The bassoon is the bass voice of the woodwind family: a long conical tube folded back on itself, played with a double reed on a curved metal crook. It developed from Renaissance double-reed instruments in the seventeenth century and was reshaped in the nineteenth by two makers’ traditions, the German Heckel system and the French Buffet system, which still differ in bore, keys and fingering.
A tube too long to hold, folded to fit
Low double-reed instruments existed in the Renaissance, among them the dulcian, or curtal, whose bore was drilled in a single block of wood and folded back on itself. Historians generally agree that the bassoon proper, made in several separate joints that allow a more accurate bore, took shape in the later seventeenth century, and that it was closely related to the oboe’s development. The exact makers and dates are not well documented, so any single name would be speculation.
By the eighteenth century the instrument had a few keys, and makers in London, Paris and German towns produced capable models. A C-pitched bassoon by Cahusac of about 1790, now in Edinburgh, plays at roughly A = 415 hertz, a common Baroque and Classical pitch standard. Through the nineteenth century, keys multiplied and the instrument divided into distinct national traditions, leaving players with two main systems today.
Anatomy of a folded cone
Unfolded, the bore of a standard bassoon would run to roughly two and a half metres, and it widens gradually along that length. Most instruments are made of maple, in a wing joint, a boot joint where the tube turns back, a long joint and a flared bell. A bent metal tube called the bocal carries the reed to the wing joint. The tone holes are drilled at angles through thick walls, and numerous keys cover those the fingers cannot reach.
Because the holes are placed for acoustics rather than comfort, much of the mechanism is arranged around the fingers and thumbs. The reed is broader and heavier than an oboe’s, slides directly onto the bocal and is scraped by the player or a maker. Keywork is usually nickel silver or silver plated, and the wood is typically sealed with varnish to resist moisture from the player’s breath.
Buzz, vocal colour and an unusually long air column
Sound begins where it does in the Oboe: two cane blades vibrate against each other, and the air column inside answers. The bassoon’s greater length produces low frequencies, and its wide reed gives the bottom register a slightly buzzing, reedy edge. The Philharmonia Orchestra describes the tone as a buzzing quality in the lowest notes and a sweeter, nasal colour higher up.
The middle and upper range has a warm, singing character often compared to a baritone or tenor voice, and the instrument can soften to a whisper or sharpen into a dry staccato. Composers have exploited this flexibility for comedy, pathos and ceremonial weight, sometimes within a single movement.
Three clefs and a long climb
The bassoon is non-transposing. Its written range commonly runs from B♭1, the lowest note on most instruments, up to about E5, although expert players reach higher. Music for it is written mainly in bass clef, with tenor clef for middle passages and sometimes treble clef for the top, so a bassoonist must be fluent in all three.
The contrabassoon sounds an octave lower than the bassoon, taking the lowest note down to about B♭0. Its tube is folded even more times. In the orchestra it reinforces the bass line of the woodwinds and occasionally adds a low rumble the other instruments cannot provide.
Ten fingers, a seat strap and a singer’s breath
A bassoonist plays seated or standing with the instrument angled across the body, carried on a neck strap or a seat strap, since the weight is considerable. Both thumbs operate banks of keys, and some keys are worked by the little fingers, so all ten digits are in use. The embouchure resembles the oboe’s, though the larger reed asks for more air.
The tuning is refined with the bocal and the reed rather than by sliding joints, and intonation on the lowest notes can depend on careful airflow. Reed making is a large part of practice, since blade thickness strongly affects response and tone.
Heckel and Buffet, two answers to one problem
In 1831 the bassoonist Carl Almenräder and the craftsman Johann Adam Heckel established a workshop at Biebrich, near Wiesbaden, and the instruments that came from it became known as German-system or Heckel bassoons. They combined acoustic revisions with a substantially reworked key layout, which gave greater evenness and power. Most professional players in the world now use this system.
French-system instruments, associated with the Buffet-Crampon firm and the bassoonist Eugène Jancourt from around the 1840s, developed differently: makers refined the older layout step by step and kept a narrower bore. Musicians often describe the resulting tone as more vocal and more reedy. The fingerings differ for many notes, so switching between systems requires real retraining. The French system is now played mainly in France, with smaller pockets elsewhere.
