What is a contrabassoon in music?
What is a contrabassoon in music?
The contrabassoon, or double bassoon, is an ungainly double-long bassoon playing an octave lower, which is very long and low indeed.
What type of music is the bassoon played in?
Appearing in its modern form in the 19th century, the bassoon figures prominently in orchestral, concert band, and chamber music literature, and is occasionally heard in pop, rock, and jazz settings as well.
Is a bassoon a high sounding instrument?
The bassoon’s double reed gives it a rich, slightly buzzing quality in the lowest notes and a sweet nasal sound higher up. Bassoons can be extremely expressive as solo instruments and their warm vibrato enables them to sound remarkably human, a little like a resonant baritone singer.
Is the bassoon the hardest instrument to play?
The bassoon is one of the most difficult instruments in the orchestra to play, but people just don’t take it seriously. That’s not surprising when you get a glimpse of the thing: It’s a double-reed instrument that looks like someone turned a bong into a saxophone.
How expensive is a contrabassoon?
The average bassoon will fall into the $5,000 to $11,000 price range.
| Brand | Price Range |
|---|---|
| Fox Renard Bassoon | – Model 240: $9,000 – Model 220: $7,800 – Model 680: $30,000 – Model 601: $30,000 – Model 660 Professional: $28,000 – Model II: $29,000 – Contrabassoon: $30,000 |
What instrument has the deepest sound?
The contrabassoon is a very deep-sounding woodwind instrument that plays in the same sub-bass register as the tuba, double bass, or contrabass clarinet.
What instrument is hardest to learn?
Top 10 Hardest Instruments to Play
- French Horn – Hardest Brass Instrument to Play.
- Violin – Hardest String Instrument to Play.
- Bassoon – Hardest Woodwind Instrument to Play.
- Organ – Hardest Instrument to Learn.
- Oboe – Hardest Instrument to Play in a Marching Band.
- Bagpipes.
- Harp.
- Accordion.
Why is bassoon so difficult?
They’re fairly finicky instruments as these things go — temperamental reeds, loads and loads of possible fingerings for some notes (that all sound ever so slightly different), etc. The fingerings themselves are complicated by woodwind standards, especially in the tenor/lower high register.
What is the most expensive bassoon?
What is the Most Expensive Bassoon? Currently, the most expensive you can find online is the Fox Model 920 Contrabassoon, at a price of around $35,000.
Which is larger the bassoon or the contrabassoon?
The contrabassoon is a bigger variant of the bassoon, an octave lower. The broad blades provide enough vibration to sustain the instrument’s low register. The reed is significantly larger, with a total length of 65–75 mm and a width of 20 mm.
Is there a thinning of sound in the contrabassoon?
There is a “thinning” of the sound in extreme high register, as in all double reeds, but unlike oboe and bassoon which become more penetrative and “intense” in this register, the contrabassoon’s sound becomes less audibly substantial and is easily drowned out.
What’s the difference between a bassoon and a reed?
Differences from the bassoon. The reed is considerably larger than the bassoon’s, at 65–75 mm (2.6–3.0 in) in total length (and 20 mm (0.8 in) in width) as compared to 53–58 mm (2.1–2.3 in) for most bassoon reeds. The large blades allow ample vibration that produces the low register of the instrument.
What kind of music was The Contrabassoon used for?
Some notable early uses of the contrabassoon during this period include in J.S. Bach’s St. John’s Passion (1749 and 1739-1749 versions), and G.F. Handel’s L’Allegro (1740) and Music for the Royal Fireworks (1749). Until the late 19th century, the instrument typically had a weak tone and poor intonation.