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UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES
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3 1293 010219
This is to certify that the
dissertation entitled
THE EVOLUTION OF BASSOON FINGERING SYSTEMS:
AN HISTORICAL AND PRACTICAL SURVEY
presented by
William Louis Peebles
has been accepted towards fulï¬llment
of the requirements for
D.M.A. degree in Bassoon Performance
W
Major professor
Date August 3, 1994
MSU Ls an Afï¬rmattw Action/Equal Opportunity Institution 0 12771
LIBRARY
Michigan State
University
PLACE II RETURN BOXtomnavow-ohockouttmm yum.
To AVOID FINES return on or baton data duo.
DATE DUE DATE DUE DATE DUE
THE EVOLUTION OF BASSOON FINGERING SYSTEMS:
AN HISTORICAL AND PRACTICAL SURVEY
BY
William Louis Peebles
A DISSERTATION
Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of
DOCTOR OF MUSICAL ARTS
School of Music
1994
ABSTRACT
THE EVOLUTION OF BASSOON FINGERING SYSTEMS:
AN HISTORICAL AND PRACTICAL SURVEY
BY
William Louis Peebles
Popular criticism of the modern bassoon's key mechanism
as bizarre or illogical is based on a fundamental misinter-
pretation of the instrument's history. The bassoon has
developed, not in a linear fashion, but as the result of a
complex interweaving of the creative efforts of instrument
makers, performers, and composers. That the resulting
fingering system appears to be illogical does not mean that
its development was irrational. Rather, bassoon makers at
all moments in the instrument's history have responded
intelligently and thoughtfully to the demands and
opportunities of the day.
A flaw in traditional histories of the bassoon is the
tendency to focus on the number of keys, without considering
the process by which they were developed. The practical
advantages to be gained by the addition of each new key and
the repercussions of early choices on subsequent design are
not adequately addressed. Inconsistencies in terminology
and fingering charts have further inhibited a reasoned
understanding of the bassoon's development.
This study examines the modern bassoon's fingering
system from its medieval origins to the present day. Each
innovation is evaluated in terms of its application to
specific problems of performance. Evidence is drawn from a
variety of historical and modern sources, both pictorial and
literary, as well as the author's experience in playing
examples of the various types of instruments discussed.
Fingering charts corresponding to each stage of the
bassoon's development are thoroughly compared and a new
method of notating fingerings is presented in order to
simplify such comparisons for the reader.
Copyright by
William Louis Peebles
1994
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to acknowledge the support and assistance
of the following individuals, without whose understanding
and encouragement the project would never have been
completed:
Dr. Edgar L. Kirk, Professor Emeritus, Michigan State
University, for his invaluable guidance and patience as
teacher, mentor, and friend;
Dr. Rosalie Schellhous, Associate Professor, Michigan
State University, for her critical readings of the text, her
proddings to rethink and revise, and for gently nudging this
fledgling out of the nest;
Dr. Eldred Spell, Assistant Professor, Western Carolina
University, for his insight into the manufacture and
performance of early instruments, his readings of the text,
and his judicious needling to "get it done;"
Dr. Robert Kehrberg, Chairperson, Department of Music,
Western Carolina University, for his encouragement and his
flexibility in helping me find time for the conclusion of
this project;
Dr. Maxie Beaver, Professor, Western Carolina
University, and Ken Overton, for their helpful suggestions
and readings of various drafts;
V
Mrs. William E. (Pat) Clark, of Mason, Michigan, whose
generous gift of her late husband's krummhorns and kortholts
made hands-on experience with Renaissance instruments
possible;
Dr. Ronald Klimko, Professor of Bassoon, University of
Idaho, and Mr. Chip Owen, Fox Products, for their help in
providing information about Reform-system bassoons;
Mr. Laurence Libin, Curator of Musical Instruments, The
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, for permission to
study the Heckel-Gatz bassoon;
Mom and Dad, who over the years have found more
extraneous commas, split infinitives, and creative spellings
than anyone, but whose patience and support never failed;
Finally, a word of thanks to those rare and treasured
friends who never asked "Are you still in grad school?"
vi
PREFACE
This project began as the innocent though somewhat
frustrated question of a young bassoonist, "Why is the
fingering for c# so awkward?" Years later, when a doctoral
thesis topic was needed, this question again came to mind.
From it came the idea to redesign the c#-key to make the
bassoonist's life easier. This project soon grew into a
general revision of the key mechanism based on a compromise
between my desire to preserve the bassoon's characteristic
tone color and my goal of eliminating that inconvenient c#
and all the other awkward fingerings.
The present work was initially conceived as the
historical background for that larger project. My research
led me into the fascinating history of nineteenth-century
experimental bassoons. My admiration of the wonderful key
mechanisms of these unusual instruments was soon surpassed
by my curiosity as to their relatively minimal impact on
bassoon manufacture. How could such clever and intricate
keywork fail to captivate nineteenth-century bassoonists as
it had me? Thus the idea of a brief historical overview
developed into the present attempt to reconstruct, from
pictorial, written, and physical evidence, the critical
vii
issues in the development of the bassoon's curious fingering
patterns.
In developing this project, I have been interested not
so much in when a key was added, for which there is often
ample evidence, but why, for which only rarely is there
evidence of any type. To answer these questions, I found it
necessary to draw on a variety of sources: pictorial
evidence of early bassoons, descriptions and fingering
charts from early bassoon tutors, photographs and written
descriptions of surviving instruments in various museum
catalogs, and my own examination and performance of various
historical instruments.
General histories of wind instruments provided important
information about the bassoon's development in relation to
similar trends in other instruments. Of these, the most
useful were those by Anthony Baines, Adam Carse, Karl
Geiringer, Sibyl Marcuse, and Curt Sachs.l In addition,
there are several more specific histories of the bassoon
that provided a wealth of detail. Gunther Joppig's history
of the oboe and bassoon, although aimed at a popular
1 Anthony Baines, Woodwind Instruments and their
History, revised ed. (New York: W. W. Norton, 1962); Adam
Carse, Musical Wind Instruments: A History (London:
Macmillan, 1939); Karl Geiringer, Musical Instruments: Their
History in Western Culture, second ed., trans. Bernard
Miall, ed. W. F. H. Blandford (London: George Allen & Unwin,
1945); Sibyl Marcuse, A Survey of Musical Instruments (New
York: Harper 5 Row, 1975); Curt Sachs, The History of
Musical Instruments (New York: W. W. Norton, 1940).
viii
audience, is beautifully illustrated.2 A short history of
the bassoon by Wilhelm Heckel, a proprietor of the world—
renowned Heckel firm, also contains very interesting
illustrations.3 The two most extensive books on the bassoon
were written by enthusiastic amateur players: Will Jansen,
a Dutch engineer, and Lyndesay Langwill, an accountant from
Scotland.4 Although voluminous and profusely illustrated,
Jansen's book is of questionable value because of its
disorganization, errors, and unsupported personal opinion.5
Almost thirty years old now, Langwill's thorough and well-
organized work is still regarded as the standard work on the
bassoon. Langwill also compiled an invaluable inventory of
information about historical instrument makers; the new
(1993) edition, edited by William Waterhouse, is superb.6
2 Gunther Joppig, The Oboe and the Bassoon, trans.
Alfred Clayton (Portland, Oregon: Amadeus Press, 1988).
3 Wilhelm Hermann Heckel, The Bassoon (Wiesbaden:
Wilhelm Heckel, 1931; trans. Lyndesay G. Langwill, rev. and
ed. Douglas Waples, Greenfield, Ohio: Journal of Musicology
Reprint, 1940).
4 Will Jansen, The Bassoon: Its History, Construction,
Makers, Players and Music, five vols. (Buren, The
Netherlands: Fritz Knuf, 1978-84); Lyndesay G. Langwill, The
Bassoon and Contrabassoon, Instruments of the Orchestra
(London: Ernest Benn, 1965).
5 For a critique, see Gerald E. Corey, review of The
Bassoon, Its History, Construction, Makers, Players and
Music, by Will Jansen, Double Reed 2, no. 5 (October 1980):
9-10.
5 Lyndesay G. Langwill, An Index of Musical Wind
Instrument Makers, sixth edition (Edinburgh: Lindsay, 1980);
William Waterhouse, ed., The New Langwill Index: A
Dictionary of Musical Wind-Instrument Makers and Inventors
(London: Tony Bingham, 1993).
ix
Fingering charts-—a significant source of information
about how a specific key was used——were of tremendous
importance. To trace the development of new fingering
patterns, I compared over four dozen different charts
spanning a period of nearly five hundred years. Twenty-
three of these are represented in the fourteen tables of
fingerings located in the Appendix. I was fortunate to be
able to review a number of the most important original
fingering charts at the Library of Congress in Washington,
D.C. Facsimiles of some of these charts are reproduced in
the Langwill and Jansen histories previously cited. Harold
Eugene Griswold's comparison of eighteenth-century
fingerings provided a very useful table, but offered little
in the way of discussion or interpretation.7
Illustrations of instruments from various exhibitions
and catalogs served as additional sources. Most important
among these were the catalog of the Heckel collection which
contains a number of excellent line drawings of historical
instruments.8 The catalog by William Waterhouse for the
bassoon exhibit at the Edinburgh International Festival of
1983 contains many excellent photographs of some of the most
important bassoon specimens, including four of the most
7 Harold Eugene Griswold, "Comparing Fingerings for
Evolving Bassoons from the Second Half of the Eighteenth
Century to the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century," Double
Reed 2, no. 2 (October 1979): 18—24.
3 [Rudolf Klose], Musikhistorisches Museum Heckel-
Biebrich: Fagott (Wiesbaden: Wilhelm Heckel, 1968).
x
interesting "Boehm-system" bassoons.9 Although short on
illustrations, Philip Young's extensive inventory of
historical instrument collections proved to be a valuable
source of written descriptions.10 A revised edition,
scheduled for publication this year, should prove even more
useful to future researchers.
Written evidence was also very important in providing
clues to the practical issues associated with the
development of bassoon fingerings. The earliest historical
source that offers specific technical information about
Western musical instruments and their performance is Musica
getutscht by Sebastian Virdung (ca. 1465-after 1511).11 A
new critical edition and translation of this work, expected
to be published this year, should be of immense value to
future researchers. A recent edition the Syntagma musicum
by Michael Praetorius (1571-1621), published in 1619,
contains excellent annotations by Derek Z. Crookes which
proved to be highly valuable.12
9 William Waterhouse, The Proud Bassoon: An Exhibition
(Edinburgh: Edinburgh University, 1983).
1° Phillip T. Young, Twenty-five Hundred Historical
Woodwind Instruments: An Inventory of the Major Collections
(New York: Pendragon Press, 1982).
11 Sebastian Virdung, Musica getutscht (Basel, 1511;
facsimile reprint, Documenta Musicologica, Kassel:
Barenreiter, 1970).
33 Michael Praetorius, Syntagma musicum II: De organo-
graphia (Wolfenbï¬ttel, 1618-19; trans. and ed. David 2.
Crookes, Early Music Series 7, Oxford: Clarendon Press,
1986).
xi
Records of an instrument maker's reasons for making
alterations to an instrument are extremely rare but
extremely valuable. The various treatises of Karl
Almenrader (1786-1843) are a true goldmine with regard to
the practical concerns of this important innovator.13 More
recently, articles by Romanian bassoonist and experimenter
Gheorghe Cuciureanu in the Journal of the International
Double Reed Society provide insight into modern attempts to
improve on Almenrader's work. My acquaintance with Mr. Chip
Owen and others at the Fox Products Corporation has provided
helpful insights into the technical aspects of bassoon
construction, both modern and historical.
Finally, I gained invaluable experience from examining
and playing a small number of instruments that represent
various stages in the bassoon's development. Three of these
instruments are originals in my own collection: a six-keyed
English bassoon by William Milhouse of London, ca. 1795; a
six-keyed English bassoon by Thomas Key of London, probably
dating from the 18208, to which three keys have been added;
and a twelve-keyed bassoon by Heinrich Grenser, ca. 1810,
13 Der Kunst des Fagottblasens, oder Vollstandige
theoretisch-praktische Fagottschule (Mainz: B. Schott
Sbhnen, [ca. 1843]); "On the Making of Bassoon Reeds,"
[excerpt from Der Kunst des Fagottblasens] trans. Ester
Froese, Journal of the International Double Reed Society 8
(1980): 23-27; "Treatise on the Improvement of the Bassoon
Including Two Tables," Mainz: Schott, ca. 1820, trans.
Charles Koster, Journal of the International Double Reed
Society 14 (1986): 22-39.
xii
which has been modified, probably from an eight-keyed
original. These instruments bear clues to their makers'
intentions and ideas, as well as providing practical
experience of the problems and advantages they present to
the performer. Information thus gathered provided important
clues regarding the bassoon's development.
I also had access to a number of reproductions of early
instruments, including kortholts by Moeck, krummhorns by
George Kelischek of North Carolina, a rackett that I
assembled from an Early Music Shop of London kit, and a
beautiful two-keyed dulcian made by Philip Levin of New
Jersey. Playing these instruments gave valuable insight
into the practical value of the Renaissance system of cross—
fingerings.
In preparing the manuscript of this dissertation, it has
been my desire to provide a clear and legible text with a
minimum of extraneous information. For this reason I have
provided a number of my own illustrations, which are
designed to illuminate specific sections of the text. Most
of the drawings are oriented with the top of the instrument
at the top of the illustration. In some cases, an instru-
ment is shown horizontally; in these drawings, the top of
the instrument is at the left.
In the text I have called the reader's attention to many
additional illustrations, the viewing of which I deemed
interesting but not essential to understanding the topic.
Each of these is cited in the most readily available source
xiii
of which I am aware, in order to aid readers who may wish to
examine this collateral material on their own.
Finally, in order to facilitate the discussion and
comparison of fingerings, I developed a symbolic system for
the notation of fingerings. Use of this notation eliminates
the problems caused by differences in presentation between
various historical charts. This system is summarized in the
List of Symbols on p. xx and is described thoroughly in the
Introduction.
xiv
TABLE OF CONTENTS
LIST OF TABLES
LIST OF FIGURES
LIST OF PITCH SYMBOLS
LIST OF FINGERING SYMBOLS
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER 1. DOUBLE-REED INSTRUMENTS BEFORE 1600
Instruments with Six Finger Holes
Instruments with Seven Finger Holes
The Shawm, Kortholt, and Related Instruments
The Dulcian
CHAPTER 2. INVENTION OF THE BASSOON
The Four-keyed Bassoon
Bassoons with Five to Eight Keys
CHAPTER 3. NATIONAL STYLES OF BASSOON
CHAPTER 4. THE ALMENRADER SYSTEM
CHAPTER 5. THE JANCOURT SYSTEM
CHAPTER 6. EXPERIMENTAL SYSTEMS
CHAPTER 7. THE BASSOON IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
APPENDIX: TABLES OF FINGERINGS
BIBLIOGRAPHY
XV
Page
xvi
xvii
xix
XX
29
32
39
47
61
68
77
89
100
121
140
159
185
200
203
228
Table
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
LIST OF TABLES
Six-hole system based on G
Seven-hole system based on F
Dulcian with
Bassoon with
Bassoon with
Bassoon with
Bassoon with
Bassoon with
Bassoon with
two keys
three keys
four keys
five keys
six keys
seven or eight keys
nine keys
Almenrader system bassoon, ca. 1820
Almenrader system bassoon, modern
Jancourt system bassoon, modern
Boehm-system bassoon
Brindley's "Logical bassoon"
xvi
Page
205
206
207
208
209
211
213
214
216
218
220
222
224
226
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure
1.
2.
.h
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
Double Reed
Open and closed keys
Angled tone holes in wing joint of bassoon
Swallowtail key
Shawm: bass extension
Krummhorn: bass extension
Kortholt
Rackett: top and expanded views
Dulcian
Bassoon with four keys
Long joint: BBb- and D-keys
Boot joint: F- and G#-keys
Alternative locations of left-hand D#—keys
Alternative locations of c#-key
Alternative locations of C#-key
Alternative locations of vent keys
Bridge key architecture
Almenrader system, ca. 1825
Almenrader system, ca. 1843
French left thumb keys, early nineteenth-century
xvii
Page
10
14
49
50
51
54
57
60
62
69
75
83
92
105
109
115
118
126
135
144
List of Figures (continued)
Figure Page
21. Jancourt's bass extension keys, ca. 1845 149
22. Jancourt's left hand finger keys, ca. 1876 154
23. Triebert's Boehm-system thumb keys 172
24. Heckel's keywork for Percy Gatz, 1932 190
xviii
LIST OF PITCH SYMBOLS
The notation of pitch follows the standard:
1:“ /.Q.
/ \I A Di]
fl} ,6 ,3 â€7 A? If“ ' :1
I
33/ . 3/ 6'
CC-BB C-B c-b c'-b' c"-b"
xix
Read
LIST OF FINGERING SYMBOLS
The notation of fingerings employs the following symbols:
0 = finger raised, tone hole open
x = finger in place, closing tone hole
; = finger partially closing tone hole
BBb
F = key in use, letters indicate pitch produced
c#
w = whisper key
(C,D)= keys pressed by the same finger
x = (underline) finger to be used in a trill
1,2 = vent keys; higher number indicates higher vent
Read from left to right the symbols represent the upper hand
(normally the left) followed by a slash (l) and the lower
hand. For each hand, the first finger is at the left. A
thumb hole or key (if present) is shown to the left of the
fingers but separated from them by a slash: [x/xxo/oooo]
shows a fingering for an instrument with three upper finger
holes, four lower finger holes, and one thumb hole for the
upper hand; the note being played requires the thumb, first
and second fingers of the upper hand.
XX
INTRODUCTION
The modern bassoon is a masterpiece of nineteenth-
century mechanical engineering, yet its intricate key system
is attached to an acoustical tube whose construction retains
features that have been relatively unchanged since its
origins in the mid-sixteenth century. This feature led
French composer and scholar Adrien de la Page (1805-1862) to
describe the bassoon as an "instrument de construction
essentiellement bizarre."1 This remark, while originally
referring to the bassoon's acoustical construction, has been
echoed ever since in regard to the instrument in general.
The implication has not always been derogatory. The
twentieth-century historian of musical instruments Adam
Carse has linked the bassoon's unusual construction directly
to those qualities that made it appealing:
The bassoon is more or less an acoustical freak, and if
it were deprived of its irrational features it would
lose its character and become something else; it might
1 "Instrument of essentially bizarre construction"
(author's translation); Adrien de la Page, Quinze visites
musicales a l'exposition universelle de 1855 (Paris: Chez
Tardif, 1856), p. 118.
2
be a wooden sarrusophone, but it would not be a
bassoon.2
It is the desire to improve those irrational features
without losing the bassoon's unique tonal characteristics
that has inspired some bassoonists and manufacturers to
continue experimenting even after others were calling the
work complete. Twentieth-century bassoon virtuoso Leonard
Sharrow (b. 1915), for example, referred to the "remarkable
irrationality" of the bassoon in an essay calling for major
revisions to the instrument.3
The history of the bassoon has been discussed frequently
in the context of general studies of musical instruments.4
These studies are useful in gaining an overview of instru-
mental development. Because they focus on a variety of
different instruments, however, they are necessarily limited
in the degree to which they can address more specific issues
related to the bassoon. Discussions of the bassoon's
2 Adam Carse, Musical Wind Instruments: A History
(London: Macmillan, 1939), p. 195.
3 Leonard Sharrow, "The Bassoon is Archaic: The Need for
a New Instrument," Woodwind (April-May 1950); reprint, Rudo
S. Globus, ed., Woodwind Anthology (New York: Woodwind
Magazine, 1952), p. 69.
4 Anthony Baines, Woodwind Instruments and their
Histogy, revised ed. (New York: W. W. Norton, 1962); Adam
Carse, Musical Wind Instruments; Karl Geiringer, Musical
Instruments: Their History in Western Culture, second ed.,
trans. Bernard Miall, ed. W. F. H. Blandford, (London:
George Allen & Unwin, 1945); Sibyl Marcuse, A Survey of
Musical Instruments (New York: Harper & Row, 1975); Curt
Sachs, The History of Musical Instruments (New York: W. W.
Norton, 1940).
3
development in these works tend to focus on cataloguing and
description. While these functions are a necessary part of
a general history of instruments, they are only a beginning.
Histories of the bassoon by Wilhelm Heckel, Will Jansen,
Gunther Joppig, and Lyndesay Langwill, while providing a
great deal of detailed information, also tend toward
description rather than analysis and explanation.5
There remains no comprehensive discussion of the prac-
tical significance of the addition of keys in the bassoon's
development. It is relatively easy, therefore, to trace
changes in the instrument's appearance without gaining much
insight into why these changes were made. Without this
insight it is easy to consider the bassoon's fingering
system to be illogical.
This dissertation will show that the development of the
bassoon's key mechanism was not an irrational process under-
taken by individuals who were unable, for whatever reason,
to achieve an instrument suitable for the performance of
modern music. On the contrary, the choices that were made
will be seen to be rational and practical, based on
5 Wilhelm Hermann Heckel, The Bassoon (Wiesbaden:
Wilhelm Heckel, 1931; trans. Lyndesay G. Langwill, rev. and
ed. Douglas Waples, Greenfield, Ohio: Journal of Musicology
Reprint, 1940); Will Jansen, The Bassoon: Its History,
Construction, Makers, Players and Music, five vols. (Buren,
The Netherlands: Fritz Knuf, 1978-84); Gunther Joppig, The
Oboe and the Bassoon, trans. Alfred Clayton (Portland,
Oregon: Amadeus Press, 1988); Lyndesay G. Langwill, The
Bassoon and Contrabassoon, Instruments of the Orchestra
(London: Ernest Benn, 1965).
4
considerations that were important at the time. These
considerations included practical aspects of performance,
acoustics, and manufacture. While some of the decisions
made by early bassoon makers have proved problematic for
later generations who must play radically different music,
this fact can hardly justify the imputation of ignorance or
eccentricity on the part of the pioneers.
To develop a more reasonable and comprehensive view, I
will attempt to reconstruct the practical issues-—musical,
acoustical, and mechanical-—facing manufacturers and
performers who were involved in the bassoon's development.
The primary focus will be on changes in fingerings which are
relevant to each stage in the process. Acoustical design,
while of great importance in the aesthetic enjoyment of the
bassoon, is much less significant in the discussion of the
fingering patterns. Acoustic questions, therefore, will
generally be discussed only where changes in the acoustical
design had significant impact on the fingering system.
Because the fingerings of an instrument's basic scale
are used, with relatively minor changes, to achieve the
pitches of the second octave as well, they are of primary
importance to the following discussion. The bass extension,
the most unique feature of the bassoon's fingering system
and one for which a variety of interesting mechanisms were
developed, is also significant. Fingerings in these ranges
show a degree of consistency between instruments that makes
meaningful comparisons possible and fruitful. In the third
5
octave, however, fingerings tend to be complex and idio-
syncratic, offering little in the way of useful comparisons.
These fingerings will be considered only in terms of the
overall range or when a new key is added to make it easier
to produce them. The following discussion will focus on the
fingerings of the basic scale and the bass extension.
To understand the evolution of the bassoon's key
mechanism, it is important to consider the practical value
of each additional key. This can be done by comparing the
ease of playing specific passages in musical compositions
appropriate to each instrument. Any musical example,
however, brings with it a broader musical context that may
be needlessly confusing. In addition, the numerous musical
examples that would be necessary would add considerably to
the visual clutter in the text. In order to focus the
attention on the fingerings themselves, a more abstract
indicator-the ease of producing trills-—will be used for
comparison. That trills were of great concern among
eighteenth- and nineteenth-century writers on the bassoon
can be seen, for example, in the works of French bassoon
virtuoso Etienne Ozi (1754-1813), who included in his
Nouvelle méthode du basson an entire page of trills that
were considered impossible in his day.6
5 Etienne Ozi, Nouvelle méthode du basson (Paris:
Imprimerie du Conservatoire de Musique, 1803; reprint,
Méthodes instrumentales les plus anciennes du Conservatoire
de Paris, Geneva: Minkoff Reprint, 1974), p. 34
6
The availability of simple trill fingerings indicates in
a general way the flexibility of an instrument's overall
fingering system. Because there are only ten fingers avail-
able to control the twelve chromatic pitches in an octave,
at least one of the fingers must serve two purposes.7
Often, this involves a primary duty to cover an open tone
hole and a secondary role in opening an adjacent key. At
some point these two roles will come into conflict: the
finger must eventually be used to slide from the hole to the
key or vice versa. If this occurs between fingerings for
two pitches a half or whole step apart, then a trill of that
interval will be nearly impossible unless an alternate
fingering is available. An instrument on which no alter-
native fingerings are available will be more limited in the
total range of its fingering combinations, and more limited
in the music for which it can successfully be used.
It will be shown in the following discussion that the
ease of producing trills must have been a consideration of
instrument manufacturers when they set about to expand an
instrument's capabilities. It will also become evident that
bassoon makers first focused their attention on the basic
scale and the bass extension while developing the first five
or six keys. Only in the late eighteenth century did they
begin to consider methods that might significantly improve
7 In practice, however, the number of fingers available
is usually reduced to nine, one thumb being reserved to help
hold the instrument. This, of course, means that more
fingers will be required to do double duty.
7
the production of the third octave, and only in the
nineteenth century did they finally achieve an easy and
effective chromatic scale. Finally, it will become clear
that in all of these efforts instrument makers were
responding to the needs of players who were faced with
practical problems of musical performance.
Chapter 1 will focus on the medieval and Renaissance
ancestors of the bassoon-—the shawm, krummhorn, kortholt,
and dulcian-—which shared a common fingering system.
Chapter 2 will deal with the development of the four-
sectioned, four-keyed bassoon of the seventeenth century
from the one-piece, two-keyed dulcian of the sixteenth. The
chapter concludes with a discussion of the development of
four additional keys during the eighteenth century. In
these chapters it will be seen that although these changes
in the bassoon's construction did not follow any pre-
determined plan, their sequence is discernible and
understandable.
Chapter 3 deals with variations in the development of
additional keys that eventually led to the independent
evolution of two national styles of bassoon construction in
the first half of the nineteenth century. The work of the
German experimenter Karl Almenrader (1786-1843) is the focus
of chapter 4. Almenrader relied heavily upon the work of
Gottfried Weber (1779-1839), a German composer and music
theorist who made a thorough study of musical acoustics. In
the hands of Almenrader and other experimenters, the bassoon
8
underwent a series of important changes, both in the
construction of its acoustical tube and in the addition of
nearly a dozen new keys that dramatically changed its
appearance. Despite these very significant changes,
however, many of the bassoon's basic fingerings remained
essentially the same as those employed on its Renaissance
ancestors. The parallel development of a different concept
of bassoon in the hands of the French bassoonist and teacher
Eugene Jancourt (1815-1901) is the topic of Chapter 5.
By the middle of the nineteenth century, woodwind
instruments were undergoing even more radical revision
according to the scientific and practical principles of
Theobald Boehm (1794-1881). The application of Boehm's
principles, while revolutionizing the construction of the
flute and clarinet, resulted in several highly complex
bassoons that rarely made it beyond the experimental stage.
These instruments are discussed in chapter 6.
Despite the interest which some of these experimental
bassoons drew at international trade exhibitions, they
failed to generate lasting interest and rapidly fell out of
favor. This lack of interest persisted throughout much of
the twentieth century as well. Only recently have Boehm's
ideas about the bassoon been subject to more than passing
attention. The twentieth century, despite its abundant
technological innovations, has failed to produce more than a
handful of significant innovations in the construction of
the bassoon. Although including some of the most radical
9
revisions yet attempted, twentieth-century bassoon experi-
ments have tended to be idiosyncratic and have resulted in
few significant changes. These instruments are the focus of
chapter 7.
Terminology
Given the purpose this dissertation, the discussion must
focus on some fairly technical considerations. In order to
prepare the reader for the task ahead, the remainder of this
introduction is intended as a layman's guide to the tech-
nical issues and terminology to be used in the rest of the
dissertation.
Wind instruments produce sound by the oscillation of air
in an acoustical tube. This tube is enclosed in the body of
the instrument. It is appropriate to speak of this tube as
having directional properties, that is, as having a top end
into which the air is blown, and a bottom end from which the
air exits the instrument. These directional properties are
independent of the actual shape of the instrument which may
be straight, folded, or even coiled. The air inside this
tube is referred to as the instrument's air column. It is
the oscillation of this column of air that generates the
sounds we hear.
On woodwind instruments, the air column is set into
oscillation in one of two ways. In flutes and recorders,
the player's breath is directed past a sharp edge which
10
directs some of the air into the instrument and the rest of
it outside. A set of relationships, too complex to go into
here, causes the air inside the flute to oscillate. All of
the other woodwind instruments employ a special device known
as a reed to help set up oscillations in the air column. A
reed is a thin piece of natural fiber that begins to vibrate
when air is blown past it. Clarinets and saxophones employ
a single flat reed which vibrates against a stationary
mouthpiece to which the reed is mounted. The rapid opening
and closing of the space between the reed and the mouthpiece
creates the necessary oscillation in the air column.
The double reed family of instruments, which includes
oboes and bassoons, is so called because these instruments
employ a double rather than a single reed. A double reed is
made by binding together two thin strips of reed to form a
flattened opening at one end (Figure 1). As air is blown
through this opening, the two pieces of cane vibrate against
each other, thereby setting up the oscillation in the in-
strument's air column. The other end of the reed is formed
Figure 1. Double Reed
11
to fit over a metal tube or staple which is then inserted
into a socket in the instrument itself. On bassoons the
reed is separate from the staple, which is long and curved.
This long metal pipe is known as a crook or a bocal.
The length of the air column determines the pitch that
is produced. If there are no holes in the body of the
instrument, the air column corresponds to the length of the
acoustical tube. On woodwind instruments different pitches
are produced by opening or closing various tone holes bored
through the body of the instrument into the acoustical tube,
thus changing the effective length of the air column. In
general, the longer the air column, the lower the pitch of
the tone that is produced. The lowest pitch possible,
produced when all the tone holes are closed, is the instru-
ment's fundamental pitch. The fundamental of the modern
bassoon, for example, is BBb, the pitch obtained when all
the tone holes are closed. The highest pitch depends upon a
variety of factors, including the configuration of the
acoustical tube, the size and location of the tone holes,
the quality of the reed, and the skill of the performer.
In theory, an open tone hole acts to shorten an acou-
stical tube by the distance between the hole and the end of
the instrument, but this is only true if the tone hole is of
equivalent diameter to the pipe itself.8 In practice, no
3 For a thorough general discussion of woodwind
acoustics, see Arthur Benade, Fundamentals of Musical
Acoustics (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1976; reprint,
New York: Dover Publications, 1990), pp. 430-462.
12
woodwind instruments are actually constructed in this way;
only the modern saxophone and Boehm-system flute have tone
holes whose dimensions even approach the actual diameter of
the bore.
The practical limitation of a tone hole's size to that
which is easily covered by the human fingertip resulted in
the development of wind instruments with tone holes that are
significantly smaller than the diameter of the acoustical
tube. By the sixteenth century, woodwind instruments typi-
cally had six or seven tone holes that were covered by the
fingers, hence their common name, finger holes. Beginning
with the instrument's fundamental pitch, a sequential open-
ing of the finger holes from the lowest one upward creates
the pitches of the instrument's basic scale. This scale is
a diatonic scale-—consisting of both half steps and whole
steps-—in the pattern of one of the medieval church modes,
most often Lydian or Mixolydian.9 Basic scales that begin
on F, G, and C have been most common, historically. The
pitches of these basic scales generally correspond to the
white notes on a piano, that is, they do not include flats
or sharps. Some instruments employ a bass extension, that
is, a downward extension of an instrument's range beyond the
basic scale by means of a longer acoustical tube and addi-
tional holes operated by the thumbs and little fingers.
9 In this paper, the modern usage of Greek names for
these modes will be applied, since the medieval terminology
is not so well known.
LI.
a:
PI
Pi
It.
\I’
A‘s s
'1 IE PH.»
13
Most wind instruments produce a range of pitches far
wider than that of their basic scale and whatever bass
extension might be present. This is accomplished by the
technique of overblowing, in which the player modifies the
oscillation within the instrument to produce a higher
harmonic of the fingered pitch. Instruments with conical
bores, like the bassoon and oboe, overblow at the interval
of an octave. Instruments with open cylindrical bores, such
as the flute, also overblow at the octave. Reed instruments
with cylindrical bores, however, function as stopped cylin—
drical pipes and overblow at the twelfth. Such instruments
include the clarinet and krummhorn.
