Alphorn

Alpenhorn or alphorn, a wind instrument, consisting of a natural wooden horn of conical bore, having a cup-shaped mouthpiece, used by mountaineers in Switzerland and elsewhere.

The tube is made of thin strips of birchwood soaked in water until they have become quite pliable; they are then wound into a tube of conical form from 4 to 8 ft. long, and neatly covered with bark. A cup-shaped mouthpiece carved out of a block of hard wood is added and the instrument is complete.

The alpenhorn has no lateral openings and therefore gives the pure natural harmonic series of the open pipe. The harmonics are the more readily obtained by reason of the small diameter of the bore in relation to the length. An alpenhorn made at Rigi-Kulm, Schwytz, and now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, measures 8 ft. in length and has a straight tube.

The well-known Ranz des Vaches is the traditional melody of the alpenhorn, which has been immortalized by Beethoven in the finale of the Pastoral Symphony, where the music is generally rendered by a cor anglais. Rossini has introduced the melody into his opera William Tell. Wagner, in the third act of Tristan and Isolde, was not entirely satisfied with the tone quality of the cor anglais for representing the natural pipe of the peasant. Having in his mind the timbre of the alpenhorn, he had a wooden horn made for him with one valve only and a small pear-shaped bell, which is used at Bayreuth.

The Swiss alpenhorn varies in shape according to the locality, being curved near the bell in the Bernese Oberland. Michael Praetorius mentions the alpenhorn under the name of holzerni trummet in Syntagma Musicum (Wittenberg, 1615-1619).

Shakuhachi

Shakuhachi (尺八) is a Japanese flute which is end-blown and held vertically like a recorder instead of being held transversely like the familiar Western transverse flute. A recorder player blows into a duct, also called "fipple," and thus has little or no control over the tuned pitch. The shakuhachi player blows as one would blow across the top of an empty bottle, but the opposite edge of the shakuhachi has a sharp edge, allowing the player substantial pitch control. The five finger holes are tuned to a pentatonic scale with no half-tones, but the player can bend each pitch as much as a whole tone or more. It was used by Zen Buddhist Monks in the practice of Suizen (blowing meditation). It is usually made from the root end of a bamboo shoot and is an extremely versatile instrument. Holes can be covered partially (1/3 covered, 1/2, 2/3, etc.) and pitch varied subtly or substantially by changing the blowing angle. Professional players can produce virtually any note they wish from the instrument, and play a wide repertoire of original Zen music, ensemble music with koto and samisen, folk music, jazz, modern music.

The name shakuhachi is derived from "shaku", which is an archaic measure of length roughly equal to 30 centimeters, and "hachi", which means "eight" (tenths of a "shaku"). Thus the standard shakuhachi is 1.8 shaku in length, or 54 centimeters. Other shakuhachi vary in length from about 1.3 shaku up to 3.3 shaku. (The longer the shakuhachi, the lower its tuning.) Although the lengths differ, they are all still referred to generically as "shakuhachi".

The bamboo flute first came to Japan from China via Korea. The shakuhachi proper, however, is quite distinct from its continental ancestors, the result of centuries of isolated evolution in Japan.

During the medieval period, shakuhachi were most notable for their role in the Fuke sect of Zen Buddhist monks, known as komuso, who used the shakuhachi as a spiritual tool. Their songs (called "honkyoku") were paced according to the players' breathing and were considered meditation as much as music.

Travel around Japan was restricted by the shogunate at this time, but the Fuke sect managed to wrangle an exemption from the Shogun, since their spiritual practice required them to move from place to place playing the shakuhachi and begging for alms. They persuaded the Shogun to give them "exclusive rights" to play the instrument! In return, some were required to spy for the shogunate, and the Shogun sent several of his own spies out in the guise of Fuke monks as well. (This was made easier by the baskets that the Fuke wore over their heads, a symbol of their detachment from the world.)

In response to these developments, several particularly difficult honkyoku pieces became well-known as "tests": if you could play them, you were a real Fuke. If you couldn't, you were probably a spy and might very well be killed if you were in unfriendly territory. This no doubt helped drive the Fuke sect to the technical excellence they were renowned for.

