BASSOON

Bassoon. Click on the audio icons beneath the art to hear the sound of a bassoon.The selection 1/4 French basson, German Fagott, the principal tenor and bass instrument of the orchestral woodwind family. Its narrow conical bore leads from the curved metal crook, onto which the double reed is placed, downward through the wing joint (on which are the left-hand finger holes) to the butt joint (on which are the right-hand holes). The bore then doubles back, ascending through the butt to the long joint and bell, where the holes are controlled by keywork for the left thumb. The bassoon is held on a sling aslant across the body. Its classical compass is three octaves upward from the B below the bass staff, the most-used melodic range coinciding with that of the tenor voice. Since the mid-19th century, the range has been extended up to treble E. The bassoon is exceptionally difficult to play because the traditional placing of the finger holes is scientifically irrational; yet this is essential to the production of a tone quality that has been one of the primary orchestral colours from George Frideric Handel's time. The reed is made by bending double a shaped strip of cane. The bassoon is a 17th-century development of the earlier fagotto, or dulzian, known in England as the curtal. It was first mentioned about 1540 in Italy, with the descending and ascending bores contained in a single piece of maple or pear wood. Many examples survive in museums at Brussels, Berlin, Vienna, and elsewhere. The present construction in four separate joints is thought to have been developed in France by 1636, closely following the reconstruction of the shawm, which produced the oboe, to which the bassoon served as bass. During the 18th century the individuality of the bassoon became recognized not only in the orchestra (in which two have normally been since employed) but also as a solo instrument for concerti. Well into Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's time in the late 18th century, no mechanism was required beyond four keys, most of the semitones outside the natural scale of C having been well obtained by cross-fingerings opening the holes nonconsecutively. Leisurely addition of keys from about 1780 led to Jean-Nicolas Savary's Paris models of about 1840, which, with further improvements in bore and mechanism, became the 20-keyed French bassoon, made by the firm of Buffet-Crampon, that is used in France, Italy, and Spain and by some British players. Although it has preserved and developed the sympathetic vocal sonority of the classical instrument, the French bassoon remains difficult to control, owing to inherent unevenness in the quality and steadiness of many notes. Alterations to minimize these defects were initiated in Germany in 1825 by Carl Almenrder. A reformed model was developed by the firm of Johann Adam Heckel and perfected in the German bassoon that is now standard everywhere except in France, Italy, and Spain. It is of European maple, with its own positions and sizes of the holes to give a more even and positive response throughout the compass. It can be more quickly learned, is easier to choose reeds for, and is in many respects more telling in a large orchestra. Research on old bassoons suggests that its tone quality, different from the French and considered by some to have sacrificed eloquence for expediency, may not represent as gross a deviation from classical tone as was hitherto believed. Contrabassoon. Click on the audio icons beneath the art to hear the sound of a contrabassoon. 1/4 The first useful contrabassoon, or double bassoon, sounding an octave lower than the bassoon and much employed in large scores, was developed in Vienna and used occasionally by the classical composers. The modern contrabassoon follows Heckel's design of about 1870, with the tubing doubled back four times and often with a metal bell, pointing downward.