The small size of an instrument's finger holes relative
to the diameter of the acoustical tube means that a given
tone hole does not completely shorten the acoustical tube to
that point. As a result, the pitch of the notes produced by
these smaller tone holes can be affected by the closing of
additional tone holes some distance farther down the tube,
even with one or more open holes intervening. Such
fingerings-called cross-fingerings-—make it possible to
play each chromatic pitch that falls between the diatonic
pitches of an instrument's basic scale.10
As woodwind instruments developed, traditional cross-
fingerings began to be replaced by patterns that involved
1†For a full discussion, see Eric Halfpenny and Niall
O'Loughlin, "Fingering," New Grove Dictionary of Music and
Musicians, Stanley Sadie, ed. (London: Macmillan, 1980) 6:
581-584.
F.‘
\u.
14
the use of simple mechanical devices known as keys. The
function of a key is essentially to extend the reach of a
finger to open or close a tone hole that is either too far
away or too large to reach with a normal hand. The end of
the key which the finger contacts is called the touchpiece.
This term is important because it is often necessary to
differentiate between the location of a key's fingered end
and the location of the tone hole which it controls. A key
closes a tone hole by means of a soft pad which substitutes
for the fleshy pad of the player's fingertip.
Woodwind instruments employ two types of keys. These
are referred to as open or closed according to the position
of the pad over the tone hole when the key is at rest
(Figure 2). Acoustically, their functions are quite
different: when activated, an open key closes a normally
open tone hole while a closed key opens a tone hole that is
k
C 9 a
r
l
:---------
Closed Key
Figure 2. Open and closed keys
15
otherwise closed. Open keys are usually part of an instru-
ment's basic diatonic scale; in many cases they control what
would otherwise be open finger holes. Therefore, to press
an open key lowers the pitch of a given fingering (for
example, G) to the next lower diatonic pitch (F) by closing
the appropriate tone hole, just as a finger closes an open
hole in the basic scale. A closed key, by contrast, is used
to raise the pitch of a given fingering (G) by opening the
tone hole for the next higher chromatic pitch (G#).
The distinction between open and closed keys becomes
critical in the investigation of historical developments in
fingering systems. Here, careless terminology can make even
the simplest function of a key unclear. Unfortunately,
historians of musical instruments have not been consistent
in the labeling of keys, often merely adopting popular
terminology.11 The disadvantage of this approach is that
the popular names for some keys exactly contradict the
actual function of those keys. For example, the A#-key on
the bassoon is generally referred to as a Bb-key since Bbs
are encountered in performance far more often than A#s. The
actual acoustical function of the so-called Bb-key, however,
is to modify the A-fingering to produce A#. In this paper
both open and closed keys will be named for the pitch
produced when the key is in use, according to the way in
11 John B. Dick, for example, proposes using the
players' traditional terminology even if it is illogical;
"Catalog Descriptions of Keywork," Galpin Society Journal 41
(October 1988): 33.
wi
at
16
which that pitch is produced. Therefore, a closed key will
be referred to by the pitch produced when the key is pressed
open; in most cases this will represent a chromatic note
(F#, A#, etc.). An open key will be named for the pitch
produced when the key is closed; this pitch is generally a
diatonic step lower than the pitch of the tone hole which
the key closes. With the exception of the bassoon's low
BBb-key, all other open keys discussed are diatonic.
The preceding definitions and explanations are essential
to a clear understanding of the development of the bassoon's
fingering patterns. It is now necessary to define several
basic types of instruments which represent important stages
in the process. The terms shawm, kortholt, dulcian, and
bassoon will be used to refer to four distinct types of
instruments, each of them having double reeds and playing in
a register comparable to that of the modern bassoon. In
both historical and modern sources, the application of these
terms to actual instruments is often confusing and contra-
dictory. For clarity, the following narrower definitions
will be adopted in this paper.
Shawn will refer, as it does commonly in the liter-
ature, to a straight, conically-bored instrument played with
a double reed. Shawms are the ancestors of the modern oboe
and, indirectly, of the modern bassoon. Sibyl Marcuse
divides the shawm family into two primary groups—-those in
which the reed is external to the instrument, and those in
which the reed is enclosed in a wooden housing known as a
(n
nu
l7
windcap.12 On a windcap instrument, the player blows into
the chamber in which the reed is located, activating the
reed by the air pressure, but without ever touching it.
A kortholt is a windcap shawm with two parallel
cylindrical bores in a single block of wood. These are
joined at the bottom end to create an acoustical tube nearly
twice the length of the instrument. This feature, combined
with the instrument's cylindrical bore, give it a surpris-
ingly low pitch. Unfortunately, the term kortholt is used
quite inconsistently in the literature. David Munrow
suggests a derivation from the German kurtz HOlz (short
wood),13 which probably referred to the fact that the
instrument's pitches are considerably lower than one would
expect from its apparent length. Anthony Baines gives a
second derivation, from the French cortaut, which referred
to a short-barreled French artillery piece of the sixteenth
century.14 The related English term curtall seems to have
been interchangeable with names for a second group of
similar instruments which were referred to in Italian as
fagotto and in German as Dulzian or Chorist-fagott. While
the latter instruments share visible simi-larities with the
first type, they are generally larger, oval in cross
section, and have a conical bore. Praetorius used Kbrtholt
13 Marcuse, pp. 695.
13 David Munrow, Instruments of the Middle Ages and
Renaissance (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1976), p. 50.
1‘ Anthony Baines, Oxford Companion to Musical
Instruments (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992), p. 186.
18
to refer to both types.15 That the term is also applied by
some Renaissance writers to the many-folded rackett suggests
that its use was generic, referring to any instrument with
doubled tubes that played pitches lower than its short
appearance suggested. In the following discussion, kortholt
will refer to the Renaissance windcap instrument with the
doubled cylindrical sound tube.
Those instruments commonly referred to as curtall,
Fagott or dulcian were made of a single block of wood, like
the kortholt, but with a narrowly conical bore and an oval
cross-section. These were not windcap instruments, but were
played with an external double reed mounted on a curved
metal bocal. More like the bassoon than the kortholt, they
are generally considered to be the direct antecedents of the
modern instrument. In the following discussion, these
instruments will be referred to by the term dulcian, which
refers to their soft and pleasant tone quality. As a
transliteration of kortholt, the English term curtall is
unsatisfactory to distinguish between these two types.
The term Fagott has been used to refer to the one-piece
dulcian and to the four-sectioned bassoon as well. Its
derivation is uncertain. The traditional derivation from
the Italian fagotto (bundle of sticks) as a reference to the
instrument's appearance first appeared in 1635 in a treatise
15 Michael Praetorius, Syntagma musicum II: De organo-
graphia (Wolfenbï¬ttel, 1618-19; trans. and ed. David 2.
Crookes, Early Music Series 7, Oxford: Clarendon Press,
1986), Plates X and XII.
(1
p
I."
Le
19
by Marin Mersenne (1588-1648),16 nearly a century after the
term's first use. One hundred and fifty years later, Pierre
Cugnier (1740-after 1780) related the same term to the
appearance of the disassembled parts of the eighteenth-
century bassoon, which makes more sense.17 The term was
first used, however, by Praetorius and his sixteenth-century
contemporaries to refer to the dulcian which, being made of
a single piece of wood, could hardly be said to resemble a
bundle of anything.18 Modern use of the term as the German
name for the bassoon further confuses the issue.
The term bassoon presents fewer problems. The word
appears to have originated in France, being used inter-
changeably with fagot in Mersenne's treatise.19 Will Jansen
proposes a derivation from the French bas (low) and son
(sound), which he explains in terms of the instrument's
range.20 The French bas, however, means "subdued" when used
in regard to sound; basse (Latin, bassus) would be the
correct term in regard to the instrument's pitch.21
Actually, either derivation could be correct; the range
certainly is low and the instrument's relatively subdued
1‘ Marin Mersenne, Harmonie universelle: The Books on
Instruments (Paris, 1635; trans. Roger E. Chapman, The
Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1957), p. 372.
17 [Pierre Cugnier], "Basson," in Jean Benjamin de
Laborde, Essai sur la musique ancienne et moderne (Paris: P.
D. Pierres, 1780), 2: 324.
19 Praetorius, p. 48.
13 Mersenne, p. 373.
N Jansen, The Bassoon: Its History, etc., p. 14.
21Langwill gives the derivation directly from the
Latin; Bassoon and Contrabassoon, p. 5.
20
volume in comparison to contemporary shawms, for example,
would have placed it in the sixteenth-century category of
low (meaning "soft") instruments. The term first appears
in German sources in the second half of the seventeenth
century, shortly after French woodwind makers began to
create instruments which could be taken apart into separate
joints:22 Since eighteenth-century German writers tended to
use basson to distinguish this new type of instrument from
the older one-piece dulcian, the Anglicization of basson
into bassoon will be used henceforth to refer to the jointed
instrument.
As the bassoon developed in the nineteenth century, two
distinct variants in its construction arose. Given their
essential characteristics by nineteenth-century makers in
France and Germany, these variants have come to be known as
French and German bassoons. Use of this national identi-
fication tends to obscure the scope of regional diversity
among instruments of various makers during the nineteenth
century. As an alternative, French and German types are
often referred to respectively as Buffet and Heckel
bassoons. This designation gives credit to the manufac-
turers who were of primary importance in developing and
refining the respective systems, but it tends to minimize
the contributions of other makers.
For the following discussion, each system will be
referred to by the name of the individual most important in
n Ibid., p. 7.
21
its conception and initial refinement. This approach will
help elucidate the relationship between these individuals
and their contemporaries, whose efforts were often at least
as innovative as those leading to today's standard systems.
The French Buffet system will be referred to as the Jancourt
system after Eugene Jancourt, Professor of Bassoon at the
Paris Conservatory, whose mid-nineteenth-century refinements
of the bassoon formed the basis of this variant in bassoon
construction. Because it was Karl Almenrï¬der whose inno-
vations formed the basis of the German Heckel system, it
will be referred to as the Almenrader system. This usage
recognizes that much of Karl Almenrader's essential work was
completed before any member of the Heckel family became
involved. The terms French and German will be reserved to
refer, in a general way, to instruments being made in these
geographical areas without implying either the Almenrader or
the Jancourt system. The usefulness of these distinctions
should become clear in the discussion of early nineteenth-
century regional variants in bassoon construction.
More problematic is the traditional use of the terms
Boehm and Boehm-system to refer to a number of radically
different bassoons proposed by a variety of makers in the
nineteenth century. The Boehm-system label has been used to
emphasize a similarity of approach among these makers, yet
its namesake, the brilliant acoustician and instrument
designer Theobald Boehm, was involved directly in only one
of these experiments. Because most of these makers had only
t‘
t cl
\HA
I:
22
marginal association with Boehm, it seems wise to use the
term experimental to refer to their instruments. Boehm-
system will be reserved for those instruments with which
Boehm himself was directly involved.
Another area in which confusion can arise in discussions
of historical fingering patterns is the question of which
hand was held uppermost while the instrument was being
played. The modern playing position with the left hand
uppermost was not standardized until the eighteenth century.
An illustration in Musica getutscht by Sebastian Virdung
(ca. 1465-after 1511) shows both playing positions.23 That
this was not merely a theoretical possibility is borne out
by a number of early illustrations that show musicians using
what may appear to the modern viewer as an incorrect playing
position, with the right hand uppermost instead of the left.
In the case of woodcuts or engravings, such a reversal might
appear to have been the result of carving a correct image in
the plate, only to have it come out backwards in the
printing.“' However, a woodcut dated 1551 by Heinrich
Aldegrever (1502-1558) shows both positions: of the three
krummhorn players shown, two use the right hand uppermost
23 Sebastian Virdung, Musica getutscht (Basel, 1511;
facsimile reprint, Documenta Musicologica, Kassel:
Barenreiter, 1970), p. [4].
24 Print reversals occur even today; see, for example,
the reversal of the famous painting of a bassoonist by Degas
in Mindy Keyes, "Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec and Désiré Dihau:
Portraits of a Bassoonist and his Bassoon," Double Reed 13,
no. 2 (Fall 1990): 57.
23
while the third uses the familiar position.25 In a large
painting dated 1616 by Denis van Alsloot (fl. 1599-1628) a
dulcian player is shown in a group of six musicians
participating in a religious parade in the town of Antwerp.
While the cornetto player is shown using the familiar left
over right position, the players of the shawms and dulcian
use the right hand uppermost.26 A similar discrepancy shows
up in a decorative carving on the bell of an unusually
ornate oboe dating from around 1700.27 Four musicians are
shown: two play the oboe in the modern position while the
tenor oboist and bassoonist play with the right hand above.
However tempting it may be to attribute these unusual
representations to an artist's unfamiliarity with the
instruments in question, the evidence of surviving examples
supports the artist's observations. Many instruments of
various types had not one but two holes for the little
finger of the lower hand, one on either side of the axis
along which the primary finger holes are drilled. In this
way the shorter little finger could reach the closer hole
while the unused hole was plugged with wax. This practice
was described by Michael Praetorius (1571-1621) in his
Syntagma musicum.28
By the early eighteenth-century, however, performance
practices had begun to change. While woodwind instruments
3 Gunther Joppig, Oboe and Bassoon, p. 45.
2‘ Baines, Oxford Companion, p. 305.
†Colorplate V in Joppig, Oboe and Bassoon.
u Praetorius, p. 45.
24
were still constructed in such a way that either hand
position could be used, a preference for the right hand to
be used in the lower position began to develop. French
flutist Jacques-Martin Hotteterre (1674-1763), for example,
taught the left-hand-above position, although he still
allowed players who had learned the other position to
continue, "since it is possible to play as well in this
manner as in another."29 A discussion of early fingerings
that ignores the issue of hand position provides an
unrealistically simplified view of historical performance.
In the following discussion, therefore, I will refer to
upper and lower hands rather than right and left to describe
fingering patterns in use before the middle of the
eighteenth century.
Any attempt to recreate the actual fingering patterns
used on the various historical bassoons is subject to
problems, the first of which is the relative rarity of
fingering charts pertaining to early instruments other than
the flute. Those charts which can be found are sometimes
accompanied by illustrations that are inaccurate and
misleading. Fortunately, it was common until the early
eighteenth century to provide a thorough written description
of the fingerings, even if a chart was used as well. These
†Jacques-Martin Hotteterre, Rudiments of the Flute,
Recorder and Oboe (Paris: n.p., 1707; translated, with an
introduction and notes, by Paul Marshall Douglas, New York:
Dover Publications, 1968), p. 12.
25
descriptions can provide important clues in cases in which
the illustration or the chart is ambiguous.
A second and more serious problem in the comparison of
early fingering patterns is the variety of ways in which
fingerings have been represented in the various sources.
The oldest fingering charts for woodwind instruments appear
in treatises by Sebastian Virdung and Martin Agricola
(1486-1556).3o Both authors illustrated fingerings by using
numbers corresponding to the tone holes that were to be
opened in order to produce a particular pitch. The tone
holes were referred to by numbers, beginning with the
lowest, that is, the one closest to the bell of the
instrument. Marin Mersenne (1588-1648), however, numbered
the tone holes in the opposite direction, beginning with the
hole that was highest on the acoustical tube.31 Most later
writers, however, represented open holes with an open circle
(0) and closed holes with a dot (0), whether these holes
were covered by fingers or by keys. On simple instruments
without keys the interpretation of these marks is
unambiguous, since a dot (a) means a hole that must be
closed with a finger. As keys were added, the additional
holes were illustrated in the same manner as the finger
holes. The interpretation is quite clear with regard to
†Virdung, Musica getutscht; Agricola, Musica
instrumentalis deudsch, first and fourth eds. (Wittemberg,
1528 and 1545; facsimile reprint, Gesellschaft fï¬r
Musikforschung, Leipzig: Breitkopf & Hartel, 1896).
3 See for example, the illustration of bassoons;
Mersenne, p. 372.
26
open keys, which function just like open tone holes: a dot
(0) represents a hole that is closed by a finger pressing on
a key. But for closed keys a dot indicates that the key is
not in use, while an open circle means that the key is to be
opened by the appropriate finger. The graphic layout of the
historical charts varies as well, with both vertical and
horizontal representations to be found.
Inconsistencies among the early fingering charts led me
to realize that merely presenting facsimiles of historical
fingering charts would not effectively communicate the
required information. I therefore developed a simplified
notation that could fit easily into a prose text. This will
provide a consistent and easily readable format for the
fingerings under discussion, thereby eliminating the need to
refer to fingering charts at various locations in the text.
For the reader's convenience, this notation is summarized in
the List of Symbols (p. xx). A variety of historical
fingering charts have been converted to this simplified
notation to facilitate comparison. These are included in
the Appendix.
In the text, each diagram of a fingering will be
enclosed in square brackets: []. The open finger holes
will be represented by a series of circles divided by a
slash that separates the holes for the two hands; thus
[ooo/ooo] represents a simple six-hole pattern with three
holes for the upper hand and three for the lower. The
diagram shows the highest finger hole at the left and the
27
lowest finger hole at the right. On seven-hole instruments
the symbol will show the additional hole for the little
finger of the lower hand [ooo/oooo]. When a thumb hole is
present it will be represented by an open circle (0) to the
left of the finger holes for the same hand, but divided from
them by a slash. Thus, [o/ooo/ooo] indicates a thumb hole
for the upper hand while [ooo/o/oooo) shows a thumb hole for
the lower. A closed hole will be represented by an (x),
while a hole that is half-covered will be indicated (1). An
underline will be used to indicate a key or a hole that is
involved in a trill [xxx/xxh]. Vent keys, which cover holes
that are used to assist in register changes but are not used
as tone holes, will be indicated by Arabic numerals. The
vent hole that is lowest on the acoustical tube will receive
the lowest numeral, regardless of the actual position of the
key's touchpiece.
When a previously open tone hole is fitted with a new
key for a little finger or thumb, the name of this key (as
described above) will replace the (x) in the fingering
symbol. For example, [xxx/xxxF] shows a seven-hole instru-
ment with F as its lowest pitch in which the seventh hole is
covered by a key. In terms of finger usage, this fingering
is identical to [xxx/xxxx], which would be used on a similar
instrument that does not have the little-finger key. For
these named keys, the open circle will not appear in the
symbol when the key is not in use; thus, when the F-key is
raised for G, the fingering will appear as [xxx/xxx].
28
However, because the other six fingers were only rarely
given additional keys to cover the open holes, the
disposition of these six fingers will still be indicated by
(x) and (o). This convention is necessary in order to
clarify the basic hand positions and to keep the fingering
symbols visually clean.
As additional keys for the little fingers and thumbs are
discussed, they will be indicated by name according to their
function in the basic scale or its bass extension. Thus,
[xxx/xxxG#] represents a fingering that requires the use of
the little finger of the lower hand on the G#-key. Where
two or more keys are to be pressed by the same finger, they
will be enclosed in parentheses. In the fingering notated
as [(C,D)/xxx/E/xxxF], for example, the left thumb closes
both the C- and the D-key.
This system for notating fingerings, as well as the
definitions given previously, should prepare the reader
adequately to understand the discussion that follows.
CHAPTER 1
DOUBLE REED INSTRUMENTS BEFORE 1600
Wind instruments are among the oldest examples of musi-
cal activity among human beings. Gunther Joppig, Curator of
Musical Instruments at the Munich Stadtmuseum, gives a date
of 3000 B.C. for the earliest pictorial evidence of reed-
blown wind instruments.1 While the musicians who created
these instruments undoubtedly had little understanding of
the acoustical principles involved, they understood the
practical aspects of creating different pitches with tone
holes that can be covered by the fingers. More recent
archaeological evidence from ancient Greece and Rome bears
witness to the presence of lively musical cultures with
sophisticated musical instruments. Pictorial and literary
evidence suggests a direct relationship between the instru-
ments of classical antiquity and the shawms and flutes of
the European Middle Ages.2
The majority of surviving medieval woodwind instruments
were made of bone; one modern inventory lists 176 examples
of bone flutes and whistles compared to only eighteen
1 Gunther Joppig, The Oboe and the Bassoon, trans.
Alfred Clayton (Portland, Oregon: Amadeus Press), p. 16.
2 Ibid. I pp. 30.
29
HID!
30
examples of wooden instruments.3 A convenient material for
the construction of wind instruments, bone provided a natu-
rally cylindrical structure into which were bored or punched
from one to seven finger holes. By contrast, wood had
several characteristics that may have been responsible for
its rarity among preserved medieval specimens. As a
material, wood had the disadvantage to instrument makers
that it had to be bored or burned out by hand. The useful-
ness of wood as a source of fuel made it likely that old
wooden instruments were burned rather than being discarded.
Finally, those wooden instruments that were thrown away were
much more subject to rot than those made of bone.
It is unlikely that medieval woodwind instruments were
made to any particular pitch standard. Theories of pitch in
the music of Western Europe during the Middle Ages were more
concerned with the intervals between tones than with abso-
lute pitch. Intervals were discussed according to scalar
systems called modes, which were derived somewhat inaccu-
rately from the writings of ancient Greek theorists. These
modes were codified by the European Christian church in an
attempt to unify and regularize religious practice. Guido
of Arezzo (ca. 991-after 1033), an Italian monk and music
theorist, is generally acknowledged to have developed the
first practical notation for representing the various
3 Frederick Crane, Extant Medieval Musical Instruments:
a Provisional Catalogue by Types (Iowa City: University of
Iowa Press, 1972), pp. 25-46.
31
pitches used within the modal system. He also developed a
set of syllables which could be used to help singers trans-
fer the notation into sound. Later theorists credited Guido
with describing the pitch system as a gamut made up of
interlocking hexachords based on C, F, and G, each with the
same interval pattern. Each note was given a name based on
its pitch and its place in one or more hexachords; the
syllables ut, re, mi, fa, sol, and la were used for the six
pitches of each hexachord. The gamut covered an essentially
vocal range from G (gamma-ut, the lowest pitch in the lowest
hexachord, from which the term gamut is derived) to e" (e-
la, the highest pitch in the highest hexachord).
By the sixteenth century, the limits of the Guidonian
gamut were being exceeded in both vocal and instrumental
music. Virdung clearly showed the pitch f" a half-step
above Guido's e-la in a fingering chart for the recorder
published in 1511.4 At the other end of the gamut,
Virdung's chart showed the lowest pitch as gamma-ut. The
fingering for this G was given as [xxx/xxxo] for the bass
recorder. The tenor and alto recorders, however, were shown
to have an additional lower note fingered [xxx/xxxx]. This
suggests that Virdung's bass recorder, having the same
pattern of finger holes as the tenor and alto, must have
4 Sebastian Virdung, Musica getutscht (Basel, 1511;
facsimile reprint, Documenta Musicologica, Kassel:
Barenreiter, 1970), p. [17].
32
been able to descend to F [xxx/xxxx], even though this pitch
was not listed and was outside the traditional gamut.
The basically diatonic gamut was also expanded by the
use of additional chromatic tones. In the Guidonian system
both B and BD were naturally occurring tones; B was the so-
called hard b used in the hexachord on G, while Bb was the
soft b used in the hexachord on F. In practice, other
chromatic pitches were possible; their use was governed by a
set of principles by which a tone could be raised or lowered
chromatically, usually in order to avoid a tritone or to
modify the interval leading to a cadence. Because these
chromatic tones lay outside the true gamut, they were con-
sidered musica ficta (false music). While all twelve
pitches were theoretically available either within the gamut
or according to the rules of musica ficta, the frequency of
their use varied considerably. In practical terms the
limitation of the pitch system to a few diatonic modes meant
that instrument makers could give simple fingerings to those
pitches most commonly used while relegating the less com-
monly occurring pitches to the more awkward fingerings.
Instruments with Six Finger Holes
Surviving medieval wind instruments have from two to
eight tone holes. The majority of bone flutes in the Crane
inventory, for example, have four or fewer holes, and may
33
have been played with one hand.5 No fingering charts or
treatises about woodwind instruments are known to survive
from the medieval period, so a consideration of the finger-
ing patterns of early woodwind instruments must be at least
partly speculative.
The smallest number of holes necessary to produce a
complete diatonic scale is six.6 This number is typical of
many folk instruments and of most examples of transverse
flutes in the Western tradition before the seventeenth
century. To understand the development of woodwind
fingerings in general, it is necessary to consider the
possibilities and limitations of the six-hole system, even
though the bassoon itself appeared after the seven-hole
system had become standard. The following discussion will
focus on the six-hole system on G because it is directly
analogous to the seven-hole system on F, which is the basic
scale of the bassoon and its antecedents.
A sixteenth-century treatise, Martin Agricola's Musica
instrumentalis deudsch, contains several charts for six-
holed transverse flutes built to play at various pitch
levels.7 In the 1528 edition, Agricola's charts show a
bassus with a fundamental of D, tenor with a fundamental of
5 Crane, p. 29.
5 Edgar Hunt, The Recorder and its Music (London:
Herbert Jenkins, 1962), p. 23.
7 Martin Agricola, Musica instrumentalis deudsch, first
and fourth eds, (Wittemberg, 1528 and 1545; facsimile
reprint, Gesellschaft fï¬r Musikforschung, Leipzig: Breitkopf
& Hartel, 1896), p. 174.
34
A, and discantus with a fundamental of E.8 The scale of the
bassus is labeled with the syllables re mi fa sol re mi fa,
indicating the Dorian mode. For the tenor, the syllables
are re mi fa re mi fa sol, outlining Aeolian mode. The
scale for the discantus is given as mi fa sol re mi fa re,
indicating Phrygian mode. According to these charts, then,
each instrument has a scale that is within the Guidonian
gamut. For each instrument, however, there are additional
fingerings which show the availability of chromatic pitches
that lie outside the gamut. When all of these fingerings
are compared, it becomes clear that the instruments them-
selves are constructed similarly and produce exactly the
same pattern of half and whole steps when the same
fingerings are used. In other words, the instruments all
have the same basic scale but each one is transposed to a
different fundamental pitch. The mode associated with each
instrument can therefore be understood as an artifact of
Agricola's method of presentation, rather than as an
essential characteristic of the instruments themselves.
The 1545 edition shows similar charts but without the
solmization syllables. In this edition the fundamental
notes of the bassus, tenor, and discantus are shown a step
lower, on C, G, and D, respectively.9 As in the 1528
edition, there are differences in the notes available to
each instrument, but these differences also disappear when
5 Ibid., pp. 26-28.
9 Ibid., pp. 172-175.
35
the patterns are compared carefully. Agricola's chart for a
six-hole instrument with a fundamental of G-—the focus of
the following discussion-—is summarized in the Appendix,
Table 1.
Beginning with the instrument's fundamental pitch
[xxx/xxx], opening successively higher finger holes produces
the pitches of its basic scale. Thus, the instrument
produces seven pitches by the time all holes are open
[ooo/ooo]. By changing the speed of the air entering the
instrument, most wind instruments can be made to play
additional pitches an octave above the basic scale.10 This
technique is called overblowing. Overblowing the entirely
closed fingering [xxx/xxx] provides the octave replication
of the instrument's fundamental pitch, thus completing the
instrument's basic scale. On most woodwind instruments,
this technique can be used to produce a nearly complete
second-octave scale using the same fingerings as for the
basic scale.
The first pitch of the basic scale is produced with all
the tone holes closed [xxx/xxx]. The second and third
pitches are attained by opening in turn the first two tone
holes covered by the fingers of the lower hand. On the
majority of six-hole instruments the first three notes of
the basic scale outline a major third: if the fundamental
1° Some wind instruments, such as the clarinet, function
acoustically as a stopped cylindrical pipe and overblow at a
twelfth above the basic scale.
36
pitch is G, the fingering [xxx/x00] produces B. The Bb is
produced by a cross-fingering [xxx/xox], which lowers the
tone produced by the open hole by approximately one half
step. In practice, additional fingers are often used to
modify the pitch or color of a given cross-fingered tone.
It is the use of the cross-fingering for the third pitch of
the scale that is responsible for the minor thirds above the
fundamentals in Agricola's 1528 edition. The fingering
[xxx/xoo] would have produced the major thirds, F# for the
bassus based on D, C# for the tenor based on A, and G# for
the discantus based on E.
Because the G-hexachord was the lowest in the Guidonian
gamut, Bb was theoretically not available in the lowest
octave. Agricola's chart for a six-hole instrument with a
fundamental of G, however, clearly shows both B and Bb,
giving Bb the cross-fingering described above.11 Because
both Agricola and Virdung also show the BD in their charts
for instruments with seven finger holes, it is likely that
the presence of this Bb was justified by its appearance in
the hexachord on the F below gamma-ut, to which both Virdung
and Agricola had extended the traditional gamut.12 While
this hexachord itself was not in Guido's system, it is
consistent with the basic hexachordal patterns Guido
described. The B and Bb would not have been used succes-
sively as chromatic steps, but would have been used in
14 Agricola, p. 174.
13 Virdung, p. [17]; Agricola, p. 163.
37
diatonic patterns within the modal system. On a six-hole
instrument, the B would have been part of the Mixolydian
mode on G, while the same mode transposed to C would have
included the Bb.
The pitches for the fourth through sixth pitches of the
basic six-hole scale are controlled by the three fingers of
the upper hand in the same way as those of the first three
notes were controlled by the lower hand. Given a six-hole
instrument producing G as its fundamental, the upper hand
pitches are c [xxx/ooo], d [xxo/xxx], and e [xoo/ooo]. A
simple cross-fingering [xox/ooo] would produce eb, just as
[xxx/xox] had produced Bb in the lower hand. The availabil-
ity of eb was part of the improvised application of musica
ficta. Its use would have been relatively rare, confined to
cases in which a mode has been transposed.
The pitch of the seventh tone of the scale, produced by
the entirely open pipe, was not consistent among early
instruments. On many six-hole instruments with a fundamen-
tal pitch of G, the pitch f was achieved by cross-fingering
the highest of the open finger holes [oxo/ooo]; the f# was
obtained from the completely open tube [ooo/ooo]. The f#
existed only as an improvised alteration, used to approach
the final of G-Mixolydian from a half step below.
Two problems occur in this upper part of the range. The
shortness of the tube for these pitches tends to produce
unstable tones; in practice the performer may adjust these
pitches in one direction or another by closing additional
.quiA\ l
38
holes with the fingers as necessary. A second problem is
that the completely open fingering [ooo/ooo] leaves only the
thumbs in contact with the instrument, making it difficult
to hold. A practical solution to the latter problem is to
close an additional tone hole with a finger of the lower
hand at sufficient distance down the tube that it would have
no adverse affect on the pitch. This solution appears in
Agricola's (1545) fingerings for the six-hole system, where
the pitches d, d# (eb), and f are played with the addition
of the third finger of the lower hand.13
While a wide variety of folk instruments from many
different musical cultures exhibit only six finger holes,
six-holed instruments other than flutes are rarely repre-
sented in surviving treatises and fingering charts. The
earliest known fingering chart, in the treatise published in
1511 by Sebastian Virdung, is for instruments with seven
finger holes.14 Michael Praetorius, writing a century
later, appears at first to have included six-holed versions
of recorders along with their seven-holed counterparts in
his charts of instrumental ranges.15 David z. Crookes,
however, interprets Praetorius' charts to mean that
Praetorius had merely illustrated both the six-finger
[xxx/xxxo] and seven-finger [xxx/xxxx] pitches for the same
13 See Appendix, Table 1.
1‘ Virdung, p. [17].
15 Michael Praetorius, Syntagma musicum II: De organo-
graphia (Wolfenbï¬ttel, 1618-19; trans. and ed. David 2.
Crookes, Early Music Series 7, Oxford: Clarendon Press,
1986), p. 36.
39
instrument;15 Crookes is probably right, for Praetorius
described the instruments as having seven finger holes.
Furthermore, with the conspicuous exception of the flutes,
most of the instruments actually shown in the plates have
seven finger holes.17
Edgar Hunt suggests a complex but plausible explanation
for the decline of the six-hole system: instrument makers
found it necessary to compromise between a narrowly-bored
six-hole instrument which could successfully produce an
upper octave by overblowing, and an instrument with a larger
bore that had a more mellow tone but would be less success-
ful in the upper register. "To compensate for this sacri-
fice," Hunt concludes, "the range can be increased a little
by adding to the number of finger holes."18 Thus, with the
primary exception of the transverse flute, which retained
the six-finger hole design well after it was abandoned on
other instruments, most instruments with six finger holes
were superseded by seven-hole versions before the beginning
of the sixteenth century.
Instruments with Seven Finger Holes
Probably the most significant advance in woodwind
fingering patterns before the nineteenth century was the
15 Ibid. See editor Crookes' footnote no. 97 on p. 88.
17 Praetorius, Plates Ix-XIII.
40
application of the seven-hole design to nearly every type of
woodwind instrument. One of the oldest surviving examples
is a rare and badly damaged medieval shawm dated between 750
and 1000 A.D. This instrument has seven finger holes, six
of them evenly spaced and the seventh somewhat closer,
probably to make it easier for the little finger to reach.19
Crane also describes a recorder with seven finger holes
unearthed beneath a fifteenth-century house in Holland.20
While these instruments are exceedingly early and rare, the
seven-hole system had clearly become dominant by the begin-
ning of the sixteenth century. Compared with a six-holed
instrument, a seven-holed example shows an extension of the
range a whole step lower; thus a type of instrument origi-
nally pitched on G could now play F as its lowest pitch.