In any case, when the Meiji Restoration occurred in 1868, the shogunate was abolished and so was the Fuke sect, in order to help identify and eliminate the shogun's holdouts. The very playing of the shakuhachi was officially forbidden for a few years. Non-Fuke folk traditions did not suffer greatly from this, since the tunes could be played just as easily on another pentatonic instrument. However, the honkyoku repertoire was known exclusively to the Fuke sect and transmitted by repetition and practice, and much of it was lost, along with many important documents.

When the Meiji government did permit the playing of shakuhachi again, it was only as an accompanying instrument to the koto, shamisen, etc. It was not until later that honkyoku were allowed to be played publicly again as solo pieces.

Recorder Flute

The recorder is a flute-like woodwind musical instrument. Contrariwise, the flute is a recorder-like woodwind musical instrument. In German it is called the Blockflöte, in French the flûte à bec, and in Italian the flauto dolce. It is held vertically from the lips (rather than horizontally like the 'transverse' flute). The player's breath is directed by a wooden 'fipple' or 'block' in the mouthpiece of the instrument along a duct called the 'windway'. Exiting from the windway, the breath is directed against a hard edge called the labium, which agitates a column of air, the length of which (and the pitch of the note produced) is modified by finger holes in the front and back of the instrument. Because of the fixed position of the windway with respect to the labium, there is no need to form an embouchure with the lips. On the other hand the shape and size of the recorder player's mouth cavity has a discernable effect on the timbre, tone and response of the recorder -- but we could hardly call this an "embouchure". This is similar to the functioning of the ancestors of the recorder, early folk whistles.

The recorder was known in the 18th century simply as Flute (Flauto) -- the transverse form was separately referred to as Traverso. It was for the recorder that J.S. Bach wrote the 4th Brandenburg concerto in G major (though Thurston Dart mistakenly suggested that it was intended for flageolets at a higher pitch, and in a recording under Neville Marriner using Dart's editions it was played an octave higher than usual on sopranino recorders). In fact Bach scored this work for two "flauti d'echo", or echo flutes, an example of which survives in Leipzig to this day. It consisted of two recorders in f' connected together by leather flanges: one instrument was voiced to play softly, the other loudly. Vivaldi wrote three concertos for the "flautino", an instrument first thought to be the piccolo. It is now generally accepted, however, that the instrument intended was the sopranino recorder.

The instrument went into decline after the 18th century, being used for about the last time as an other-worldly sound by Gluck in his opera Orfeo ed Euridice. Nonetheless there were probably more works (ca 800) written for the recorder during the 19th century than in all the preceding centuries: the instrument simply sprouted keys and changed its name, being known as the csakan or "flute douce". Although it was revived at the beginning of the 20th century by German scholar/performers and in Britain by Arnold Dolmetsch and others, even in the early 20th century it was uncommon enough that Stravinsky thought it to be a kind of clarinet, which is not surprising since the early clarinet was, in a sense, derived from the recorder, at least in its outward appearance. Subsequent to its rediscovery (notwithstanding the fact that recorders continued to be made and played throughout the 19th and early 20th century) it became very popular in schools, since it is inexpensive, easy to play at some level, is pre-tuned, and is not too strident in even the most musically-inept hands. It is however incorrect to assume that mastery is similarly easy -- like other instruments, it requires talent and study to play it at an advanced level.

Modern composers of great stature have written for it, including Luciano Berio, John Tavener, Malcolm Tippet, Benjamin Britten, Leonard Bernstein, Gordon Jacob, and Edmund Rubbra. It is also occasionally used in popular music, including that of groups such as the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix. Prominent jazz musician Keith Jarrett has even recorded an entire album of recorder music in which he himself plays recorders.

Recorders are most often tuned in C and F, though instruments in D, G, Eb were not uncommon historically and are still found today especially the Tenor in D known as a voice flute. The normal, school instrument, recorder is the soprano in C (in Britain known as the descant) which has a lowest note of c'. Above this are the sopranino in F and the gar klein Flötlein ("really small flute") in C, with a lowest note of c". An experimental 'piccolino' has also been produced in f". Below the soprano are the alto in F (in Britain known as the treble), tenor in C and basset in F (in Britain known as the bass) . Lower instruments in C and F exist (bass in C - in Britain also known as the Great Bass, contrabass in F, subcontrabass in C, and sub-subcontrabass or octo-contrabass in F) but are more rare. They are also difficult to handle: the contrabass in F is about 2 meters tall. The soprano and the alto are the most common solo instruments in the recorder family.

