Bassoon Family
Bassoons
Contrabassoons
Bassoons
During the Renaissance period, reed instruments in the lower sound ranges became popular; they were made less unwieldy by curving the sound tubes. The immediate predecessor of the bassoon was the bass curtal (the picture below shows three modern curtals).
Two Bass and One Tenor Curtals made by Leslie Ross
The Italian name for the bassoon (fagotto) means "a bunch of tubes," although there are only two.
Early bassoons were made in many sizes, but the lower ones have always been the most popular. These early bassoons were built essentially the way today's bassoons are, except they were built in one piece. The sound tube was conical, widening down the tube to the U-joint, then upward to the bell, and there were 6 to 8 soundholes, and 1 or 2 keys.
During the time of Louis XIV, the French insrument-making family of Jean Hotteterre began building the instruments in pieces, so they could more precisely control the bore and the placement of the tone-holes. At the end of the eighteenth century, there were about 3 keys, but with the romantic period, and the need to be able to produce all chromatic notes, the number of keys grew to about 8. From that point on, bassoons developed in France kept the same design with only minor, practical improvements, whereas those developed in Germany (especially those built by the Heckel family) were modified extensively: harder woods like rosewood were used, and changes were made to the bore, the shape and position of the holes, the entire mechanical apparatus, and the keys.
Bassoon
Sound, Crooks, and Joints
Bassoons are built in four sections in addition to the mouthpiece: the tenor, or wing, joint; the double, or butt, joint, where the air column curves around; the bass joint, and the bell. The sound tube itself is about 2.4 meters (8 feet) long. The problem of being able to reach the soundholes is addressed in the bassoon by boring the channels for the holes obliquely through a thicker section of wood in the tenor joint such that the holes are closer together on the outside than they are on the inside. Today, all four joints have keys.
Contrabassoons
Early in the seventeenth century, there were already bassoon-like instruments that played even lower than the bassoon. Although some composers exploited it honorably (Haydn's oratorio The Creation, Beethoven's fifth and ninth symphonies, Wagner's Parsifal), it was not used much because it was considered too limited. Around 1880, Heckel improved the instrument considerably, and since then it has been used regularly. It is pitched in C, an octave below the bassoon. The sound tube of a modern contrabassoon is nearly six (6) meters long, and is folded into four parts. There is a metal bell at the end, that is somewhat outcurved, that faces downward. It is supported on the floor (see picture).
The picture below shows a bassoon similar to the one in the picture above, alongside a contrabassoon.
Information Sources
Information on this page was derived from the following sources:
Kruckenberg, Sven (1993): The Symphony Orchestra and its Instruments. Gothenburg, Sweden: AB Nordbok (Crescent Books edition distributed by Random House).
Wade-Matthews, Max (2000): The World Encyclopedia of Musical Instruments. London, UK and New York, NY: Lorenz Books.
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