Since the new design retained the former fingering pattern
in its entirety, it was possible to employ both six- and
seven-holed instruments in performance simultaneously.
The sixteenth century was in many respects the Golden
Age of wind instruments. Pictorial and literary evidence
indicates a high degree of musical activity at all levels of
society. A great variety of wind instruments existed, with
almost every type being represented by at least four differ-
ent sizes. A complete set, having one instrument of each
19 Crane, p. 45, No. 433.1.
2° Ibid., p. 39, No. 4231.1. This instrument, along
with a modern reproduction, is illustrated in Jeremy
Montagu, The World of Medieval and Renaissance Musical
Instruments (Woodstock, New York: Overlook Press, 1976),
p. 73.
41
size, was called a consort. For example, Praetorius
described a consort of eight recorders ranging from contra-
bass to sopranino.21 The combination of similar instruments
in various sizes provided a homogenous tone color over a
pitch range of more than four octaves. Similar groupings of
double reed instruments, probably the most diverse family of
woodwinds during the Renaissance, were also clearly shown.22
These included a number of instruments derived from medieval
models, such as shawms and krummhorns.
The similarity of construction among Renaissance wood-
wind instruments suggests a standardization and refinement
of fingering patterns developed during the Middle Ages.
That this system of fingerings was common to such diverse
instruments as shawm, krummhorn, dulcian, recorder, and cor-
netto is probably due to the way in which instrumental music
was performed during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
There were few specialists among the instrumentalists of
this time; it was expected that a musician be able to play a
variety of instruments.23 Such a situation both required
and reinforced uniformity of fingering patterns among the
various groups of instruments. The general system of
Renaissance fingerings described below is used on recorders
to this day and is also preserved in the basic fingerings of
more complex instruments like the oboe and the bassoon.
21 Praetorius, p. 45.
22 Ibid., pp. 28-29.
23 Joppig, Oboe and Bassoon, pp. 31-33.
42
According to the earliest charts and descriptions,
seven-holed instruments tended to be built in sizes that
produced pitches a fifth apart: the bass was usually
pitched on F, the tenor on C, and the alto on G. Usually
the soprano was also pitched on C, but an octave higher than
the tenor. That this pattern paralleled the three
hexachords of the Guidonian system does not seem to have
been discussed. It may not have been considered important,
but its implications were far from trivial. Because the
music was written at the desired pitch, the sixteenth-
century player in a woodwind consort would have had to know
three different fingering systems depending on whether a
bass, a tenor, or an alto instrument was to be used. A
written D, for example, would have required the fingering
[xxx/xxxo] on a C-instrument, [xxx/oooo] on a G-instrument,
and [xxo/oooo] on an F-instrument. In practical terms, this
meant that the player had to interpret the written notation
in a different way for each instrument. This is directly
contrary to the modern approach, in which the music itself
is transposed and the player uses the same fingerings for
the same written notes regardless of the pitch in which the
instrument is built.24 It seems likely, therefore, that the
eventual shift from constructing the alto on G to building
3“ This is the case for the various sizes of instruments
in the saxophone and clarinet families. In modern
terminology, it is customary to speak of an instrument
itself as transposing, taking for granted the fact that its
music is also transposed.
1':ng
43
it on F was probably made to facilitate playing in a consort
by eliminating one of the fingering systems that the
musician had to know.
The addition of the lowest finger hole did not change
the traditional usage of the cross-fingering for Bb
[xxx/xoxo]. The basic scale could have been changed to
include a simpler [xxx/xooo] fingering for ED, as is found
on the so-called German system for the modern alto recorder;
B could then have been achieved with a cross-fingering
[xxx/oxoo]. This would have produced a basic scale that was
an Ionian mode beginning on F instead of the Lydian mode
that resulted from the use of the B.
Eric Halfpenny accounts for the success of cross—
fingerings in terms of the advantages presented by the
availability of various modal scales without the addition of
mechanical keywork.25 With the B-fingering, for example,
the performer could still play the Ionian scale on G, as
well as the newly available Lydian scale on F. With the
cross-fingered Bb the Dorian mode on G could still be
obtained, but the performer could also use the Ionian mode
on F. By employing the other cross-fingerings available for
eh, c#, and g#, the same instrument could be used for a wide
variety of transposed modal scales. A full complement of
ornamental musica ficta pitches were available as well.
5 Eric Halfpenny and Niall O'Loughlin, "Fingering," in
New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley
Sadie (London: Macmillan, 1980) 6: 581-584.
44
The advantages of cross-fingering are most pronounced in
Renaissance music, which rarely used more than two flats or
sharps. In a scale with two flats or sharps, the cross-
fingered pitches lie a fourth or a fifth apart where they do
not pose significant problems of finger coordination. Any
additional accidentals, however, create an adjacent pair of
cross-fingered notes. Thus, cross-fingerings tend to become
cumbersome when more accidentals are used, as was the case
in the later sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. For
example, the whole step motion from Ab [xxx/xxox] to BD
[xxx/xoxo] involves an awkward motion of adjacent fingers in
opposite directions. To the performer, the redeeming
feature of cross-fingered (as opposed to keyed) instruments
is the immediacy of the finger's contact with the body of
the instrument, which makes such combinations easier to
perform than might be expected.
An important advantage of the new scale based on F was
that it could produce an entire octave without using any
overblown fingerings, the f being played [oxo/oooo] as
before. The other fingerings for the upper hand also
remained unchanged, including the open f# [ooo/oooo]. This
left a rather awkward motion from either f or f# to the g
above, which was only available as an overblown octave of G
[ixx/xxxo].% A rather elegant solution was the creation of
“ The half-hole indicated for the forefinger of the
upper hand was used to help produce the upper octave more
reliably.
45
an eighth hole located at the back of the instrument where
it could be operated by the thumb of the upper hand. The
open pipe [x/ooo/oooo] was usually tuned to f#, while the f
was fingered with the thumb and second finger of the upper
hand [x/oxo/oooo]. This left both fingerings essentially as
before, but with the thumb now actually closing a hole.
The thumb hole is only opened for g in the upper octave
[o/oxo/oooo], providing in effect an alternative fingering.
This new fingering allows for very quick and easy movement
from f to g in the upper register [h/oxo/oooo]. The new
fingering is found both in Virdung's Musica getutscht and
Martin Agricola's Musica instrumentalis deudsch; these
charts are summarized in the Appendix, Table 2. The 9 would
also have been available by overblowing G, using the new
thumb hole to create a small vent (a half hole) that enables
more reliable production of the second octave [i/xxx/xxxo].
Thus, the thumb hole had significant advantages in both the
basic scale and in the extension of the range into the
second octave.
That the thumb hole had become a standard feature on a
variety of woodwind instruments by the sixteenth century can
be seen in the plates in Praetorius' Syntagma musicum.2'7
The thumb hole seems to have been most successful on the
recorder, where it also served as a vent (when half-holed)
to make the overblown octave easier to produce. Hunt's
1†Compare the cornettos (Plate VIII), recorders (Pl.
IX), and krummhorns (Pl. XIII) in Praetorius.
46
interpretation of fingering charts by Virdung and Agricola
suggests that half-hole technique was known almost a century
earlier.28 Only Agricola, however, provides clear evidence
of half-holing in the second octave. This he does by means
of a slash through the symbol indicating the thumb hole.â€
Virdung, by contrast, shows only a fully open thumb hole for
the second-octave pitches.30
Curiously, a thumb hole is also found on many captive
reed instruments of the Renaissance, where its function
appears to have been primarily as an additional tone hole.
Praetorius apparently regarded the windcap as making it
impossible for an instrument to be overblown. He therefore
limited his description of the range of windcap instruments
to the pitches of their basic scales.31 In fact, it is
possible although rather difficult to overblow windcap
instruments. Because most windcap instruments were
cylindrically bored, however, they would have overblown at
the twelfth.32 In order to make use of this phenomenon,
these instruments would have needed additional tone holes to
fill in the range between the highest pitch of their basic
scales and the lowest pitch of their overblown series.
These tone holes would have necessitated key mechanisms for
the upper hand; such mechanisms are often found on modern
3 Hunt, p. 121.
†Agricola, p. 18.
3°‘Virdung, p. [17].
n See his remarks on the krummhorn; Praetorius, p. 50.
†Daniel Hogan Smith, Reed Design for Early Woodwinds
(Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1992), p. 126.
47
reproductions of the krummhorn, for example, despite their
absence on surviving originals or in early illustrations.33
The Shawm, Kortholt, and Related Instruments
Eventually, woodwind families were enlarged through the
development of contrabass and even subcontrabass models.
More important for the current study, however, was the
variety of techniques developed to extend the range of a
specific instrument in order to produce pitches below the
basic seven-finger scale of the traditional design. One
alternative was to add a bass extension—-an extension of the
instrument's sound tube with additional tone holes below the
seventh finger hole. These holes were fitted with extra
keys for the fingers of the lower hand. This was done on
the larger shawms, resulting in some extremely unwieldy
instruments. A second and ultimately more successful
alternative was to turn the sound tube back on itself,
allowing the additional holes to be reached by the little
fingers and thumbs. On such instruments the sound tube is
not literally folded, of course, but created by connecting
two parallel windways drilled into a single block of wood.
Waterhouse attributes this particular idea to the early
sixteenth-century Afranio degli Albonesi, canon of Ferrara,
whose invention of the phagotus dates to the second decade
†David Munrow, Instruments of the Middle Ages and
Renaissance (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1976), p. 48.
fa
in
\
rut
II I
i\I
D
48
of the sixteenth century.34 Afranio was not the inventor of
the bassoon, however, contrary to the popular and apparently
ineradicable tradition. The phagotus actually consisted of
a pair of independent sound tubes, each one folded back on
itself and each one having its own single reed. Since air
was blown past these reeds by means of a bellows, Afranio's
instrument is best considered a type of bagpipe.35
The development of the shawm family exhibits two impor-
tant Renaissance methods of enlarging the pitch range of a
family of instruments: the addition of successively larger
models to the consort; and the extension of an individual
instrument's range by lengthening the sound tube and fitting
the extension with keys for the lower hand. Shawms are
straight, conically-bored woodwind instruments played either
with or without a windcap. Examples without a windcap
usually had a pirouette-—a type of support for the lips
while the reed was held partially or entirely inside the
mouth. The absence of this pirouette on some later examples
may indicate that the reed was to be held directly in the
lips, or the pirouette may simply have been lost.
During the sixteenth century the range of the shawm
family was extended downward by making increasingly longer
instruments. As the instruments got longer, however, the
“ William Waterhouse, "Bassoon," in New Grove
Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie
(London: Macmillan Publishers Limited, 1980) 2: 269.
†William.A. Cocks, "The Phagotum: An Attempt at
Reconstruction," Galpin Society Journal 12 (May 1959): 57.
49
tone holes needed to be placed farther apart-so far in fact
that they could not be easily reached. The solution was to
bore tone holes into the tube at oblique angles that would
bring the finger holes within reach. The angled tone holes
in the wing joint of the modern bassoon represent the
survival of this now archaic technique (Figure 3).
// TI ‘\\
// \\ \\
,l \\ \\
, \ \\
\
_____ _/ L—__——J \b—_—_L \__._.-
——_—————_——_——
Figure 3. Angled tone holes in wing joint of bassoon
The lowest tone hole of the shawm was usually covered by
an open key for the little finger of the lower hand, even on
smaller instruments.35 According to Sachs, the earliest
evidence of such a key dates to 1413.37 The use of such a
key on a bass recorder was shown by Virdung in 1511.38 The
touchpiece of this key usually had a swallowtail design,
which allowed it to be reached easily by either a left-
handed or right-handed player (Figure 4).39
35 The alto shawm may have been the first instrument to
have this little finger key; Munrow, p. 38.
W Curt Sachs, The History of Musical Instruments (New
York: W. W. Norton, 1940), p. 310.
†Hunt, p. 31.
39 Adam Carse, Musical Wind Instruments: A History,
(London: Macmillan, 1939), pp. 46-47.
«FL
hbs
Cb
Yet
L111
'59.".
A
D \
50
Figure 4. Swallowtail key
In addition to making longer seven-holed shawms,
Renaissance makers extended the range of the instrument by
developing the bass extension. The tone holes in this
extension were covered by long brass keys for the thumb and
little finger of the lower hand. This was done on basset,
bass, and great bass shawms (Figure 5).40 On the bass
shawm, for example, the seven-finger scale on F [xxx/xxxF]
was extended to E by means of a second open-standing key for
the little finger of the lower hand [xxx/xxxE]. This key
was mounted in such a way that it overlapped the key for P
so that both keys would close when the E-key was pressed.
A similar arrangement was used with the keys for D and C,
operated by the thumb of the lower hand; D was fingered
[xxx/D/xxxE] and C was fingered [xxx/C/xxxE]. This simple
yet ingenious solution to the extension of range was not
further developed on instruments until the early nineteenth
century, most likely because of two inherent disadvantages.
4° Anthony Baines, Oxford Companion to Musical
Instruments (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992), p. 304.
51
Figure 5. Shawm: bass extension
The first problem with the shawm's bass extension was
that the keys were useful only for a diatonic extension of
the range; the pitches C#, D#, and F# were not possible. In
practical terms, the overlapping of these keys made it rela-
tively easy to go from the lower pitch to the higher of the
pair, say from E to F, since the player could easily slide
the finger off the E-key while keeping the F-key closed.
Moving in the opposite direction, however, would require
lifting the finger off the F-key in order to reach the E-
key; this could be performed adequately in slow passages
where the style is not legato, but would be impossible at
higher speeds or in a legato style.
Another problem with the shawm's bass extension was the
great length of the larger shawms, the longest of which
measured over nine feet. While a bass shawm was described
as early as 1376,41 it did not become common until the
sixteenth century. Oromszegi suggests that these large
shawms were so inconvenient that they gave way almost
‘1 Sachs, p. 314.
52
immediately to the developing dulcian of the sixteenth-
century.“2 Contrary to Oromszegi's assertion, however,
these awkward bass instruments did not disappear imme-
diately. As late as 1685, the Marienkirche in Lï¬beck
purchased a great bass shawm which was nearly twice the
length of contemporary bassoons.43 Bass shawms survived in
Nuremberg well past the middle of the eighteenth century,
despite the availability in the same town of some of the
best German-made bassoons by Johann Christoph Denner (1655-
1707) and his son Jacob (1681-1735).44
A unique and intriguing method of construction was used
to extend the lower range of the curved krummhorn, perhaps
the most widely represented of all windcap instruments. It
shared the basic fingering pattern of the Renaissance wood-
winds, complete with a seventh finger hole and a tone hole
for the upper thumb. Unlike the other woodwinds, the effec-
tive acoustic length of the instrument was shortened in the
curved section by the presence of one or more resonance
holes. On the larger members of the family, the lowest tone
hole was fitted with a key to bring it within reach, as was
typical of most of the larger Renaissance woodwinds.45
‘2 Otto Oromszegi, "Connections Between the Bass Bombard
and the Bassoon," Journal of the International Double Reed
Society 15 (1987): 9-12.
‘3 Frank Harrison and Joan Rimmer, European Musical
Instruments (New York: W. W. Norton, 1964), p. 132.
4‘ Sibyl Marcuse, A Survey of Musical Instruments (New
York: Harper 5 Row, 1975), p. 687.
‘5 Munrow, p. 50.
53
Praetorius showed a krummhorn with a second key for the
little finger of the lower hand, along with a curious pair
of small keys without touchpieces that were mounted along
the instrument's curved section (Figure 6);46 According to
Kenton Terry Meyer, these small keys are sliders, small
brass plates mounted in grooves in the instrument's body.
They could be used to cover two additional tone holes which,
in conjunction with the second key, extended the instru-
ment's range down by the interval of a fourth.“7 The
sliders functioned as pre-sets to control the pitch of the
tone produced by closing all the finger holes and both keys.
For example, a krummhorn pitched in F would produce E with
the F-fingering and the second little-finger key when both
sliders were open. With the first slider closed, the same
fingering would produce D; with both sliders closed it would
produce C. Of course, only one of the pitches C, D, and E
would be available to the performer at a time, because they
were all controlled by the same key and because the sliders
could not be changed while playing. While neither Virdung
nor Agricola mentioned the use of sliders, they were clearly
described by Praetorius.48 Meyer reports that sliders do
appear on surviving sixteenth-century krummhorns.49
‘5 Praetorius, Plate XIII.
‘7 Kenton Terry Meyer, The Crumhorn: Its History,
Design, Repertory, and Technique, Studies in Musicology 66
(Ann Arbor, Michigan: UMI Research Press, 1983), pp. 40-41.
‘5 Praetorius, p. 50.
‘9 Meyer, p. 42.
54
/7 ’fï¬â€˜
/ 1’
ll
Figure 6. Krummhorn: bass extension
55
An even more unusual method of extending the pitch of an
instrument into the lower range involves a perfomance
technique and requires no specialized construction. Known
as underblowing, this technique is suggested by a fingering
chart. in Martin Agricola's Musica instrumentalis deudsch
which gives the bass krummhorn (which has a basic scale of
F) a range that extends down an additional fifth to BBb.5°
Daniel Hogan Smith interprets Agricola's notes to the chart
as suggesting that the performer weaken the air pressure in
order to achieve these lower pitches.51 Smith was appar-
ently unaware of Terry's earlier work with krummhorns, in
Which the practice of underblowing is described in detail.52
W1 th a little practice, a bass krummhorn can easily be made
to underblow its four lowest diatonic pitches at the
interval of a fifth; this effect is more difficult to
achieve on the smaller instruments. The description of this
practice may have been unique to Agricola, although Meyer
Suggests that it was also known to Ludovico Zacconi (1555-
162 7 ) .53 Although it does not seem to be indicated for any
other Renaissance woodwinds, Meyer's study of Renaissance
wi nd music demonstrates that underblowing would have been
he
cessary in most of the krummhorn's known repertory.54
\
5° Agricola, p. 17.
51 Smith, p. 127.
52 Meyer, p. 99.
53 Ibid., p. 23.
54 Ibid., pp. 113-136.
56
The bass extension of the kortholt is of greater
significance to this study than those of the shawm and
krummhorn because it involved a bass extension that was
folded back against the tube on which the basic finger holes
were located. The kortholt was probably not very common;
no historical examples are known. The evidence for its
existence comes primarily from Praetorius, who admitted
being somewhat confused by the relation of its low sound to
its apparent shortness.55 The low sound was due to the bass
extension and to the instrument's cylindrical bore, which
sounded an octave lower than the same length of conical
bore . The kortholt shared the characteristic folded sound
tube with the dulcian and the modern bassoon, but the
kOrtholt was circular in cross—section, rather than being
oval (Figure 7). The seven basic finger holes of the kort—
holt- were drilled into the descending tube, while the holes
for the bass extension were drilled into the ascending tube.
The air exited from an inconspicuous opening near the
p]. al’er's upper hand. In Praetorius' illustration of the
kC)":“'~“-l'l<31t the tone holes for the little fingers were doubled,
J'°<=at:ed both to the right and to the left of the axis along
which the primary finger holes were located. This meant
that the instrument could be played with either hand on tOP:
as was true of most single-bore instruments of the day.
Since no examples are known to survive, modern repro-
du
=“Lions of Praetorius' kortholt, such as those made by
55 Praetorius, p. 49.
57
-ï¬IIII.I|HflWHI.II..
we
III.HullI it'llnlull
“K .r O
.7
Kortholt
15‘
;i§‘<EI‘JJme 7.
58
Moec:2|<,55 are based on the illustrations in the Syntag_m_a
musicum. Praetorius showed only the bass kortholt, with a
seven-finger system that produced an F Lydian basic scale
analogous to that of the bassoon. Moeck's bass kortholt has
an upward extension of the range to bb, made possible by two
keys whose justification is suggested by a covered key in
Praetorius' illustration.57 The fingerings for the bass
extension involve both thumbs and the little finger of the
upper hand, adding a perfect fourth to the instrument's
lower range. After F [o/xxxo/o/xxxx], E is produced by
adding the thumb of the lower hand [o/xxxo/x/xxxx]; next is
Do by closing a hole with the little finger of the upper
hand [o/xxxx/x/xxxx], and then C, by adding the upper thumb
[X/xxxx/x/xxxx]. The fingering pattern is perfectly
logical, but looks odd if one forgets that the air column
d<>I-llbles back on itself.
The most unusual attempt to produce an instrument of
marlageable proportions in the bass register was the rackett.
Praetorius illustrated a family of four, from alto to great
bass . 53 Although no music that specifically calls for a
rackett is known to exist, racketts are pictured in several
ILLS'torical sources. A particularly attractive example is on
an j~l'1t.ricately carved ivory coin box made between 1618 and
l 6 2 4 for Elizabeth of Lorraine (1602-1644). The scene is
\
55 Munrow, p. 50.
5" Praetorius, Plate XII.
53 Praetorius, pp. 38, 49.
59
pastoral, with the god Pan making music with a group of
shepherd musicians, one of whom is playing the rackett.59
The rackett consisted of a short squat cylinder in which
were bored nine parallel windways of equal dimension, each
joined at opposite ends to the next in order to create a
single air column nine times the length of the instrument
itself. This feature, combined with its acoustical prop-
erties as a stopped cylindrical pipe, made the rackett play
considerably lower than would be expected from its short
appearance. The particular attraction of this unusual
instrument may be explained by the widespread fascination
with optical illusions found in mannerist art and archi-
te<=‘t:ure in the sixteenth century. Thus the rackett, being
both an optical and an aural illusion, may owe what popu-
larity it had more to its oddity than to its usefulness.
The finger holes of the rackett appear on the outside of
the instrument in a variety of locations, inviting the
assumption that the fingering pattern is bizarre. Careful
inspection, however, reveals a logic directly analogous to
s
tlarldard fingering patterns. Looking at the instrument from
t:
he top, as the player sees it, the air column proceeds
thl‘o _
ugh its folds in a clockwise direction. Cross sectional
€11.39
rams of the rackett are given in Figure 8.
1After the air enters the instrument from the top, it
Deg
383 around two folds before the fingerholes for the left
hQ
‘Q are encountered; being located on a descending column,
\
59 Munrow, p. 39.
60
get“ 5018!;
Fin
Lefi
Left
Kiq III
Thumbs
Rackett: top and expanded views
F
ii.
gure 8 .
61
these holes function in exactly the same way as on a
straight instrument. The air then passes through an ascend-
ing fold and encounters the finger holes for the right hand
on the next downward fold. This happens similarly for the
holes controlled by the right thumb and first joint of the
right index finger, and finally for those controlled by the
left thumb and little finger, until, at the end of the ninth
tube , the air passes out the side of the instrument.
The fingerholes of the rackett were bored at various
angles in order to bring the appropriate holes within reach
of the fingers, just as were those of the bass shawm and
kOrtholt. The most unusual feature was the use of pro-
t’—I‘Llc1.'l.ng tubes called tetines which extended certain tone
holes so that they could be reached by the second joint of
the nearest fingers.50 The fingering pattern of the rackett
was essentially similar to that of its contemporary the
k‘ZI’JZ‘tLhOlt, with the exception of the tetines.
The Dulcian
In the construction of its descending wind pipe, the
dulcian resembled the kortholt, except that the dulcian had
a larger bore which was conical instead of cylindrical
( F 1§Ure 9). Dulcians were therefore of considerably larger
dimensions than kortholts. The dulcian was held so that the
D;
il'le in which the two sound tubes were bored lay parallel
5° Marcuse, p. 698.
62
.WI‘OIIIA [III llllL\I.I||VI/-l|lll’/.IIIIIII
as
s ‘
III I .II VI<I IIIIIIIV.IIIII
I s 2.-. 7 a
x‘ I I I I \\
.III.I: I f\ (I. /\ Us
III! II I II I I III I I II I. I I I'll III II! II. II III
IIIDI.
Dulcian
1;-
;i‘wg3‘1re 9.
N
63
to the player's chest, with the descending tube lying to the
player's right. The tone holes were drilled from the center
of the broad side of the oval cross-section, so that the
instrument could still be played with either hand uppermost.
In his instructions for the two-keyed dulcian, Daniel Speer
(1636-1707) directed that the left hand be held uppermost on
the instrument.61 Yet he made an allowance for players pre-
ferring the right hand uppermost, noting that they should
recognize that what he wrote about the left hand should be
understood by them to refer to the right hand, so enabling
them still to make use of the chart. A single example of a
dul Cian constructed with the descending tube on the left (in
mirror image of the standard pattern) exists. This unusual
ins trument, now in the Vienna Kunsthistorisches Museum, may
have been made to accomodate a left-handed player.62
Praetorius described a consort of five dulcians and
il lustrated six; together these covered a range of three and
or‘e-half octaves, from FF to c".53 He reported the attempt
OE a German maker to extend this range even further with a
= Qntra-curtall" that would descend to CC.“ It is the bass
\
LE3 51IAtranslation is given by Lyndesay G. Langwill, The
IET§E?ETE§Esoon and Contrabassoon, Instruments of the Orchestra
‘=>ndon: Ernest Benn, 1965), p. 34.
e5; 52 This curious instrument is also one of the rare
A §'Emples of a dulcian built in three pieces. Plate 590 in
::;;:"t;hony Baines, European and American Musical Instruments,
“hr York: Viking Press, 1966.
he a 53 The range of each instrument is given in a chart in
eetorius, p. 37.
“ Ibid., p. 48.
kuebheE axe
64
dulcian or Chorist-fagott from which the bassoon was devel-
oped in the seventeenth century.65
Because dulcians were considerably larger than kort-
holts, the hole for the fourth finger of the lower hand
was almost always so far out of reach that it had to be
on the bass
controlled by an open swallowtail brass key,
The other six tone holes
dulcian this key was used for F.
of? the basic scale were likewise too far apart to be reached
tb3r ‘the normal human hand, so they were drilled obliquely,
as on the larger shawms. Unlike the other Renaissance
Woodwinds with which it shared its general fingering pat-
term, the dulcian did not have an upper thumb hole in the
des cending tube for use either as a tone hole or for
°"¢E=:l:blowing. Because the upper thumb was needed to cover a
much larger hole in the bass extension, it could not also be
us ed to close a thumb hole in the basic scale.
Fingering charts for the dulcian appear in books by
Daniel Speer and by Johann Philipp Eisel (1698 1763) 66
CI?
lF‘ese charts give identical fingerings for most of the first
In practice,
131
‘r‘L‘25 second octave pitches (Appendix, Table 3)
t:
lbj‘JGS upper octave was probably achieved by modifying the air
13.3.:
'<essure or exerting pressure on the reed with the
55 Marcuse, p. 710.
55 Daniel Speer, Grund- richtiger, kurtz, leicht, und
hi er, jetzt wal- vermehrter Unterricht der musicalischen
N
:‘\“‘-:‘£3ee (Erben: n. p., 1687, opposite p. 240; second ed.,
Q'\\l:en: n. p., 1697); Johann Philipp Eisel, Musicus
odidactus (Erfurt: Johann Michael Funcken, 1738; rev. and
104.
:\ 'Qt
I‘:jl Johann Jacob Lotter, Augsburg: n.p., 1762), p.
-
M
65
embouchure; a third alternative would have been to half-hole
the highest finger hole in order to encourage the higher
harmonics. All three practices are still used by modern
players to produce some of the second- and third-octave
pitches of the modern bassoon.
In the bass extension, the bass dulcian was similar to
the bass kortholt, employing both thumbs, and sometimes the
little finger of the upper hand, to achieve a downward ex-
tension of the range to C. On larger dulcians the holes on
the ascending tube of the bass extension were given entirely
to the player's two thumbs. On the bass dulcian with a
fundamental of F, the lower hand thumb was responsible for
5W0 pitches, E and D, while the upper thumb covered a single
hol e to produce the C. Obviously, the lower thumb could not
cov er two holes at once, so one of them was fitted with an
open key. Two types of dulcians were made, one with a hole
for E and an open key for D while the other had a key for E
and a hole for D.57 Both types are represented by surviving
8E’ecimens. With its bass extension and its overblown second
0% tave, the dulcian covered a range of about two and one-
h§ 11f octaves, from C to f' (Appendix, Table 3).
Eisel's chart for the two-keyed dulcian is interesting
E Q: its relative lateness in the history of the dulcian's
‘1 §e (1738). This chart shows a chromatic compass for the
a\llcian from C to f', with the exception of C#. The fin-
§
Q:lcings on the descending tube correspond to the standard
\
‘
57 Carse, Wind Instruments, pp. 184-185.
Re'
ho
an
wi
66
Renaissance pattern, with the exception of the upper thumb
The fingering for f# is given as
hole as described above.
The f itself is played
an overblown F [o/oxx/o/xxxF].
[o/oxo/o/ooo] like the f of other Renaissance F-system wood-
The F#, which has no parallel on instruments without
winds.
3 bass extension, is cross-fingered with the lower thumb and
at) open F-key [o/xxx/(o,E)/xxx].
Eisel included among the pitches of the bass extension a
D#, fingered like E but with the next open hole partially
Closed.
On the species of dulcian with a lower hand thumb
for E, this fingering would have been relatively easy,
kerar'
even though it required that the thumb close the E-key while
On the
haSL :E-covering the adjacent hole [o/xxx/(§,E)/xxxF].
model with the D-key, however, this fingering would have to
‘lglayed by closing the hole and half—closing the key-—a
For this reason, it is likely
It would seem
be:
‘tlc’jl—<:ky fingering, to be sure.
that Eisel had in mind the former version.
that if a D# could be successfully half-holed, so could a
(I:
u a but Eisel omitted this fingering from his chart.
JE>:.:
factical experimentation with a dulcian having the D-key
E311tg
<ows that a C# is indeed possible [i/xxx/(x,E)/xxxF].
1§\_
:]L~1though in practice the C# may have been relatively rare,
1L
l“:1 appears in a significant position in the Sonata sopra la
11“
illesssggggige by Philipp Bï¬ddecker (1607-1683) published in 1651.
Bass instruments were given a special role in the new
\lsical style of the Baroque era. While they had been equal
1.5;).
isidrtners in the polyphonic textures of the Renaissance, they
IIIIIIIIIIIIII.._
67
were now entrusted with the role of basso continua,
reinforcing the bass line played by the keyboardist. The
generic aspect of this role is evident in the lack of speci-
ficity with which composers referred to the bass line, often
using merely the term basso or continuo. In practice, how-
ever, the continuo appears to have been played by whatever
tnass instrument was available, whether string or woodwind.
While the dulcian was a natural bass to the Renaissance
Wind ensemble and an equally natural member of the Baroque
Con tinuo, it began to appear as a solo instrument before the
Middle of the seventeenth century. In 1638, Fray Bartolome
de Selma y Salaverde (ca. 1585-after 1638) published what
was probably its earliest solo music.68 The nine sonatas
fc>3=7 dulcian and continuo by Giovanni Bertoli (fl. 1639-45),
pub lished seven years later, cover more than two octaves
from C to d'; the works require, in Bertoli's words, "a
tethical facility previously unexploited" on the two-keyed
(in :I.cian.59
58‘William Waterhouse, The Proud Bassoon: An Exhibition
(Q
(flinburgh: Edinburgh University, 1983), p. [45].
59 Bertoli, preface to Compositioni Musicali di
3;: 45l.
‘jEE‘T;E:;S;[vanni] Antonio Bertoli fatte per sonare col fagotto solo
-Jl:::_ ï¬enice: Alessandro Vincenti, 1645); quoted and translated
Langwill, Bassoon and Contrabassoon, p. 77.
CHAPTER 2
INVENTION OF THE BASSOON
During the first half of the seventeenth century a new
instrument appeared, looking and sounding very much like a
dulcian, but constructed of three or four separate joints.
A comparison of this instrument (Figure 10) with the dulcian
(I’di.qgure 9, p. 62) shows the most significant similarities
The new
and differences between the two instruments.
has soon has a longer and more strongly curved bocal than the
In the bassoon, what corresponds to the upper half
an :L cian.
of the dulcian was now made of two separate pieces of wood,
one containing the descending section of the acoustical tube
The joint
and the other containing the ascending section.
wl th the descending tube was often made with a flared area—
nQ‘u known as the wing—into which the finger holes for the
ubmer hand were bored. The flare made it possible to retain
the long oblique tone-hole design of the dulcian. It also
§ :‘L lowed the finger holes to be offset in such a way that
t: hey appeared along the instrument's longitudinal axis in
§
§proximately the same position as on the dulcian. This
:3
Qature made it possible to play the new bassoon with equal
§
meort regardless of which hand was in the upper position.
68
69
[pt-COM {3
glee...
Mal
§
- Front view b. Back view
-i.gure 10. Bassoon with four keys
th
IE
CC
70
The air passed from the descending (or wing) joint into
the bottom (or boot) joint. This section of the bassoon
retained the design of the lower end of the dulcian, being
constructed of two parallel tubes in a single oval block of
wood. The boot joint contains the finger and thumb holes
operated by the right hand in much the same way as they had
appeared on the dulcian. After turning back on itself in
the boot joint, the air passed through the ascending joint.