The range of a recorder is about 2 octaves, chromatically. The instrument can be played chromatically over two octaves and a fifth by a skilled player, except for the augmented prime, two octaves and one semitone above the base note. This note is either absent or can only be played by covering the end of the instrument, typically by using one's upper leg or a special bell key. Basically, a recorder is a diatonic instrument, with one hole for each note of the scale of its lowest note, although the upper half of the second octave requires irregular fingerings. Two versions exist, one using the major scale and an older one using the lydian scale.

The chromatic scale degrees are played by so-called "fork" fingerings, uncovering one hole and covering one or more of the ones below it. Fork fingerings have a different tonal character from the diatonic notes, giving the recorder its characteristic woody and somewhat uneven sound.

Today, high-quality recorders are made from a range of different hardwoods, such oiled pear wood, rosewood or boxwood with a fipple of cedar wood. However, many recorders are often made of plastic, which is cheaper, more resistant to condensation, and doesn't require re-oiling. While higher-end professional instruments are almost always wooden, many plastic recorders currently being produced are equal to or better than lower-end wooden instruments. Beginner's instruments, the sort usually found in children's ensembles, are also made of plastic and can be purchased quite cheaply.

Fingering

There are three separate and distinct recorder fingering systems: historical, modern, and German. The best way to differentiate among these three systems is to describe the fingerings they require to play the fourth scale (f' on a soprano recorder) although these systems often require different fingerings for other scale degrees as well, e.g f, f#' and f#.

Historical f': O / 123 / 4–6 / - Modern f': O / 123 / 4–6 / 7 German f': O / 123 / 4–- / -

Historical Fingering

This is the fingering system used by original renaissance (late 16th/early 17th century) and baroque (late 17th/early 18th century) recorders, as well as by some (but by no means not all) modern reproductions of renaissance and baroque recorders. In comparison to modern fingering, which is in fact a latter-day derivative of historical fingering, it requires a simple forked fingering for the fourth scale degree in the first octave. The downside of historical fingering is that the fingering for the fourth scale degree in the second octave is more cumbersome, requiring a half hole by the right ring finger on the sixth tone hole. On some instruments, this fingering can be circumvented by using Ø / 123 / 4–– / 7 instead of Ø / 123 / 4–Ø /–, which is nevertheless still somewhat cumbersome for some players. A further downside to historical fingering is that the raised fifth scale degree in the second octave tends to be rather flat; this is not wholly undesirable if one wishes to play in one of the meantone temperaments, where G# and C# are lower, but it is decidedly a drawback to the great majority of players who attempt to play in some semblance of equal temperament.

There are, of course, substantial differences between historical renaissance and baroque fingerings, since the bores of those instrument types differ radically from one another. One might do well to distinguish between historical renaissance fingerings and historical baroque fingerings, but that could well complicate matters still further. However, it might be worthwhile noting that most surviving original renaissance recorders require a fingering of – / ––– / ––– / – for the second scale degree in the second octave. Since this makes holding on to the instrument a bit problematic, to say the least, most modern makers of renaissance recorders produce instruments which use the standard baroque/modern fingering – –2– / ––– / – for this note. Furthermore, most renaissance recorders use completely different fingerings for the raised fifth, sixth, and raised sixth scale degrees in the second octave than either historical baroque or modern recorders.

Modern Fingering

This term is regrettably used by relatively few people but it is in fact the best word for describing the fingering system that is most widely used today. In the early and mid 20th century, the term English fingering was used to differentiate it from the German fingering system then in use in northern European countries. Today, most players refer to this system as "baroque fingering," but this term is very much a misnomer, seeing as it is most decidedly not the fingering system used in the baroque period or on baroque recorders. As previously discussed this latter system is correctly termed historical or baroque fingering; applying the term "baroque" to modern recorders just confuses the issue. Perhaps pseudo-baroque might be more appropriate.

