Tag: bassoon

Bassoon in the stratosphere

While dealing with insomina (again), I came across a rather amazing YouTube video that features a wild (but certainly creative) alteration to a bassoon that allows it to easily play many previous difficult (if not impossible) fingerings and also allows it to play in the stratosphere. While the following video may not be the most musical, it certainly is amazing – the guy seems to be able to play the A above the TREBLE CLEF (!) with ease! I don’t know of any bassoonist who can do that! I once figured out a fingering for the C above that but I literally had to use an extremely hard reed and had to bite down on it with my teeth (ugh)! While I wrote that fingering down (maybe I’ll post it here someday), I don’t think I could stand to play it now – makes my teeth hurt just to think about it!

BTW, the guy who altered the bassoon also posted the “composition” he created to show it off – I’ve posted it below the video. Absolutely unbelievable!

Musical Notation for the Screechy Bassoon

Oboes, football, and Chester Pitts

I was about to call it a night when  a good friend of mine (an oboist) sent me a link to a YouTube video that just appeared as a commercial during the Super Bowl. While I haven’t had TV (hate it) for a very long time, and am not a football fan (could never understand what throwing a strange looking ball around and smashing people was so exciting), the video was great! As you’ll notice below, it shows Chester Pitts, a football player, performing on the oboe and getting ribbed for playing the instrument. I’ve got admit, it’s a great commercial! Now, if someone would only do the same for the bassoon!

Some really nice kids

I’ve been fortunate in having many really fine young people as bassoon students. As a rule they have all been exceptionally polite, well-mannered, and hardworking kids. One of the favorite parts of my week include the times when I’m giving private lessons: it’s always a joy to pass on the love of playing bassoon to others. Of all the things I do, nothing gives me as much pleasure than playing – whether it be one on one with a student, playing chamber music, or performing a symphony. Late yesterday afternoon, one of my students called because he had a sudden conflict with his work schedule (he’s a high school kid and just obtained his first job) that prevented him from playing Beethoven’s First Symphony last night. He called me in order to fill in for him (it’s almost hard to believe that there are kids like him that are responsible enough to do such a thing) and I agreed as I really wasn’t doing much else. Besides the fact that I basically sat through the concert cold (in other-words, I hadn’t rehearsed with the group first), it was an enjoyable experience. What was so impressive; however, is that I had other students (it was an orchestra made up of high school kids) come up to me afterwards and thanked me for playing with them. I can’t tell you what a joy it was to find such a fine group of well-mannered young musicians. In this day and age of kids into punk rock, gross disrespect for others, and other narcissistic behaviors, having a kid come up to me just to say “thank you” was a breath of fresh air!

Contraforte

Okay, I thought I had seen just about everything but a German maker, Guntram Wolf, has created a redesigned contrabassoon which he is calling the “Contraforte!” I came across this wonderful beast while searching through bassoon bulletin boards. The contraforte claims to have a larger dynamic range that the “traditional” instrument as well as a range that remains stable over 4 1/2 octaves. After listening to the complete recording (!) of Victor Bruns’ Concerto for Contrabassoon and Orchestra op. 98 (a piece that I have not been aware of until now), I’ve got to admit that the contraforte has a wonderful sound! Wow! A link to this instrument, that includes MP3’s of the concerto may be found here. The performance is stellar and, I’ve got  to admit, is really very cool! 🙂

Bassoon Stuff Continued

In my last post, I discussed some of the various brands of bassoons that are currently available (although I most certainly did not review all of them). With that in mind, I think I’ll continue with that theme before I wander onto other related topics.

In searching through things on the ‘net, I’ve come across several other makers including (but not limited to): Amati (Czech), Bell (Canada), Jupiter (US), Leitzinger (Germany), Nobel, Schweizer (Brazil), and Walter (Germany).

In my review of some of these makers, several seem to stand out. Bell bassoons receive high marks, Lexinger are made by a former Heckel employee and are constructed from Sycamore (very unusual as wood bassoons are nearly always made from maple), and Walter. Amati appears to have carved out a niche in the low-end market. I know nothing about Schweizer bassoons (although I’m not impressed with their photos). Nobels are rubber (!) bassoons that are manufactured in China – apparently, they’re fairly decent low-end horns; some have a very UGLY key guard on the boot joint (over the Bb mechanism) with their brand name filigreed on it.

Then there are the huge number of “mystery” bassoons coming out of China for which many of their actual makers cannot be determined (or at least I cann’t seem to find them) including: Hadyn, Lark, K-Knight, Laurel (found on Amazon.com), Rex, Hunter, and Xinghai (found on eBay and elsewhere). As expected, there appears to be very little information on all of these with the exception of Laurel and Xinghai (which are available from a variety of sources).

Moving on to other types of bassoons (excluding contras as those are worthy of their own posts on this blog), I came across something called “mini-bassoons” – instruments made specifically for little kids. While the bassoon has historically appeared in different sizes (e.g., the tenoroon), others are now making them for kids whose hands are far too small for the real thing. Specifically, the “mini-bassoon” manufactured by Howarth’s of London. These bassoons are pitched either a fourth or a fifth higher (in F or G, respectively)  and are designed for kids between 6 and 9 years of age. They are surprisingly expensive – between $3,700 and $4,000 USD (Heck, that’s almost as much as a low-end Fox)! Why would anyone spend that kind of money for an instrument to put in the hands of children so young? Furthermore, what are they going to play? As these are not pitched in C (as are real bassoons), there is simply no music (in an ensemble setting) which can accommodate these instruments. Of course, that doesn’t apply to the use of these as practice instruments in which case regular etudes and other study materials could still be used (although these will, of course, be played at a higher pitch than real bassoons). Just the same, an adult player might have some fun with these – they might make a great instrument to take on a hike!  🙂

One last thing – I just found a few sound clips featuring “mini-bassoons”on Howarth’s web site. You’ll want to click on the link to hear them – kinda fun, really!