Abstract:
Solo and chamber music have been written for the bassoon throughout its history and some of those pieces are more important in the repertoire than others. Mozart’s Bassoon Concerto in B-flat major, K.191 is the peak of overall importance while Saint-Saëns’ Bassoon Sonata, Op. 168 is an important piece of French bassoon music. Galbraith’s Of Nature is a newer chamber work for double reed quartet. Each piece was written during a different music era and for different stages of development and systems of the bassoon. It is important for bassoonists to know the history of the bassoon as each stage of development had different fingering systems and certain tendencies that effected the sound of the instrument. These differences between each bassoon type can influence the interpretation of a piece. This paper provides a brief biography of each composer, explains the characteristics of each piece, and explains a basic history of the development, differences, and uses of each bassoon type.