Modern fingering is the most universal recorder fingering system in use today. It is used for virtually all instruments of modern design, save for a very few vestigial remnant student instruments made in German fingering. Interestingly enough, most custom makers of my acquaintance report that the great majority of orders they receive for reproduction baroque recorders are for instruments with modern rather than historical fingering. Apparently many if not most advanced players wanting to play reproduction historical recorders may well pay lip service to the authenticity of historical fingering and single holes, but when it comes right down to putting their money on the line, they opt for instruments with modern fingering and double tone holes -- which is perhaps not such a bad thing after all!

German Fingering

This was a drastically modified fingering system developed by several German recorder makers working between World War I and World War II. Pioneer makers such as as Peter Harland sought to redesign the recorder so that its fingering for the fourth scale degree in both octaves was identical to that of modern woodwind instruments such as the flute, clarinet, and saxophone. The impetus was quite obviously a pedagogical one: it made the transition from recorder to a modern woodwind much simpler for a schoolchild.

The fingerings for the fourth scale degree in both octaves are identical and greatly simplified from historical recorder fingerings. Unfortunately, these simplifications came at too great a price: the fingerings for the raised fourth scale degree became much more complex and frequently less stable and more out of tune as well, and the raised fifth scale degree in the second became extremely flat, even more so than in historically-fingered instruments. Furthermore, voicing became far more problematic on instruments with German fingering. The end result was that German-fingered recorders were more cumbersome to play in anything other than the keys of C and F, were more out of tune and less stable in intonation, and had a windy, breathy tone quality.

German fingering never caught on very widely outside of Germany, Austria Belgium, Holland, and Switzerland. Even in those countries, its use has declined drastically during the past half century as awareness of its acoustical inadequacies has increased. Relatively few teachers advocate its use any more. Some European makers who once made both German and Mordern

Pan Pipes

Pan pipes (also known as the panflute or the syrinx or quills) is an ancient musical instrument based on the principle of the stopped pipe, consisting usually of ten or more pipes of gradually increasing length. The syrinx (Greek συριγξ) has long been popular as a folk instrument, and is considered the ancestor of both the pipe organ and the harmonica, or mouth organ. The panpipes are named for their association with the rustic Greek god Pan.

The pipes composing it are stopped at one end, so that the sound waves have to travel twice the length of the pipe, giving out a note nearly an octave lower than that produced by an open pipe of equal length. In the traditional style, pipes are fine tuned to correct pitch by placing small pebbles or dry corn kernals into the bottom of the pipes. Contemporary makers of panpipes will use a wax - commonly beeswax - to tune their new instruments.

The pan pipe is played with breath blown horizontally across the open end against the sharp inner edge of the pipes. This creates the regular series of pulses which generate the sound waves within the tubes. Each pipe gives out one note, but by overblowing, that is, increased pressure of breath and tension of lips, harmonics are produced.

The plural of syrinx is syringes, from which the modern word syringe is derived. (Pan pipes is both singular and plural.) Other names for the instrument include panflute and the medieval name fistula panis.

The pan pipes were most recently popularised by the Romanian musician Gheorghe Zamfir, who toured extensively and recorded many albums of pan pipe music, and by several other artists who began recording at the same time. They are also very popular in Peruvian traditional groups and other Andean music.

This simple instrument was used in some songs by The Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, Bee Gees, Agustín Lara, Luis Miguel and Céline Dion.

Ocarina

An ocarina is a wind instrument, closed at both ends to produce an enclosed space, and punctured with four to thirteen finger holes. A mouth tube projects from it, often from the side, and one sound hole is added, usually on the underside of the instrument's body. They are usually earthenware, although inexpensive alternatives made with plastics exist.

History

The ocarina is a very old instrument, believed to date back some 12,000 years. It is of particular importance in Chinese and Mesoamerican cultures (where they are often shaped as animals, many times birds). Its common use in the Western countries dates to the 19th century, when the modern form of the ocarina was invented by Italian Giuseppe Donati. The name is derived from Italian (ocarina 'little goose', for the instrument's resemblance to the head of a bird). The ocarina was believed to be first created when it was discovered that blowing across the mouth of a water vessel or pouring jug that had broken could produce different tonalities when the holes or cracks were (un)covered with the hand or fingers. The Meissen factory in Germany did not make the Ocarina, but allowed local German ocarina-makers to use the Meissen blue and white "onion pattern" as the exterior design.

Classification

The ocarina is not a closed-pipe instrument, contrary to common belief, since the sound is created by resonance of the entire cavity (which is not pipe-shaped). This has different acoustical physics from a pipe. Technically, the cavity acts as a Helmholtz resonator (see below).

Musical performance

The ocarina has an unusual quality of not relying on the pipe length to produce a particular tone. Instead the tone is dependent on ratio of the total surface area of opened holes to the total volume enclosed by the instrument. This means that, unlike a flute or recorder, the placement of the holes on an ocarina is largely irrelevant -- their size is the most important factor.

The resonator in the ocarina is incapable of creating harmonic overtones. This means that the technique of overblowing to get a range of higher pitched notes is not possible with the ocarina, so the range of pitches available is limited.

Different notes are produced by fingering the holes, opening and closing more or less of the total hole area. The tone is then produced through the sound hole. The tone can also be varied by changing the strength with which one blows through the instrument.

Appearance in works

Ocarinas experienced a slight surge in popularity in the last years of the 20th century due to the release of two popular video games for the Nintendo 64, Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time in 1998, and Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask in 2000, in which the hero Link used the instrument to travel through time and magically manipulate his environment.

The ocarina part also features prominently in the theme from the 1966 spaghetti western The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

Oboe

The Oboe is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. It is a descendant of the shawm. The word "oboe" is derived from the French word hautbois, meaning "high woods". It so-named because of the instrument's rather high and reedy sound. A musician who plays the oboe is called an oboist.

Compared to woodwind instruments such as the flute or clarinet, the oboe is very difficult to play and produce a good sound on. Amateur players often produce an unpleasant down right earÉÑ, out-of-tune strident tone that blends badly with other instruments. It was the main melody instrument in military bands before it was ousted by the clarinet.

The oboe has a very penetrating tone which can be heard through other sounds on the concert platform. Because of this, and the fact that its reference pitch cannot be adjusted once the reed is in place in the instrument, it is widely called upon to set the pitch for orchestras, usually by playing concert A (nowadays 440Hz in most orchestras).

The oboe first appeared in French courts around 1650.In the 17th century Jean Hotteterre and Michel Danican Philidor modified the shawm, so that the new oboe had a narrower bore and a reed which is held by the player's lips near the end. Henry Purcell was the first composer to specifically score for it. Careful manipulation of pressure on the reed allows the player to express a huge range of emotions and moods.

The oboe is most commonly made from grenadilla (or African blackwood), but some manufacturers also make oboes out of other members of the dalbergia family of wood (rosewood; violetwood), or even high-quality plastic resin. The oboe has an extremely narrow conical bore, and double reed mouthpiece consisting of two thin blades of cane tied together on a small-diameter metal tube. This setup leads to overblowing at the octave (compared to the clarinet, which overblows a twelfth). The commonly accepted range for the oboe extends from Bb3 to A6, nearly three octaves. Together with the flute/recorder it is one of the oldest woodwind instruments.

The oboe has several sibling instruments. The most widely known today is the cor anglais (English Horn), which evolved from the Baroque oboe da caccia. Both are pitched a perfect fifth lower than the standard oboe. The oboe d'amore, also popular during the Baroque period, is pitched a minor third lower than the oboe. Johann Sebastian Bach used the oboe d'amore extensively. Even less common is the baritone or bass oboe, which sounds an octave lower than the regular oboe. Delius and Holst both scored for it, but today it is almost a museum piece. Instead, the more powerful heckelphone is used.

Long-term professional oboe playing has been claimed to be linked to brain damage because of the allegedly too high air pressure required for playing; in all likelihood this is no more than an urban legend.

Some works featuring the oboe

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Oboe Concerto in C major

Alessandro Marcello, Oboe Concerto in D minor

Antonio Vivaldi, Oboe Concerti

Johann Sebastian Bach, Brandenburg Concertos nos. 1 and 2

Tomaso Albinoni, Oboe Concertos

George Frideric Handel, The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba

Richard Strauss, Oboe concerto

Jazz and Improvised Music

While oboe is rather rare in jazz and free improvisation, there are a few notable players.

