Bassoon

“ Although the French horn, and after it the clarinet, are obviously his favourite instruments, the bassoon comes very little behind them. One of the loveliest phrases ever assigned to this instrument occurs in the 'Agnus Dei' of his mass in G.
It is absolutely alone on the telling G of the upper register; the voice following in imitation and the bassoon then repeating the passage. In the Concert-Stück, for piano and orchestra, there is a difficult but beautiful point for bassoon alone, which leads into the march for the clarinets. ”

“ Bassoons do not smoke, nor chew tobacco, nor swear, nor bet on horse-races, nor play billiards, nor do any of those horrid things which constitute the larger part of a man's ambitions and pursuits. You have acted wisely, my dear, and heaven grant you may be as happy in his love as I am in tabby's."
"I feel that I shall be," murmured Aurora; "already my bassoon is very precious to me." ”

“ The bassoon has an eight foot tone, the compass extending from B♭ bass [1] to A♭ treble , or in modern instruments by means of additional mechanism to C or even F . These extra high notes are from their extreme sweetness called vox humana. The pitch of the bassoon apparently lies two octaves below that of the oboe, since the lowest note of both is B, but in reality the interval is only a twelfth, as may be ascertained by comparing their fundamental scales. ”

“ In the scena and cavatina in the 3rd Act, where Euryanthe is abandoned in the wilderness, the colours are mixed quite differently. The long wailing notes of the solo bassoon, and the solitary flute wandering aimlessly about, incline one to re-echo Schumann's words, 'What a sound comes from the instruments! they speak to us from the very depths of all being.' The accompaniment to 'Hier dicht am Quell,' consisting only of the string-quartet and one bassoon, but producing the most extraordinary effect of sound, is a striking example of what genius can do with small means. ”

“ The tones of the lowest octave are full and rich and of ample power to form a foundation for the entire wood-wind section. The medium register is not especially resonant but is characterized by an agreeable dryness which is absolutely unique. Possessing neither the incisive bite of the oboe nor the liquid beauty of the clarinet, and with limited capability for swelling and diminishing the tone, the bassoon rivals the flute itself in the rendition of staccato passages. ”

“ When you have your reed in good order, be sure and preserve it so, and let no person but yourself ever touch it. The holes are numbered in the direction the wind passes through the instrument : beginning at the mouth piece, it passes to near the bottom ; then, returning, makes its escape at the bell above the mouth piece. To transpose a tune for the bassoon, or any other instrument, observe, first, what key it is in, which may be seen by comparing the key note, and the number of flats or sharps prefixed to the clef ”

“ The contrafagotto or double bassoon, in pitch an octave below the ordinary bassoon, is not by any means a new instrument; but the older instruments were of feeble rattling tone, rendered unwieldy by unsuccessful attempts to obtain the B♭ of the 32-foot octave. ”

“ Our good masters employed them for strengthening the bass; but now the bassoon has acquired such importance, that solos are written for it. This is also a German innovation. Mozart would have done well to have left the bassoon in its original obscurity.
"1st and 2nd Horns; very good. Horns and hautboys combine admirably. I say nothing against Rossini's horns.
"3rd and 4th Horns! How many horns does the man want? Quattro Corni, Corpo di Bacco! The greatest of our composers have always been contented with two. Shades of Pergolese, of Leo, of Jomelli! ”

“ The new instrument, the douçaine, we may imagine, by its unusual appearance provoked the satirical wit of some courtier, and was henceforth known as fagotto. Just a century later Ravilius of Ferrara made Afranio’s first phagotus from the inventor’s design.
The bassoon has been a favourite with all the great masters, excepting Handel. Beethoven uses the bassoon largely in his symphonies, writing everywhere for it independent parts of great beauty and originality. ”

“ The C clef, occurring frequently in bassoon music, ought to be well understood. When the learner has a sufficient knowledge of the notes, and can readily call them by their names, it will be advisable to practise the scale. The black dots represent the holes which are to be stopped, and the ciphers those which are to remain open. Great care should be taken to have the reed in good order. An old reed, if sound, is far better than a new one. ”

