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The bassoon is a double-reed woodwind, the bass of the OBOE
family. Its normal range is from B flat below the bass staff
to the D in the second octave above middle C. The tube, 2.79
m (9 ft 2 in) long, is bent to make a height of 1.22 m (4
ft) and consists of a metal crook on which the reed is placed
and four sections of maple or pearwood: the tenor, the butt,
the bass, and the bell.
In the mid-17th century the woodwind makers in the court of
Louis XIV created the sectional bassoon from the Renaissance
double-bored curtal, and its use immediately spread rapidly
from Jean Baptiste LULLY's orchestra throughout Western orchestras
as the proper woodwind bass for ensembles. The four-keyed
bassoon was standard in Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART's time, but
by the time of Ludwig van BEETHOVEN a six- or eight-keyed
bassoon was in use. Classical composers exploited the bassoon
for effective tenor-range solos and for humorous effects.
Strong national differences in bassoons emerged in the second
quarter of the 19th century. The French, willing to humor
certain difficult tones, applied various mechanical improvements
that made the instrument facile but preserved its highly individual
tone quality. The Germans made (c.1830) radical changes, sacrificing
tone quality for an instrument evenly effective (or ineffective)
in all ranges and at all dynamic levels. After two generations
of diligent development, a German family of instrument makers
produced what became the basic German bassoon of today. It
performed efficiently but produced a warm, rich tone, noticeably
different from that of the French. The German bassoon is used
in America and England and increasingly in other European
countries.
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