Zelenka certainly wrote wonderful parts for bassoon in his trio sonatas.
Bach wrote a very active bassoon part for Cantata 150 (if my memory
serves) that goes down to low A.
Howell wrote:
I recall reading that R. Strauss and some others (Mahler?) wrote
for flutes with a low Bb. Ergo, someone in Vienna must have been
making such flutes
They are certainly made today. At the time when flutes started to
acquire foot joints, there was no consensus that C should be the
bottom note, and some flutes were made descending as far down as
G--and there were composers who wrote for them! I think Schumann
asks for this note somewhere or other.
What Stravinsky did to bassoonists has caused several generations
to have extra keys added to their instruments, but the bassoonist
who played the premier must have been able to do so with his
existing instrument.
Stravinsky did nothing to bassoonists but exploit the already
established full range of the instrument. He got this, BTW, from
Tchaikovsky, who did not hesitate to write the high D when he wanted
it. My first bassoon had no D speaker key, and I had no trouble
reaching the high C#, D, or Eb. The top E, I admit gave me fits--but
I was just a beginner.
For my money Stravinsky was the greatest writer of bassoon parts
who ever lived--except maybe Vivaldi. S. is certainly the only
composer to treat it, fearlessly, as entirely equal to the other WW,
and I love playing his stuff.
Andrew Stiller
Kallisti Music Press
http://www.kallistimusic.com/
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Harold Owen
1375 Olive Street #402, Eugene, OR 97401
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