Bassoon
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[edit] Description
The bassoon is the lowest of the four main instruments of the woodwind family. Like the oboe, it has a double reed. The reed is attached to a curved metal mouthpiece called a ‘crook’ which is joined to the main part of the instrument. This consists of two parts called ‘bass joint’ and ‘wing joint’ (or ‘tenor joint’). These two are joined at the bottom by a U-shaped piece called the ‘butt’. At the top of the instrument is the ‘bell joint’. The instrument is quite heavy. Most players have a sling round their neck to support the weight, but some prefer to use a spike that rests on the floor like that of a cello. The player sits or stands, holding the butt close to the right hip.
Some bassoons have a white, ivory ring round the top of the bell joint. These are German bassoons (called ‘Heckel’). French bassoons (called ‘Buffet’) do not have this ring. Bassoons have keys to help the player to cover all the holes, but these keys do not use the Boehm system like the other woodwind instruments.
[edit] Playing the bassoon
To play the bassoon it is important to have lots of breath. Like with the oboe, fast passages can be played using double tonguing (single tonguing is like saying “te-te-te-te-te”, double tonguing is like saying te-ke-te-ke-te-ke). In most music the bassoon will spend a lot of time playing a bass line, perhaps the same notes as the cello or tuba. It can sometimes sound quite amusing when playing an ‘um-cha-um-cha accompaniment like in the “Dance of the Cygnets” from Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake. It can sound very tuneful and sad as in the second movement of Rimsky Korsakov’s Sheherazade. Listen to the opening of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring where it plays some quite high notes. Prokofiev uses the bassoon for grandfather’s tune in Peter and the Wolf.
[edit] History and repertoire
The bassoon developed from a Renaissance instrument called the curtal or dulcian. These were double reed instruments which often played with shawms. In the Baroque period the bassoon became popular as an instrument to play the bass line, perhaps playing the same as the cello. In the late Baroque period composers like Antonio Vivaldi wrote concertos for bassoon and orchestra. Mozart also wrote a bassoon concerto, and in recent times Peter Maxwell Davies wrote one.
[edit] Contrabassoon
In some pieces with a large orchestra a contrabassoon is used. This plays an octave lower than a bassoon, taking it right down to bottom B flat on the piano. Some contrabassoons are made to play a note lower, i.e. the very lowest note of the piano (A). You might expect to see the contrabassoon sticking up high above all the other instruments in the orchestra, but in fact the tube keeps doing U-turns, making four parallel rows of tubing. They are usually made with the bell pointing downwards. The weight is supported by a peg to the floor.
The contrabassoon adds richness to the sound of a full orchestra. Listen carefully for the contrabassoon in the hymn-like introduction to the last movement of Symphony no 1 by Brahms. You can hear it clearly, growling away, in the opening of the Piano Concerto for the Left Hand by Ravel.
