the wooden double reed, the word began to be used to refer to this instrument in particular.
The evolution of the early dulcian into the modern bassoon is also without precise record; A German painting, "Der Fagottspieler", in the Suermondt Museum, which scholars date to the end of the 17th century, depicts the bassoon much as it appears in its current form, and a three-keyed bassoon has been dated to 1699. The early bassoon flourished in the Netherlands in the late 17th and early 18th century, with over half a dozen prominent woodwind makers developing the instrument.
Modern history
Increasing demands on the capabilities of instruments and players in the 1800s—particularly concert halls requiring louder tones and the rise of virtuoso composer-performers—spurred on the further refinement of the bassoon.
The modern bassoon exists in two distinct primary forms, the Buffet system and the Heckel system.
Heckel system
The design of the modern bassoon owes a great deal to the performer, teacher, and composer Carl Almenräder, who, assisted by the German acoustic researcher Gottfried Weber developed the 17-key bassoon whose range spanned four octaves. Almenräder's improvements to the bassoon began with an 1823 treatise in which he described ways of improving intonation, response, and technical ease of playing by means of augmenting and rearranging the keywork;
Heckel and two generations of descendants continued to refine the bassoon, and it is their instrument that has become the standard for other instrument makers to follow. Because of their superior singing tone quality (an improvement upon one of the main drawbacks of the Almenräder instruments), the Heckel instruments competed for prominence with the reformed Wiener system, a Boehm-style bassoon, and a completely-keyed instrument devised by C. Other attempts at improving the instrument included a 24-keyed model and a single-reeded mouthpiece, but both were found to have adverse effects on the bassoon's distinctive tone and were abandoned.
Coming into the 20th century the Heckel-style German model of bassoon dominated the field;
Today the Heckel factory continues producing instruments (after a brief 1940s wartime conversion to ball-bearing manufacture) and Heckel bassoons are considered by many the best, although a range of different manufacturers exist, all with different modifications to their bassoons. Companies that manufacture bassoons are (among others): Heckel, Yamaha, Fox Products, Schreiber, Püchner, Signet, Moosmann, Kohlert, B.H. There are also several smaller bassoon manufacturers that make special instruments to fit special needs. In the 1960s the Englishman Giles Brindley began preliminary development of what he called the "logical" bassoon, which aimed to improve intonation and evenness of tone through use of electrically activated key combinations that were too complex for the human hand to manage.
Buffet system
The Buffet system bassoon, which stabilized somewhat earlier than the Heckel, developed in a more conservative manner. While the development of the Heckel bassoon can be characterized as a complete overhaul of the instrument in both acoustics and keywork, the Buffet system focused primarily on incremental improvements to the keywork. This less radical approach deprives the Buffet system bassoon of the improved consistency, and thus ease of operation and increased power, found in the Heckel bassoons, but the Buffet is considered by some to have a more vocal and expressive quality. (Conductor John Foulds in 1934 lamented the dominance of the Heckel-style bassoon, considering them to be too homogeneous in sound with the horn.)
Compared to the Heckel bassoon, Buffet system bassoons have a narrower bore and differing keywork; As with all bassoons the tone varies substantially from instrument to instrument and performer to performer. However, with its continued use in some regions and its distinctive tone, the Buffet continues to have a place in modern bassoon playing, particularly in France. Buffet-model bassoons are currently made in Paris by Buffet-Crampon and Selmer, with various other makers producing replica instruments.
Construction and characteristics
The bassoon disassembles into six main pieces, including the reed.
The modern bassoon is generally made of maple, with medium-hardness types such as sycamore maple and sugar maple being preferred. metal bassoons were made in the past but have not been in production by any major manufacturer since 1889.
Folded upon itself, the bassoon stands 134 cm (4.4 feet) tall, but the total length is 254 cm (roughly 8.3 feet). There are also short-reach bassoons made for the benefit of young or petite players.
Bassoon players must learn three different clefs: Bass (first and foremost), Tenor, and Treble. The range of the bassoon begins at B-flat1 (the first one below the bass staff) and extends upward over three octaves (roughly to the E on the treble staff). Frequently, a paper tube or English horn bell placed in the bassoon's bell is used instead of a specially made extension.
Usage in ensembles
Modern ensembles
The modern symphony orchestra typically calls for two bassoons, often with a third playing the contrabassoon. (The first work written with an independent contrabassoon part was Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, although Bach's St. John Passion and a work by Mozart called for a "large bassoon" and were written below the range of the modern bassoon.) Some works call for four or more players. The bassoon's distinctive tone suits it for both plaintive, lyrical solos such as Ravel's Bolero and more comical ones, such as the grandfather's theme in Peter and the Wolf. In addition to its solo role, the bassoon is an effective bass to a woodwind choir, a bass line along with the cellos and double basses, and harmonic support along with the French horns.
