Almenraeder, Heckel, and the Development of the Bassoon Wittenberg University Honors Thesis Nicholas Weissman 15 April, 2021 Weissman 1 Introduction The bassoon is one of the most easily recognizable instruments due to both its unique shape and tone quality. Known for its versatility and extensive range, the bassoon has become an indispensable member of wind ensembles, symphony orchestras, and chamber ensembles alike. With the ability to soar on upper register melodies as well as holding down the lowest and darkest of pedal tones, the bassoon is truly a unique instrument. However, this was not always the case. Some of the earliest bassoons were such poor quality that musicians opted for their antiquated counterpart, the dulcian, instead.1 Despite its humble beginnings, the bassoon over hundreds of years and countless skilled craftsmen has been developed into an instrument of high quality, well suited for its solo and orchestral roles. Before exploring the extensive, and somewhat complex, history of the bassoon, a brief overview is in order. The bassoon is a woodwind instrument belonging to the double reed family along with the oboe and English horn, among others. Unlike single reed instruments like the saxophone or clarinet, the double reed of the bassoon is capable of producing a buzzing noise on its own without a mouthpiece. As the player blows through and buzzes the reed, the air and vibrations are transferred through the metal crook, also called a bocal, and into the main body of the instrument through the wing joint. The bassoon comes in four parts which must be air tightly assembled prior to playing. These, in the order of the path of the instrument, are the wing joint, boot joint (also called the butt joint), long joint, and bell. The bassoon has a nearly four and a half foot main tube which is folded on itself. The length of this instrument allows it a wide range from Bb1-F4. A fully chromatic range over three and a half octaves requires a significant number of keys to achieve, between 23-27 on a modern bassoon. The bassoon also cannot be tuned the 1 Will Jansen,. The Bassoon: Its History, Construction, Makers, Players and Music. Weissman 2 same way a flute, clarinet, or even brass instrument can be. On those instruments, a tuning slide or mouthpiece is moved either in or out to change the overall length of the instrument and adjust the pitch. On a bassoon there is no such joint that can be moved in or out to adjust tuning. The player can either opt for a different length bocal if all of the notes are tending one direction, but more often than not bassoonists must be able to adjust the intonation of their pitches as they play. Beyond this, bassoonists must learn their own instrument’s tendencies to know which notes constantly need adjusting, sometimes going as far as using completely different fingerings for a note to keep it in tune. These complexities combine to make the bassoon a rather difficult instrument to learn, but an extremely rewarding one at that. As a bassoonist writing this for bassoonists and nonbassoonists alike, I would like you to keep the following quote from Will Jansen in mind while travelling through the history of the bassoon from invention to modernity: There is something mysterious about the bassoon, not only to the listener but as much to its player. To every real musician, his instrument finally becomes part of himself, also to the bassoon player. And still - all bassoon players, also after a lifetime of playing on this strange instrument, have to admit that their instrument has secrets that it never has disclosed to them, that the bassoon is an instrument with many riddles. In every bassoon, there is hidden something of an unfathomable secret. Into the Soul of this marvellous instrument, nobody, not even the greatest of soloists, can penetrate to the bottom.2 Dulcians, Shawms, and the Development of the Bassoon As with many instruments in the modern orchestra, the history and development of the bassoon is anything but linear. There are several antiquated instruments that share similar qualities or are direct predecessors of the bassoon including the dulcian, shawm, and sarrusophone.3 Although the precise history of the bassoon’s origin is marred by a lack of 2 Ibid. 3 “Bassoon - History.” History - Vienna Symphonic Library. Weissman 3 adequate record keeping and historical documents, it is possible to make sense of the emergence of the bassoon by looking at the various predecessors and the few records that exist. In the simplest terms, the bassoon was developed to fill in gaps and shortcomings of the other instruments of the time. To understand the gap that the bassoon would fill, it is necessary to look at the history of instrumental polyphonic music. Prior to the Renaissance, instrumental music as its own genre was in its most undeveloped stage. The music of these times and before often revolved around vocals and were frequently tied to religious services and occasions. There were certainly still instruments during these periods, but instrumental music itself was essentially nonexistent. The instruments filled mainly roles as accompaniment to the vocal melodies. For example in the Middle Ages, bagpipes, drums, and various horns were often used to accompany singing and dancing. However, it would not be until the 16th century that instrumental music was established in its own genres. In order for instrumental music to rival choral music, significant advancements in the quality and ability of instruments was necessary. Among these was the invention of instrument families which were essentially various sizes of the same instruments in order to vary the range.4 This is easily comparable to the modern saxophone family. The standard saxophone would be the alto with many additional instruments in the family either higher or lower in register including the soprano, tenor, and baritone saxophones, among others. One of these instrument families that was important to the development of the bassoon are the shawms. Some of the earliest records of the shawm date from the 5th century BC in the Etruscan society located in modern day Italy.5 From there it spread East through Persia and into India and China as well as West into Western Africa. During the time of the conquistadors, the 4 Ibid. 5 Alison Latham, The Oxford Companion to Music. Weissman 4 shawm was also taken into Central and South America. This widely used instrument would be reminiscent to modern listeners as a form of oboe. In fact, the oboe developed out of the Shawm into its modern form in France during the 17th century by redesigning the reed and narrowing the internal conical bore.6 This conical bore found in the shawm and oboe will also be present in the bassoon. This unique bore shape provides an acoustic improvement over the cylindrical bore leading to a consistent and full-bodied tone because of the presence of additional overtones in the series.7 Up until the Renaissance, the shawm only really existed in its standard form. But, with the emergence of instrumental music and instrument families, the shawm family was also extended. At its peak, it had seven different ranges from a treble shawm down to the great bass shawm.8 This provided flexibility in performing ensembles and helped progress the development of instrumental music. However, as the range of instruments were extended, practical issues arose in the manufacturing and playing of the instruments. For example, the great bass shawm, with a lowest pitch of F2, was an almost three meter long straight tube.9 Not only was it extremely awkward and unwieldy to play, but further extending the range downward would have resulted in unmanageable fingering problems. The solution was a major development with long-lasting implications for the modern bassoon. Instead of extending the length of the straight tube further, instrument makers of the 16th century began experimenting with folding the tubing of woodwind instruments similar to methods of trumpet and sackbut (trombone) manufacturing. The result was an instrument known as the dulcian which was made from a hollowed out wooden block. The block would have two bores hollowed out that met at the bottom in the form of a ‘U’. 6 “Bassoon - History.” History - Vienna Symphonic Library. 7 Jansen. 8 “Bassoon - History.” History - Vienna Symphonic Library. 9 Ibid. Weissman 5 The dulcian was complete with a conical bore, flared bell, and crook for the double reed making it the clearest and most direct ancestor of the bassoon.10 Figure 1. An incomplete family of shawms consisting of five different pitches. The highest pitched shawm is missing, but the great bass shawm is on the far right. Praetorius Syntagma Musicum, (woodcut) 1620, Oxford music. Along with the advent of the dulcian began the incredibly confusing history of names for the bassoon and similar instruments. Although the dulcian is how we know it, there was very little consistency of instruments from maker to maker. The instruments would all be unique and 10 Jansen. Weissman 6 could even have different ranges depending on the manufacturing. In addition to minute differences in the instrument itself, the name of the instrument varied significantly over geographic locations. Dulcian is the most common, but it was known as the curtall in England, the basson in French, and the fagot in German.11 Basson is the easiest of the names to make sense of, coming from the French ‘bas’ for low and ‘son’ for sounding -- literally “low sounding.” The term fagot or fagott is much more ambiguous however. It is a common misconception in the present day that the word faggot comes from the Italian fagotto which means ‘bundle of sticks.’ Although the modern bassoon does fit this moniker, the justification is implausible.