The Bassoon How It Works

This book provides students and music teachers with a comprehensive overview of the bassoon from its origin to its use and important facts not covered in traditional method books. It can be used concurrently with any method book, expanding the learning experience beyond “learning how to play” to include all topics relevant to the bassoon. These topics include: The parts of the instrument How it works The different kinds of bassoons How it’s made How to care for it Planning a practice session A survey of the history of woodwind instruments The accessories needed to play the instrument An appendix includes a discussion of the science of sound, a glossary of woodwind instrument terms, a dictionary of the subject instrument terms, an illustrated index of the subject instrument parts, and an instrument ownership record. This provides greater insight into that instrument’s relationship to others in its family and to those companion instruments with which the player will be working. The enrichment results in a well-rounded musician instead of one who can just play an instrument.

For nine seasons Rainn Wilson played Dwight Schrute in the The Office (U.S.). Viewers fell in love with the character and grew to love the actor who played him even more. In The Bassoon King, he tells his own story and explains how he came up with his incredibly unique sense of humor and perspective on life. The book chronicles his journey from super-nerddom to drama, his years of mild debauchery and struggles as a young actor in New York, his many adventures, and insights about The Office which fans of both Wilson and the show will love.

This welcome volume encompasses the entire history of the bassoon, from its origins five centuries ago to its place in twenty-first-century music. James Kopp draws on new archival research and many years' experience playing the instrument to provide an up-to-date and lively portrait of today's bassoon and its intriguing predecessors. He discusses the bassoon's makers, its players, its repertory, its myths, and its audiences, all in unprecedented detail. The bassoon was invented in Italy in response to the need for a bass-register double-reed woodwind suitable for processionals and marching. Composers were quick to exploit its agility and unique timbre. Later, during the reign of Louis XIV, the instrument underwent a major redesign, giving voice to its tenor register. In the early 1800s new scientific precepts propelled a wave of invention and design modifications. In the twentieth century, the multiplicity of competing bassoon designs narrowed to a German (or Heckel) type and a French type, the latter now nearly extinct. The author examines the acoustical consequences of these various redesigns. He also offers new coverage of the bassoon's social history, including its roles in the military and church and its global use during the European Colonial period. Separate historical chapters devoted to contrabassoons and smaller bassoons complete the volume [Publisher description].

Drawings and photographs complement step-by-step explanations of reedmaking techniques, making every procedure clear. Rather than present an onerous shopping list, the chapter on tools gives a thorough tour of Skinner's workbench, explaining the uses of various items and what can be used as substitutes. Throughout, instructions are given in clear language, not just outlining steps to follow but explaining he principles behind the practice. In addition to basic reed types, a number of variations are treated in detail, as is the making of contrabassoon reeds. Finally, every effort has been made to make this book practical for use at the workbench--in a secure binding that will allow the pages to stay open (without the use of clothespins) and in print large enough to permit easy consultation when the reader's hands are occupied with cane and knives and glue and wire.

The Chester Bassoon Anthology presents 12 popular works for Bassoon with Piano accompaniment. The selected works are taken from the major exam board syllabuses, spanning Grades 5 to 8 and beyond. As well as the joint piano and bassoon score, a dedicated bassoon score is included along with performance notes by Amy Harman. The tracks included are: - Fantasio [Robert Bariller] - Sonata For Bassoon And Piano [Richard Rodney Bennett] - Notturno for Bassoon and Piano [Robert Clérisse] - Sonata No. 1 in C Major, Op. 24 [François Devienne] - Romance, Op. 62 [Edward Elgar] - Piece for Bassoon and Piano [Gabriel Fauré] - 12 Danzas Espanolas [Enrique Granados] - Bassoon Concerto [Joseph Horovitz] - Sonata in Bb Major, K. 292 [W. A. Mozart] - Pièce En Forme De Habañera [Maurice Ravel] - Sonatine Sportive, Op. 63 [Alexander Tcherepnin] - Scherzo-Kolomyjka [Hynek Vokáček]

The early chapters deal with the origins and historical development of the bassoon, with a wealth of detail, illustrations, and fingering charts. The work of Almenräder, the Heckels, Adler, Jancourt, and Triebert is emphasised for their part in the progress made during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, with improvements in keywork and design. Full account is taken, too, of how the bassoon has been employed by various composers from 1600 until the present day. The sections on acoustics, materials, and reeds will enable the student to grasp the peculiar tone-quality and characteristics of the instrument; while the final chapters discuss technique and capabilities, with notes on celebrated players. --Jacket.

Beata Bolesławska presents the first book on the life and artistic output of one Poland's leading composers. The account of the composer's life is based on numerous archival documents as well as the personal accounts contributed by his family and friends. Panufnik's compositional style and techniques are also analysed. This book will be of interest not only to those devoted to Panufnik, but also those interested in the relationship between music and politics in the former communist regimes in Eastern Europe.

Withheld by leading pedagogues in an effort to control competition, the art of reed making in the early 20th century has been shrouded in secrecy, producing a generation of performers without reed making fluency. While tenets of past decades remain in modern pedagogy, Christin Schillinger details the historical pedagogical trends of bassoon reed making to examine the impact different methods have had on the practice of reed making and performance today. Schillinger traces the pedagogy of reed making from the earliest known publication addressing bassoon pedagogy in 1687 through the publication of Julius Weissenborn's Praktische Fagott-Schule and concludes with an in-depth look at contemporary methodologies developed by Louis Skinner, Don Christlieb, Norman Herzberg, and Lewis Hugh Cooper. Aimed at practitioners and pedagogues of the bassoon, this book provides a deeper understanding of the history and technique surrounding reed-making craft and instruction.