The legendary bent note at the start of American jazz-popular-classical composer George Gershwin’s started out as a joke during rehearsals Gershwin loved it Rhapsody in Blue – so much that he left it in the piece! Bassoon Much like the oboe, the bassoon is a double-reed woodwind instrument that produces its sound through vibrations between the two reeds. Unlike the oboe, however, the bassoon is significantly larger and follows a much longer path through the instrument’s body. Its sound is reedy, yet deep and warm, and can be frequently used for comic effect. The bassoon that we know today was derived from the baroque fagotto, and was perfected by instrument maker Johann Adam Heckel in the mid-1800s. One common variant of the bassoon is the contrabassoon, which if you think the bassoon is large and deep, wait until you hear one of those! Examples In In classical: Russian modernist composer Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring – opens with a bassoon being played in its upper register, an unusual scoring the instrument. This scoring was so unusual, as was the loud and cacophonous nature of the work, that a riot broke out in the concert hall when it was first performed, 100 years ago! Outside of classical: Classic Detroit R&B group, and mainstays of the famed Motown record label, Smokey Robinson & The Miracles utilized the bassoon in their hit single Tears of A Clown”. It’s one of the few pop hits to feature the “The instrument be sure to listen for it playing a different melody at the same time the – flute plays its melody at the start of the song. Solo performance: Modern composer Luciano Berio composed solo works for a variety of instruments, including voice, in his series of pieces, entitled Sequenza, designed to demonstrate the full range of the instrument. Here is for Sequenza XII bassoon Fun Fact! Here’s that contrabassoon, performing Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s Flight of the this sure sounds like one large bee! Bumblebee – Saxophone
The legendary bent note at the start of American jazz-popular-classical composer George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue started out as a joke during rehearsals – Gershwin loved it so much that he left it in the piece! Bassoon Much like the oboe, the bassoon is a double-reed woodwind instrument that produces its sound through vibrations between the two reeds. Unlike the oboe, however, the bassoon is significantly larger and follows a much longer path through the instrument’s body. Its sound is reedy, yet deep and warm, and can be frequently used for comic effect. The bassoon that we know today was derived from the baroque fagotto, and was perfected by instrument maker Johann Adam Heckel in the mid-1800s. One common variant of the bassoon is the contrabassoon, which if you think the bassoon is large and deep, wait until you hear one of those! Examples In – In classical: Russian modernist composer Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring opens with a bassoon being played in its upper register, an unusual scoring the instrument. This scoring was so unusual, as was the loud and cacophonous nature of the work, that a riot broke out in the concert hall when it was first performed, 100 years ago! Outside of classical: Classic Detroit R&B group, and mainstays of the famed Motown record label, Smokey Robinson & The Miracles utilized the bassoon in their hit single “The Tears of A Clown”. It’s one of the few pop hits to feature the instrument – be sure to listen for it playing a different melody at the same time the flute plays its melody at the start of the song. Solo performance: Modern composer Luciano Berio composed solo works for a variety of instruments, including voice, in his series of pieces, entitled Sequenza, designed to demonstrate the full range of the instrument. Here is Sequenza XII for bassoon Fun Fact! Here’s that contrabassoon, performing Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s Flight of the Bumblebee – this sure sounds like one large bee! Saxophone
Instrument-guide.docx