[My Music Home Page] | home
[The Ultimate Bassoon Haven!]
 Still at Work |
Bassoon Fingerings
Here is the address to the IDRS page for some great fingerings all the way up to C#6!!!!!
http://www.idrs.org/bsnfing/fingnote.htm
What a bassoon looks like
On the left is what a Heckel Bassoon looks like. The Heckel bassoon owes the fineness of its tones, its tone colour and register fidelity to the careful selection of the best resonant woods which are furnished with the inner bore and external form after a natural drying-process of more than 12 years.
The careful processing of the wood as well as the use of natural rubber for the protection of the inner bores from decay and alterations of the diapason reduce the risk of cracking or decay of the wooden parts and thus guarantee that the instrument can be played during decades.
On the right is what a Heckel Contra bassoon looks like. The Heckel contrabassoon has a noble, sonorous and unmistakable sound. It is notated in C one octave lower than the bassoon!
I wish I could have a Heckel bassoon but that is nearly impossible; most are over $20,000!
What is a Bassoon? A bassoon is a double reed instrument of the Oboe family. It has a 96 long, conical bore which curves around a U tube at the bottom and goes back up. The top of the instrument projects above the players head; to project the sound up out of the orchestra.
The bassoon is a relatively new instrument, having its first mention in 1574. It was originally designed as a straight instrument that was played by standing on a ladder!
Many developments have helped the bassoon evolve into what it is now. The most important being by Wilhelm Heckel beginning around 1830. Herr. Heckel and Carl Almenrader are responsible for developing the German system that is the more common type of instrument used today. Until then, bassoons were made of Grenadilla (wood), and looked and sounded like big Oboes. Many fine bassoonists played these (bright sounding) French Bassoons, but eventually favored the darker and more resonant sound of the German instruments made out of Maple. Heckel also improved the key mechanisms, and constantly found more ways to make the instruments easier to play.
The bassoon has been used in the orchestra since the Baroque period. The early composers used the bassoon mainly as a bass doubling instrument, supporting the cello line. Gradually composers began to hear players that were capable doing more with the instrument, and, began to write much more interesting parts for the bassoon. Vivaldi was the first to really use the bassoon to its potential, writing over 38 concerti for it, as well as numerous other works. Beethoven and Mozart also wrote incredibly lyric parts for the bassoon, validating it as an important instrument in the woodwind family.
It is a staple in television cartoons especially the old Loony Tunes shows, and still can be heard on almost every major cartoon program anywhere. (Robot cartoons generally excluded). It is well known for it's character building qualities, which can be easily heard in The Sorcerer's apprentice and Peter and the Wolf.
This comic aspect does not however, limit the instrument to that stifling genre. In fact, the bassoon has been elevated over time to a special solo status, and employed when the solo needs to have great depth and meaning. A few famous examples include Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, Shostakovitch's Ninth Symphony, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, and Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony.