Cherubini gave the bassoon a solo in his opera of Medea; Gluck gave it a solo in some of his dance music in Orfeo; Rossini opens his Stabat Mater with it; and Weber gave it much to do in his operas. Weber wrote a Concerto for it and also an Andante and Hungarian Rondo. Mendelssohn also was fond of it. Dr. Stone has well summed up his use of this instrument as follows: “Mendelssohn shows some peculiarity in dealing with the bassoon. He was evidently struck not only with the power of its lower register, a fact abundantly illustrated by his use of it in the opening of the Scotch Symphony and with the trombones in the grand chords of the Overture to Ruy Blas, but he evidently felt with Beethoven the comic and rustic character of its tone. This is abundantly shown in the music to the Midsummer Night’s Dream, where the two bassoons lead the quaint Clown’s March in thirds and still farther on in the Funeral March, which is obviously an imitation of a small country band, consisting of clarinet and bassoon, the latter ending unexpectedly and humorously on a solitary low C. In the Orchestra the bassoon also suggests the braying of Bottom. It is worth notice how the acute ear of the musician has caught the exact interval used by the animal without any violation of artistic propriety.”
BASSOON, SYMPHONY SOCIETY OF NEW YORK
Ugo Savolini
Modern composers have delighted in exhibiting the telling qualities of the bassoon. A notable example is in Tschaikowsky’s Pathetic Symphony and in the waltz movement of his Fifth Symphony. In his Marche Slave it is very effective in unison with the violas.
Brahms shows it off well in his C-minor Symphony; Strauss in his Heldenleben, Till Eulenspiegel and Don Juan; and Elgar in his Pomp and Circumstance March and Variations III and IX of the Enigma.
Wagner gets desolation and sorrow out of it; and, occasionally, humor; and Humperdinck makes comic use of it in Hänsel and Gretel, where it frequently comments on what is happening on the stage.
The bassoon gives long sustained notes, shakes and staccato notes, which are “dry” and grotesque. The English and French name bassoon and basson refer to its pitch in the bass; but the Italians and Germans call it Fagotto and Fagott, because they think in shape it resembles a bundle of sticks, or fagots.
To-day there are usually three bassoons in the Orchestra,—the first and second bassoon and the double-bassoon.