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! 🙂
Tag: contrabassoon
eBay and Contrabassoon
I tend to monitor eBay for various items and I’ve also sold quite a few things as part of my ongoing online “garage sale.” eBay makes it rather simple to get rid of unused/old items so it’s been somewhat of a blessing to use. Today, just by chance, I found a new contrabassoon for sale – it sold for a mere $1,025.00 (it really did). However, the catch was that it comes from China and that the seller told another bid (I didn’t bid) that shipping was an astounding $3,800! I then did a Google search for Chinese contrabassoons and that only turned up one other reference which discussed another example, just a month ago, about a similar eBay sale. Who knows if the horn will play? Just the same, it’s interesting that the Chinese are now making one of the most obscure of all western orchestral instruments: the contrabassoon. I wonder who the maker is and how long it will be before someone posts a review on this latest Asian import.