On Jun 23, 2007, at 6:46 PM, Daniel Wolf wrote:
John Howell wrote:
"As Andrew kindly pointed out, that bassoon altissimo E was possible
on the bassoons of the time, but was hardly standard usage!! "
I have a question about the bassoon in Le Sacre: does anyone have a
strong opinion as to whether the instrument Stravinsky had in mind was
a French or German-style instrument?
He was writing in France, for a French orchestra, and he had to have
known that, whatever his preferences, the French bn. would be used.
The French and German bns. sound so radically different that IMO they
ought to be considered different instruments. They even have different
fingering systems and different ranges (the French bn. can go up to
f''--Xenakis calls for this note quite a few times). In recordings, it
is very easy to mistake the French bn. for a saxophone--because the
saxophone was developed precisely to stand in for the double-reeds
outdoors.
The French bn. is now limited to France, and is losing ground even
there. Formerly it was used in a number of other countries, notably
Italy and, I think, Russia.
And for anyone wondering how to get Xenakis's f''s on a German bassoon,
the answer is to bite the reed. I can even get a g'' that way, and
have written it--with explicit instructions to bite the reed.
Andrew Stiller
Kallisti Music Press
http://www.kallistimusic.com/
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