This section was at first approximately the same length as
the wing joint, but later was lengthened, hence its modern
name of long joint. The ascending tube of the bassoon was
Circular in cross section and contained the thumb hole and
the low D-key. The fourth section, a bell joint which was
not a feature of the one-piece dulcian but is characteristic
0:6
within a few decades of the division into joints.
Construction of such a large instrument as the bassoon
Inearly all historical bassoons, was added to the design
separate joints afforded considerable advantages to the
lIna-her. It is quite difficult to bore straight parallel
hQ’ les into a single block of wood, and while this was not so
111“ ch an issue for the smaller instruments of the Renais-
a ï¬mce, it became a serious problem in the construction of
t he larger instruments of the Baroque era. The wider bores
§ “(:1 thinner body walls of Baroque instruments called for
Q Q:usiderably greater accuracy in boring the sound tube.
ultiple joints allowed this job to be done with smaller
\
Qols in shorter sections of wood; hence it was not only
71
easier to make but less expensive if a piece was ruined.
A jointed instrument could also be carried in a smaller
bundle, and could even be made with interchangeable parts if
one section later became damaged.
The origin of the idea of separate joints is uncertain,
but Praetorius mentioned such a division of the recorder-
for the purpose of adjusting its pitch-—as early as 1619.1
The separation of the one-piece dulcian into joints occurred
at the same time and in the same general area (near Paris)
where the Hotteterre family of instrument makers was begin-
ning to make jointed recorders, oboes and flutes.2 In fact,
most writers credit the Hotteterres with the development of
the first jointed bassoon. Jane M. Bowers, for example,
suggests that it was Jean Hotteterre (ca. 1605-1690), who
was responsible for the new method of construction.3 In
addition to being a master wood turner, Jean Hotteterre was
also an oboist for La grande écurie du roi, the wind band at
the court of King Louis XIV (1638-1715) of France.4
In addition to making it possibile to adjust an
instrument's overall pitch, jointed construction offered
1 Michael Praetorius, Syntagma musicum II: De
organographia (Wolfenbï¬ttel, 1618-19; trans. and ed. David
2. Crookes, Early Music Series 7, Oxford: Clarendon Press,
1986), p. 46.
2 Edgar Hunt, The Recorder and its Music (London:
Herbert Jenkins, 1962), p. 51.
3 Jane M. Bowers, "Hotteterre," in New Grove Dictionary
of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie (London:
Macmillan, 1980) 8: 733-34.
‘ Susan Goertzel Sandman, "The Wind Band at Louis XIV's
Court," Early Music 5, no. 1 (January 1977): 31.
sh
be!
A f
"Qu.
Wate
Hie:
half
72
another advantage to the player: it was now possible to
take the instrument apart for easier cleaning and storage.
The joints of such an instrument must be carefully made,
however, since they must fit together snugly enough to keep
air from leaking when the instrument is being played, and to
keep the instrument from coming apart on its own. The
disassembly of such close-fitting joints is only practical
if the sockets and tenons between the joints are round and
can be twisted slightly as they are put together in order to
reduce the friction between them.
With its oval cross-section, an easily disassembled two-
jointed dulcian would have been difficult to manufacture.
Will Jansen cites this problem among others in an attempt to
show that there could not have been an "intermediary type"
between the one-piece dulcian and the three-piece bassoon.5
A few jointed dulcians are known, however, including both a
"Quart Bass" in two pieces and an "Octav Bass" in three.
Waterhouse suggests that these instruments were made by
Hieronymus Geroldi (dates unknown) of Venice in the second
half of the sixteenth century.6 These instruments are now
in the Vienna Kunsthistorisches Museum.7 .A similarly
5 Will Jansen, The Bassoon: Its History, Construction,
Makers, Players and Music, five vols. (Buren, The
Netherlands: Fritz Knuf, 1978-84), pp. 85-87.
5 William Waterhouse, "Bassoon," in New Grove Dictionary
of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie (London:
Macmillan, 1980) 2: 271.
7 Lyndesay G. Langwill, The Bassoon and Contrabassoon,
Instruments of the Orchestra (London: Ernest Benn, 1965),
pp. 31-32.
tw
fi
Om
Kur
how
and
73
constructed two-piece dulcian is clearly shown in the
seventeenth-century fresco, "Adoration of the Shepherds," by
Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione (1616-1670).8 On the larger
dulcians, the problems of boring two very long parallel
tubes into a single block of wood may have encouraged
experimentation with separating the instrument into
sections. It is not known whether these large dulcians were
designed to be assembled and disassembled between perform-
ances. It is possible that the jointing was done merely to
make it possible to use shorter pieces of wood; once made,
the instrument could have been glued together to make the
joints airtight.
Most early seventeenth-century makers avoided the
problem of the oval joint by dividing the upper section into
two joints with tenons of circular cross-section which could
fit easily into circular sockets in the oval boot joint.
One such instrument, now in the collection of the Vienna
Kunsthistorisches Museum, is shown by Baines.9 Baines,
however, considers this instrument, which has no bell joint
and retains the dulcian's keywork, to be a three-piece
dulcian. Why this instrument could not just as reasonably
be called an early three-jointed bassoon is not clear.
After all, the newly-jointed bassoon betrays its dulcian
ancestry in the location and design of its thumb and finger
3 Waterhouse, "Bassoon," New Grove Dictionary of Music
2: 270.
9 Anthony Baines, European and American Musical
Instruments (New York: Viking Press, 1966), Plate 590.
be
th
1'6
C1
to}
be:
1'01
his
74
holes, in its overall size and range, and in the construc-
tion of the boot joint out of a single block of wood.
The jointed bassoon required the same sort of keywork in
the bass extension as did the dulcian. The location of the
boot joint, however, made it nearly impossible to control
both D and E from the lower hand because the best location
for the E tone hole was now in the upper joint of the
ascending tube. A rare exception to this placement is on
the three-jointed bassoon in the Vienna collection, which
preserved the older pattern of an open hole for E and an
open D-key, both for the lower thumb.10 The more common
practice was to make the bassoon with a single hole for the
lower thumb and to reverse the direction of the D-key so
that it could be reached by the upper thumb. This thumb now
controlled both its traditional open hole and the reposi-
tioned D-key which was mounted just below the open hole.
Extension of the bassoon's range downward occurred
shortly after the jointed instrument was introduced. A true
bell joint was made separately from the ascending joint;
this bell had no tone hole and no keys but extended the
range of the bassoon to BBb. This pitch was produced by
closing a new tone hole for C that was located toward the
top of the ascending joint, just below the bell. The
bassoon's third key, the BBb-key, was added to the ascending
joint to cover this hole. Will Jansen's statement that "on
historic bassoon specimens, the bell joint does not have any
10 Ibid., p. 110.
75
keys, mainly because these instruments go down to only C
[sic]" is in error.11 They do indeed descend beyond C, but
there are no keys on the bell joint because that is not the
right location for the new tone hole.
The touchpiece for the new key was located just above
the open thumb hole where it could be reached easily (Figure
11). The fingering itself, however, is rather difficult:
since the BBb is only produced if the all the holes on the
ascending joint are closed simultaneously, the thumb must
close both the D- and BBb-keys and the open hole as well
[(BBb,x,D)/xxx/x/xxxF]. To make this awkward feat somewhat
more feasible, the touchpieces of the D- and BBb-keys were
usually mounted as close to the open hole as possible.
E BBb'kCyA).CA D—key I
Figure 11. Long joint: BBb- and D-keys
The fingering chart given by Joseph Majer (1689-1768)
for a three-keyed bassoon gives the instrument a full
chromatic range from BBb to f#', with the exception of BB
11 Jansen, p. 185.
76
and C# (see Appendix, Table 4).12 The woodcut illustration
of the instrument is very crude in comparison to those of
Praetorius, but the chart itself is accurate. The fingering
given for f# [o/oxx/o/xxx], however, is probably in error,
as it nearly duplicates the fingering for g [o/xxx/o/xxx].
The correct fingering for f# is probably [o/oxx/o/xxxF] as
shown in charts for the dulcian by Speer and Eisel.13
The omission of the pitches BB and C# from Majer's chart
deserves further examination. The C#, available on dulcians
as a simple half-holed fingering, would have been possible,
though perhaps not very satisfactory, by placing the upper
thumb so as to close both the D-key and one half of the
neighboring tone hole. Although no fingering for BB is
listed, the BB would have been attainable by lipping the BB-
flat up a half step. Lipping is the technique of tightening
or loosening the pressure of the embouchure on the reed in
order to alter the pitch produced by a given fingering.
Given a sufficiently strong embouchure and an equally strong
incentive, such pitch bending proves possible on repro-
ductions and historical examples alike.
12 Joseph Majer, Museum musicum: Theoretico practicum
(Nï¬rnberg: n.p., 1732; revised ed., Nï¬rnberg: Cremer, 174i),
p. 48.
13 Griswold does not discuss this problem in his
comparison of these fingering charts; "Comparing Fingerings
for Evolving Bassoons from the Second Half of the Eighteenth
Century to the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century," Double
Reed 2, no. 2 (October 1979): 18-24; Johann Philipp Eisel,
Musicus autodidactus (Erfurt: Johann Michael Funcken, 1738;
rev. and ed. Johann Jacob Lotter, Augsburg: n.p., 1762),
opposite p. 104.
77
It is interesting to note that Majer gave the D#-
fingering as a fully fingered E plus a half-closed D-key,
which in practice turns out to be even less successful than
the C# fingering he omitted. On Eisel's chart for the two-
keyed dulcian the same fingering was given, but in this case
it would have been produced quite successfully by a genuine
half-hole, not a half-closed key.
The addition of keys to the bass extension did not, of
course, alter the fingering of the basic scale. Therefore,
the majority of fingerings of the Baroque bassoon remained
essentially as they had been on the Renaissance dulcian.
Cross-fingerings were still the rule for the accidentals.
It is significant that in the basic scale of Majer's three-
keyed bassoon the G# was not given its former cross-
fingering [o/xxx/xon], but played with the A-fingering and
an additional half-hole for the third finger of the lower
hand [o/xxx/o/xxf]. The older cross-fingering was exceed-
ingly awkward when attempting to move quickly from Ab to Bb.
That this new fingering was not entirely successful may be
seen in the subsequent addition of a fourth key-—a closed
key for G#.
The Four-keyed Bassoon
The G#-key represents a significant change in the
application of new keys to the bassoon. As we have seen,
the F- and D—keys were added to bring the tone holes of the
1'!
to
C0
th
in
0f
Cen
bag:
78
instrument's basic diatonic scale within reach of the
player's fingers. Without them it would simply have been
impossible to play such a large instrument. The BBb-key was
also a matter of necessity since it had to close the new C
tone hole in order to make it possible to play the 83b. The
three-keyed bassoon, then, remained a basically diatonic
instrument. Chromatic pitches were achieved by means of
cross-fingerings that had been used for centuries on a wide
variety of woodwind instruments with essentially similar
fingering patterns.
The addition of the G#-key was the first in a series of
additional keys whose reason for existence was more than
mere necessity. A reasonably effective G# was already
available by cross-fingering, so why was the new key
necessary? Previous discussions of the bassoon's develop-
ment in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries have failed
to relate the function of the new keys to practical problems
that faced the performers at the time. If a new key was
indeed added for a player's convenience, it is appropriate
to consider why this particular key would have been more
convenient than some other key. Two questions arise: why
this key? and why now? The answers to these questions lie
in the acoustical function of the new keys and in the type
of music being performed in the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries.
The G#-key and each of the next two keys added to the
bassoon were closed keys whose function was to alter a pitch
79
of the instrument's diatonic basic scale into a pitch a half
step higher. The pitch produced by the fingering used for
G, for example, could now be raised to G# by opening a new
key that covered a new G# tone hole. Open keys, if they had
been used, would have lowered the pitch produced by the A
fingering, resulting in Ab.
In effect, however, the system of cross-fingerings
already provided a way to lower A [o/xxx/o/xxo] to AD by the
addition of another finger to close a lower tone hole
[o/xxx/o/xon]. While the resulting diatonic half step from
A to G# was thus quite easy to perform, the diatonic half
step from G [o/xxx/o/xxx] to Ab was awkward because of the
necessity to move adjacent fingers in opposite directions
simultaneously. Such an alteration became difficult to
impossible when it had to be performed quickly, as in what
may have been the most popular ornament of the Baroque era,
the cadential trill.
A cross-fingered trill from G to Ab would be quite
difficult, as would be similar trills from A to Bb and from
d to eh. However, in keys with sharps in the signature,
cadential trills and other important ornamental effects are
quite easy with cross-fingerings. A cross-fingered trill
from F# [o/xxx/x/xxx] to G [o/xxx/o/xxx) is quite simple,
as are similar trills from c# to d, G# to A, and from d# to
e. Therefore, it seems logical to suggest that cross-
fingerings are more useful in sharp keys than in flat keys.
P.
CE
80
While a detailed discussion of the preferred key signa-
tures in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century wind music is
beyond the scope of this paper, it is important to consider
briefly several repertoires which may shed light on the
relative frequency of sharps and flats in the music that
employed the new jointed bassoons. While Brian Klitz does
not focus on key signatures in his discussion of
seventeenth-century chamber music for the bassoon, the
examples he includes all have one flat in the signature.14
This would tend to support the conventional view that early
Baroque music rarely exceeded two flats or two sharps.
More interesting is a discussion by Ronald N. Bukoff,
who examines the wind music of early eighteenth-century
France.15 Bukoff confirms the basic two-sharps, two-flats
range; within that range, however, he reports that French
composers seem to have preferred the sharp key signatures in
their music for the bassoon. Joseph Bodin de Boismortier
(1689-1755), for example, wrote nearly half of his bassoon
compositions in D major, E minor and A minor. Jean-Francois
Paillard found that the most common keys in eighteenth-
century French concertos for winds were C Major, D Major,
1‘ Brian Klitz, "The Bassoon in Chamber Music of the
Seventeenth Century," Journal of the American Musical
Instrument Society 9 (1983): 5-20.
15 Ronald N. Bukoff, "Boismortier, Corrette, and be
Phénix: Music for the French Baroque Bassoon," Journal of
the International Double Reed Society 13 (1985): 48-56.
81
G Major, E minor, and A Major; these keys accounted for
fifty-four out of the seventy-five concertos he examined.16
If these surveys are representative, it can be inferred
that the keys used most frequently in eighteenth-century
wind music were those keys in which the instruments were
easiest to play. This is only reasonable. Why then, when
new keys were added to the bassoon, were they precisely
those keys which would seem to have been least important,
since cross-fingerings for the sharps were already easily
achieved? One answer may be that the bassoon's new keys
provided tones of superior quality to the cross-fingered
alternatives. Another may be that the keys were desirable
precisely because they could be used so often.
On the other hand, the answer may liein an increase in
the use of flat keys notable in the works of composers of
wind music outside of France. Among the thirty-nine
complete and partial bassoon concertos attributed to Antonio
Vivaldi (1678-1741), for example, there are only three in G
Major and one in E minor. The most common keys are C Major
(10), F Major (7), 3b Major (4), and A Minor (4).17 A
popular sonata by the German composer Georg Philipp Telemann
(1687-1767) takes the bassoon into the key of F minor, a key
that requires both Ab and Bb; the rapid passagework in this
15 Jean-Francois Paillard, "Les premieres concertos
francaises pour les instruments a vent," La revue musicale
226 (1955): 160; cited by Bukoff, ibid., p. 54.
17 Peter Ryom, "Antonio Vivaldi: Works," in New Grove
Dictionary of Music and Musicians (London: Macmillan, 1980),
20: 42.
me
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has
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82
piece would be practical only on instruments with a G# key.
A general trend toward increased use of tonalities that
required flats could also explain the development of
additional keys on the bassoon.
In either case, the bassoon was fitted with its fourth
key quite early in its development, most likely just before
the turn of the eighteenth century. This was the closed key
for G#, lying on the boot joint next to the F-key where it
could be reached by the little finger of the lower hand.
The new key was the first closed key to be added to the
bassoon; it covered a new tone hole for G#. When used
with the basic fingering for G, the new key produces G#
[o/xxx/o/xxxG#]. This provided a convenient alternative to
the old cross-fingering [o/xxx/o/xon]. The new fingering
made possible an easier motion from AD to Bb, but one that
was still rather awkward at high speed.
The new G#-key, located where it would be more easily
reached by the little finger of the right hand, settled at
last the question of which hand was to be uppermost on the
bassoon. While oboes with a symmetrical pair of d#-keys
(allowing performance with either hand above) are well-
represented in historical collections, bassoons with an
analogous pair of G#-keys are exceedingly scarce. Young
reports only three known examples, a fagottino made by
Johannes Scherer (1664-1722),18 a bassoon by Scherer on
13 Phillip T. Young, "The Scherers of Butzbach," Galpin
Society Journal 39 (September 1986): 114-115.
83
which the second G#-key has been removed, and a bassoon by
J. C. Denner, of which only the boot and long joints
remain.19 On the Scherer fagottino and the Denner boot
joint there are duplicate G#-keys mounted on either side of
the F-key. The impossibility of reaching the left little
finger over the swallowtail F-key to touch the single G#-key
indicates that the preferred playing position by this time
was with the right hand below. Although no longer necessary
or even useful, the swallowtail key was retained as a design
element into the early nineteenth century (Figure 12).20
Figure 12. Boot joint: F- and G#-keys
The four-keyed bassoon can be regarded as the standard
late Baroque bassoon, although the dulcian was still in use
well into the eighteenth century. Waterhouse reports on a
recently-discovered four-keyed bassoon made by Richard Haka
†Phillip T. Young, "Some Further Instruments by the
Denners," Galpin Society Journal 35 (March 1982): 78-79.
N It can be seen on a six-keyed bassoon by William
Milhouse, ca. 1795, in the author's possession.
c‘.
11'
pm
Ba
Che
bas
bec
84
(?1645-1709) in the late seventeenth century.nv The trade
card of Dutch flute-maker Conrad Rijkel (1664-1726) shows a
four-keyed bassoon; this card is believed to date from
1699.122 A four-keyed bassoon stamped G. de Bruijn 1730 is
in the collection of musical instruments at the Brussels
Conservatory. This instrument is remarkable because it was
built in mirror image of the customary form, presumably for
a left-handed player.23 These instruments predate the oft-
cited date of 1751 for the addition of the fourth key.24
The addition of further keys seems to date from after the
middle of the eighteenth century.
Langwill states that the earliest continental fingering
chart for a four-keyed bassoon with the new G#-key was pub-
lished by Eisel in 1738 but that John Walsh (?1665-1736) had
published one in London in 1730.25 Eisel's chart is labeled
Basson to distinguish it from the Tautschen Basson (dulcian)
chart in the same publication.“ Eisel's use of the French
basson with the German modifier Toutschan is important,
because it suggests an acknowledgment of the French origin
3“ William Waterhouse, "A Newly Discovered Seventeenth-
Century Bassoon by Haka," Early Music 16, no. 3 (August
1988): 407-410.
22 Ibid., p. 409.
3†This unusual instrument is No. 997 in the Brussels
Conservatory collection; Baines, European and American
Instruments, p. 108 and Plate 593.
2‘ Langwill, Bassoon and Contrabassoon, p. 36.
25 See plate 11 in Langwill, ibid.
1“ Eisel, opposite pages 100 and 104, respectively.
CC
ba
P14
611
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man.
Lang
miSt
and
85
of the jointed bassoon, while identifying the older dulcian
with its Germanic heritage.
Despite the inclusion of the G#-key, Eisel's chart is
rather conservative, giving no fingerings for C#, D#, or F#
(Appendix, Table 5). The lack of a fingering for D# is not
surprising given the previous remarks on the ineffectiveness
of half-closing the D-key, but a C# or F# fingered as on the
dulcian would still have been possible. It is of consider-
able interest that Eisel's f#-fingering for the bassoon is
not the overblown F that he gave for the dulcian. Instead,
Eisel lists the completely open fingering [o/ooo/o/ooo] for
f# and retains the old cross-fingering for f [o/oxo/o/ooo].
This means that the completely open tube of Eisel's four-
keyed bassoon still produced the f# that was characteristic
of Renaissance instruments rather than the f that is
characteristic of the modern bassoon.
The fingering chart in the Encyclopedie (1751-65)
compiled by Denis Diderot (1713-1784) and Jean 1e Rond
d'Alembert (1717-1783) shows the range of the four-keyed
bassoon as extending to AA. The performer was advised to
play either AA or BB by using the BBb fingering while
altering its pitch by changing the way in which the air is
blown into the instrument, in other words, by lipping.27
27 ". . . sans déboucher aucun trou, par la seule
maniere de pousser 1e vent dans 1'instrument." Quoted by
Langwill, Bassoon and Contrabassoon, p. 36. Langwill
mistakenly interprets this remark to apply to the AA, BBb,
and BB, as if no BBb-key were present.
pi
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be
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the
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the
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89
na
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86
That this technique was not generally seen to be satis-
factory is evident in the extreme rarity of AAs in the
literature, and in the omission of even the BB in most
orchestral works of the time. It was not until the early
years of the nineteenth century that the first keys for BB
began to appear.
The new jointed bassoon did not immediately supersede
the one-piece dulcian; in fact, they seem to have co-existed
for at least a century. New technologies do not immediately
replace older ones, and the history of music is full of
instances in which newer versions of traditional instruments
are resisted by some parts of the musical population as
vigorously as they are heralded by others. The violin,
piano, Boehm flute, and valved horn all experienced mixed
reactions and a long period of uncertainty before they
became generally accepted. Furthermore, the new bassoon
retained virtually all of the fingering characteristics of
the dulcian, so there was at first very little practical
difference between the instruments in performance.
Both the dulcian and the bassoon appear in Mersenne's
treatise, although the crudity of the illustrations makes
the distinction between them rather uncertain.28 Mersenne's
description of the bassoon suggests that its body was made
of two parallel sections that "resemble two pieces of wood
3†Marin Mersenne, Harmonie universelle: The Books on
Instruments (Paris, 1635; trans. Roger E. Chapman, The
Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1957), pp. 372, 375.
c.
d1
ac
th
cal
is
lee
con
0f
Wel
87
which are bound and faggoted together."29 While this
description fits the design of the upper joints of the
bassoon, there is no mention of a boot joint. This is
probably just an oversight on Mersenne's part; no other
evidence exists to suggest that bassoons were ever made of
just two parallel joints. An illustration dated 1698 by
Christoph Weigel (1654-1725) shows a woodwind instrument
maker's shop in which the craftsman is putting the finishing
touches on a two-keyed dulcian, while a three-keyed bassoon
lies nearby.30 It is quite likely that this illustration is
of Johann Christoph Denner; both Weigel and Denner were
active in Nuremberg at the time.31
Tracing the decline of the dulcian is problematic, since
the lack of specificity in the instrumentation of basso
continuo parts may conceal its use as a bass instrument
during the latter part of the Baroque era. It is commonly
accepted that the dulcian disappeared after the middle of
the eighteenth century, yielding finally to the superior
capabilities of the developing bassoon. Nevertheless, there
is evidence that the dulcian remained in use in Spain for at
least another century, albeit in a rather circumscribed
context. B. Kenyon de Pascual has documented extensive use
of a Spanish dulcian known as the bajén in Spanish churches
well into the nineteenth century, where he also reports a
29 Ibid., p. 372.
W waterhouse, "Bassoon," New Grove Dictionary of Music
2: 273.
3 Ibid.
Ba
bo
Spa
Bail
YOrk
88
treble shawm used as late as 1791.32 While bajdn may refer
also to the bassoon, the presence of the term along with
fagot in scores and inventories is evidence of a practical
distinction between the bajén and the modern bassoon.33 The
bajén, like its Renaissance ancestor, was used as a support
for or replacement of the bass voice. On special occasions,
it was used in small-ensemble music played from the church
tower.34 Probably the last written reference to the bajon
was a consideration for a salary increase for Aquilino
Banios (dates unknown), bajénista for the cathedral of Santo
Domingo de la Calzada, dated August 2, 1902.35
The rackett seems to have enjoyed a brief revival around
the turn of the eighteenth century, when updated versions
were made by Johann Christoph Denner, among others.36 The
body of the instrument is based on the Renaissance rackett,
but with three important differences. First, the instrument
was fitted with a long bocal that looped once around itself,
entering the body of the rackett not in the middle as on the
Renaissance version, but on the periphery. Second, the
Baroque rackett was made with a series of slightly larger
bores that approximated a narrowly conical windway.y7
32 B. Kenyon de Pascual, "A Brief Survey of the Late
Spanish Bajén," Galpin Society Journal 37 (March 1984): 76.
3 Ibid., p. 72.
34 Ibid., pp. 73-74.
5 Ibid., p. 72.
3“ Baines, European and American Instruments, p. 99.
Baines shows a Dutch example, ca. 1700, in Plate 518.
n Curt Sachs, The History of Musical Instruments (New
York: W. W. Norton, 1940), p. 320.
t}
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Soc
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1739
89
Finally, an additional tube was bored in the center of the
cylinder so that the wind pipe ended in a small bassoon-like
bell at the top of the instrument. Modern replicas of this
instrument play somewhat more strongly than reproductions of
Praetorius' model, suggesting that racketts may indeed have
been used in small Baroque ensembles, where they could
capably double the basso continuo. Because continuo
instruments were rarely specified by Baroque composers, it
cannot be proved that these instruments were ever actually
used in this way.
Bassoons With Five to Eight Keys
The musical role of the bassoon changed dramatically
during the eighteenth century. During the early decades of
the century, Antonio Vivaldi almost single-handedly raised
the bassoon from a continuo to a solo instrument. Among his
compositions for solo instrument and orchestra, the thirty-
seven complete concertos Vivaldi wrote for the bassoon are
exceeded in number only by those for violin. This astonish-
ing rise to prominence occurred in the rather specialized
society of the Ospedale della Pieta, the Venetian girls'
orphanage where Vivaldi worked. The rigorous schedule of
public performances by the girls demanded a large number of
concerti designed to show off their talents. The French
jurist Charles de Brosses (1709-1779), visiting Venice from
1739-1740, was quite impressed by the novelty of the female
be
DI
17
to
Va}
(Ne
Chm
Q
paul
DQVQ
90
bassoonist: "[the girls] sing like angels and play the
violin, the flute, the organ, the Violoncello, the bassoon.
In short no instrument is large enough to frighten them."38
The bassoon's role as an ensemble instrument also
changed during the eighteenth century. As the basso
continuo began to fall out of favor among composers around
the middle of the eighteenth century, the traditional role
of the bassoon as the bass of the orchestral or chamber
ensemble began to change.39 The symphonies of Franz Joseph
Haydn (1732-1809), for example, show a clear tendency toward
increased use of the bassoon as a tenor soloist, when it is
not otherwise occupied as a reinforcement of the bass
line.‘40 Exploitation of the tenor range takes the bassoon
often to g' or even higher, that is, into a range that is
not practical on the older dulcian. The accomplishments of
bassoonist Baron Thadaus von Dï¬rnitz (before 1750-1803)
probably encouraged the young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-
1791) to produce a concerto for the instrument that reaches
to bb'. The Trio for Flute, Bassoon, and Piano by Ludwig
van Beethoven (1770-1827), probably dating from the last
w Translated and quoted by Donald Jay Grout and Claude
V. Palisca, A Short History of Western Music, fourth ed.
(New York: W. W. Norton, 1988), p. 484.
†Harold Eugene Griswold, "Changes in the Tonal
Character of the Eighteenth-Century French Bassoon," Journal
of the International Double Reed Society 17 (1989): 30.
4° Adam Carse, A History of Orchestration (London: Kegan
Paul, Trench, Trubner and Company, 1925; reprint, New York:
Dover Publications, 1964), p. 110.
t4
me
hc
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91
decade of the eighteenth century, requires a c" near the
beginning of the slow movement.
At the same time as these changes in the bassoon's role
in music were being made, changes were occurring in the
construction of the instrument itself. By the end of the
eighteenth century, the number of keys on a typical bassoon
had increased from four to eight. More conservative models
with as few as four keys continued to be made well into the
nineteenth century, however. Evidence from surviving
instruments is complicated by the fact that older instru-
ments were often altered by the addition of new keys, making
dating of a particular innovation or instrument quite
difficult. While there is no incontrovertible order for the
addition of the next four keys, a strong general pattern
does appear.
The bassoon's fifth key was added on the long joint to
open a tone hole for D#. On some instruments, particularly
those of French and English manufacture, this key covered a
hole on the back side of the instrument and therefore tended
to be assigned to the left thumb (Figure 13a). Other
makers, most of them German or Austrian, seemed to prefer a
hole on the front side of the instrument-—a position where
the key could be controlled by the little finger of the left
hand (Figure 13b).“- The left thumb D#-key was located
parallel to the D-key and generally appears inside, toward
the wing joint as on the modern Jancourt bassoon. Examples
41Langwill, Bassoon and Contrabassoon, p. 36.
Fi
92
of outside placement are rare (Figure 13c).42 The new D#-
key provided a reliable fingering for a chromatic pitch that
must be considered virtually unobtainable ever since the D-
key had become standard on the early bassoon.43 Not only
did the new D#-key extend the practical chromatic compass of
the bass extension, it made possible for the first time a
good low-octave tonic for the Eb scale, an important
“DOG;
1'
“‘93 06s.
I uh: vflp
lwh
a. Thumb (inside) b. Little finger c. Thumb (outside)
Figure 13. Alternative locations of left-hand D#-keys
‘2 This unusual placement is shown on a six-keyed
bassoon by Goulding & Co., London; Baines, European and
American Instruments, p. 108 and Plate 602.
43 Even though Majer had included D# in his chart for
the three-keyed bassoon, half-closing the E tone hole with
the bassoon's D-key could not have provided a very
satisfactory D#.
93
advantage considering the expansion of the tonal system in
eighteenth-century music.
Because the usage of the bassoon's lowest register was
more harmonic than melodic, the awkwardness of sliding the
left thumb from C to Eb did not seem to generate much
concern. Makers who preferred the little finger key for D#
avoided the slide since the little finger was not used for
any other fingerings. This little-finger location made
possible an easy D/Eb trill [(o,D)/xxei/x/xxxF]. On
instruments with the thumb D#-key, however, the trill is a
rather awkward anchored fingering in which the D-key must be
held shut by the second joint of the thumb while the tip is
rocked downward to touch the D#-key [(o,D,Qï¬)/xxx/x/xxxF].
Practically speaking, the trill is a melodic ornament that
is rarely applied in the lowest register of the bassoon, but
the ease of producing trills in this range is a good
indicator of the improvement in technique made possible by
additional keys.
Fingering charts for the five-keyed bassoon include a
very rare chart by Abraham (1764-ca. 1805), a clarinetist at
the conservatory in Paris and the author of several woodwind
instruction books.44 More well known is the one included in
the Essai sur la musique ancienne et moderne of Jean-
‘“ Cited by Langwill, Bassoon and Contrabassoon, p. 36.
Very little else is known about this individual; "Abraham
(8)," H. de Curzon, in J. Balteau., M. Barroux, and M.
Prevost, eds., Dictionnaire de biographie francaise (Paris:
Letouzey et Ané, 1932-), 1:195.
th
th.
SUS
94
Benjamin de Laborde (1734-1794);4S Laborde's article was
written by Pierre Cugnier, an important bassoonist of his
time.‘6 Cugnier's chart is similar to one for the "basson
ancien," published in 1787 by his more famous contemporary
Etienne Ozi (1754-1813).47 These charts are summarized in
the Appendix, Table 6. Fingerings for the five-keyed
bassoon differed little from those for the four-keyed
instrument, since the presence of a closed key for D# did
not alter the acoustical properties or fingerings of any
other pitch. Cugnier, however, included the pitches BB and
C#, apparently for the first time in a bassoon fingering
chart. The fingering for BBb, however, is identical to that
of BB; Cugnier explains that "there is only the pressure on
the reed which being stronger for the BB, makes it
distinguishable from the BBb."“ The C# is to be produced
by fingering C while partially opening the hole covered by
the left thumb.
The bassoon's sixth key was an F#-key located just below
the open thumb hole for E on the boot joint. Eric Halfpenny
suggests that this key was made necessary because of a
‘5 [Pierre Cugnier], "Basson," in Jean Benjamin de
Laborde, Essai sur la musique ancienne et moderne (Paris: P.
D. Pierres, 1780), 2: 342.
45 Langwill, Bassoon and Contrabassoon, p. 36.
‘7 Etienne Ozi, Méthode nouvelle et raisonnée pour le
basson (Paris: Boyer, 1787; reprint, n.p.: Naderman, [ca.
1800]), plate. 1.
43 ". . . il n'y a que la pression de l'anche qui étant
plus forte pour le Si, le fait distinguer du Sib;"
[Cugnier], p. 342.