Though primarily a tenor saxophone player, Yusef Lateef was among the first and remains, arguably, the preeminent jazz oboeist.

Other performers include:

Lindsay Cooper

Roland Kirk

Paul McCandless

Jug

A jug is a container for liquid, with a handle and an opening for pouring or drinking from.

As a musical instrument, the jug provides a rhythmic bass accompaniment.

Most jug players produce sound by buzzing their lips near the opening of the jug. The pitch is controlled by the tension of the player's lips and the flow of air through them. The jug forms a resonant cavity to modify and enrich the sound from the pure "buzz". In this way a single jug can produce many notes. Some players augment this sound with vocalizations.

The jug band was at the height of popularity in the 1920s, when such bands as Cannon's Jug Stompers were popular. Typically jug bands play folk music, either hillbilly or blues, but the 13th Floor Elevators, a psychedelic band from Texas, featured an "electric jug" in the 1960s.

Jugs will also produce sound at their main resonant tone when air is blown over the top opening. Larger jugs produce a deep musical tone and smaller jugs produce higher pitches. When played in this manner, jugs can play just one note. The pitch and volume are functions of the size and shape of the opening, the speed of the air blown across the top and, most importantly, the volume of air in the jug. That means that the pitch of a jug may be adjusted by adding water in the jug and that even a large jug may produce a higher note if it is mostly full of water.

Crumhorn

The crumhorn is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. It was popular in the Renaissance period. In the 20th century, there was a revival of interest in Early Music and people started to play crumhorns again.

The name derives from the German krumhorn (or krummhorn or krumphorn) meaning bent horn. This relates to the old English crump meaning curve, surviving in modern English in 'crumpled' and 'crumpet' (a curved cake).

The crumhorn is a capped reed instrument. Its construction is similar to that of the chanter of a bagpipes. A double reed is mounted inside a chamber at one end of a long pipe. Blowing into the chamber produces a musical note. The pitch of the note can be varied by opening or closing finger holes along the length of the pipe. One unusual feature of the crumhorn is its shape; the end is bent upwards in a curve, so that the instrument resembles a banana, or more prosaically, the letter J.

Crumhorns sound nothing like a trumpet, something like an oboe, and nothing like a duck. They make a strong buzzing sound. They have a limited range, usually an octave and one note, because it is not possible to get the reed to overblow at higher harmonics, since the reed is not held in the mouth. The previous sentence is not entirely correct since crumhorns can be made to overblow a twelfth, like the clarinet by using the thumbhole or one of the upper keys (if fitted) as a speaker key. They can also be extended downwards by means of additonal holes and sliders or by dropping the pressure. As a result, music for crumhorns is usually played by a group of instruments of different sizes and hence at different pitches. Such a group is known as a consort of crumhorns.

A source of more useful information on this musical instrument can be found on the Crumhorn Home Page at http://www.iinet.net.au/~nickl/crumhorn.html

Bassoon

The bassoon is the tenor member of the woodwind family. Like the oboe it has a double reed and overblows an octave higher. It is considered to have a tone color similar to that of the human voice, particularly in the central and upper register. The bassoon is slightly over 8 feet long. Playing it is facilitated by doubling the tube back on itself and by closing the distance between the widely-spaced holes with a complex system of keywork. It disassembles into five main pieces: the bell, extending upward; the bass (or long) joint, connecting the bell and the boot; the boot (or butt), at the bottom of the instrument and folding over on itself; the wing joint, which extends from boot to bocal; and the bocal (or crook), a crooked metal tube which attaches wing joint to reed.

The instrument is played either by a seated player sitting on a strap attached to the bottom of the instrument, or held with a neck strap. The instrument, in either case, extends diagonally across the player's body, a bit like a saxophone.

The range of the bassoon begins at B♭1 (the first one below the bass staff) and extends upward a little more than three octaves (roughly to the D on the treble staff); higher notes are possible but difficult to produce and rarely called for (the opening solo in The Rite of Spring is one notable example of the extreme high range). Bassoon music is written in bass clef, untransposed, while the tenor clef is frequently used for the high register and, in rare cases, the treble clef. Its closest relative, the contrabassoon (or double bassoon), sounds an octave lower. The bassoon overblows at the octave (above F on the bass clef) with the aid of a "whisper key" (a kind of reverse octave key) that opens in the higher registers.