“ POMMER, or Bombard (Fr. hautbois; Ital. bombardo, bombardone) , the alto, tenor and basses of the shawm or Schalmey family, and the forerunners respectively of the cor-anglais, bassoon or fagotto, and double bassoon or contrafagotto. The main difference to the casual observer between the medieval instruments and those of our orchestra which were evolved from them would be one of size. ”

“ The bassoon has a conical bore and the properties of the open pipe, wherefore the aggregate length of the channels in the rackett only requires to be half that of the bassoon, a physical phenomenon to which this curious freak owed its existence. In the rackett the holes are bored obliquely through from the channels to the circumference—three in front for the left and three for the right hand, with an additional hole for the little finger ”

“ The bassoon is composed of five pieces, which, when fitted together, form a wooden tube about 8 ft. long (93 in.) with a conical bore tapering from a diameter of 13/4 in., at the bell, to 3/16 in. at the reed. The tube is doubled back upon itself, the shorter joint extending to about two-thirds of the length of the longer, whereby the height of the instrument is reduced to about 4 ft. The holes are brought into a convenient position for the fingers by the device of boring them obliquely through the thickness of the wood. ”

“ A subsidiary theme is but little more than a melodic variation of the first. So, too, the short conclusion theme—in oboes and bassoon, then in the strings—is only a variation of the first. The free fantasia is long for the period and is contrapuntally elaborate. There is a short coda on the first theme.
II. Largo, D major, 3-4. A serious melody is sung by oboe and violoncellos to an accompaniment of violas, double basses, bassoon, and horn. The theme is repeated with a richer accompaniment; while the first violins have a counter figure. ”

“ If the violin is the leader of the orchestra, the double bass is its foundation. To it is given the lowest part, on which both harmony and melody rest. The English term 'double bass' has probably been applied to the instrument because it often doubles in the lower octave the bass of the harmony, given to the bass voice, the violoncello, the bassoon, or some other instrument. ”

“ Basso, bas′so, n. the same as Bass (1) : also a bass singer.
Bassoon, bas-ōōn′, n. (It. fagotto) a musical wind-instrument filling an important place in the modern orchestra, of the reed species, made of maple-wood or plane-tree, its compass from B flat below the bass stave to C in the treble.—The Double bassoon (It. contrafagotto) sounds an octave lower.—n. Bassoon′ist. [It. bassone, augmentative of basso, low, from root of Base.]
Bass-viol, bās′-vī′ol, n. a musical instrument with four strings, used for playing the bass in concerted music; the violoncello. [See Bass, low, and Viol.] ”

“ The Woodwind; the reed; the flute; the piccolo; the oboe; the cor anglais; the bassoon; the double-bassoon; the clarinet; the basset-horn; the bass-clarinet.
The Woodwind Family consists of instruments that may be described as wooden tubes, or pipes, through which the performer blows, stopping the holes in these pipes with his fingers in order to get various notes. Some of these are furnished with reeds and some are without. It is easy for us to tell the difference when we look at the Orchestra. The flutes are held horizontally and have no reeds. ”

“ This is abundantly shown in the music to the 'Midsummer Night's Dream,' where the two bassoons lead the quaint clowns' march in thirds; and still further on in the funeral march, which is obviously an imitation of a small country band consisting of clarinet and bassoon, the latter ending unexpectedly and humorously on a solitary low C. In the Overture the same instrument also suggests the braying of Bottom. It is worth notice how the acute ear of the musician has caught the exact interval used by the animal without any violation of artistic propriety. ”

“ I had placed an additional oboe with every three violins and an additional bassoon for every three violoncellos, with a few contrabassoons and contrabass clarinets to strengthen the double-basses and to take the part of the serpent—an instrument which has become obsolete. The doubling up of trumpets and kettledrums in the climaxes did not make them sound louder, but more full. For the first time in my experience the sound of the orchestra was not completely buried in the avalanche of tone from a large chorus of three hundred and fifty voices. ”

