THE BASSOON
The bassoon is the bass of the oboe, and it occupies among the wood-wind instruments a position similar to that of the ’cello among the strings. Its upper tones resemble somewhat those of the English horn, while its lower tones are deep and hoarse. Its extreme compass is from the B flat below the bass clef to the F at the top of the treble, but the last four notes are uncertain and of unnatural quality. Music for the bassoon, like that for the ’cello, is written on three clefs—bass, tenor, and treble. Bassoons are employed in pairs in the orchestra. They are used either to fill out the harmonies, to strengthen the bass, or as solo instruments.
The bassoon is capable of a great variety of effects. Its upper register has a pastoral quality, combined with a certain plaintiveness, which makes it suitable to the utterance of gentle grief or melancholy. Composers have frequently availed themselves of the humorous effects to be obtained by making the bassoon play music which ill comports with the quality of its tone. The effect is really funny, though the fun arises, not from the inherent humor of the instrument, but from the incongruity of the singer and the song. The most familiar example of this kind of fun is in the clown’s march in Mendelssohn’s “Midsummer Night’s Dream” music:
There is also a contra-bass bassoon, which sounds an octave lower than the ordinary bassoon. The reader will find that in orchestra scores the bassoons are usually designated by their Italian title, fagotti. This name is applied to the instrument because it resembles two sticks bound together, as in a bundle of fagots.
THE CLARINET
The clarinet is a wind-instrument of wood with a very mellow and beautiful tone. It differs from the oboe chiefly in the construction of its mouth-piece, which contains the sound-producing mechanism. The instruments of the oboe family have mouth-pieces with two vibrating reeds; those of the clarinet family have only one reed. This accounts chiefly for the difference in the character of the tone. The compass of the clarinet is from the E below the treble clef three octaves and a half upward. The notes of the uppermost octave are shrill and are seldom used. They are employed occasionally when a screaming effect is desired. Clarinets are used in pairs in the orchestra, sometimes to fill out harmonies, and frequently for solo effects. There is hardly anything which cannot be done with a clarinet, for the instrument is capable of great agility and brilliancy, and at the same time is the most expressive of all the wind-instruments. It can be played pianissimo or fortissimo through most of its compass, and the most beautiful crescendo and diminuendo effects can be obtained. There is no more familiar example of the high expressiveness of the clarinet than that found in the overture to “Tannhäuser,” where the clarinet intones the pleading passage afterward sung in the first scene by Venus:
