Woodwind Family (Bassoon)

[Kevin]

The bassoon has been around for many years and has undergone quite an evolution from the early models. It is played, as is the oboe, by blowing across a double reed.

They are made from wood. Bassoon's are capable of playing in many styles. Their low register is very sonorous. The central register is used for the more melodic passages and the upper for mainly solo work as it is a little quieter.

Mozart's Concerto shows the flexibility of the instrument



Stravinsky used the upper register in the opening of the Rite of Spring.



Contra Bassoon

I'll wager that Bach did not think his music would be played like this!



There are many ensembles for Bassoon's,

[Kevin]

There are a few smaller instruments that are mainly used for students.

Attachments:

[ceg]

On the possible / practical ranges of the instrument, I would actually transpose the practical register down a tone, and go from low Bb (two leger lines) to the F above middle C. "F below middle C" is actually all fingers off (effectively) and the instrument overblows at the octave, so the "break" occurs between F and F# (at both octaves).

Above the F above middle C, moving chromatically you tend to change either the RH fingers or the LH fingers alternately, which has the corollary that movement by semitone is easier at the top end than movement by tone (where you have to change fingers in both hands).

At grade 6 ABRSM, up to a top A should cause few problems, and at Grade 8, up to the C above middle C (the Mozart concerto goes up to a top Bb and is often a grade 8 piece).

Often a good guide (and not just for bassoon ranges) is to look at the scales associated with the ABRSM grades and knock a tone off the top of them to work out "practical" ranges for varying levels of competence.

Melodically / soloistically, treat the bassoon mainly as a tenor instrument with a similar range to the human tenor voice and you won't go too far wrong.

[Deleted]

I have only heard from one player concerning this part for
contrabassoon, and he wrote that the part is playable albeit the shakes
don't sound all that great because of the tempo and that they straddle a
break in the register. The shakes are doubled by a tenor bassoon to
give them umph. Of course, a sound sample in Sibelius can play back the
part, but I wonder if anyone here can give me feedback as to whether I
should include the part if I wish to compose the piece such that live
players could negotiate it?

[ceg]

Not totally sure from a contra-bassoon perspective, but I think the fingering at this register is the same as for a bassoon and yes, it would be a bit of a brute on the bassoon(see my comments on the "break" for a bassoon, above). Would a semitone lower (F E F E F etc.) rather than F Gb F Gb F etc. produce a similar effect, but be a lot easier to play? Or take it down an octave? Having said that, the following contra fingering chart gives an alternative fingering for the F that would make it easy:

trentjacobs.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/contrabassoon-chart.pdf.

So I guess the answer is "possibly"

By the way, in bar 31, you also have the interesting dynamic marking MFF...

[ceg]

Had a very quick reply from Mr Trent - the "long" fingering for F in many ways is to be preferred, so from a fingering perspective, no problems

[Deleted]

Thanks very much for the swift feedback and the link to the fingering chart. I'm feeling more confident of the part now; I just hope that any possible tonal roughness will even itself out in the blend between bassoon and contrabassoon. BTW, the MFF dynamic is intentional (albeit might better have been hidden). I use an alternative set of playback dictionary entries for dynamics. Here it is:

pppp    =    29/20
ppp    =    39/30
pp    =    49/40
p    =    54/45
mpp    =    60/50
mp    =    66/55
mmp    =    70/65
mmf    =    77/70
mf    =    84/75
mff    =    90/80
f    =    100/90
ff    =    110/100
fff    =    117/110
ffff    =    127/119

I find that with a more fine-grained dynamic spectrum I am able to get better control. You can learn more about my approach to sheetmusic playback at my Google+ page and at my Youtube channel.

Sheetmusic Playback of Original Music
Getting string samples to sound realistic
Getting string samples to sound realistic - Two

[Ed Sharpe]

Apr 29, 2014 0:57:02 GMT @almound said:

...

pppp    =    29/20
ppp    =    39/30
pp    =    49/40
p    =    54/45
mpp    =    60/50
mp    =    66/55
mmp    =    70/65
mmf    =    77/70
mf    =    84/75
mff    =    90/80
f    =    100/90
ff    =    110/100
fff    =    117/110
ffff    =    127/119

...

Interesting list of dynamic markings: I have used the following set of extending markings in my own music:

ppp! (soft as possible)
ppp
ppp+/pp-
pp
pp+/p-
p
p+/mp-
mp
m
mf
mf+/f-
f
f+/ff-
ff
ff+/fff-
fff
fff! (loud as possible)

Note: I do have not set these up in the playback dictionary as I do all of my final rendering in Sonar and not Sibelius.