95
general widening of the bore of the ascending tube, which
made the older practice of cross-fingering these pitches
unsatisfactory.49 The new F#-key is a closed key that, like
the D#-key, had no effect on the other notes or fingerings.
This can be seen by comparing the fingering charts given by
Samuel Holyoke (1762-1820) and Ezekiel Goodale (1780-after
1820) in treatises published in the United States in 1807
and 1819, respectively (see Appendix, Table 7).50 These
charts, while appearing rather conservative in comparison to
early nineteenth-century developments in Europe, are com-
parable to those of European origin in the last half of the
eighteenth century. The most significant difference between
these American charts and the European ones is the omission
of fingerings for BB and C# in the American charts. These
pitches had been regularly included in European charts ever
since Cugnier's chart of 1780.
The F#-key provided the bassoonist with an alternative
to the older fingering for F# [o/xxx/E/xxx]: the new
fingering was like that for F, but with the addition of the
thumb on the F#-key [o/xxx/F#/xxxF]. This fingering made an
F to Gb trill easy [o/xxx/Fi/xxxF], but was of no use for
‘9 Eric Halfpenny, "The Evolution of the Bassoon in
England, 1750-1800," Galpin Society Journal 10 (May 1957):
33.
5° Samuel Holyoke, The Instrumental Assistant, vol. 2
(Exeter, New Hampshire: Ranlet and Norris, 1807), pp. 6-7;
Ezekiel Goodale, The Instrumental Director, (Hallowell,
Massachusetts: E. Goodale, 1819; third ed., Hallowell:
Glazier, Masters, 1829), p. 9.
k:
be
to
ke
96
the E to F# trill, for which the older fingering pattern
could still be used [o/xxx/E/xxxF]. In the upper register
the new F#-key made possible a true overblown f#, produced
by half-holing the first finger hole, in the same way that g
is attained. With this more reliable f#, the open fingering
[o/ooo/o/ooo] was soon retuned to become the fingering of
choice for f, replacing the older fingering [o/oxo/o/ooo]
which had been widely used since the Renaissance.
The seventh and eighth keys to be added were usually a
pair of closed keys known as vent keys, located on the back
of the wing joint. These keys covered small holes drilled
quite high on the wing joint. The holes did not function as
tone holes but as vents to aid in the production of the
second octave. A vent, like a half-hole, encourages the
production of the higher harmonics in a tone, usually
resulting in the octave replication of the pitch obtained by
the basic fingering. The location of these holes was prob-
ably determined by trial and error since the acoustical
principles that allowed mathematical calculation of their
correct locations were not developed until the nineteenth
century. The vent keys are often labeled as the a- and c-
keys because of their use in aiding the production of these
pitches in the second octave. Because they also proved to
be helpful in the third octave replication of the same
tones, they are sometimes referred to as the a'- and c'-
keys. On most instruments, the higher the location of the
19.
1%
no
re
30'
@
Unn
Eds.
97
hole on the wing joint, the higher the key's touchpiece is
located; the logic of this arrangement is immediately clear.
The first illustration of a vent key is found in Ozi's
Méthode nouvelle et raisonnée, which contains a fingering
chart for the seven-keyed bassoon-Ozi's "basson moderne."51
Two vent keys are shown in a fingering chart by Johann
Froelich (1780-1862).52 These charts are compared in the
Appendix, Table 8. Because the addition of a vent key does
not affect any of the fingerings in the basic scale, the
primary differences between these charts and those for six-
keyed bassoons are in the fingerings of the high register,
which is now extended chromatically to d". That 021
expected the bassoonist to use this extended range is clear
from the accompanying exercises which contain pitches all
the way up to d", well past the highest pitch for the
bassoon in most of its contemporary literature.
David J. Rhodes reports that a contemporary of Ozi,
virtuoso bassoonist Franz Anton Pfeiffer (1752-1787), had a
bassoon with a vent key even before Ozi's Méthode was
published. While the whereabouts of Pfeiffer's bassoon are
not known, his personal seal, found on his will, includes a
representation of a bassoon in which a vent key on the wing
joint is clearly visible.53 Pfeiffer was also a composer,
51Méthode nouvelle et raisonnée, plate 2.
52 J[ohann] Froelich, Vollstandige theoretisch-
praktische Musikschule (Bonn: Simrock, [1810-11]),
unnumbered page.
53 David J. Rhodes, "Franz Anton Pfeiffer and the
Bassoon," Galpin Society Journal 36 (March 1983): 98.
1'1
ks
SI
be
Wa
98
writing a number of concertos and other works employing the
bassoon in ranges that would require the use of at least one
vent key. Both Ozi and Pfeiffer were more than just
players; their interests included the latest developments of
the instrument they played. In the hands of these virtuosi,
the bassoon enjoyed another brief period of fame as a solo
instrument.S4
While the vent keys and the keys for D# and G# were in
general use by the turn of the century, several other
eighteenth-century innovations did not achieve popularity.
For example, a bassoon maker sometimes provided an instru-
ment with two or more interchangeable wing joints of differ-
ing lengths in order to provide some flexibility in matters
of tuning with other instruments. Pierre Cugnier, who
described this practice in 1780, reported that it had an
adverse effect on the tuning of the bassoon itself,
however.55
In the same article, Cugnier described an even more
interesting aspect of bassoon construction: a small pinhole
in the bocal. This pinhole was used to aid in the produc-
tion of the upper octaves, much in the same way as the vent
keys. The pinhole was so small that it produced only a
slight disturbance in the air column, allowing the hole to
be left open even when playing in the low register. Cugnier
was the first person to describe this vent hole, which
5“ Griswold, "Changes in Tonal Character," p. 31.
55 [Cugnier], pp. 328-329.
99
became widely adopted during the nineteenth century as the
bassoon was required to play more and more often in its
higher range. Cugnier even proposed that this hole could be
controlled by a key operated by the left thumb.56 Such a
key is clearly shown in a portrait of bassoonist Felix
Rheiner (1732-1783), painted by Peter Jakob Horemans (1700-
1776).57 The key, mounted on the wing joint, overlaps the
long joint where it can easily be reached by the left thumb.
Other than this innovative feature, the instrument looks
like a typical four-keyed bassoon of the mid-eighteenth
century. Cugnier's special key for the pinhole vent did not
become common until after the middle of the nineteenth
century and was not consistently adopted by German makers
until the very end of the century.
“ Ibid., p. 334.
57David J. Rhodes, "Felix Rheiner-—A Neglected
Eighteenth-Century Bassoonist," Journal of the International
Double Reed Society 21 (1993): 41.
ar
SC
C0
Dh
an
CHAPTER 3
NATIONAL STYLES OF BASSOON
The nineteenth century was a period of rapid change in
musical tastes as well as in society at large. Inspired by
the scientific optimism of the eighteenth-century and the
advances of the Industrial Revolution, musical instrument
makers sought out technological answers to practical
problems as never before. Pianos were made with a newly-
invented iron frame, a sophisticated escapement mechanism,
and additional pedals to help meet the demands of
nineteenth-century musicians. Brass instruments received
valves, and woodwind instruments were fitted with increas-
ingly complex and sophisticated key mechanisms. Advances in
the science of acoustics brought about radical experiments
on the basic construction of the woodwinds. By the end of
the century, many woodwind instruments bore little more than
a superficial resemblance to their eighteenth-century
ancestors. A multitude of new instruments appeared on the
scene as well, invented to satisfy the demands of particular
composers or performers. Many of these, like the sarruso-
phone and ophicleide, were associated with military bands
and enjoyed only passing favor. Others, like the saxophone
100
tn
v.
t!
th
in
be;
18:
101
and sousaphone, have become widespread in European and
American cultures.
The nineteenth century brought a flurry of activity
among bassoon makers, resulting in an astonishing variety of
new key mechanisms. In many cases the addition of keys
appears to have been idiosyncratic, with no easily traceable
progression of design. Indeed, it is probable that the
impetus for new keys often came from performers, who were
constantly presented with new challenges as the musical
language of the nineteenth century became more and more
demanding. In the midst of this activity, regional differ-
ences in bassoon construction became more extreme. Within a
few decades French and German bassoon makers were following
different paths in their attempts to improve the bassoon.
By the end of the century two quite distinct national styles
of bassoon manufacture had been firmly established. The
bassoon's evolution during the early nineteenth-century is
further confused by the wide variety of instruments that
were in use simultaneously, from antiquated four-keyed bas-
soons to the latest versions with a dozen or more keys.
Not only were bassoon manufacturers experimenting with
various key mechanisms, but so apparently were the players
themselves. It is not uncommon to find an older instrument
that bears modifications made during this period. Two such
instruments are in the author's possession. The first, made
between 1806 and 1813 by Johann Heinrich Grenser (1764-
1813), appears to have been an eight-keyed bassoon to which
102
four additional keys were added. The second, made by Thomas
Key (fl. 1800-1853) of London in the second quarter of the
nineteenth century, originally had six keys, to which three
more keys were added, probably at two different times.
That the more recent example began as a six-keyed model
suggests another important aspect of the development of bas-
soons during this period: in some areas, more conservative
instruments remained in production well into the nineteenth
century. In England, a rather conservative approach to the
addition of keys may have been related to a concern for tone
color. Eric Halfpenny's discussion of the English bassoon
suggests that a characteristic "English" sound was estab-
lished before 1790. This sound quality, somewhat brighter
than that of earlier bassoons, was preserved until the mid-
nineteenth century, when instruments from France began to
win greater acceptance.1 The work of bassoon manufacturers
in the United States was similarly conservative. Robert
Eliason suggests that this was the result of their cultural
isolation, which he attributes to a trade embargo that began
in 1808 and to the War of 1812.2 John (1785-1844) and
Horace (1789-1861) Meacham, who began work in Hartford,
1 Eric Halfpenny, "The Evolution of the Bassoon in
England, 1750-1800," Galpin Society Journal 10 (May
1957): 31.
2 Robert Eliason, "The Meachams, Musical Instrument
Makers of Hartford and Albany," Journal of the American
Musical Instrument Society 5-6 (1979-80): 62.
103
Connecticut and moved to Albany, New York around 1810,
produced four-keyed bassoons until 1828.3
The limitations of the five- to eight-keyed bassoon were
well known at the turn of the nineteenth century. These
included the absence of a true BB or C#, the difficulty in
moving about quickly in the low register, and a number of
trills that were difficult to impossible with the cross-
fingerings then in use. Etienne Ozi outlined a number of
these limitations in his Méthode, carefully explaining which
notes or passages should be avoided as impossible or
impractical.4 Similar caveats can be found in an orches-
tration treatise by French theorist and horn player Othon
Vandenbroeck (1758-1832), published in 1793.5
The explanation of these limitations is that, despite
the addition of five keys during the previous century, the
bassoon began the nineteenth century with most of its basic
fingerings unchanged since the Renaissance. The two vent
keys added just before the turn of the century, for example,
had not changed the basic fingerings. Except for their use
in the highest register, their employment was more as an aid
to performance than as a necessity. The open BBb-key added
3 Ibid.
4 Etienne Ozi, Nouvelle méthode de basson (Paris:
Imprimerie du Conservatoire de Musique, 1803; reprint,
Méthodes instrumentales les plus anciennes du Conservatoire
de Paris, Geneva: Minkoff Reprint, 1974), pp. 32-34.
5 Othon Vandenbroeck, Traité général de tous les
instruments a vent a l'usage des compositeurs (Paris: Boyer,
1793; reprint, Geneva: Minkoff Reprint, 1974), p. 62.
104
a note to the bottom of the range but had little further
effect. The closed keys for G#, F#, and D# provided
alternatives for some of the older cross-fingerings, but had
no further effect on the fingering system.
Further experimentation tended to focus on the addition
of closed keys rather than open keys. The reason for this
tendency, as Will Jansen rightly points out, is that open
keys such as the F- and D-keys were part of the instrument's
basic scale; changing their size or location would affect
the tuning of the rest of the instrument.6 Closed keys,
however, were used for chromatic pitches such as F# and G#;
their location could be experimented with freely, since they
were opened only for the pitch they produced. The following
discussion will focus on results of this experimentation,
rather than attempting to sort out precise dates for the
addition of specific keys.
Three cross-fingerings remained on the eight-keyed
bassoon of the early nineteenth century: A# [o/xxx/o/xox];
c# [o/xxo/o/xoo]; and d# [o/xox/o/ooo]. Of these, both the
A# and d# fingerings were retained at first, while a new
tone hole was drilled for c# and fitted with a closed key.
This c#-key was the ninth key on most bassoons, though a
number of exceptions can be found.7 There was considerable
5 Will Jansen, The Bassoon: Its History, Construction,
Makers, Players and Music, five vols. (Buren, The
Netherlands: Fritz Knuf, 1978-1984), pp. 194-195.
7 An example is the 10-keyed bassoon by Savary jeune,
ca. 1823, which has no c# key. No. 11 in William
105
variation in the location of this new key, more so than for
any key previously discussed. In general, makers who used
the left thumb for the D#-key tended to favor a c#-key for
the left little finger (Figure 14a) while those who used the
little finger for D# seemed to prefer a right thumb c#-key
(Figure 14b). Baines views the right thumb location as the
most common in the early part of the nineteenth century.8
A third alternative, a c#-key for the left thumb, was used
occasionally, usually by makers who used employed the left
l
g \
thumb D#-key (Figure 14c).
c1?
OE
E)
, O
a. Left little finger b. Right thumb c. Left thumb
1119 141’
Figure 14. Alternative locations of c#-key
Waterhouse, The Proud Bassoon: An Exhibition (Edinburgh:
Edinburgh University, 1983), pp. [26-27].
3 Anthony Baines, Woodwind Instruments and Their
History, revised ed. (New York: W. W. Norton, 1962), p. 334.
106
The Thomas Key bassoon in the author's possession
demonstrates this position; the c#-key is located on the
boot joint where it can be operated by the right thumb.9
An American treatise by George E. Blake (?1775-1871) dating
from 1826 includes a fingering chart for an eight-keyed
bassoon with additional information describing the use of a
ninth key: a c#-key for the right thumb. The new fingering
[o/xxx/c#/ooo] is shown as an alternative to the traditional
cross-fingering [o/xxo/o/xoo] (see Appendix, Table 9).10
Georgia Peeples, who discusses this treatise, does not
remark on the position or use of this key.11 A more
interesting example is shown as #18 in Waterhouse's catalog.
This instrument, made in Mannheim by Andreas Greve (1770-
1840) around 1830, has the c#-key on the boot joint, but
with an additional key for the left little finger.12 This
arrangement demonstrates an early application of the prin-
ciple of the bridge key, which carries the mechanical motion
across the connection between the wing joint and the boot
joint.
9 A similar instrument, made in Germany around 1810, is
shown as #4 in Gunther Joppig, The Oboe and the Bassoon,
trans. Alfred Clayton (Portland, Oregon: Amadeus Press,
1988), p. 76.
1° [George E. Blake], An Introduction to the Art of
Playingithe Bassoon (Philadelphia: G. E. Blake, 1826), p. 7.
11 Georgia Peeples, "Two Early American Bassoon Methods:
The Bassoon Preceptor and An Introduction to the Art of
Playing the Bassoon," Journal of the International Double
Reed Society 10 (June 1982): 75.
13 Waterhouse, Proud Bassoon, pp. [30-31].
107
The traditional system of cross-fingering was quite
adequate for trills from b to c# [o/xxx/o/xoo] or from c# to
d [o/xxo/o/xoo]. It is likely that these trills were re-
tained in practice despite the new keys. They are, in fact,
still used as primary trill fingerings by some players even
today. The advantage of the independent c#-key, in addition
to producing a more reliable pitch, was in the c to db trill
which could now be played in one of two ways depending on
the location of the key: [o/xxxgi/o/ooo] or [o/xxx/gï¬/ooo].
Without the c#-key, the trill would have required a rapid
alteration of c [o/xxx/o/ooo] with db [o/xxo/o/xoo], which
is fairly clumsy to perform.
The apparent decision to locate the new c#-key based on
the arrangement of the D# bears further scrutiny. While at
first it seems perfectly logical, it is only partly so, for
there is no significant conflict of fingering patterns
between the c#- and D#-keys that would have made one
placement more advantageous than another. The c#-key is
used in a range nearly an octave higher than that of the D#,
so there would have been virtually no instance in which a
player would have had to move quickly from one key to the
other. Under the circumstances, the c#-key could quite
reasonably have been placed adjacent to the D# for the left
little finger, but this was almost never done. An example
of this rare arrangement is found on a ten-keyed bassoon by
Johann Heinrich Grenser, ca. 1790, and on a seven-keyed
bassoon by Friedrich Gabriel August Kirst (1750-1806) of
108
Pottsdam, dated 1801.13 Only later, with the further
addition of keys, were the advantages and disadvantages of
various c#-key placements fully revealed.
The bassoon still lacked a fully chromatic compass in
the early nineteenth century. The BB and C# were still
problematic, being possible only by distorting the embou-
chure to raise the pitch of BBb or C, respectively. For the
C# at least, half-closing the Open hole with the left thumb
while closing the D-key would have been possible, as it had
been on the dulcian; this fingering has been mentioned in
the discussion of charts provided by Cugnier, Ozi, and
Froelich. However, many early nineteenth-century fingering
charts, like those of Blake, Goodale, and Holyoke, continue
to omit both BB and C# as impossible. For example, a chart
dated 1807 in the New Cyclopaedia of Abraham Rees (1743-
1825) gives the bassoon a full three-octave compass, with
the exception of BB and C#.14 There was not a great need
for these pitches in the music, since it was generally
understood that they were not available. Vandenbroeck's
orchestration treatise specifically excludes the BB although
it does allow for a C#.15
33 These instruments are Nos. F7 and F7A, respectively,
in the Heckel collection; [Rudolf Klose], Musikhistorisches
Museum Heckel-Biebrich: Fagott (Wiesbaden: Wilhelm Heckel,
1968).
1‘ Cited by Lyndesay G. Langwill, The Bassoon and
Contrabassoon, Instruments of the Orchestra (London: Ernest
Benn, 1965), p. 39.
15 Vandenbroeck, p. 61. Since this is not a bassoon
tutor, how the C# is to be played is not explained.
109
The addition of a new key for C# was relatively simple
since it was logically and acoustically similar to the
problem of D# which had already been solved. A new tone
hole was drilled in the long joint, between the D and C tone
holes, and fixed with a closed key. The new key tended to
be placed according to the location of the D#-key, which
meant that it was operated by the left thumb on instruments
with the thumb D#-key (Figure 15a) and by the little finger
on instruments with the little-finger D#-key (Figure 15b).
As the century progressed, French makers tended to gravitate
to the thumb placement, while the Germans seemed to prefer
5’) (
i L 1 W} 1:11:
a. Left thumb b. Left little finger
Figure 15. Alternative locations of C#-key
the
the
thum
thos
fin;
loc
key
pla
Th!
a1
ra
fr
IE
110
the little-finger keys. Instruments made by the elder of
the Grenser family, Karl August (1720-1807), show either a
thumb or a little-finger placement for the C#-key, while
those made by his nephew Johann Heinrich show the little-
finger placement exclusively.16
The touchpiece for the little-finger C#-key was first
located closer to the top end of the long joint than the D#-
key, since the hole it covered lay in this direction;17 this
placement is reversed on the modern Almenrader instrument.
The little finger key had the significant advantage of
allowing similar finger motions to raise a C to C# and to
raise D to D#. Its biggest disadvantage was that the move
from C# to D# was quite awkward at high speeds, since it
required the simultaneous shift of the thumb from C to D
while the little finger slid from C# to D#. This
circumstance could hardly have been seen as a significant
shortcoming, however, since the C# had not even been
possible on previous models of the instrument.
The thumb version of the C#-key lay to the outside of
the C- and D-keys and parallel to them; the C#-key itself
was pressed by the second joint of the thumb while C was
fingered with the tip of the thumb. This anchored fingering
was similar to that already required for D# on bassoons with
1‘ Phillip T. Young, Twenty-five Hundred Historical
Woodwind Instruments: An Inventory of the Major Collections
(New York: Pendragon Press, 1982), pp. 45-46, 51-54.
17 See the 14-key bassoon by Wiesner (1791-1840), No. 17
in Waterhouse, Proud Bassoon, pp. [30-31].
111
a thumb key for D#. While this layout of keys may seem
clumsy, with a little practice it proves quite workable for
every whole- and half-step motion except that from C# to D#.
The same observation can be made about this circumstance as
was made for the C#- and D#-fingerings for the left little
finger: though awkward, notes could now be played that had
not been possible earlier.
The only remaining gap in the chromatic compass was the
BB. The great difficulty this presented to bassoon makers
is evident in the considerable variety of their solutions to
it. To drill another tone hole and cover it with a closed
key would make the new pitch possible without requiring any
of the higher notes to be retuned, since the hole would only
be open for BB itself. But this would have contradicted the
general pattern-—open keys for diatonic notes and closed
keys for accidentals-—that had been developing over the
years. Nevertheless, this seems to have been the solution
of choice among a number of bassoon manufacturers, espe-
cially those active in France, where the closed BB-key
eventually became a standard feature of the Jancourt system.
Indeed, the closed key was ideal if it were to be added to
an already existing instrument, since no other adjustments
would have been necessary. The rest of the keys would
function just as they had before, with no relearning
necessary for the player.
112
Closed BB-keys located in such a way as to be operated
by the left thumb appear on several instruments in the
Heckel collection. A rather curious bassoon made around
1830 by F. Rank (dates unknown) of Rottenburgh has a closed
BB-key operated by a long simple lever lying along the
traditional BBb-key.18 A more complex mechanism appears on
a bassoon by the Dresden maker Wiesner (1791-1868); this BB-
key has a three-lever linkage that opens the BB tone hole
when the key is pushed.19 A similar mechanism appears on a
bassoon by Karl August Schaufler (1792-1877) of Stuttgart,
ca. 1838,?0 whose bassoon was patterned on the ideas of
Bohemian bassoon virtuoso Wenzel Neukirchner (1805-1889).21
Though Neukirchner's ideas were eventually realized on
bassoons produced by a major Parisian manufacturer, Adler,
they never became widespread.
A rare alternative to the left thumb BB-key was one
located for the left little finger, as it appears on an
unusual and undated bassoon in the Heckel collection.22
Made by Wilhelm Hess of Munich,23 this interesting
seventeen-keyed instrument appears to date from the middle
13 [Klose], no. F13A.
†Ibid., no. F14.
N Ibid., no. F18.
21 Langwill, Bassoon and Contrabassoon, p. 55.
n [Klose], no. F12.
†This is probably the older of the two known
instrument makers by this name, father (1800-1874) and son
(1841-1880); Lyndesay G. Langwill, An Index of Musical Wind
Instrument Makers, sixth ed. (Edinburgh: Lindsay, 1980),
p. 78.
m
n:
113
of the nineteenth century. Going against tradition, Hess
located the BB tone hole on the front of the instrument
where it is controlled by a key for the left hand little
finger. Whether this key is an open or closed key is
unclear, but it appears to be closed. Also in the Heckel
collection is a fourteen-keyed bassoon, made in Leyden ca.
1885 by Ferdinand Bruggemann (before 1860-1899), which shows
a similar placement, although the key itself functions to
open a closed hole on the bell joint.24
A more complex solution to the problem of BB was to add
another open key to the long joint, which would require some
degree of retuning along the entire acoustical tube in order
to make up for the shortening of the air column. The old
BBb-key, which formerly closed the C tone hole to create
BBb, would now function as the BB-key, since the new BB tone
hole would still be open. Thus the new key which closes the
BB tone hole is in effect a new BBb-key. The new key was
usually located parallel to the old BBb-key but closer to
the wing joint.
Although the evidence is not entirely clear, a unique
approach to the problem of BB and C# appears to have been
taken by the American instrument maker George Catlin (1778-
1852) of Philadelphia. The only known evidence of this
aspect of Catlin's work is found in the report of the
judges' committee of the first exhibition (1824) of the
Franklin Institute, an organization founded in the same year
“ Ibid., no. F36.
114
to encourage American invention and scientific progress.
Describing a bassoon made by Catlin in 1824, the judges
reported the following innovation:
. . . a key by which the B natural and C sharp in the
lowest octave are produced, a difficulty which is almost
invincible in the common bassoon, so that these notes,
however important to the harmony, have been hitherto
avoided by composers for this instrument.25
If literally true, the report means that Catlin located a
single key some place on the bassoon's long joint where it
could serve to raise both BBb to BB and C to C#. This hole,
of course, would have been an acoustical compromise, yet the
judges found the instrument's tone to be excellent. If the
judges' report is in error and there were in fact two keys,
it is most likely that these keys resembled those employed
by German makers, since no mention is made of a more complex
mechanism. Among the other interesting features of this
bassoon were a second G# key (for the right thumb), a d#-key
for the left ring finger, and an A#-key for the right ring
finger. Considering what the judges did not mention, it may
be assumed that the standard bassoon to which they were
comparing Catlin's instrument had the traditional six keys,
or possibly eight if vent keys were employed. Thus, the new
model probably had between ten and thirteen keys.
†Quoted by Robert E. Eliason, "George Catlin, Hartford
Musical Instrument Maker," Journal of the American Musical
Instrument Society 8 (1982): 34.
115
Unfortunately, the location of this instrument, if indeed it
still exists, is unknown.
The two vent keys that first appeared toward the end of
the eighteenth century became standard during the next.
While the placement of the vents themselves underwent
considerable refinement, the assignment of the keys to the
left thumb was problematic only in regard to which touch-
piece should be lower. On most instruments the higher vent
hole is associated with the higher touchpiece (Figure 16a),
but a few instruments show the reverse of this arrangement
(Figure 16b). An example of the reversed arrangement is
found on a bassoon made in Vienna by W. Kies (fl. 1800-1820)
and an unusual instrument by Karl Schaufler, made in
C
C 131:
a. Traditional location
C
0 fl
b. Touchpieces reversed
Figure 16. Alternative locations of vent keys
116
Stuttgart, ca. 1838.26 The two vent keys added later to the
author's Thomas Key bassoon show the same reversed
arrangement.
On some instruments a third vent hole and key were
added. There seems to have been no particular pattern in
the location of this third vent. In general, the third vent
is higher than the vents found on two-vented instruments,
while the unusually high placement of vents on some two-
vented instruments suggests that a third vent would have
been added lower. The exact placement of the vent keys is
still a matter of variation among bassoon makers.
A more difficult problem was the placement and function
of a key to cover the pinhole vent in the bocal. This vent
had been used since the eighteenth century to help the
production of the upper register.27 However, the pinhole
had the disadvantage that it made very soft playing in the
lowest register somewhat more difficult, as can be demon-
strated even on modern bassoons. Some way, therefore, had
to be devised to keep the vent shut when the music required
a pianissimo in the low register. The popular term whisper
key refers to the traditional use of this key to aid in very
quiet playing in the low register. At first, a small hinged
cover was attached to the bocal itself; this cover could be
u [Klose], nos. F9 and F18, respectively. A photograph
of the Schaufler instrument is #19 in Waterhouse, Proud
Bassoon, pp. [30-31].
27 [Pierre Cugnier], "Basson," in Jean Benjamin de
Laborde, Essai sur la musique ancienne et moderne (Paris: P.
D. Pierres, 1780), 2: 334.
117
pivoted shut during a rest in preparation for a passage to
come.28 Eventually, it was found to be more convenient to
control this hole with a key, as Pierre Cugnier had sug-
gested as early as 1780.29 These keys were mounted on the
wing joint in such a way that the pad could reach far enough
over onto the bocal to close the pinhole vent.
Because the performance practice regarding the open
pinhole involved closing it only when playing low-range
pianissimos, the keys that were developed to cover it were
almost exclusively open—standing. As a result, the finger
assigned to it was free to do other things much of the time.
This is in direct contrast to modern performance practice in
which the whisper key is kept shut much of the time, either
by anchoring one finger to the whisper key or by employing a
special locking device.30
The whisper key was located at the top of the wing
joint, hence it made sense that the finger employed to
control it be in the left hand. A right-hand location would
have required bridging the gap between the instrument's
joints. A mechanism that crosses the intersection between
28 Franz Groffy, "Piano-key Mechanisms for the Bassoon,"
Woodwind 7, no. 7 (April 1955): 8. Nearly the entirety of
Groffy's article was quoted and paraphrased without
attribution by John E. Schleiffer, "The Bassoon: Three
Technical Studies," Music Educators Journal 53 (January
1967): 57-59.
x [Cugnier], p. 334.
W The Heckel company offers at least a dozen such
devices. Groffy, the head engineer at Heckel, discussed
both the open- and closed-key whisper mechanism in "Piano-
key Mechanisms," pp. 8-11.
118
one joint of an instrument and another involves a pair of
keys, one on each joint, which overlap when the instrument
is assembled (Figure 17). In this way, the key that lies
above transfers the mechanical motion from the key below,
thus carrying the motion from one joint to the other. While
not impossible to accomplish, bridging seems to have been
avoided unless absolutely necessary.
Figure 17. Bridge key architecture
Like the keys for C# and D#, the whisper key usually
appears in one of two places on nineteenth-century bassoons,
depending on the responsibilities already assigned to the
fingers. In the basic scale of the bassoon neither the left
hand little finger nor the left thumb were very active
except in the bass extension where they had considerable
responsibilities. On instruments which required the little
finger to play the C#- and D#-keys, therefore, the whisper
key was generally assigned to the left thumb. The touch-
piece for this key was usually located just below the those
for the true vent keys. There it could be reached even
while playing D; this meant, however, that the notes from C#
down to BBb had to be played with the whisper key open
119
unless some other method, like binding the key shut on the
bocal with string, could be employed during a suitable break
in the music. If such a break could not be found, of
course, the player would have to make do with the previous
setting of the key. This disadvantage eventually was
resolved by a bridge key from the E-key on the boot joint to
the wing joint and by the modern whisper-key lock.
A quite different situation is found on instruments
which required the left thumb to play C# and D#. On these
bassoons the whisper key was assigned to the little finger.
As a result, the little finger could keep the whisper key
shut all the way to the BBb. Here, the disadvantage was in
fingering C#, which on these instruments was also given to
the little finger. It is awkward but not impossible to play
both the whisper key and the c#-key with the little finger.
In faster passages where this might actually become a prob-
lem, the traditional cross fingering could be retained for
c# [o/xxo/o/xoo]. Thus, the little finger whisper key seems
to have offered significant advantages to the performer.
The Hess bassoon in the Heckel collection shows an
important departure from either of the above procedures.31
This instrument has the typical German left-thumb placement
of the whisper key, yet the key itself operates in the oppo-
site manner from the usual version. That is, the bocal vent
is closed until the key is pressed, which makes the function
of this key analogous to that of the other vent keys, of
u [Klose], no. F12.
120
which there are three. The analogy between this key and the
vent keys is carried further in the curious positioning of
the three vent keys with the higher holes controlled by the
lower touchpieces. The whisper vent itself, being the
highest hole, is controlled by the lowest touchpiece of all.
This is of particular importance in understanding the
purpose of the vent in the bocal. Here the manufacturer
seems to have considered the whisper key as an additional
vent key, to be used only when necessary for those
particular notes in the middle of the second octave that
most depend on its being open. Unfortunately, this unique
instrument does not seem to have been associated with a pub-
lished fingering chart, and must be regarded as representing
an idiosyncratic approach.
A number of other bassoons with idiosyncratic fingering
systems survive from the nineteenth century. In some cases,
these may be the result of innovative ideas that a particu-
lar performer or maker was trying out on an experimental
basis. In other cases, they may represent the work of a
conservative instrument maker copying a few attractive ideas
from the work of a more innovative maker. That these
instruments can be found throughout the century gives
further proof that bassoon manufacture was an open field,
even after the basic elements of the French Jancourt and
German Almenrader systems were established.
CHAPTER 4
THE ALMENRKDER SYSTEM
The modern Almenrader bassoon has its roots in the work
of bassoonist Karl Almenrader (1786-1843). His friendship
with the acoustician Gottfried Weber (1779-1839) provided
him with the necessary scientific background to make much-
needed changes to the construction and fingering patterns of
the bassoon.1 Almenrader's initial experiments with the
bassoon were conducted in the Schott workshop in Mainz from
1817 until around 1820, when he wrote a brief but important
treatise on the improvement of the bassoon.2 Charles
Koster, editor of a recent English translation of this work,
points out that this treatise, published by the Schott
company about instruments they were in the business to sell,
was "primarily an advertising brochure."3 Almenrader was
assisted by Karl Friedrich August Jehring (1798-1837), a
1 Lyndesay G. Langwill, The Bassoon and Contrabassoon,
Instruments of the Orchestra (London: Ernest Benn, 1965),
p. 49.
2 Karl Almenrader, "Treatise on the Improvement of the
Bassoon Including Two Tables," Mainz: B. Schott Sbhnen, ca.
1820; trans. Charles Koster, Journal of the International
Double Reed Society 14 (1986): 22-39.
3 Charles Koster, preface to Almenraeder, "Treatise on
the Bassoon," p. 22.