“ On the bassoon the fundamental scale is that of F maj., obtained by opening and closing the holes; the notes downwards from F to B♭ are extra notes obtained by means of interlocking keys on the long joint, worked by the left thumb; they have no counterpart on the oboe and do not belong to the fundamental scale of the bassoon. The fundamental scale of the oboe is that of C, although the compass has been extended a tone to B♭ . Therefore the difference in pitch between the bassoon and the oboe is a twelfth. ”

“ Dubbe wrote the motive on the blackboard and then played it on his double bassoon, which, he said, is one of the very few in this country.
“The bassoon,” said Mr. Dubbe, “was Beethoven’s favorite instrument. I go further than Beethoven in preferring the double bassoon. Among my unpublished manuscripts are several compositions for this instrument, and my concerto for two double bassoons is now in the hands of a Berlin publisher.
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“But to recur to the Brahms chorale. You should know that it makes the second best variations in existence. The best are in the Heroic Symphony. ”

“ In all these old finger hole instruments the scale begins with the first hole, a note in the bagpipe with which the drones agree, and not the entire tube. From the bass and double quint pommers came ultimately the bassoon and contra-bassoon, and from the alto pommer, an obsolete instrument for which Bach wrote, called the oboe di caccia, or hunting oboe, an appellation unexplained, unless it had originally a horn-like tone, and was, as it has been suggested to me by Mr. Blaikley, used by those who could not make a real hunting horn sound. It was bent to a knee shape to facilitate performance. ”

“ The latest development of flute and reed pipes is to be found in the flute, oboe, clarinet, and bassoon of the modern orchestra. Plates XXXVIII. and XXXIX. represent instruments that have been the immediate precursors of or are identical with the instruments named. One, the Dolciano or Tenoroon with a clarinet reed, is of unusual importance as possibly anticipating the invention of the Saxophone. ”

“ The four kinds of wind instruments: flutes, oboes, clarinets and bassoons may be generally considered to be of equal power. The same cannot be said of instruments which fulfil a special purpose: piccolo, bass flute, Eng. horn, small clarinet, bass clarinet and double bassoon. Each of these instruments has four registers: low, middle, high and extremely high, each of which is characterised by certain differences of quality and power. It is difficult to define the exact limits of each register; adjacent registers almost blend together and the passage from one to another is scarcely noticeable. ”

“ Juxtaposition of strings and wood-wind which overweights legato or declamatory singing may nevertheless be employed if one of the groups forms the harmony in sustained notes and the other executes a melodic design, when, for instance the sustaining instruments are clarinet, and bassoon, or bassoon and horn, and the melodic design is entrusted to violins or violas—or in the opposite case, when the harmony is given to violas and 'cellos divisi, and the harmonic figure to the clarinets. ”

“ The back organ has solo and combination stops, the principal of 4 ft. (octave higher than diapason) , and bassoon (bass) and oboe (treble) , 8 ft. These may be mechanically combined by a stop called full organ. The French maker, Mustel, added other registers for much-admired effects of tone, viz. “harpe éolienne,” two bass rows of 2 ft. pitch, the one tuned a beat too sharp, the other a beat too flat, to produce a waving tremulous tone that has a certain charm; “musette” and “voix celeste,” 16 ft.; and “baryton,” a treble stop 32 ft., or two octaves lower than the normal note of the key. ”

“ Here is a list of the instruments of a complete orchestra: First violins 15, second violins 12, violas 10, violoncellos 10, double basses 8, flutes 2, piccolo 1, oboes, cor Anglais, clarionet, corno di bassetto, bassoon, double bassoon, trumpets, horns, trombones, timpani, cornet à piston, bass trumpet, tenor tuba, ophicleide, contra bass tuba, harp, bass drum, cymbals. The number and kind of instruments can of course be varied to a certain extent without losing the effect.
Chamber music differs from ordinary orchestras because none of the instruments are doubled ”

“ The composer thinks that the time has come for the symphony to benefit by the progress of modern instrumentation, and he therefore establishes his orchestra as follows: three flutes, two oboes, English horn, two clarinets, bass clarinet, two bassoons, double bassoon, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, three kettledrums, organ, pianoforte (now for two hands and now for four) , triangle, a pair of cymbals, bass drum, and the usual strings. ”