A wind ensemble will usually also include two bassoons and sometimes contra, each with independent parts; The bassoon's role in the wind band is similar to its role in the orchestra, though when scoring is thick it often cannot be heard above the brass instruments also in its range.
The bassoon is also part of the standard wind quintet instrumentation, along with the flute, oboe, clarinet, and horn;
The bassoon quartet has also gained favor in recent times, with the Bubonic Bassoon Quartet being one of the more notable groups. The bassoon's wide range and variety of tone colors make it ideally suited to grouping in like-instrument ensembles.
Earlier ensembles
The bassoon's use in the early symphony orchestra was solely as a continuo instrument. Baroque composer Jean-Baptiste Lully and his Les Petits Violons included oboes and bassoons along
with the strings in the 16-piece (later 21-piece) ensemble, as one of the first orchestras to include winds. However, the use of the bassoon in the concert orchestra was sporadic until the late
17th century when winds began to make their way into the standard instrumentation, largely due to improvements in the design of wind instruments that corrected tuning problems and gave them
greater ability to play chromatically (as the fretless strings were easily able to do). The bassoon was introduced as a regular member of the symphony orchestra as part of the basso continuo
along with the cellos and bass viols; Johann Stamitz and his symphonies gave the winds slightly more independence by scoring them for orchestral color rather than strict doubling, but still the
bassoon was not used as an independent melodic instrument.
Antonio Vivaldi brought the bassoon to prominence by featuring it in 37 concerti for the instrument. The early classical orchestra included the bassoon, it was again only filling out the continuo and often unmentioned in the score. Symphonic writing for bassoons as fully-independent parts rather than mere doubles would not come until later in the Classical era. Mozart's Jupiter symphony is a prime example, with its famous bassoon solo. The bassoons were generally paired, as in current practice, though the famed Mannheim Orchestra boasted four.
Technique
The bassoon is held diagonally in front of the player and cannot easily be supported by the player's hands alone.
The Heckel-system bassoon is played with both hands in a stationary position, with six main finger holes on the front of the instrument (some of which are open, and some of which are aided by keywork).
Extended techniques
Many extended techniques can be performed on the bassoon, such as multiphonics, flutter tonguing, circular breathing, and harmonics.
Reeds and reed construction
The modern reed
Bassoon reeds, made of Arundo donax cane, are generally made by the players themselves.
As the style of reed desired varies a great deal from player to player, most advanced players will make their own reeds in order to customize them to their own individual playing style, and almost all will be familiar with the process of making one.
The early reed
Little is known about the early construction of the bassoon reed, as few examples survive, and much of what is known is only what can be gathered from artistic representations.
The bassoon in jazz
The bassoon is infrequently used as a jazz instrument and rarely seen in a jazz ensemble. The next few decades saw the instrument used only sporadically, as symphonic jazz fell out of favor, but the 1960s saw artists such as Yusef Lateef and Chick Corea incorporate bassoon into their recordings; Lateef's diverse and eclectic instrumentation saw the bassoon as a natural addition, while Corea employed the bassoon in combination with flautist Hubert Laws. Bassoonist Karen Borca, a performer of free jazz, is one of the few jazz musicians to play only bassoon;
The bassoon in art and literature
Much of the early history of the bassoon is known through its representation in painting; the only source of description for the early bassoon reed, for example, is in paintings from late 16th century Spain.
There was also a painting made by Edgar Degas in 1870, called "L'orcheste de l'opéra" ("The Orchestra of the Opera", also known as "In the Orchestra Pit"), features a bassoon player in the orchestra amongst several other orchestra members.
Audio examples
Technical examples
A collection of samples demonstrating the bassoon's range, abilities, and tone.
Playing Range (A1 B-flat1 E5 A-flat5) (file info) — play in browser (beta) Tone across octaves (B-flat1 B-flat2 B-flat3 B-flat4) (file info) — play in browser (beta) Chromatic scale (B-flat1 to B-flat4) (file info) — play in browser (beta) Articulations (staccato, legato, legato+vibrato, slurred) (file info) — play in browser (beta) Dynamics (file info) — play in browser (beta) Trills (B4 to C5 B3 to C4 B2 to C3) (file info) — play in browser (beta) Embouchure bending (file info) — play in browser (beta) Bassoon reed alone (file info) — play in browser (beta) Flutter tonguing (file info) — play in browser (beta)
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