121
122
craftsman in the Schott workshop, who helped build
Almenrader-system instruments stamped with the Schott label.
In 1829 Almenrader began working with seventeen-year-old
Johann Adam Heckel (1812-1877), newly employed by Schott and
a nephew and student of Jehring; two years later Almenrader
and Heckel began the firm that eventually became synonymous
with the finest in German-made Almenrader-system bassoons.
Almenrader's revised treatise, describing a new version
of the bassoon with fifteen keys, was published by Gottfried
Weber in Caecilia in 1825, with a second revision based on
subsequent experiments published in 1829.4 While Almenrader
had high praise for the tone quality of bassoons made by the
Grensers of Dresden, he was careful to point out that "there
remain various defects, especially tuning."S Almenrader
went on to suggest that corrections could be made "by the
use of complex fingerings, but from these fingerings there
arise significant difficulties that act against a fluent and
comfortable performance," especially in the more "remote"
keys.6 Therefore, Almenrader focused his attention on
improving the intonation and fingering patterns of the
bassoon as he found it in Germany. Yet he was aware of the
work of other bassoonists. Most important of these was
Etienne Ozi, from whose Méthode de basson Almenrader cited
several examples in his own treatise. While bassoons based
4 Langwill, Bassoon and Contrabassoon, p. 49.
5 Almenrader, "Treatise on the Bassoon," p. 23.
5 Ibid.
123
on Almenrader's ideas received much attention for their
technical improvements and better intonation, there was a
perceived loss in the beauty of the tone.7 It was not until
later in the nineteenth century that the Heckel company's
improvements to the bore brought back the tone quality that
Almenrader so admired in the Grenser instruments.8
Almenrader's modifications to the mechanism of the
bassoon were carried out concurrently with significant
alterations to the acoustical properties of the instrument.
These were necessitated in part by the use of the open BB
tone hole in the bass extension. Contrary to Will Jansen's
assertion, however, it can not be said that Almenrader
"completely discarded the existing bassoon of his time and
started from an entirely new point."9 As will be shown in
the following discussion, Almenrader conscientiously and
meticulously modified the existing instrument according to
the needs of the time.
First, Almenrader relocated the c# tone hole, placing it
"at its correct spot," which he felt was farther down the
acoustical tube than its traditional location.10 Because
Almenrader's c#-key was a modification of a key Grenser had
7 Wilhelm Hermann Heckel, The Bassoon (Wiesbaden:
Wilhelm Heckel, 1931; trans. Lyndesay G. Langwill, rev. and
ed. Douglas Waples, Greenfield, Ohio: Journal of Musicology
Reprint, 1940), p. [17].
8 Ibid.
9 Will Jansen, The Bassoon: Its History, Construction,
Makers, Players and Music, five vols. (Buren, The
Netherlands: Fritz Knuf, 1978-84), p. 32.
1†Almenrader, "Treatise on the Bassoon," p. 24.
124
located very low on the wing joint, this adjustment made it
necessary to move the traditional location of the joint
between the boot and wing sections. If Almenrï¬der's c#-key
had been mounted on the boot joint as was the preference of
his German contemporaries, this modification would not have
been necessary.
The next adjustment was the relocation of the A tone
hole farther down the boot joint, where it would have to be
covered by a new G-key. This modification not only yielded
a better octave A to a, but achieved "full equalization of
sound from the lower A to the following F, which is almost
always missing from ordinary bassoons."11 The most innova-
tive aspect of this improvement was that Almenrader used a
double hole: the A tone hole itself was bored into the
descending tube and a second hole was bored into the
ascending tube. The second hole acts as a resonance hole
which modifies the timbre of the G.12
As important as his acoustical work was, Almenrader's
improvements to the fingering system were of more practical
importance to players of the bassoon, who until this work
was done had to contend with a variety of problems caused by
awkward cross-fingerings. To solve these problems, bassoon
makers were experimenting with new closed keys which would
reduce the number of cross-fingerings necessary. The result
was a rapid rise in the number of keys mounted on the
U Ibid., p. 25.
12 Langwill, Bassoon and Contrabassoon, p. 52.
125
bassoon during the first half of the nineteenth century.
The bassoons by Johann Heinrich Grenser with which
Almenrader was familiar typically had seven to nine keys.
Of the forty-four complete surviving bassoons by J. H.
Grenser listed by Phillip Young, five have seven keys,
twenty-two have eight keys, and ten have nine keys, the
ninth being most often a key for c#.13 Three more have ten
keys, and there are additional examples with eleven, thir-
teen and fourteen keys. Unfortunately, Young's otherwise
helpful listing of keys fails at this point to label all of
the new keys, some of which may have been later additions.
Almenrader's solutions to the problems of the turn-of-
the-century bassoon eventually became the dominant pattern
among German makers. His work can be considered in two
stages. The initial period of intensive innovative work
began with his first associations with Schott around 1819
and ended with the publication of his results in Caecelia in
1825. The results of this first stage of experimentation
are shown in Figure 18; the fingerings are summarized in the
Appendix, Table 10.
Because of the need to control seven pitches from BBb to
E with only three available fingers, the bass extension was
one of the most problematic aspects of the bassoon's
construction. There can be no question that by providing a
13 Philip T. Young, Twenty-five Hundred Historical
Woodwind Instruments: An Inventory of the Major Collections
(New York: Pendragon Press, 1982), pp. 52-54.
126
C411
10’: 6“?
a. Left thumb keys b. Left finger keys
0
«is
O
. T gm
6
Fl 4: * F?!
W S
. 147p 1417
c. Right thumb keys d. Right finger keys
Figure 18. Almenrader system, ca. 1825
127
fully chromatic compass Almenrader did as much as anyone to
bring the bass extension of the bassoon out of the
Renaissance and to adapt it to the chromatic demands of
nineteenth-century music. Yet his solutions involved
certain compromises that create difficulties for performers
even today.
The C# was one of the notes missing from bassoons until
the early nineteenth century. Almenrader located a new tone
hole in an acoustically suitable position between the C and
D tone holes, and fitted it with a closed key operated by
the little finger of the left hand. The new touchpiece was
located alongside that for the D# which Almenrader assigned
to the little finger as J. H. Grenser had done (Figure 18b).
This placement made a trill from C to Db quite simple
[C/xxei/x/xxxF]. Although Almenrader did not discuss the
point, it seems likely that the choice may also have been
influenced by the c#-key and vent keys with which the left
thumb already had to contend.
Almenrader's solution to the problem of the missing BB
was to locate a new tone hole in the bell joint. This hole
is the lowest of the tone holes on the acoustical tube. The
new hole was controlled by an open key lying alongside the
old BBb-key and just to its right (Figure 18a). In effect,
the old BBb-key became the new BB-key since its closing of
the C tone hole now produced BB, not 38b. The new key was a
true BBb-key, since it produced BBb by closing the BB tone
hole. Almenrader reported that this new open hole not only
128
made the full chromatic compass possible, but helped improve
the tone and volume of the notes in the bass extension.14
Because there were now three separate keys to be
operated by the left thumb in the bass extension, and
because these keys lay on opposite sides of the open D tone
hole, Almenrader fitted this hole with an open key which
produced C when closed (Figure 18a). This key did not
change the fingering pattern, but did make it easier to play
the various bass keys, since the player no longer had to
make sure that the thumb was completely covering the hole.
The rounded shape of the Almenrader's C-key also made
slurring more convenient in this register.
Almenrader made a number of improvements to the finger-
ings of the basic scale of the bassoon, including the
relocated c#-key mentioned above. Almenrader credited J. H.
Grenser with the invention of the c#-key operated by the
little finger of the left hand [xxxc#/o/ooo], which could
also be used to obtain a d# [xxoc#/o/ooo].15 This key
allowed for the first time a trill from c# to d# by means of
the left hand ring finger. Because the d# fingering was an
acoustical compromise however, the older cross-fingering of
d# was retained as the standard fingering.
Grenser typically located his c# on the front of the
instrument, that is, on the same side as the fingerholes.
14 That is, from F down to BBb. Almenrï¬der, "Treatise
on the Bassoon," p. 25.
15 Ibid., p. 24.
129
This is actually the lower side of the tube as the instru-
ment is held while playing, so this position, as Almenrader
pointed out, allowed the c# hole to fill with water from
condensation in the bore.16 The fingerholes are in the same
position, but water is not cited as a problem with regard to
them. The explanation of this apparent discrepancy, which
Almenrader does not mention, is that the c#-key is a closed
key. Because the tone hole is open only when c# is played,
a closed key in this position gives water a place to hide
from the wind in the bore. While the fingerholes also get
water in them on occasion, as open holes they are more
frequently cleared of water by the passage of air through
them, thus presenting considerably less of a problem.17
Almenrader's solution was to move the c#-key to the back
of the instrument to be operated by the left thumb,18 which
as yet had no whisper-key to deal with, and was thus a
logical choice (Figure 18a). It was not, however, the only
choice that could have been made. The Kirst bassoon in the
Heckel collection has a c#-key for the left little finger
that reaches around the wing joint to a hole on the back
side where water cannot get into it. This instrument dates
“ Ibid.
17 Even so, some modern players are sufficiently
bothered by water in the finger holes that they have these
holes lined with special tubes that protrude into the bore
just enough to keep water from running into them.
1‘ Almenrader, "Treatise on the Bassoon," p. 24.
130
from 1801, twenty years before Almenrader's work.19 In
retrospect, it seems that Kirst's arrangement would have
been preferable, since he did not sacrifice ease of
fingering merely to solve a technical problem.
In order to improve the tuning of the octave A to a,
Almenrader moved the A tone hole, formerly covered by the
ring finger of the right hand, several inches further down
the acoustical tube, to a position at which it could no
longer be reached by the third finger. Therefore, a new key
was made which acted solely as an extension to the ring
finger and did not alter the fingering pattern of the other
notes. Its touchpiece lies on the boot joint in approxi-
mately the same location as the old open hole (Figure 18d).
This open key is properly called a G-key, since it produces
G by closing the A tone hole.
An unfortunate side effect of the change in the location
of the A tone hole was a weakening of the intonation of the
traditional cross-fingered Bb. Almenrader gave a modified
fingering [xxx/o/xoxG#] as a solution,20 which was also good
for a trill from Ab to Bb. In addition, he located a new
tone hole for A# in an acoustically acceptable position on
the boot joint. To control this hole he mounted a closed
A#-key to be operated by the ring finger of the right hand
19 [Rudolph Klose], Musikhistorisches Museum Heckel-
Biebrich: Fagott (Wiesbaden: Wilhelm Heckel, 1968), no. F7A.
2°.Almenrader, "Treatise on the Bassoon," p. 35.
131
[xxx/o/xxA#] (Figure 18d). This made possible for the first
time an easy A to Bb trill.
Almenrader then added a second key for G#, this time on
the back of the boot joint alongside the F#-key, where it
could be operated by the right thumb (Figure 18c). The new
G#-key eliminated an awkward fingering pattern on older
instruments that involved a slide of the little finger from
the F-key to the G#-key at the same time as the thumb was
lifted off the F#-key. Koster's English translation of
Almenrader's 1821 treatise suggests that the new G#-key was
to be used as in the modern fingering [xxx/o/xxxG#]:
On the other side of this joint the F-sharp key has
received a neighboring key [G#], which when opened with
the usual G fingering produces an in-tune G-sharp.21
It is unfortunate that Koster's translation is not
accompanied by the diagrams referred to in the text, because
the translation is in error. The critical passage is:
Auf der andern Seite diese[s] Stï¬cke[s] hat die tiefe
Fis=Klappe noch eine Neben=Klappe erhalten die, wenn sie
mit jener zugleich ge6ffnet und der gewbhnliche G=Griff
dazu genommen wird, ein reines Gis hervorbringt.22
The passage should read:
n Ibid., p. 25.
22 Ibid. The original passage contains letters
referring the reader to an illustration; because this usage
creates needless conflicts with the present key-labeling
scheme, these letters have been omitted. Editorial ellipses
have also been omitted for the sake of readability.
132
On the other side of this joint the F#-key has now
received a neighboring key [G#] which, when it is opened
together with the former [F#] along with the customary
G-fingering, produces a true G#.23
In a subsequent revision of the treatise, published in
Caecelia in 1825, Almenrader's diagrams clearly show the new
G#-key.24 Although both it and the neighboring F#-key are
erroneously labeled as F#-keys, the new key is clearly
located too high on the boot joint to serve as an alternate
to the little finger G#, whose tone hole is at the very
bottom of the boot joint. It is therefore apparent that
Almenrader designed this key not as an independent G# but as
one which would produce G# in conjunction with the F#-
fingering.25 Because the two keys were so close together, a
relatively clean F# [xxx/F#/xxxF] to G# [xxx/(F#,G#)/xxxF]
slur could be achieved by sliding the right thumb slightly
to catch the G#-key while still holding the F#-key.
Almenrader later abandoned this design in favor of the
independent G# that appears on modern examples of the
Almenrader system. His reasons are not known, but he may
have decided against the first design because the key could
not be used by itself to produce a true G#.
Almenrader did not mention any improvements to the vent
keys themselves, and employed only two in his designs
†Author's translation, with assistance of Nan Watkins,
Reference Librarian, Western Carolina University.
3‘ See Plate 14, Figs. 4k and 2m in Langwill, Bassoon
and Contrabassoon.
5 Ibid., p. 51.
133
(Figure 18a), even though J. H. Grenser had added a third
vent to some of his instruments at least a decade before.26
Almenrader did describe the highly idiosyncratic bassoon
technique of flicking, that is, of briefly opening one of
the vent keys in order to facilitate large-interval slurs to
the notes of the first overblown octave.â€â€™ Despite this
apparent lack of attention to the vent keys, the fingering
chart he published for his fifteen-keyed bassoon gives
fingerings all the way up to 9" (see Appendix, Table 10).28
In 1843 Almenrader published a new chart with fingerings for
a full four octaves, BBb to bb".29 Even today notes above
e" are only rarely encountered in bassoon literature. This
may be due to the larger bore dimensions of modern
Almenrader-system bassoons. It may have been much easier to
produce these extremely high pitches with the considerably
narrower bore of the early nineteenth-century bassoons.
Extremely high notes are generally easier to obtain on
French bassoons, which retain the smaller bore.
Almenrader continued to refine his fingering system for
another twenty years, working in conjunction with the Heckel
firm until his death in 1843. The results of the following
2‘ Phillip Young lists four such instruments by Grenser,
who died in 1813, before Almenraeder began working;
Historical Woodwind Instruments, p. 54.
27.Almenr§der, "Treatise on the Bassoon," p. 28.
1†This chart is reproduced in Jansen, Fig. 448,
unnumbered page.
†Karl Almenrader, Der Kunst des Fagottblasens oder
Vollstandige theoretisch-praktische Fagottschule (Mainz: B.
Schott Sbhnen, [ca. 1843]).
134
improvements are shown in Figure 19. By 1828 he had added a
second closed key for F# on the boot joint, this one oper-
ated by the little finger of the right hand,30 giving the
player additional flexibility in fingering complicated
passages (Figure 19d). Later, Almenrader moved and enlarged
the thumb hole for the right hand, covering it with an open
key as he had done earlier with the left thumb C-key. This
new key, which closes the F tone hole, is known as the E-key
(Figure 19c). Almenrader also improved the acoustical posi-
tion of his A# tone hole, moving it to the thumb side of the
boot joint where it would not be subject to filling with
water. A new A#-key for the right thumb was located next to
the E-key and opposite the F#-key (Figure 19c). Almenrader
was also able to control his new A#-key from the old ring-
finger A#-key on the front of the boot joint by means of a
truly ingenious device.31 This device consists of a thin
rod running from the front to the back of the bassoon
through a small hole drilled in the narrow septum between
the two wind tubes in the boot joint. The sum of these
innovations made it possible for the bassoonist to choose
among two fingerings for each of the three notes F#, G#, and
A#. The presence of these alternative fingerings greatly
simplified the performance of passagework formerly
considered difficult or even impossible.
4†Langwill's description of this key as a key for the
right hand ring finger is in error; Bassoon and
Contrabassoon, p. 52.
n Ibid., p. 53.
135
0 1
O
O
//%zï¬# ::::’
«up
a. Left thumb keys b. Left finger keys
E
a" O
a G
F (a: 7,
G
.2, m,
c. Right thumb keys d. Right finger keys
Figure 19. Almenrader system, ca. 1843
136
Further refinements to the Almenrader system instrument
were made by the Heckel company after Almenrader's death.
These included the relatively late addition of ring keys,
the invention of which is usually attributed to the Rev.
Frederick Nolan (1784-1864) in 1808.32 A ring key encircles
an open tone hole but does not alter the pitch of the notes
issuing from that hole; rather it controls, by means of a
mechanical connection, a second tone hole located elsewhere.
Ring keys were fairly common on flutes and other woodwinds
by the 18408, but were not employed systematically by the
Heckel firm until around 1880, when a ring key was mounted
for the third finger of the left hand.33 This closed key
covered a new d# tone hole that opened in conjunction with
the c#-key but closed when the third finger hole was closed.
This mechanism markedly improved the tone and pitch of
Almenrader's c# to d# trill but did not change its fingering
[xx§c#/ooo]. A second ring key was added in 1902 to control
a vent which has no other function than to modify the
intonation of the 9'.34
Further modifications to the Almenrader bassoon in the
nineteenth century included improvements to the bore to
smooth out irregularities in pitch and tone color. Some
n George E. Eyre and William Spottiswoode, Patents for
Inventions: Abridgements of Specifications Relating to Music
and Musical Instruments, A.D. 1694-1866, second ed. (London:
Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1871; reprint, London: Tony Bingham,
1984), pp. 56-57.
†Langwill, Bassoon and Contrabassoon, p. 54.
“ Ibid.
137
relatively minor changes made in the location of tone holes
did not affect the fingering system itself, except in the
upper ranges where the fingerings have traditionally been
more flexible. Thus, the majority of fingerings for the
modern Almenrader system are essentially identical to those
of his nineteenth-century designs (see Appendix, Table 11).
Other changes made by the Heckel company included lining the
wing joint with hard rubber to prevent water damage to the
wood and an improvement to the method by which the acousti-
cal tube was turned back on itself in the boot joint.3S
Langwill gives 1905 as the year in which the Heckel
company finally made standard a mechanism to close the pin-
hole in the bocal.36 Connected to the whisper-key mechanism
on the wing by means of a bridge key between the joints,
this mechanism functioned automatically with the closing of
the E-key on the boot joint. By this means the pinhole vent
was kept closed in the bassoon's lowest range, where it was
most critical to achieve a successful pianissimo.
Eventually an additional key was added, usually located next
to the left thumb's c#-key, where it has remained on
Almenrï¬der-system instruments ever since. While the auto-
matic mechanism had a beneficial effect on the low register
pianissimo and made it easier to attack the lower notes in
general, it complicated the fingering of the c# by requiring
that the whisper-key and the c#-key be held down by the left
35 Ibid., pp. 54-56.
“ Ibid., p. 54.
138
thumb simultaneously. Considering the current practice of
modifying the pitch and tone color of the c# with the
addition of the D-key, the c# has become one of the more
awkward fingerings on the instrument [(D,c#,w)/xxx/ooo].
If Almenrader had left the c#-key where Grenser had put it,
on the front side of the instrument where it could be con-
trolled by the left little finger, or if he had opted for
the right thumb placement preferred by his contemporaries,
this awkward fingering would have been avoided. Here then
is an example of the way in which an earlier decision about
key mechanism, although based upon rational consideration of
the options and requirements of the time, turned out to be a
source of problems for a later generation of players who
found themselves working under different musical conditions.
As frustrating as the current situation is, a generally
acceptable and workable solution has yet to be developed.
Other makers worked to improve Almenrader's design as
well. The best-known example was that of Reinhold Lange
(1854-1905), who advertised his "new system" in 1890.37
Lange moved the tone hole for the finger of the left hand to
a more appropriate position, drilled it straight into the
bore, and fitted it with a key, in this way accomplishing
for the left hand what Almenrader had already done for the
right with his G-key. Lange then relocated the other left
†Ronald Klimko, "The C. Kruspe Bassoon and the World's
Columbian Exposition of Chicago, 1893," Journal of the
International Double Reed Society 7 (1979): 9.
139
hand fingerholes so that the hand position would be more
comfortable. He also drilled the c# tone hole where it
belongs acoustically, that is, right through the socket and
tenon connecting the wing and boot joints, and gave it a key
for the first finger of the right hand. These changes,
although interesting and perhaps even useful, are hardly
enough to establish Lange's claim that he had invented a
"new system." This assessment was also the judgment of an
anonymous writer in the very journal in which Lange had
advertised.38 Nevertheless, Lange showed two examples of
his new system at the International Exhibition in Vienna
in 1892.39 The only feature of Lange's system to have any
lasting effect was the covered tone hole for the left hand
third finger; although the tone hole is no longer moved on
modern bassoons, it is occasionally covered in order to
accomodate bassoonists with small hands.
n Cited in Klimko, ibid.
†Lyndesay G. Langwill, An Index of Musical Wind
Instrument Makers, sixth ed. (Edinburgh: Lindsay, 1980), p.
100.
CHAPTER 5
THE JANCOURT SYSTEM
The bassoon arrived on the threshold of the nineteenth
century with an acoustical construction very little changed
since its first appearance as a jointed instrument in the
early seventeenth century. As French makers adapted this
instrument to the requirements of nineteenth-century music,
they tended to retain the narrow, oblique tone holes of the
older dulcian, including the thumb hole for E. There is
evidence to suggest that this may be due to a greater empha-
sis placed on tone color by French musicians. Harold Eugene
Griswold, for example, has discussed in detail the develop-
ing concept of the ideal bassoon tone quality among French
musicians in the later eighteenth century.1 These changes
parallel the rise of the bassoon's new role as a tenor
soloist rather than a basso continuo instrument.
Preoccupation with tone color and the subtleties of
sound can be seen in several of the earliest accomplishments
of French bassoon makers in the nineteenth century. Shortly
after the turn of the century, Dominique Porthaux (1751-
1 Harold Eugene Griswold, "Changes in the Tonal
Character of the Eighteenth-Century French Bassoon," Journal
of the International Double Reed Society 17 (1989): 29-34.
140
141
1839) invented a bocal made of wood, which he considered a
preferable material to the heavy brass bocals of the day
because of its sweeter, more sonorous tone quality.
Unfortunately, the bocal no longer exists. The only
evidence for it is a complaint published in the Journal de
Paris in 1808 alleging that the Savary family of instrument
makers had copied this invention.2 The elder Savary (fl.
1778-1827) was the most highly respected bassoon maker in
France at the turn of the century. He was joined in the
trade by his son Jean-Nicholas (1786-1853), whose instru-
ments came to be highly regarded outside France. The
younger Savary's instruments were being used in England
until late in the nineteenth century when they were dis-
carded, not because their fingering systems had become
outdated, but because orchestral pitch had risen too high
for them to be used any longer.3
Jean-Nicholas Savary won acclaim for a ratchet-
controlled tuning slide in the wing joint that he brought
out in 1823.4 The inconsistency of pitch standards in
Europe had already led some makers to provide alternate wing
joints for a particular instrument in order to facilitate
tuning. Savary's tuning slide was imitated by some other
3 Constant Pierre, Les facteurs d'instruments de musique
(Paris: n.p., 1893; reprint, Geneva: Minkoff Reprints,
1971), pp. 148-149.
3 Lyndesay G. Langwill, The Bassoon and Contrabassoon,
Instruments of the Orchestra (London: Ernest Benn, 1965),
p. 60.
3 Ibid., p. 59.
142
makers, but it was ultimately abandoned.5 An interesting
example of a tuning slide appears on a fifteen-keyed bassoon
by F. Rank of Rottenburg which is now in the Heckel
collection.6 On this bassoon, the slide is located between
the vent holes and the finger holes on the wing joint. The
vent keys are mounted to the movable section. This arrange-
ment has the distinct disadvantage that the touchpieces move
away from their standard position as the tuning slide is
extended. To rectify this problem, some instruments were
fitted with telescoping vent keys, such as those on a mid-
nineteenth-century bassoon by Simiot & Brelet shown in the
Waterhouse catalog.7
Another interesting example of French concern for tone
quality was the invention of the bassonore in the 1830's.8
This was the joint effort by Nicholas Winnen (fl. 1788-1834)
and his son Jean (1795-1867), Parisian instrument makers.
This unusual bassoon had thirteen brass keys and a wide bore
that ended in a flared metal bell. Shown at the Paris
Exhibition of 1844, it received a bronze medal. The
bassonore was intended as an instrument for military bands;
5 Cugnier had criticized the effect of alternate wing
joints on the overall pitch of a bassoon in 1780. [Pierre
Cugnier], "Basson," in Jean Benjamin de Laborde, Essai sur
la musique ancienne et moderne (Paris: P. D. Pierres, 1780),
2: 328-329.
5 No. F13A in [Rudolph Klose], Musikhistorisches Museum
Heckel-Biebrich: Fagott (Wiesbaden: Wilhelm Heckel, 1968).
7 No. 12 in William Waterhouse, The Proud Bassoon: An
Exhibition (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University, 1983), pp.
[26-27].
3 Langwill, Bassoon and Contrabassoon, p. 58-59.
143
it had a tone reported by Francois Joseph Fétis (1784-1871)
to be four times as strong as that of the standard bassoon.9
In the French preference for the thumb operated D#-key
can be seen the germ of the most distinguishing feature of
the bassoon's development in nineteenth-century France: the
assignment of all the keys on the long joint to the left
thumb. This pattern became clear as early as 1808, when
Jacques Francois Simiot (fl. 1803-1835) introduced left
thumb keys for BB and C#.10 That these were both closed
keys points up another characteristic of French developments
in bassoon manufacture: new keys were carefully added to
the instrument in ways that would not seriously alter the
acoustical properties of the instrument. The use of a
closed key for BB, for example, saved makers the trouble of
retuning the instrument, since an open hole would have
affected to some degree the acoustical properties of all the
higher pitches.
French concern for preserving the tone color while
modernizing the keywork is especially evident in the way in
which keys were added for the pitches of the bass extension
(Figure 20). On the long joint, the open hole for C was
covered by a key with a linkage to close the D-key, which
made for easier maneuvering between BBb, C, and D. A tone
hole for C# was added with a closed key located to the
3 Gazette musicale de la Belgique, 15 May 1834; cited in
Langwill, Bassoon and Contrabassoon, p. 58.
1° Pierre, p. 303.
144
outside of the C- and D-keys to be operated by the left
thumb.11 To this arrangement of five thumb keys was
eventually added a sixth which made it possible to play BB;
the tone hole for this key was usually located on the bell
joint. This key was a separate closed BB-key at first,
located parallel to the BBb-key on the long joint. An
example is found on a tenoroon by Savary, ca. 1842, in the
Waterhouse collection.12 On the Savary instrument the tone
hole operated by the BB-key is unusually small and located
at the top of the long joint to avoid having to make a
bridge key to the bell joint. In order to play BB, both the
BB- and BBb-keys would have to be pressed simultaneously
[(BBb,BB)/xxx/x/xxxF]; to play BBb required only the
traditional BBb fingering.
“@ l
@‘éévb :
A, “r;
Figure 20. French left thumb keys, early nineteenth century
Until the middle of the nineteenth century, fingering
patterns for the right hand remained essentially the same as
11 See, for example, the bassoon by Savary jeune, ca.
1823, No. 11 in Waterhouse, Proud Bassoon, pp. [26-27].
13 Ibid., No. 32, pp. [35-36].
145
on the eighteenth-century eight-keyed bassoon. Responsi-
bilities for the right thumb, for example, consisted of the
open thumb hole and the key for F#. This remained true on
all but the most sophisticated models throughout the
twentieth century. A Jancourt-system bassoon in the
author's possession, dating from the first quarter of the
twentieth century, shows this pattern. French instrument
makers also tended to retain the open finger hole for G,
rather than following Almenrï¬der's lead in moving and
covering this tone hole. A new key for A# was occasionally
added between the second and third finger holes for the
right hand, making possible an easy A to Bb trill
[xxx/o/xxAi] and providing an alternative to the cross-
fingered Bb [xxx/o/xox]. This A#-key is essentially similar
in placement and function to Almenrï¬der's A#-key of 1825.
An interesting new feature on some French instruments
was a small closed hole opening into the descending tube of
the boot above the first finger hole. This hole, covered by
a narrow key mounted between the first and second finger
holes, could be employed in a variety of ways. Musicologist
and bassoonist Constant Pierre (1855-1918) reported having
seen an instrument by the Parisian manufacturer Adler on
which this key could produce six different trills when
combined with different fingerings: B/c#, c/c#, c#/d#,
d/eb, g'/a', and a'/bb'.13
13 Pierre, p. 300.
146
The responsibilities of the left hand fingers increased
dramatically as additional keys were mounted on the wing
joint of French instruments. A c#-key was added below the
third finger hole on the wing joint where it could be
reached by the little finger (Figure 14a, p. 105). On some
instruments a d#-key was added between the second and third
finger holes where it could be reached by the third finger.
This key, however, was used primarily as a trill key since
the cross-fingered d# still worked satisfactorily. The new
d#-key did not help in the matter of the c# to d# trill, for
which the boot joint trill key described above could be used
instead. While German makers tended to avoid even these
additional keys for the left hand fingers, some French
makers went on to add similar keys between the first and
second fingers and even above the first finger. These keys
served some trills in the middle register, such as those
from e to f# and from f to f#. The same keys were also
used also to extend the high range of the instrument to eb",
e" and f".14
Vent keys developed on the French instruments along much
the same lines as on the German instruments, with the
exception that the whisper key for the pinhole in the bocal
was included more frequently than on German instruments,
being an essential part of the standardization of French
1‘ See the Jancourt system fingering chart included in
Julius Weissenborn, Method for Bassoon (Leipzig: n.p., 1887;
rev. Fred Bettony, New York: Cundy-Bettony, 1950),
unnumbered loose page.
147
keywork after 1845.15 This whisper key was typically
controlled by the left hand little finger, which had little
else to do since it had no C#- and D#-keys to deal with as
on Almenrader bassoons. The addition of the whisper key had
little effect on the fingerings already in use, because most
French instruments employed the little finger only for C#,
and because the new key was used primarily to achieve a
reliable pianissimo in the lower register. Where it might
have caused a problem was with the C#, since the same finger
was needed for the c#-key. The solution to this problem
seems to have been to put the whisper key as close to the
c#-key as possible, so the little finger could operate both
keys if necessary. The other vent keys functioned in
essentially the same manner as on Almenrader instruments.
Typically there were two vent keys, but a third vent,
located very high on the wing, was not uncommon.16
Unlike the Almenrï¬der system, which was well on its way
to maturity before the middle of the century, the French
bassoon took longer to refine. Most important in the
process was bassoonist and teacher Eugene Jancourt (1815-
1901), who began around 1845 to cooperate with the Buffet-
Crampon company in Paris to improve the mechanism of the
French bassoon.17 An important aspect of Jancourt's work
15 Langwill, Bassoon and Contrabassoon, p. 61.
15 See, for example, the diagram accompanying the
Jancourt fingering chart in Weissenborn, unnumbered loose
page.
17 Langwill, Bassoon and Contrabassoon, p. 61.
148
was to redesign the key system to do away with most of the
flat levers that had been used since the Renaissance.
In their place were installed keys mounted on long rods.
The action of these keys by a sort of rotary motion was an
improvement over the flat keys both in terms of accuracy and
of quietness. At about the same time, Jancourt added the
whisper key for the left little finger, although this key
had previously appeared on instruments by other makers.
These improvements were described in Jancourt's Méthode de
basson of 1847.18
Joppig shows a bassoon by Pierre-Louis Gautrot (fl.
1835-84) which, while actually dating from around 1870, is
representative of Jancourt's efforts up to mid-century.19
While Jancourt described both a seventeen-keyed basson
ordinaire and a sixteen-keyed basson perfectionné, this
fifteen-keyed model is essentially a Jancourt system instru-
ment, lacking only the third vent key on the wing joint.
Most interesting is the arrangement of the thumb keys on the
long joint (Figure 21). The instrument employs a closed BB
tone hole, but unlike the one on Savary's tenoroon, this one
is located on the bell joint itself. The new BB-key's
touchpiece was made to overlap the C-key completely so that
the BB tone hole opened when C was played; this required
only a slight modification of the placement of the C tone
13 Ibid.
13 This instrument is shown as no. 1 in Gunther Joppig,
The Oboe and the Bassoon, trans. Alfred Clayton (Portland,
Oregon: Amadeus Press, 1988), p. 91.
149
hole. Pressing this new two-layered key produced C by
closing the D tone hole and opening the BB tone hole
[BB/xxx/x/xxxF]. Adding the BBb-key (thus closing the C
tone hole) produced BB [(BBb,BB)/xxx/x/xxxF]. Pressing the
BBb-key alone produced BBb by allowing the overlapping BB-
key to release, thereby closing the BB tone hole
[BBb/xxx/x/xxxF]. Linkages between the BBb- and C-keys and
between the C- and D-keys kept the C- and D-keys closed.