Smaller and larger relatives also exist. The tenoroon, a bassoon pitched higher in F, was produced by makers such as J. N. Savary, and Edinburgh’s catalogue suggests it was probably made mainly so that children could learn bassoon technique. Its two crooks and extra wing let the player move between a pitch of A = 440 hertz and a lower one near 435, a reminder that nineteenth-century pitch standards varied from city to city and instrument to instrument.
Bass line, clown and lyric poet
Orchestras usually carry two or three bassoons. They underpin harmony in the woodwind section, double cellos and basses, and take melodies in their own right, as in the exposed high opening of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring or the plodding theme in Dukas’s The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. The Clarinet and Flute often pass lines down to them when a darker colour is wanted.
Chamber music makes the instrument a colleague. It anchors the wind quintet, pairs with the Oboe and horn, and joins string groups in divertimenti. Concertos include Mozart’s in B♭ of 1774, and Vivaldi wrote some three dozen. Concert bands and wind ensembles also include bassoon parts, where the instrument supplies a dark middle voice between the clarinets and the brass.
Moisture, cork and a long maintenance list
Bassoons accumulate moisture in their long bore, so players swab the instrument after playing, often with a weighted pull-through for the boot joint, and dry the bocal separately. Wood can crack with sudden changes of heat and humidity, which is why cases are kept away from radiators and cars left in the sun.
Cork on the joints and the bocal requires occasional attention, while pads may leak as they age. Adjustments to the many keys are usually entrusted to a technician. Reeds are soaked briefly before use and handled gently, since the blades chip and close easily.
Details worth a second look
- J. N. Savary of Paris, who lived from 1786 to 1853, has sometimes been called the Stradivari of the bassoon. Edinburgh’s catalogue credits him with innovations such as key rollers from 1823.
- The Bate Collection in Oxford holds eight Savary instruments, five from its founding collection and three given in 1972.
- Edinburgh’s Cahusac bassoon carries a wing ferrule stamped for a London sports-goods maker, evidence of a later repair.
- The Wiesbaden city lexicon records that Heckel designed a contrabassoon of about six metres of tubing, with triple bends, near the end of his life.
- The word bassoon derives from the French basson; the Italian fagotto is often said to refer to a bundle of sticks, although that explanation is debated.
Terms used in this entry
- bocal
- The curved metal tube that connects the bassoon’s reed to the body of the instrument.
- boot joint
- The bottom section of the bassoon, where the tube turns back on itself.
- Buffet system
- The French bassoon design, with a narrower bore and a different key layout and fingering.
- contrabassoon
- A larger bassoon sounding an octave lower, with a tube folded several times.
- double reed
- Two thin cane blades tied together that vibrate against each other to start the sound.
- dulcian
- A Renaissance low double-reed instrument with its bore drilled in a single block of wood; also called a curtal.
- Heckel system
- The German bassoon design, developed in Biebrich from 1831, now the most widely used.
- tenor clef
- A clef used for higher passages in bass-register instruments, placing middle C on the fourth staff line.
- wing joint
- The narrow upper section of the bassoon, which receives the bocal.
References
- University of Edinburgh, St Cecilia’s Hall. Bassoon by W Milhouse, circa 1840. collections.ed.ac.uk/stcecilias/record/95998
- University of Edinburgh, St Cecilia’s Hall. Tenor bassoon, nominal pitch: F | JN Savary | 1840. collections.ed.ac.uk/stcecilias/record/95854
- University of Edinburgh, St Cecilia’s Hall. Bassoon, nominal pitch: C | Cahusac | Circa 1790. collections.ed.ac.uk/stcecilias/record/95831
- The Bate Collection, University of Oxford. Bassoons | The Bate Collection. bate.ox.ac.uk/article/bassoon
- City of Wiesbaden (Stadtlexikon). Heckel, Johann Adam. wiesbaden.de/en/stadtlexikon/stadtlexikon-a-z/heckel-johann-adam
- Philharmonia Orchestra. Bassoon Overview. philharmonia.co.uk/resources/instruments/bassoon
Sources were consulted for facts and context; the text is original. See Sources and Methodology.
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