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? The Bassoon What does a bassoon look like? The bassoon is a wooden tube that is so long that it has to fold back on itself in order to be playable. If you were to unfold a bassoon it would be about 2.5 metres long, but the instrument itself stands about 1.3 metres tall. A modern bassoon has six main pieces, called; the reed, the crook, the wing joint, the boot, the bass joint and the bell. The bassoon is easily identifiable because of its size and the long, curved crook that comes out of the top of the instrument and holds the reed into which the player blows. The Italian term for bassoon is ‘fagotto’. In the past, when people only had open fires to heat their homes, bundles of sticks or fire wood were called ‘fagots’. When the bassoon was invented people thought that it looked like a bunch of sticks of wood tied together, and that is where the name ‘fagotto’ is thought to have come from. Repertoire that features the bassoon The bassoon has been extremely popular with composers as a solo instrument. Vivaldi wrote 39 bassoon concertos! There are also well known concertos by Mozart, Hummel and Weber, and composers including Elgar and Saint-Saens have written short pieces for bassoon and orchestra. 20th century composers enjoyed exploring the character of the bassoon, with interesting examples being Prokofiev’s Humorisitc Scherzo for Four Bassoons and Sofia Gubaidulina’s Concerto for Bassoon and Low Strings. A bit of bassoon geography Like the other woodwind instruments (flute, oboe and clarinet), the bassoon developed differently in different countries. There are two main types of bassoon today; the Heckel (from Germany) and the Buffet (from France). Most of the world plays the Heckel system, while the Buffet system is primarily played in France, Belgium, and in parts of Latin America. The Bassoon Classroom Resource NZSO Music for Schools - Rachel Hyde ©2011 nzso.co.nz/education The most used additional member of the bassoon family is the contrabassoon, which features widely in symphonic orchestral music from the Romantic era onwards. The contrabassoon is twice as long as the normal bassoon. Can you work out how long it would be if the tube was stretched out? Because of its size the contrabassoon is difficult to hold, and so to help the player it has a support that rests on the floor. The contrabassoon adds a deep and often grotesque sound to the orchestra. It is such an incredible effect that composers often save it for their most dramatic moment! Auxilliary Instruments What If... Crook Classroom Task... • How tall are you? Measure yourselves to see if you are taller than a bassoon - it is very possible that a normal bassoon is taller than you are! What if I am a young person and I want to play the bassoon, but it is taller than I am? There are special short-reach bassoons made for young players, or for adult players who are shorter than average. FUN FACT ? satang