This ingenious mechanism allowed for a chromatic compass of
six pitches while only requiring five keys, without affect-
ing the tone color of already established notes. More
importantly, this improvement was achieved while necessi-
tating only a minimal retuning of the lowest pitches on the
instrument. For the bassoonist the new keywork not only
filled in the traditional gaps in the bass extension, but
made it easier to move between the various pitches in this
part of the range.
Q
_J «(p
Figure 21. Jancourt's bass extension keys, ca. 1845
150
Other features of Jancourt's system at mid-century
included an A#-key for the third finger of the right hand, a
whisper key and c#-key for the left hand third finger, and a
d#-key for the second finger. In addition, a key operating
a new tone hole for d#" was located between the first and
second fingers of the left hand. In this position it could
also be used for trills from e to f# and from f to f#.
Without this key, for example, the e to f# trill would have
been made by moving from the short fingering for e
[xoo/o/ooo] to the long fingering of the overblown f#
[oxx/o/xxxF], a motion that involved seven fingers. Because
many of these features can be found on bassoons built before
Jancourt began his work, it may well be that Jancourt was
more an assembler of the useful ideas of others than an
innovator.
After the initial phase of his work, Jancourt continued
to work with Buffet but also cooperated with Frédéric
Triebert (1813-1878), one of the most highly-respected
makers of the time. Triebert was also working with Theobald
Boehm to produce the radically different bassoon that will
be discussed in the following chapter. By 1850, Jancourt
had decided to move the A tone hole to a more correct
acoustical position farther down the bore and to fit it with
a key, much as Almenrï¬der had done three decades earlier.20
The finger plate for this new G#-key was mounted alongside
3° Langwill, Bassoon and Contrabassoon, p. 62.
151
and just below the A#-key, as it was on Almenrader-system
instruments.
Jancourt's further experiments included the addition of
ring keys that opened small tone holes whose primary role
was to aid in the tuning of specific pitches. Some of these
were later abandoned. One which survives on the modern
Jancourt bassoon is a ring key for the second finger of the
right hand. When this finger is raised for B [xxx/o/xoo], a
small hole between the first and second finger holes opens.
This hole helps to tune B, which is otherwise a little flat.
This key is superficially similar to one located between the
first and second finger holes on the boot of the modern
Almenrader bassoon, but on the Almenrader bassoon it has a
different function: opening when the F-key is opened, it
helps the tuning of 9'.
One of the ring-key designs that Jancourt later
abandoned was intended to simplify the technique of half-
holing.21 On most bassoons the first finger of the left
hand is sometimes rolled slightly off its tone hole in order
to produce the overblown pitches f#, g, and g#. Jancourt's
mechanism avoided the necessity of rolling the first finger,
which can be rather awkward, especially at high speeds. The
mechanism involved an open-standing key with a small hole
drilled in the key pad that fitted over the first finger
hole. This key was connected to a ring key for the second
finger in such a way that, when the first finger was raised
n Ibid.
152
from the key, the second finger held the first-finger key
down, and only the small hole in the key pad was exposed.
The half-hole technique was thus replaced by the simple up
and down motion of the first finger. When the second finger
was raised, the first finger opened or closed the tone hole
with the same motions as if the key were not there. The
reason for the eventual abandonment of this key may lie in
its limitation of the half-hole vent to the size bored into
the key pad. In practice, it is almost essential that the
player be able to control subtle variations in the size of
the vent opening. Without this possibility, an important
degree of control over pitch and timbre is lost to the
performer.
Another of Jancourt's experiments involved an additional
key for the right thumb, designed to make possible an f# to
g# trill. The standard f# fingering was an overblown F
[oxx/o/xxxF] which employed the little finger so that it was
not free to reach the G#-key. Without a duplicate G#-key
for the right thumb, the trill could not be performed.
Jancourt solved this problem by adding a second F-key to the
boot joint which could be closed by the right thumb, freeing
the little finger to operate the G#-key for the trill. In
his discussion of this mechanism, Langwill implies that the
second F-key was located in a position in which it was
pressed by the thumb in conjunction with the F#-key.22
If true, the fingering would have been [xxx/(F,F#)/xxx§#].
22 Ibid.
153
This interpretation is contradicted by Jancourt's own
discussion of the trill, which he describes as
[xxx/F/xxxgi].23 In fact, the second F-key is located on
the opposite side of the open thumb hole from the F#-key.
For this reason, unfortunately, this clever arrangement was
of no use in the lower range. Actually, Langwill's idea is
better, since it would allow the same trill to be used in
both octaves.
In 1876, a year after becoming Professor of Bassoon at
the Paris Conservatory, Jancourt published Etude de basson
perfectionné, which Langwill regards as a supplement to the
Méthode of 1847.24 The Etude contains a new fingering chart
illustrating the 22-keyed bassoon that represents a summary
of Jancourt's experiments between 1847 and 1876. A modern
fingering chart for this system is given in the Appendix,
Table 12. Because Jancourt was a Professor at the conserva-
tory, the revised system became known as the Conservatory
system. It has become the standard for construction of
instruments used in French-speaking parts of the world.
Jancourt's descriptions of his latest modifications
include three new keys for the wing joint and two for the
boot joint, which yielded a total of twenty-two new trill
possibilities.†The two boot joint keys, the extra F-key
and the trill key for c# between the first and second
33 Eugene Jancourt, Etude du basson perfectionné, Paris:
Evette et Schaeffer, [1876], p. 5.
34 Langwill, Bassoon and Contrabassoon, p. 61.
35 Jancourt, p. 2.
154
fingers of the right hand, have already been discussed.
The new keys for the wing joint are shown in Figure 22.
In addition to the c#- and d#-keys already standard on the
wing joint of the 1847 model, an e to f# trill key was added
between the first and second fingers of the left hand.
Above the first finger hole were two additional keys, one
for d#" and the other for e". These two keys are mounted to
overlap in such a way that the e"-key opens the d#"-key
automatically. These keys make the very high range of the
bassoon considerably easier. They were eventually copied by
makers of Almenrader-system bassoons. Finally, a new thumb
key was added to the wing joint, located below the three
vent keys but opening a small tone hole for f" above the e"
tone hole. This key is also useful in some high range
trills, but the f" is so rare in bassoon literature that the
key is rarely used and was often omitted by later
manufacturers.
f "aw-l â€To T.“ k
is be - 1..
Figure 22. Jancourt's left hand finger keys, ca. 1876
155
Jancourt's mature system shows several significant
differences when compared to the mature form of the
Almenrï¬der bassoon. First, and most important to the ear,
is that the Jancourt instrument has a characteristically
different tone quality due to the retention of an acoustical
tube and tone hole design that more closely resembles the
dulcian than does the Almenrï¬der bassoon. In practice, this
feature also means that a number of basic fingerings are
significantly out of tune and must be brought into pitch by
the use of additional fingers, which can considerably com-
plicate the fingering patterns.†On the Jancourt bassoon,
for example, the player must add the right thumb to the fin-
gerings for A#, d#, e, and a in order to get them in tune;
these additions are specified in Jancourt's fingering chart
(Appendix, Table 12).27 While the Almenrï¬der instrument has
several out-of—tune pitches that may need to be similarly
adjusted-d# and 9 being the most troublesome-—they can be
played in tune without requiring the use of additional
fingers. Only c# in the Almenrader-system instrument
absolutely requires an additional key (the D-key), and this
can be reached by the same thumb that operates the c#-key
itself.
35 Several of these fingerings are described by Gerald
Corey, who plays both French and German instruments, in his
article, "How to Make the French Bassoon 'Work,'" Journal of
the International Double Reed Society 1 (1973): 34-39.
†weissenborn, unnumbered loose page.
156
A second significant difference between the Jancourt and
Almenrï¬der instruments is that the Jancourt key mechanism on
the long joint places all six pitches under control of the
left thumb, while on the Almenrï¬der instrument the responsi-
bilities are divided between the left thumb and little
finger. Each of these systems has its advantages and
disadvantages. While it is nice to be able to split the
responsibilities between the thumb and little finger, as on
the Almenréder system, truly professional bassoonists on the
Jancourt system can navigate the six thumb keys with tremen-
dous agility. In recent years, some hybridization has taken
place, particularly in the adaptation of Jancourt's D#- and
C#-keys to Almenrader-system bassoons.
A third difference between the two systems is the
significant absence of alternate keys for chromatic pitches
in the basic scale of the Jancourt instrument. This is most
notable in the case of F# and G#, which had been given
alternate keys on Almenrï¬der-system instruments before 1850.
Without an alternate key, the player must sometimes impro-
vise an alternative fingering that somehow counterfeits the
true fingering, usually to the disadvantage of the pitch or
tone color. At the speeds at which alternative fingerings
become necessary, however, such disadvantages are less
important than agile performance. Alternate keys can
significantly ease the performance of difficult passages by
providing alternative fingerings which still produce true
pitch and good tone color. This is particularly important
157
in the basic scale, which accounts for nearly two octaves of
a bassoon's three-and-one-half-octave range, yet alternate
keys in this range are not a common feature on Jancourt-
system instruments.
A final distinction between the Jancourt and Almenrader
system is in the keys available to aid performance in the
high register. Here, the large number of trill keys on the
wing joint for the left hand fingers gave the Jancourt
instrument a significant advantage. In recent years,
several of these keys have been adapted by makers of
Almenrader-system bassoons.
The question of how a bassoon should be constructed was
by no means settled by the development of either the
Almenrï¬der or the Jancourt systems. The appearance of new
versions of the bassoon at trade expositions throughout the
nineteenth century suggests that there was no general agree-
ment on the construction of the bassoon, even within France
or Germany. The Heckel collection contains a large number
of instruments from the later nineteenth century that show
significant differences from either the Jancourt or
Almenrï¬der systems. Most unusual is an example with twenty
keys, made around 1845 by Johann Stehle (fl. 1840-1862) of
Vienna.†This instrument demonstrates the typical German
location of the C#- and D#-keys for the left little finger,
but with an additional D#-key for the left thumb as on
Jancourt instruments. Like pre-Jancourt French instruments,
†[Klose], no. F19.
158
the Stehle example has no G-key for the right hand, but it
does have a unique duplicate G#-key. This very long key,
mounted on the boot joint, overlaps the wing joint far
enough to be reached by the left little finger. The
instrument has c#-keys for both thumbs, as well as duplicate
keys for d#. One of these is in the typical French position
for the left ring finger but the other is in an entirely
unique position for the left thumb, next to the c#-key.
While this fascinating instrument may represent a unique
experiment, it bears witness to the still open questions of
bassoon fingering and key-mechanism.
CHAPTER 5
EXPERIMENTAL SYSTEMS
At the same time that French and German makers were
modifying the eighteenth-century bassoon in order to meet
the demands of nineteenth-century music, a significant num-
ber of far more radical experimenters were at work, applying
principles newly developed in the science of acoustics.
In comparison with the efforts of these makers, Almenrï¬der's
work shows an effective but rather conservative application
of acoustics, while the conservatism of traditional French
makers seems even more dramatic.
By far the most important innovator in woodwind
instrument design was Theobald Boehm (1794-1881), whose
improvements to the flute and clarinet have been well
documented.1 Boehm felt that woodwind instruments could and
should be constructed with scientific precision, according
to known acoustical principles. He rejected the irrational
1 See Theobald Boehm, The Flute and Flute-Playing in
Acoustical, Technical, and Artistic Aspects (Munich: n.p.,
1871; ed. and trans. Dayton C. Miller, n.p., 1922; reprint,
New York: Dover Publications, 1964). For the clarinet, see
Rosario Mazzeo, The Clarinet: Excellence and Artistry
(Medfield, Massachusetts: Dorn Publications, 1990); and E.
A. K. Ridley, "Birth of the 'Boehm' Clarinet," Galpin
Society Journal 39 (September 1986): 68-76.
159
160
way in which instruments of his time had been developed.
The locations of the tone holes, for example, had been
established by traditional practices which ultimately rested
on trial and error. The tone holes themselves varied
considerably in size and were often drilled at angles in
order to bring the holes into reach of the fingers. Even
the acoustical tubes were constructed of varying dimensions,
according to practices developed by experience rather than
from scientific principles.
The early nineteenth-century bassoon is a particularly
good example of the result of ad hoc development. For
example, nearly every tone hole on the instrument was bored
with a different diameter and at a different angle. A prime
example of manufacture by experience is discussed by Eric
Halfpenny in an article on turn-of-the-century English
bassoons.2 These instruments feature a subtle narrowing of
the bore in the bell joint, apparently intended as an aid in
the production of certain pitches in the lower range.
Boehm's approach to instrument construction was to apply
as thoroughly as possible the principles of acoustics being
developed at the time by Gottfried Weber (1779-1839) and
others. In this effort he was typical of a new generation
of nineteenth-century instrument makers, who not only
applied new technology to solve traditional problems of
3 Eric Halfpenny, "The Evolution of the Bassoon in
England, 1750-1800," Galpin Society Journal 10 (May 1957):
32.
161
instrument manufacture, but who envisioned a transformation
of the art of instrument making into a more rational and
scientific process.
Boehm's modifications to an instrument generally
proceeded along the following lines. First, the acoustical
tube was redesigned to be more accurate, whether it was
cylindrical as on the flute and clarinet, or conical as on
the bassoon and oboe. An accurate bore provided an accurate
mathematical basis on which to calculate the physical
specifications of the tone holes. According to Boehm's
principles, the tone holes should be located in the correct
acoustical position rather than placed, as they had been for
centuries, according to the needs of the fingers. The tone
holes themselves were to be drilled straight into the body
of the instrument so that their sizes and effects could be
clearly calculated. Finally, once the correct acoustical
dimensions had been established for the tube and the tone
holes, a finger mechanism would be designed to control the
holes by means of open-standing keys. In their effect on
fingering patterns and on the overall sound of the revised
instruments, the open-standing keys are the most significant
aspect of Boehm's work.
Boehm's concerns with mechanism centered around the idea
of simple fingerings that would do away with the complexi-
ties of cross-fingering. In this respect he had much in
common with other nineteenth-century makers whose efforts to
do away with cross-fingerings resulted in the wide variety
162
of key mechanisms described above. But for Boehm, the
process of designing a fingering system began with a ration-
ally constructed instrument in which all the tone holes were
open. Therefore, he was faced with twelve open holes, one
for each semitone in the octave, which needed to be closed
one at a time by the ten fingers. In practice, Boehm
usually reduced the number of active fingers to nine,
leaving one thumb to steady the instrument while playing.
Boehm was able to maintain many of the traditional
fingerings while altering others slightly; most significant
among the alterations was to change the basic seven note
scale from Lydian mode to a major scale. On a Boehm-system
bassoon this meant that Bb would be fingered as B had been
on previous bassoons [xxx/xoo], while B would be achieved by
the new pattern [xxx/oxo]. The fingering for B, of course,
is actually a cross-fingering, so it can not be said that
Boehm did away entirely with cross-fingerings.
In practical terms, however, Boehm's new cross-fingering
is qualitatively different from most other cross-fingerings.
The situation in which cross-fingerings are most awkward is
one in which adjacent fingers are moving in opposite direc-
tions while another finger in the same hand has to remain
down, as in moving from A [xxx/xxo] to BD [xxx/xox] on early
bassoons. Boehm's solution to this difficulty was, in es-
sence, to move the cross-fingering to a position where the
stationary and moving fingers are on different hands.
Moving from Boehm's A# [xxx/xoo] to his cross-fingered B
163
[xxx/oxo], for example, presents no more serious diffi-
culties than trilling with adjacent fingers on the piano.
Even so, Boehm-system instruments often have additional
trill key for B to make even this alternation unnecessary.
Usually this trill key is positioned for the ring finger in
order to facilitate the A# to B trill [xxx/xog].
As it turned out, Boehm's principles were often modified
in their application. On the flute, for example, compro-
mises were made with regard to the d#'- and g#'-keys, which
eventually came to be constructed as closed keys, though the
d#'-key is held open through most of the range and functions
acoustically as Boehm had specified. Similar modifications
are found on all applications of Boehm's principles to the
bassoon, on which he began work around 1847.3
By 1850 Boehm had completed an experimental bassoon
body meeting the acoustical requirements laid out in his
theories.4 These requirements included an evenly tapering
conical air column, large tone holes in their acoustically
correct positions, and the use of open-standing keys.
Boehm's own manuscript describing the application of these
principles to the bassoon is now in the Bibliothéque Royale
3 Karl Ventzke, "Boehm-System Bassoons in the Nineteenth
Century," Journal of the International Double Reed Society 5
(1977): 63.
‘ Lydesay G. Langwill, The Bassoon and Contrabassoon,
Instruments of the Orchestra (London: Ernest Benn, 1965),
p. 64.
164
in Brussels.5 In the same year an anonymous writer in the
Neue Zeitschrift fur Musik prophesied a bright future for
scientifically redesigned woodwind instruments:
And so we shall soon possess wind instruments which,
having been based on natural principles, are in keeping
with the current state of development in science and
art. A new era is thus beginning for the true virtuoso,
and for orchestral music as well, which, no longer
restricted by imperfect instruments, will be able to
blossom to the full extent of its power and depth.5
Langwill suggests that the author of this glowing prophecy
was none other than Theobald Boehm himself.7
Boehm was not the only one interested in applying new
discoveries in acoustics to the bassoon. Although he
enlisted the aid of the talented French instrument maker
Frédéric Triebert in 1854, Boehm was still not ready with a
playable instrument for the Paris Exhibition of 1855.8
He was beaten to the exhibition hall by several other makers
who, familiar with his success on the flute and clarinet,
made their own applications of Boehm's principles to the
bassoon.
5 Theobald Boehm, La construction du hautbois et du
basson [ca. 1855-6], MS 4087, Fond Fétis, Bibliothéque
Royale, Brussels.
5 Unattributed translation, quoted by Ventzke, "Boehm-
System Bassoons," p. 63.
7 Bassoon and Contrabassoon, p. 64.
3 Constant Pierre, Les facteurs d'instruments de musique
(Paris: n.p., 1893; reprint, Geneva: Minkoff Reprints,
1971), p. 319.
165
The earliest of the radically experimental bassoons was
exhibited by the inventor of the saxophone, Adolphe
[Antoine-Joseph] Sax (1814-1894). Sax's bassoon had twenty-
three keys mounted on a metal body. This bassoon was
displayed at the Great Exhibition in London in 1851, but it
was never put into production.9 The instrument, now in the
Paris Conservatory Museum, has a graduated series of evenly
spaced, open tone holes of increasingly larger diameter
corresponding to the increasing diameter of the bore.10
Sax may have gotten some of his ideas from his father,
Charles-Joseph (1791-1865). As early as 1820, Charles-
Joseph Sax had built a bassoon with all of the tone holes
covered by keys. The elder Sax patented a metal version of
this bassoon in 1842.11
The fingering system for the left hand of Adolph Sax's
model was similar to that of his saxophone, with the open
fingering [ooo/ooo] producing f# rather than f as on the
modern bassoon. This fingering, of course, had been used
for f# on early eighteenth-century bassoons which retained
the Renaissance pattern [oxo/ooo] for f. Sax's assignment
of a second E-key to the left thumb meant that all seven of
the notes in the bass extension (BBb through E) could be
played using the left thumb. Six of these were controlled
9 Langwill, Bassoon and Contrabassoon, p. 63.
15 This instrument is described fully in Jerry L.
Voorhees, "Some Notes on the Fingering Systems of 'Boehm'
Bassoons," Journal of the International Double Reed Society
5 (1977): 67-78
11 Langwill, Bassoon and Contrabassoon, p. 63.
166
by open keys, arranged in a straight line; the seventh (C#)
was given a closed key, mounted just outside the C-key as on
the Jancourt system. Three additional keys for the left
thumb operate vents for the upper range.
Keys were assigned to the fingers of the right hand in
much the same way as on Jancourt bassoons, with two signifi-
cant exceptions: 1) the fingerings for Bb [xxx/xoo] and B
[xxx/oxo] were like those on Boehm-system instruments, and
2) a second G#-key was added, this one for the right thumb.
The new Bb fingering was important because it eliminated the
old cross-fingered Bb without using an additional A# key.
The doubling of keys, though not extensive, allowed greater
flexibility in performance in the lowest range, where only
two or three fingers were available to control keys for
seven different pitches. Similar innovations are found on
other experimental bassoons.
Adolphe Sax was not the only instrument maker to show an
experimental bassoon at the Great Exhibition in London in
1851. Exhibition-goers could also have seen an English
experimental bassoon, the result of cooperation between
flute-maker Cornelius Ward (ca. 1796-1872) and the Italian
bassoonist Giuseppe Tamplini (1817-1888), who arrived in
London in 1847 to play for Her Majesty's Theater.12
Tamplini took lodgings in Ward's house, and soon persuaded
him to build a bassoon along the lines of Boehm-system
12 Ibid., p. 66.
167
Clarinets and oboes Tamplini had seen in Paris;13 This
bassoon is now in the possession of William Waterhouse,
noted English bassoonist, collector, and historian.1‘1
Unlike the Sax instrument, Ward's bassoon features only
two vent keys plus a whisper-key; these are laid out as on
the Almenrader bassoon. A unique feature of this bassoon is
the presence of a half-hole mechanism for f#, g, and g#
controlled by a ring key for the first finger of the right
hand.15 This automatic mechanism was necessary since the
first finger of the left hand was no longer directly in
contact with its tone hole and therefore could not produce
the necessary venting. The bass extension keys are also
laid out similarly to those on an Almenrï¬der bassoon, with
the exception of the D#-key which is open and controlled by
the left thumb instead of the little finger.
Mr. Waterhouse's Ward-Tamplini bassoon differs signifi-
cantly from the schematic drawing given by Voorhees, which
is based on the actual British patent of 1853.15 The most
13 Ventzke, "Boehm-System Bassoons," p. 64.
14 The instrument is #21 in William Waterhouse, The
Proud Bassoon: An Exhibition (Edinburgh: Edinburgh
University, 1983), pp. [32-33].
15 The absence of sharp signs for f# and g# in Voorhees'
discussion are an apparent editorial omission. "Some Notes
on Fingering Systems," p. 69.
15 Ibid., p. 68. An extremely abridged version of the
patent is in George E. Eyre and William Spottiswoode,
Patents for Inventions: Abridgements of Specifications
Relating to Music and Musical Instruments, A.D. 1694-1866,
second ed. (London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1871; reprint,
London: Tony Bingham), p. 184.
168
significant difference is in the keywork for the right hand,
which functions similarly to that of the Sax bassoon. The
three fingers appear to operate ring keys but the ring
design here is purely cosmetic. Even though the touchpieces
are shaped as rings, they are not true ring keys for they do
not encircle any open tone holes. A true ring key, when
pressed, allows a single finger to control both the open
tone hole and, by means of the ring mechanism, another hole
at some other location. More important is a small key
between the second and third fingers, analogous to the A#-
key on Jancourt and Almenrader bassoons, which here serves
as an A# to B trill key.17
The mechanism for the left hand fingers resembles Sax's
model, but produces f when fully open [ooo/ooo] as opposed
to Sax's f#. The old cross-fingering for eb is replaced by
[xoo/ooo], while e is fingered [oxo/ooo]. That this pattern
is directly parallel to that of the right hand Bb and B is
an example of the thoroughness with which some experimenters
tried to apply Boehm's ideas in their efforts to rationalize
the construction of the bassoon. Perhaps unfortunately,
this application of Boehm's right hand keywork to the left
hand was not carried out on either the flute or the
clarinet.18
17 Voorhees, "Some Notes on Fingering Systems," p. 69.
13 For an intriguing twentieth-century attempt to modify
the clarinet's left hand patterns in this manner, see
Wallace R. Tenney, "The Double-Boehm System Clarinet,"
Woodwind 6, no. 2 (October 1953): 6-7.
169
Shortly after this instrument was exhibited, Her
Majesty's Theater closed and Tamplini was forced to find
work elsewhere. His new position as a band leader for the
Honourable Artillery Company apparently kept him from making
further experiments.19 He retired to Italy in 1888, showing
his bassoon at the International Exhibition of Bologna.â€
In the same year, he published a treatise in which he
described the instrument he and Ward had constructed:
Its sound possesses, indeed, an attractive, expressive,
pathetic quality, even though in the middle and upper
register of its range it sounds somewhat nasal, wheezy,
and one could almost say somewhat strangled, while the
low and very low notes seem grotesque and snorting. But
it is not devoid of charm or power and mixes well with
the other instruments and timbres in the mass of the
orchestra.â€-
The Ward-Tamplini bassoon, despite its intriguing possi-
bilities, was apparently a single experimental example, and
had no real effect on later bassoon manufacture.
Another apparently independent example of an experi-
mental bassoon was that of Heinrich J. Haseneir (1798-1890)
of Coblenz.‘22 A single specimen survives, for which the
Heckel collection catalogue lists a date of 1850.33 Ventzke
13 Ventzke, "Boehm-System Bassoons," pp. 64-65.
3° Langwill, Bassoon and Contrabassoon, pp. 66-67.
3†Quoted by Ventzke, "Boehm-System Bassoons," p. 64.
22 Ibid., p. 55.
33 [Rudolph Klose], Musikhistorisches Museum Heckel-
Biebrich: Fagott (Wiesbaden, Wilhelm Heckel, 1968), no.
F21A.
170
suggests a date in the 18608, since Boehm is known to have
visited a spa in the area of Coblenz in 1861, and may have
had contact with Haseneir at that time.24 Though the keys
are constructed somewhat differently, it shares with the
Ward-Tamplini bassoon the same basic fingering patterns for
the left hand, but there are three vent keys in a somewhat
unusual arrangement: the highest vent has the lowest
touchpiece, a feature already noted on several other mid-
nineteenth century bassoons in the Heckel collection.â€
The right hand fingering pattern more closely resembles that
of the Sax instrument. Langwill reports having played this
instrument, and that it had a "harder, more open tone than
the French bassoon."25
The most sophisticated of the experimental bassoons were
those made by Frédéric Triebert in Paris, in conjunction
with Theobald Boehm and the Italian bassoonist Angelo
Marzoli (d. 1865), principal bassoonist of the Parisian
Theatre Italian. Although Boehm first approached Triebert
in 1854, they did not produce an instrument ready to exhibit
until the London Exhibition in 1862.27 A visitor to the
exhibition reported the following:
24Ventzke, "Boehm-System Bassoons," p. 65.
35 [Klose]. See especially the instruments by Hess
(F12), Schaufler (F18, ca. 1838), and Stehle (F19, ca.
1845).
3†Lyndesay G. Langwill, "The 'Boehm' Bassoon: A
Retrospect," Galpin Society Journal 12 (May 1959): 66.
37 Pierre, p. 319.
171
The Triebert bassoon is uniformly beautiful in all
octaves and is possessed of a pure and noble tone. The
low register is light in speaking, and the staccato can
be executed with astonishing speed. However, the fact
cannot be disguised there are almost more keys to be
seen on it than wood.28
Four of Triebert's Boehm-system bassoons survive: one
in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, one each in the Paris and
Brussels Conservatory museums, and one in the possession of
Mr. Waterhouse.19 Each differs from the others slightly,
either because of original manufacture or later
modifications. These instruments represent bassoon keywork
at its most complex and its most ingenious. The Waterhouse
instrument will be considered in the following discussion.30
A fingering chart is provided in the Appendix, Table 13.
Without describing this complex instrument in detail,
it must be noted that the keywork for the bass extension,
though extremely complex, solved for the first time the con-
siderable problems of technique in the bass register. Here
was the same problem of controlling the seven chromatic
pitches, BBb through E, with two or three fingers that had
troubled bassoonists since the early nineteenth century.
Triebert, Marzoli, and Boehm solved this problem by adding
duplicate keys in both thumbs for every pitch from G down to
D (Figure 23). Only the lowest four pitches, BBb to C#, are
3†Quoted by Ventzke in "Boehm-System Bassoons," p. 64.
†Vborhees, "Some Notes on Fingering Systems," p. 70.
†See #20 in Waterhouse, Proud Bassoon, pp. [32-33].
172
left with single keys.31 The way in which this mechanism
interlocks makes it possible to perform complicated passages
in the low range by alternating thumbs, rather than sliding
thumbs and little fingers around as would be necessary on
Jancourt or Almenrader bassoons.32 More importantly, this
instrument could be fingered in virtually the same way as
the typical Jancourt system bassoon. Thus Triebert
preserved the essential elements of traditional French
fingerings while dramatically increasing the technical
possibilities as well.
CPL-l
a. Left thumb keys b. Right thumb keys
Figure 23. Triebert's Boehm-system thumb keys
31 Ventzke, "Boehm-System Bassoons," p. 62.
33 A similar situation occurs on the modern clarinet,
where doubling of the little finger keys simplifies
difficult passages.
173
The function of the keys assigned to the fingers on
the Triebert-Marzoli-Boehm bassoon is essentially similar
to those of the other experimental bassoons, with two
exceptions: eb is played with the first finger of each hand
[xoo/xoo], and the traditional G-fingering yields G#
[xxx/xxx].33 A fingering chart for this instrument appears
in Metodo per Fagotto (1872) by Emanuele Krakamp (1813-
1883), an Italian flutist who taught at the Royal College of
Music in Naples (Appendix, Table 13). An avid supporter of
the Boehm-system flute, Krakamp apparently found much to
admire in the Boehm-system bassoon as well. His chart
clearly shows the traditional F-fingering being used for G
[xxx/xxxG] while F is to be played either with the right
thumb [xxx/F/xxxG] or with a special key for the second
joint of the right hand little finger.34
According to Krakamp's fingering chart, nearly all the
notes in the third octave of basic scale, f' to f", could be
produced by adding various register keys to the fingerings
used for the same notes an octave or two below.35 For
example, an unusual register key operated by the second
joint of the right hand ring finger aids the production of
f#' and g.‘ This register key allows these third-octave
notes to be played with the same basic fingerings as for the
33 Voorhees, "Some Notes on Fingering Systems," p. 71.
a†The chart is reprinted in Vincent Pezzi, "The Boehm
Bassoon," Woodwind 4, no. 1 (September 1951): 8-9; reprint,
Rudo S. Globus, ed., Woodwind Anthology (New York: Woodwind
Magazine, 1952), pp. 13-14.
35‘Ventzke, "Boehm-System Bassoons," p. 62.
174
second and first octaves below.35 Only d", d#", and e" are
different from their basic scale fingerings, but the differ-
ences are relatively slight. The use of first-octave
fingerings in the third octave represents a major simplifi-
cation of the bassoon's high register where, even on today's
highly-refined bassoons, a wide variety of fingerings can be
used for the same pitches. Cooper and Toplansky's book on
the modern Almenrader bassoon, for example, lists eight
different fingerings for d" alone.37
Even more impressive than the simplicity of the high
register is the complexity of the keywork by which this was
made possible. Voorhees reports that the four extant
Triebert Boehm-system bassoons have from nine to sixteen
interconnected register vents, employing very sophisticated
mechanisms.†In his effort to eliminate complex fingerings
through the use of complex mechanisms, Triebert is truly
representative of nineteenth-century mechanical genius.
While the Triebert-Marzoli-Boehm bassoon's renovated basic
scale and bass extension provided significant advantages to
the player, the simplification of the bassoon's upper
register would seem to have been irresistible. Yet these
35 In Voorhees' discussion of this key, the printer has
omitted the sharp sign for f#'. "Some Notes on Fingering
Systems," p. 72.
a†Lewis Hugh Cooper and Howard Toplansky, Essentials of
Bassoon Technique (Union, New Jersey: Howard Toplansky,
1968), pp. 338-345.
†VOorhees, "Some Notes on Fingering Systems," pp.
71-72.
175
ingenious innovations had little further effect on bassoon
manufacture, probably because the older bore designs of the
Jancourt and Almenrader bassoons could not produce such a
simple pattern of harmonics.
Never again did the bassoon reach a complexity like that
of the Triebert-Marzoli-Boehm instrument. But makers
continued to experiment with applications of Boehm's ideas
throughout the nineteenth century. An interesting example
from around 1875 is shown as No. 22 in the Waterhouse
catalog. Waterhouse attributes this instrument to Gautrot
based on similarities to known but less innovative instru-
ments made by this firm.39 The keywork for the left hand is
quite similar to that of the Jancourt Conservatory system,
with the exception of three additional keys for the little
finger. These keys are analogous to those on the Klosé-
Boehm system clarinet, controlling E, F, and F#. Of these,
the touchpieces for E and F are mounted on a single rod that
can rock in either direction depending on which note is
desired. The mechanism itself is reminiscent of the b/d#
rocker mechanism already in use on the oboe by this time.
The similarity to the clarinet, however, is further carried
out in the mechanism for the right hand, which has a set of
four keys for the little finger that function exactly as on
the clarinet. Most peculiar, but in keeping with the Klosé
clarinet system, is the complete absence of keys for the
right thumb, their functions having been assumed by the
†waterhouse, Proud Bassoon, pp. [15-16].