The double reed used is 53-58 mm in total length, and made of Arundo donax cane. The bassoon (and contra) are alone in the woodwind family in that they are both fingered with Heckel-system keywork, a descendant of the original Baroque fingering system, as opposed to the otherwise ubiquitous Boehm system. An alternate, unrelated, fingering system is used in France; but in the US and most of Europe the Heckel system is dominant.

Works featuring the bassoon

Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Bassoon Concerto in F major, W75

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Bassoon Concerto in B♭ major, K191

Carl Maria von Weber, Andante e Rondo ungarese in C minor, op. 35

Carl Maria von Weber, Bassoon Concerto in F major, op. 75

Igor Stravinsky, The Rite of Spring (opens with a famously unorthodox bassoon solo)

Sergei Prokofiev, Peter and the Wolf (possibly the most-recognized bassoon theme, the part of the grandfather)

Edvard Grieg, In the Hall of the Mountain King

Paul Dukas, The Sorcerer's Apprentice, widely recognized as used in the movie Fantasia

Jazz and Improvised Music

While bassoon is rather rare in jazz and free improvisation, there have been a few notable players:

Karen Borca

Lindsay Cooper

Contrabassoon

The contrabassoon or double bassoon is a larger version of the bassoon sounding an octave lower. Its technique is similar to its smaller cousin, with a few notable differences:

The reed is considerably larger, at 70-75 mm in total length as compared to 53-58 mm for most bassoon reeds.

Fingering is slightly different, particularly at the register change and in the extreme high range.

The instrument is twice as long, curves around on itself several times, and is supported by an endpin due to its weight and shape rather than a seat strap. Additional support is sometimes given by a strap around the player's neck. A wider hand position is also required, as holes are less closely spaced.

There is considerably more air volume required in playing, and the instrument does not respond as quickly.

The contrabassoon has a water key to expel condensation, and a tuning slide for gross pitch adjustments.

The instrument comes in one piece (plus bocal); it does not disassemble.

With a range beginning at B♭0 (extending down a half-step to the lowest note on the piano on instruments with the low A extension), and extending just over three octaves, below middle C, the contrabassoon is the deepest available sound in most orchestras. Accordingly, the instrument is notated an octave above sounding pitch in bass clef, with tenor clef very occasionally called for in high passages. The instrument has a high range extending to middle C, but the top fifth is rarely used. Tonally, it sounds much like the bassoon except for a distinctive organ pedal quality in the lowest octave of its range which provides a solid underpinning to the orchestra. Although the instrument can have a distinct 'buzz', which becomes almost a clatter in the extreme low range, this is nothing more than a variance of tone quality which can be remediated by appropriate reed design changes. While prominent in solo and small ensemble situations, the sound can be completely obscured in the volume of the full orchestra.

History and current use

The contrabassoon was developed in the mid-17th century; the oldest surviving instrument, which came in four parts and had only three keys, was built in 1714. It was around that time that the contrabassoon began gaining acceptance in church music, and by the end of the 18th century it was making its way into British military bands. Often, it was (and still is) called upon to replace parts originally written for the contrabass sarrusophone, which had fallen out of favor for its poor intonation and tone quality. Currently, contrabassoons are made by Heckel, Fox, Wolf, Moennig, Moosman, Püchner, Adler, and Amati (and possibly others). Most orchestras use one contrabassoonist, either as a primary player or a bassoonist who doubles, as do a large number of symphonic bands and wind ensembles.

The first independent contrabassoon part (i.e., not just doubling the bassoons or string basses) was written in Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. While relatively rare, the instrument is most frequently found in larger symphonies, particularly those of Gustav Mahler, Richard Strauss, and Dmitri Shostakovich. Composers have often used the contrabassoon to comical or sinister effect by taking advantage of its clumsiness and its sepulchral rattle, respectively. Clear examples of its sound can be heard in Paul Dukas' Sorcerer's Apprentice and Gunther Schuller's concerto for the instrument. Orchestrally, the contrabassoon is featured in Maurice Ravel's Mother Goose Suite and Concerto for the Left Hand.

Example

An excerpt from the cello suites of J.S. Bach, played on a contrabassoon: contra2.ogg