They are a bit fab!!!
Whats you're favourite piece you're doing at the moment, as a soloist?
Any bassoonists reading this by the way, not just Josef Haydn!
Yes I must admit - the bassoon has its charms but the best woodwind instrument is definetly the oboe. It has a sweet timbre, wheras the bassoon is more like the timbre of a digeridoo!
IMO, is the bassoon the most exciting instrument for contemporary music (just check out Gubaidulina's duo and concerto). Beautiful old pieces exist (as Weber's concerto) but are very few.
Bassoons are excellent! I have to say that after hearing Elgar's Romance for bassoon and orchestra and Saint-Saëns Bassoon Sonata.
Have you seen the 'Midsomer Murders', the detective stories? The composer of the film music for these likes the bassoon very much, and uses it in an amazing way.
Thanx for that saturnas! i know my teacher has the music for saint saens sonata but the legar romance i was unaware of. at the moment i am playing the 2nd movement of mozarts concerto and its glorious. it truelyt makes the basson sound beautiful.
Bassoon compared to didgeridoo? My brother hit the nail on the head when he said the Bassoon was a technologically advanced didge!
There is a huge disparity between Master players with well made instruments, and the tourist who picks up a cheap instrument while 'down under'. IMO a well played didge is one of the most elemental, moving and primeval sounds. Right up there with thunder and a roaring fire. I LOVE the Bassoon too.
I've been in Australia 25 years now and can only remember hearing one "Master" It was absolutely hypnotic. (he was playing in a shopping center!)
when you talk about "Woodwinds" and compare oboe, clarinet and bassoon ...
Cast your mind back - (to between 60 and 100,000 years ago) depending on which Scholars/Archeoligists you believe in ! ... There were people who made musical instruments out of wood. (hollowed out tree branches) The Didgeredoo. Now THAT is a real wood wind.
It's made out of wood and you have to use wind (breath) to play it. I'm not advocating that you seek out and listen to Didgeredoo music - because it's too obscure and you might come upon an inferior recording. (remember my previous post - I've been here in Oz 25 years and only heard one real "Master" - in a shopping center!)
Just to point out that the Didge would be the father/mother/forerunner of any and all "Woodwinds". If you're lucky you might find a good recording of this elemental musical instrument.
I am not joking about putting it together. I was a saxophone major in college. Because my degree was in education, I also developed a working knowledge on how to play all instruments. When I was in graduate school, I also played a little clarinet and bassoon on the side.
I enlisted in the US Army so I could guarantee that I would be a bandsman. I played the audition on saxophone. I passed and I was assigned to the 75th Army Band in Fort Belvoir. For the first few months, I played tenor sax in the band and the jazz ensemble. The band's bassoonist term of enlistment ended, he learned that I knew a little about playing the bassoon and he advised me that I should audition for bassoon slot because there were certain advantages to playing bassoon in the Army. Back in the late 60's bassoonist were rare in the Army. As a bassoonist I would probably serve my entire tour at Fort Belvoir. The chances of me being transfered to another band would be slim. For the audition, I put the instrument together, blurted our a C major scale and passed the audition.
Since I got our of Army in 1972, I have played no sax gigs, a few clarinet gigs but have always been in demand as a bassoonist in various community groups.
Last Christmas my wife got me a neat Christmas gift: A Harvest of 20th-Century Bassoon Music. LEONARD SHARROW & JOSEH POLISI, BASSOONS. See: http://www.crystalrecords.com/bassoon.html
I have been listening to the recording since then and I am listening to it as I am entering this. The styles range for conservative contemporary to avant-garde, the Matthew piece, Sumer is Icumen in-Lhude, is for bassoon and a pre-recorded tape prepared by the soloist.
The Welcher and Luke Concertos are great. The Welcher should be since he is a bassoonist.
The bassoon is a pretty nice instrument, and deserves more attention and great music written for it than it currently has.
Also, the contrabassoon doesn't have much to its name, although in my opinion it should have at least as much music written for it as the double bass...
I picked up bassoon in 9th grade because I wasn't going anywhere playing the flute. My band director taught me how to assemble it, basic scales and put me in a practice room for three weeks for three weeks. Pretty soon I was thrown into the next highest band because they needed a bassoonist and was in WAY over my head. Convinced my parents to take private lessons the next year and I was the Symphonic Band, the high school Orchestra and the American Youth Symphonic Orchestra in NoVA. I was constantly being asked to substitute in the McLean Youth Orchestra too at one point.
Even though I was obviously in over my head, I enjoyed it all and look back on the entire experience with fondness. Because bassoonists were such in need I was on some unofficial list and received phone calls to substitute in various NoVA and DC orchestras, pit orchestras for community musicals, to play in churches (mostly Mozart and Faure's Requiems), and to play for Christmas ensembles.
I eventually took up a non-music job that traveled and my bassoon put up with a lot of abuse being toted around with me. Eventually a particular move did damage to the instrument I had since my Sophmore year of college and the cost to repair it was just not doable at that particular time.
I did play the contrabassoon for about a year or two - I miss it.
I recall seeing the Mozart performed live in DC many years back. My bassoon teacher decided it was time for me to tackle it. The only issue I had with it, as it is 'the standard' piece, I found having to play the piece 'exactly right' and a particular way and interpretation didn't sit well with me. Looking back, I see the reason why, but was too young and naive to understand it.
Weber's Bassoon Concerto really exemplifies the best of the Bassoon. It is sweet sounding, but bold, and sweeping, but resonant. Only the bassoon can build such momentum with such a rich, velvety taste.
It also beautiful as a symbiotic compliment to another instrument; I believe this is due to the rate of resonance frequency.
Weber's Bassoon Concerto really exemplifies the best of the Bassoon. It is sweet sounding, but bold, and sweeping, but resonant. Only the bassoon can build such momentum with such a rich, velvety taste.
It also beautiful as a symbiotic compliment to another instrument; I believe this is due to the rate of resonance frequency.
The bassoon concertos of Vivaldi, J.C. Bach, Mozart and Weber are great fun to listen to. How has the bassoon become so neglected for the last two hundred years? It is such a great instrument!
And a good 21st century work composed for The Bassoon Brothers by Michael Daugherty is:
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