176
little finger keys. Waterhouse, who reports finding no
written references to this instrument, suggests that this
truly unique bassoon was a one-time experimentq4°
The final nineteenth-century experimental bassoon came
from the workshop of Friedrich Kruspe (1838-1911), whose
father Franz Karl (1808-1885) manufactured instruments in
Erfurt, Germany.41 From 1855 to 1861, Kruspe apprenticed
with several important instrument makers, most notably Georg
Ottensteiner (1815-1879) and Frédéric Triebert. While in
Munich working for Ottensteiner, Kruspe met Theobald Boehm,
whose new version of the flute was already famous. After
taking over his father's shop in 1861, Kruspe actively
experimented with instruments and participated in trade
shows. In 1893, he exhibited his own experimental bassoon
at the Columbian Exhibition in Chicago. The bassoon does
not seem to have generated much interest, but Kruspe did
receive an award for his clarinets. This bassoon resurfaced
in the late 19703; Klimko reports that its years of obscu-
rity included rescue from the ruins of San Francisco after
the 1906 earthquake and fire.‘42
The Kruspe instrument combines features of Jancourt,
Almenrader, and other experimental instruments. Its left
thumb keys are similar to Jancourt's, but with Almenrï¬der's
4° Ibid., p. [16].
41 Ronald J. Klimko, "The C. Kruspe Bassoon and the
World's Columbian Exposition of Chicago, 1893," Journal of
the International Double Reed Society 7 (1979): 10.
43 Ibid., p. 12.
177
c#-key. The finger mechanism of the front of the instrument
looks very similar to that on the modern oboe, complete with
a half-hole plate for the first finger, an oboe-like
arrangement of the right hand little finger keys, and side
keys for eb and the e to f# trill;43 Like Almenréder,
Kruspe doubled the A#-key in the right thumb, and also
doubled the F#- and G#-keys. In addition, two more keys are
given to the right thumb, doubling D and D#. Perhaps not
surprisingly given the similarities with oboe fingerings,
Klimko reports a "bass-oboe-like quality to the tone."M
By the end of the nineteenth century, experimental
bassoons were on their way out. Although their ingenuity of
design, accuracy of pitch, and homogeneity of tone had drawn
frequent attention, so had their drawbacks. The large
amount of metal keywork, for example, was noisy and heavy.
More importantly, there was a noticeable change in timbre
resulting from the new bassoon's radically different acous-
tical structure. In the 1820s Karl Almenrï¬der had been
aware of deficiencies in the tonal characteristics of his
own acoustical modifications to the bassoon, which were
rather conservative by contrast with these examples.
Differences in the tonal character of experimental bassoons
were far more noticeable. Professional musicians, who had
perfected technique on older models, were apparently
43 Klimko's labeling of the pitches does not account for
octaves, and is further confused by editorial omission of
the necessary sharp signs. Ibid., pp. 12-13.
4‘ Ibid., p. 13.
178
unwilling to spend time trying to learn a new fingering
system, especially if they considered its tonal quality to
be substandard. In an essay published in the year he died,
Giuseppe Tamplini lamented the rejection of Triebert's
instrument. Tamplini reported that the sound of Triebert's
bassoon had been judged to be
too metallic, brassy and unlike a normal bassoon-—though
at the same time, as such, attractive, clean and very
uniform over the entire range. But the same can be said
of the sound of the flute and other instruments to which
the new system has been applied; it also took some time
for their qualities to be recognized!45
In the end, applications of Boehm's ideas to the oboe and
bassoon were unsuccessful, not because the new instruments
didn't work as projected, but because they sounded too
dissimilar to the familiar models.
A second and probably more important factor in the
rejection of experimental bassoons was economic: the more
complex instruments were more expensive than the readily
available Jancourt or Almenrader models. In the case of the
Triebert instrument, Constant Pierre remarked on its high
cost compared to other bassoons: 1200 francs compared to
around 300 for a Jancourt system instrument;45 While the
Boehm flute was also more expensive than the traditional
models, the flute's large amateur following played a
‘S‘Ventzke, "Boehm-System Bassoons," p. 64.
‘5 Pierre, pp. 319, 391.
179
significant role in its success, as Tamplini himself
recognized:
[T]he first to accept the Boehm flute in England were
the amateurs, an extremely intelligent and well-to-do
class of people; they then forced it upon the professors
by refusing to take instruction from masters who were
not familiar with the new system!â€7
Without a large group of interested amateurs the
experimental bassoons were doomed.
Perhaps even more important than the new bassoon's high
price and small market was the unfortunate timing of the
instrument's development. Krakamp alluded to this problem
in a brief paragraph accompanying his fingering chart for
the Triebert-Boehm bassoon: "It is a fact that amateurs and
artists diminished in great numbers especially after the
military band had suppressed the bassoon.““
Military bands were all the rage in Europe at mid-
century, and military bandsmen were finding traditional
double reed instruments to be unsatisfactory for their
purposes. Instrument makers who wanted this market raced to
put into production a number of new instruments designed for
the military band. These were frequently produced in
families which provided the desired homogeneity of sound
over a wide pitch range. In 1856, for example, Pierre-Louis
Gautrot patented a family of five bassoon-like double reed
‘7 Ventzke, "Boehm-System Bassoons," p. 65.
45 Translation by Vincent Pezzi, "The Boehm Bassoon,"
p. 9.
180
instruments made of brass that were designed to compete with
the newly invented saxophones. Gautrot named his instru-
ments after the French bandmaster Pierre-Auguste Sarrus
(1813-1876), who is sometimes credited with their
invention.49 The sarrusophone, though shaped like a bassoon
and employing a double reed, was so similar to the saxophone
in fingering pattern that a lawsuit was immediately filed by
Adolphe Sax against Gautrot.50 The court eventually found
in favor of Gautrot on the basis that the new instrument
sounded quite different from the saxophone.51 Although the
sarrusophone enjoyed a brief period of popularity, it fell
into relative obscurity except for the contrabass version,
which drew some interest as a substitute for the less-
strongly toned contrabassoon.
Competition among instrument makers was encouraged by
periodic trade fairs where the latest experiments were
exhibited. Visitors and representatives of various instru-
ment makers flocked to these affairs, often publishing
extensive reports after returning home. The report by
Adrien de La Fage (1805-1862) on the 1855 International
Exhibition in Paris at which Boehm won the Grand Medal of
‘“ George A. Conrey, "The Sarrusophone-—An Update, Part
1," Double Reed 10, no. 3 (Winter 1987): 35-36.
W Sax himself patented a single-reed mouthpiece for the
sarrusophone in 1866. George A. Conrey, "The Sarrusophone-—
An Update, Part II," Journal of the International Double
Reed Society 17 (1989): 62.
51 Gunther Joppig, "Sarrusophone, Rothphone
(Saxorusophone) and Reed Contrabass," Journal of the
International Double Reed Society, 17 (1989): 42.
181
Honor runs to some two hundred pages, with an extensive
discussion of the technical improvements Boehm and others
were bringing to various types of musical instruments.52
Antonio Romero y Andia (1815-1885), who visited the London
Exhibition of 1862 at which Treibert's Boehm-system bassoon
was exhibited for the first time, gave it hardly a
sentence.53 In his report to the King of Spain, Romero
seems to have been much more impressed with the bassoon-like
metal Tritonikon built by Vaclav Frantisek Cerveny (1819-
1896). Gautrot's new sarrusophones interested him as well,
but he reserved his most serious attention to Buffet's
Boehm-system clarinets.54 Romero, however, was hardly an
impartial observer, since he too was developing an improved
system of Clarinets which he hoped to convince the Spanish
royalty to employ for their military bands; his list of
recommended instruments includes "Romero-system"
clarinets.55 That Romero was a serious innovator in his own
right is evident in his receipt of the silver medal for his
52 [Juste] Adrien [Lenoir] de La Fage, Quinze visites
musicales a l'exposition universelle de 1855 (Paris: Chez
Tardif, 1856).
†Memoria sobre les instrumentes de musica, presentados
en la exposicion internacional de L6ndres del aï¬o de 1862
(Madrid: Imprenta Nacional, 1864), p. 18.
5‘ Romero, pp. 12, 16-17, respectively.
5 Ibid., p. 28.
182
work on the clarinet at the 1878 Exhibition.55 Romero
published a Metodo completo de Fagot in 1875.57
Such large establishments as the Gautrot, Kruspe, and
Triebert firms could afford to develop and exhibit new
technologies, particularly if it meant landing a lucrative
contract to supply a nation's military bands. While this
trend did not completely drive out the small experimenters,
as can be seen from the variety of idiosyncratic late
nineteenth-century bassoon designs in the Heckel collection,
it may well have reduced their numbers. In his report on
the 1878 Exhibition, Gustave Chouquet (1819-1886), a French
historian who served as curator of the Paris Conservatory
instrument museum, remarked on a noticeable decrease in the
number of makers who concentrated on one or two specialty
instruments.58 Whether this reflects an actual decline in
the number of independent makers, or merely a reluctance on
the part of smaller manufacturers to bother with the expense
of exhibitions, is not clear. It does suggest, however,
that larger companies dominated the experimental aspects of
instrument construction in the later nineteenth century.
Many of these companies were also producing much simpler
standard models of the same instruments for the average
“ Gustave Chouquet, Rapport sur les instruments de
musique et les éditions musicales (Paris: Imprimerie
Nationale, 1880), p. 54.
S7Monty L. Perkins, "Bassoon Tutors 1687-1887: An
Annotated Listing," Journal of the International Double Reed
Society 8 (1980): 64.
53 Chouquet, p. 50.
183
consumer. The Gautrot firm, for example, made its simpli-
fied fifteen-keyed Jancourt model at approximately the same
time as their experimental model, which despite its innova-
tive keywork was also essentially a Jancourt system bassoon.
It is of particular interest that experimental bassoons
attracted the most interest in France, where the development
of the Jancourt system was progressing at a relatively
slower pace than that of the Almenréder system in Germany.
In fact, the Jancourt system was not given its final form
until the 18708, by which time experimental bassoons were
already on the decline. Gautrot, of course, by producing
both experimental and Jancourt-system bassoons, stood to
profit either way.
It seems reasonable to suggest, therefore, that the
Jancourt system developed more slowly and in a more
conservative way because it was being compared, not to the
Almenrader bassoon, but to more radical experimental instru-
ments. By this comparison the Jancourt bassoon's more
dulcian-like qualities would have been seen as an advantage
to conservatively oriented French performers. The often
unfavorable modern comparison of the Jancourt bassoon with
Almenrader's model would have been a much less significant
issue. Retention of precisely those dulcian-like qualities
that were lost in experimental bassoons probably moved more
conservative French makers to adopt the Jancourt system
while correction of the older bassoon's inadequacies caused
others to experiment with Boehm's ideas. The result of
184
competition in France between the more conservative makers
and the radical innovators seems to have driven their models
farther apart in construction and sound.
CHAPTER 7
THE BASSOON IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
By the end of the nineteenth century there were only two
types of bassoon widely available-—the Jancourt system and
the Almenrader. In France, the Jancourt system represented
a more conservative approach in the lower octaves, but was
more innovative in approaching the problems of the high
register. In Germany, the bassoon underwent a more dramatic
restructuring in the hands of Almenrader and Heckel, but the
result offered considerably fewer improvements in the high
range than did the Jancourt bassoon. The more radical
experiments of Sax, Ward, Boehm, Triebert and Kruspe became
little more than historical curiosities. As early as 1890,
one of the Triebert-Marzoli-Boehm bassoons was shown at the
Royal Military Exhibition in London where its description in
the exhibition catalog reveals that it had greater
historical than practical interest.1
Recently, however, interest in improving the bassoon
(both Jancourt and Almenrader systems) has revived
1 C[harles] R[ussell] Day, A Descriptive Catalogue of
the Musical Instruments Recently Exhibited at the Royal
Military Exhibition, London, 1890 (London: Eyre &
Spottiswoode, 1891), pp. 79-80.
185
186
considerably, no doubt in reaction to the increasingly
difficult technical demands of twentieth-century music.
This interest has been expressed by some of the most
important bassoon players and teachers of the century, such
as Sol Schoenbach (b. 1915) and Leonard Sharrow (b. 1915).2
Typically, criticism leveled at the modern bassoon
emphasizes its archaic features and the need for improved
keywork and intonation. Practical suggestions for improving
intonation or technique in difficult passages are regularly
shared in the pages of the Journal of the International
Double Reed Society and Double Reed, both of which are
published by the Double Reed Society. These journals serve
as primary avenues of communication among individuals
concerned with both contemporary and historical performance
on the bassoon. In recent years, considerable interest has
been shown in so-called Boehm-system bassoons. Bassoonists
and makers regularly report on modifications that may have
promise in adapting the bassoon to meet the requirements of
twentieth-century virtuosity. For example, Japanese
bassoonist Koji Okazaki has modified the Almenrï¬der system's
left thumb keys on his bassoon in order to bring them closer
together. He also added Jancourt's C#-key for the left
3 See, for example, bassoonist Sol Schoenbach's "Pleas
for Keys," Symphony (December 1950-January 1951): 5-6; and
Leonard Sharrow's "The Bassoon is Archaic," Woodwind (April-
May 1950); reprint, Rudo S. Globus, ed., Woodwind Anthology
(New York: Woodwind Magazine, 1952), pp. 68-71.
187
thumb. A photograph of this mechanism accompanies a
recently published interview with him.3
The most noticeable changes to the bassoon in the
twentieth century have been related to the hybridization of
the Jancourt and Almenrï¬der systems. For a number of years
the Heckel company has offered an Almenrader instrument with
Jancourt keywork for the left thumb.‘1 This combination may
seem to be impossible at first, since the hallmark of the
Jancourt keywork for the bass extension is the closed BB-
key. Heckel's Jancourt system, however, includes a second
BB tone hole which is covered by an open-standing key. This
BB-key is open when the C-key is open but is closed when
Jancourt's BB tone hole is opened. In this way one of the
BB tone holes is open for every pitch except BBb, thus
preserving the acoustical behavior of the Almenrader instru-
ment and avoiding the need to retune it. The fingerings in
the bass extension work exactly as on the Jancourt system.
When the two-layered C-key is closed, the extra BB tone hole
closes and Jancourt's closed BB tone hole opens. Adding the
BBb-key closes the C tone hole to produce BB. Moving the
thumb completely onto the BBb-key releases the BB-key to
close Jancourt's BB tone hole. The extra BB tone hole,
3 Kristine Klopfenstein Fletcher, "An Interview with
Koji Okazaki, Principal Bassoonist of the NHK Symphony
Orchestra, Tokyo," Double Reed 11, no. 3 (Winter 1988): 48.
4 Chip Owen, an instrument designer for the Fox Products
Corporation, provided the information on which the following
description of this hybrid Heckel is based; telephone
conversation with author, 15 April 1994.
188
being closed by the C-key, remains closed and the BBb is
produced. This ingenious mechanism was developed to assist
players who had learned the Jancourt system but were being
forced to change bassoons as orchestras in Europe and the
United States began to require the Almenrï¬der instrument.
The primary interest in this mechanism today is in Brazil,
where orchestral players are in process of changing from the
Jancourt to the Almenrader system.5 Recent interest in
original performance practice and original instruments,
however, has led to a resurgence of the Jancourt bassoon for
its own unique qualities. A revitalized Jancourt tradition
may spark renewed interest in hybridization among players
who do not wish to perform on only one type of bassoon,
since hybridization can make the differences between the two
fingering systems less drastic. V
A much more radical instrument was made by Heckel in
1932, in response to a request by Percy Gatz (d. 1950's), an
American amateur player who wanted a bassoon with fingering
characteristics like those of the Klosé clarinet.5 The
instrument is based on the traditional Almenrader system,
but without the C#- and D#-keys for the left little finger.
More important are a large number of additional keys. The
left hand fingers received additional keys for C#, d# and
e", borrowed from the Jancourt system (Figure 24b). In
5 Owen, ibid.
5 For a complete discussion, see Ronald J. Klimko, "The
Boehm-System Bassoon and the Wilhelm Heckel Firm," Journal
of the International Double Reed Society 11 (1983): 20-22.
189
addition, the left little finger was given three clarinet-
like keys for E, F, and F# similar to those on Gautrot's
experimental instrument. Another similarity to the Gautrot
instrument is that the right little finger has four
clarinet-like keys (Figure 24d). Unlike the Gautrot
instrument, however, the Heckel-Gatz bassoon retains the
traditional keys for the right thumb. The typical Boehm-
system Bb was achieved exclusively through mechanical con-
nections, with no reworking of tone hole placements; it was
not successful until cleverly modified by the famous bassoon
repairman Hans Moennig (1903-1988).7 The most impressive
changes in terms of keywork were for the thumbs, where
Heckel duplicated nearly all of the low range keys, but
without changing the basic pattern of open and closed keys
found on a standard Almenrï¬der instrument (Figures 24a and
24c). This parallels Triebert's approach to doubling keys
on his Boehm-system bassoon while retaining the traditional
Jancourt fingerings. It is interesting to note that Heckel
left the cross-fingered eb unchanged; this fingering pattern
is the last vestige of Renaissance technique on this
otherwise advanced instrument. The instrument cost Mr. Gatz
$360.20 in 1932, compared to $146.00 for a traditional
instrument.8 The instrument is now in the Metropolitan
Museum of Art in New York City. Apparently, the experiment
has not been repeated.
7 Ibid., p. 21.
8 Ibid.
190
a. Left thumb keys b. Left finger keys
\ock J? a -3
Li/ M F G
I, -@ A E
E. .J
(“L 1‘3?\ (:§:>:——J
E F
W
c. Right thumb keys d. Right finger keys
Figure 24. Heckel's keywork for Percy Gatz, 1932
191
Bassoon makers such as Heckel and Fox continue to be
responsive to the wishes of individual bassoonists. In
addition to a standard model, each company offers optional
keys for customizing an instrument. These keys are attrac-
tive to those bassoonists who are interested in gaining
advantages over the remaining technical difficulties
inherent in the Almenrader system. Several of these-—such
as the d# trill key, the little finger whisper key, and the
d#"- and e"-keys-—are borrowed from the Jancourt system.
Additional keys can be made to order according to a
customer's own design. Twentieth-century modifications to
the bassoon have also been proposed by individuals working
essentially on their own. Three of the most interesting
modifications are described below.
In 1953, French bassoonist Francois Babin (b. 1909?)
proposed an ingenious mechanism to simplify the fingerings
for the right hand.9 Its effect was to allow each of the
basic fingerings for F, G, and A to be raised a half step by
raising the second finger. Thus, F [xxx/o/xxxF] was related
to F# [xxx/o/xoxF] in the same way as G [xxx/o/xxx] was
related to G# [xxx/o/xox] and A [xxx/o/xxo] was related to
A# [xxx/o/xoo]. The traditional Boehm cross-fingering was
used for B [xxx/o/oxo]. This mechanism left two awkward
patterns: F# to G and G# to A. Therefore, two trill keys
were added: an F# to G trill key for the right thumb, and a
9 "Improving Bassoon Fingering," Woodwind 5: no. 3
(April 1953): 4, 9.
192
G# to A trill key for the second finger. In this way,
except for these trills, the four fingers can easily handle
the seven pitches from F to B without awkward slides. A
similar idea, but more systematically worked out, is evident
in the saxophone rationelle, developed in the 1950's by the
Leblanc corporation.10
Perhaps the most unusual modification of the bassoon was
proposed in 1968 by English acoustician and amateur
bassoonist Giles Brindley (b. 1926).11 Brindley invented a
one-piece squared-off bassoon body with seventeen tone holes
spaced in a nearly regular manner and made of generally
increasing diameter as the tube widens toward the low end.
The sizes and locations of the tone holes were determined by
trial and error.†Between the highest tone hole and the
bocal are eleven vent holes to aid in producing the higher
harmonics. All of these holes are covered by pads
controlled by an electronic mechanism. Such a mechanism
would necessitate adjustments in the performer's manner of
touching the keys, just as do the different mechanisms of
the piano, harpsichord and organ. It might be suspected,
therefore, that the electronic mechanism might have an
adverse effect on the degree of expressiveness possible on
the new instrument. Dr. Edgar Kirk, Professor Emeritus of
1° James A. MacGillivray, "Recent Advances in Woodwind
Fingering Systems," Galpin Society Journal 12 (May 1959):
68.
11 Giles Brindley, "The Logical Bassoon," Galpin Society
Journal 21 (March 1968): 152-161.
12 Ibid., p. 153.
193
Bassoon at Michigan State University, who visited Brindley
in 1972 and heard him play the instrument, recalls no
apparent loss in expressiveness.â€
The basic fingering of Brindley's bassoon is the most
logical of any fingering pattern proposed to date (Appendix,
Table 14). The same seven fingers that produced the F
Lydian scale on the bassoon produce it here. Each of the
sharps is achieved by adding the left thumb, which raises
the basic fingering of F, G, A, C, or D by a half step.
The various octave transpositions of the basic scale are
controlled by register keys for the right thumb and left
little finger. The left little finger transposes any given
fingering into the second octave, f to f', while adding the
right thumb as well transposes it up an additional octave.
The low range, AA to F is reached by adding the right thumb
alone. That the fingerings are so simple is due to complex
electronic connections between the fingers and the holes;
these connections transfer information from finger positions
to a mechanism that closes or opens the correct set of tone
and vent holes for each pitch. Like Boehm and the
nineteenth-century innovators, Brindley merely applied the
technology of his day to solve practical problems of
musicians. Further evidence of his ingenuity is in his
temperature control device to ensure that the instrument
always plays at the same pitch level. Brindley reported
13 Edgar Kirk, telephone conversation with author, 28
May 1994.
194
that the sound "is immediately recognizable as that of a
bassoon, and German rather than French."14
A taste of the sort of resistance to change which can be
found among enthusiasts of the bassoon is evident in Will
Jansen's comments about Brindley's bassoon:
That a lot of modern composers, mostly due to sheer
incompetence and ignorance plus complete unfamiliarity
with the instruments of the orchestra . . . have written
for (mostly against) [sic] the bassoon pieces requiring
either an excessive speed of fingering or other playing
acrobatics not in any way related to beautiful music, is
of no importance and should not be taken into any
consideration by either musicians or instrument makers.
Giving in to these anomalies would finally result in
composers requiring a bassoon that also can sound like a
piccolo flute, that boils eggs, flashes coloured lights
and pounds on an attached drum.15
Considering such sentiments, it is hardly surprising that
this instrument has not been put into production. Brindley
also made a contrabassoon along similar lines which saw some
use in England, since its lighter weight and simpler mecha-
nism made it more easy to deal with than the traditional
contrabassoon.
A more conservative approach-—and one that has had some
commercial application-—is seen in the work of contemporary
Roumanian bassoonist and teacher Gheorghe Cuciureanu. While
he is best known for his modified Almenrï¬der system,
1‘ Brindley, "Logical Bassoon," p. 157.
15 Will Jansen, The Bassoon: Its History, Construction,
Makers, Players and Music, five vols. (Buren, The
Netherlands: Fritz Knuf, 1978-1984), p. 151.
195
Cuciureanu is interested in a range of innovative ideas that
extend beyond the design of key mechanisms. Equally impor-
tant is an entire set of alternative "flowing fingerings"
with which almost any passage can be executed by using
fairly simple finger motions.15 This set of alternative
fingerings, however, involves various compromises in terms
of pitch or tone color in order to achieve smooth technique.
Following a last-minute appearance at the 1981 Double
Reed Society Convention, Cuciureanu's ideas about mechanism
began to attract a good deal of attention, so much so that
Fox Products now offers elements of the Cuciureanu system as
options on their Almenrader system bassoons. The Fox
brochure explains that "the addition of four discreet sets
of mechanisms to a normal Heckel System bassoon creates the
Cuciureanu bassoon."17 These four mechanisms include
additional C- and D-keys for the right thumb, a special
linkage which makes possible the Ab to BD trill (one of the
most troublesome on the Almenrï¬der bassoon), and another
linkage that makes possible an E to F# trill. Most
intriguing, however, is the mechanism that links the C#- and
D#-keys for the left little finger to the left thumb keys
for C and D. This allows a player to move from C#
[C/xxx(C#,D#)/E/xxxF] to D# [D/xxx(C#,D#)/E/xxxF] by the
same simple thumb motion that one uses to move from C to D.
15 Gheorghe Cuciureanu, "The Future of the Cuciureanu
System Bassoon," Double Reed 8, no. 2 (Fall 1985): 24.
17 Quoted in an untitled and unattributed announcement
in Double Reed 4, no. 3 (December 1981): 9.
196
Because Cuciureanu's innovations are largely in the form
of linkages rather than new keys, the instrument appears
quite similar to the typical Almenrader bassoon. The
Cuciureanu bassoon can be played with the traditional
Almenrï¬der fingerings simply by ignoring all of its
innovative mechanisms. Although Cuciureanu's improvements
greatly facilitate motion in the low register, interest in
the Cuciureanu system has waned so considerably in recent
years that Fox has never installed a complete system for a
customer, and only rarely installs even a partial one.18
Despite the work of these talented innovators, the
bassoon remains an essentially nineteenth-century instrument
whose Renaissance ancestry is only partially concealed. For
the Fox company, at least, the trend over the last two years
has been toward traditional models of the bassoon.†The
extra keys that so fascinated bassoonists of a generation
ago are often foregone by the current generation of bassoon-
ists, who prefer an essentially nineteenth-century model
without most of its twentieth-century adornments.
While it may appear that such an instrument could not
possibly keep up with the requirements of twentieth-century
music, it has. Even some of the most unusual and demanding
new techniques, such as playing quarter tones and multi-
phonics, are being met by bassoonists using the same
instruments that were designed for the music of Berlioz and
13 Owen, 15 April 1994.
†Ibid.
197
Wagner. Nearly three octaves of quarter-tone fingerings for
the bassoon are given by American bassoonist Scott Vidger in
a short article in Double Reed.†Perhaps even more
intriguing is a tablature developed by bassoonist Johnny
Reinhard giving fingerings for microtones based on a 31-tone
system that was first described in the Renaissance.â€â€™ These
fingerings make it possible to alter one's basic pitch
orientation. Rather than perform exclusively in a modern
equal temperament, the microtonal player could learn to make
adjustments that would have been typical of earlier
performance practices and tuning systems. Reinhard argues
that by mastering these pitches and fingerings, "ears become
sharper in acuity, finger technique accelerates rapidly and
instrument intimacy blooms.â€2 While microtonal sensitivity
would aid the bassoonist who performs traditional Western
music, it could also prepare him or her to perform micro-
tonal music influenced by non-Western musical traditions.
More unusual is the development of multiphonics, sounds
that consist of several different pitches produced simul-
taneously.23 This technique was probably first exploited by
the virtuoso bassoonist Franz Anton Pfeiffer (1752-1787),
who advertised that he would perform "a triple harmony, or
3° Scott Vidger, "A Table of Quarter-tone Fingerings for
the Bassoon," Double Reed 4, no. 2 (October 1981): 44-45.
†JOhnny Reinhard, "The Microtonal Bassoon," Double
Reed 10, no. 2 (Fall 1987): 39-42.
†Ibid., p. 39.
33 Bruno Bartlozzi, New Sounds for Woodwind (London:
Oxford University Press, 1967).
1 W1
198
blowing three notes at the same time, instead of the
cadenza" for a concert in 1776.24 The modern bassoon,
whatever its difficulties and shortcomings in other areas,
has turned out to be a particularly rich source of multi-
phonics. These have been employed in recent compositions
for bassoon, such as Bruno Bettinelli's Studio da concerto
(1977) and David Maslanka's Music for Dr. Who (1979). Even
in China, where Western music was long out of favor,
bassoonist Qi Liu has achieved recognition for his efforts
in this avant-garde technique.†When the actual pitches of
the multiphonic are notated, the composer often includes
specific suggestions for the fingering. Since bassoons may
still differ so widely in acoustical quality and perform-
ance, these fingerings must often be modified by the player
in order to achieve the desired result.
That the bassoon, despite its anachronistic features and
without further modification, can be employed competently in
even the most unusual of avant-garde techniques is a direct
result of decisions made by makers as many as five centuries
ago. While it cannot, of course, be taken as evidence of
their foresight, neither is it suggestive of ignorance or
negligence on their part. Today's avant-garde techniques
are developed by performers and composers who, like their
†David J. Rhodes, "Franz Anton Pfeiffer and the
Bassoon," Galpin Society Journal 36 (March 1983): 100.
†Jiang Xiao-fung, trans. Juan Han and Ka-Kam Chui,
"The Man Who Can Play Chords on the Bassoon," Double Reed 9,
no. 3 (Winter 1986): 12-13.
199
counterparts in previous eras, are merely employing the
materials at hand in order to create their music. For its
performers and admirers, the bassoon continues to be a
constant source of joy and amazement, and a highly versatile
medium for the expression of musical ideas.
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
The development of the bassoon has been a long and
complex process, but one which can be understood in terms
of specific problems and their solutions. Historically,
bassoon makers seem to have focused on those aspects of the
bassoon that were of greatest practical significance at the
time. These included the extension of the range in the bass
register, the elimination of many of the cross-fingerings,
the achievement of a complete chromatic compass, and the
extension of the third octave by means of additional keys.
When keys were added it was not at whim but in order to make
a particular note or grouping of notes easier to play.
That an instrument maker's solution of a specific
problem for a contemporary performer, while successful
enough at the moment, later contributed to a new problem for
a later performer is not evidence of ignorance or capri-
ciousness on the part of the earlier maker. Rather it is
evidence of an historically dynamic relationship between
performers and instrument makers that must not be overlooked
in considering an instrument's development. Further
research into the papers of famous bassoon makers and
players is needed to shed more light on the specific
problems addressed at various stages in the bassoon's
200
201
development. In particular, study of the records of custom-
ized keywork made by the Fox and Heckel bassoon companies
may be able to illuminate the developmental process in
response to the increased demands made of the performer by
twentieth century composers.
Another avenue that seems promising for further study
would be a statistical study of pitch relationships in
bassoon music of various eras. Correlation of this data to
compare the most frequently and least frequently used
intervals with the fingering patterns available to the
performer may contribute to further understanding of the
issues raised in this paper. Further study of difficult
passagework, whether statistically based or not, can also
increase the depth of insight into the problems of earlier
musicians and the solutions provided by their contemporaries
in instrument manufacture.
Finally, it is time to re-examine a technological
advance that met with only fleeting interest when it was
first proposed. Giles Brindley was ahead of his time in
suggesting the application of electronic technology to the
mechanism of an acoustic instrument. With the astonishing
advances in synthesizer technology it may seem pointless to
return to Brindley's ideas now. Yet the time is perhaps
more propitious than might first appear. While one can read
almost daily some prophecy about the ultimate obsolescence
of acoustic instruments in the wake of the commercial
success of electronic synthesizers, the simultaneous rise in
202
interest in the most primitive of acoustical instruments
should not be ignored. For a growing part of the popu-
lation, apparently, acoustical instruments provide an
important expressive outlet, whether those instruments are
traditional acoustic guitars, Renaissance instruments such
as the recorder and krummhorn, or any of the wealth of non-
Western musical instruments that are becoming more and more
available.
The return of interest in acoustic instruments may well
be due to the subtlety with which they can be manipulated, a
subtlety that is often ignored or even impossible with
electronic keyboards. While electronic wind-controllers are
now widely available, their level of sophistication is still
relatively low. In this context, the time may be right for
a hybrid instrument of the type Brindley developed-—one that
combines the speed and accuracy of electronic mechanism with
the subtle expression possible (so far, at least) only on an
acoustic instrument. Brindley's ideas would probably be
best applied to the largest and clumsiest of the traditional
instruments, such as the contrabassoon, where the
disadvantages of complex mechanisms are the most pronounced.
APPENDIX
APPENDIX
TABLES OF FINGERINGS
The following tables of fingerings are translated into
the same symbolic representation that is used throughout the
paper. In their original versions, the systems used to
represent fingerings differ widely. Some charts, for
example those by Eisel and Majer, are laid out in a
horizontal pattern, while the majority use a vertical
arrangement. Since the horizontal pattern matches that used
in the text of this document, it is used here.
The chart is designed for easy comparison of fingerings,
whether between different pitches within the same system or
between charts illustrating different systems. Each chart
begins in the left column with the lowest pitch in the basic
scale or, where a bass extension is present, in the bass
extension. The right column shows fingerings that are used
together with the technique of overblowing to produce the
pitches of the second octave; additional pitches in the high
range are continued in the right column. Thus, the
fingering for a specific pitch of the basic scale and for
its octave duplication lie on the same line. With this
layout the basic scale is readily apparent, as are any
extensions below or above it.
203
n “
.ï¬
1
204
Many early charts represent fingerings in terms of open
and closed holes. While this approach is unambiguous for
simple six- or seven-holed instruments, it becomes confusing
as soon as open or closed keys are involved. In the
original charts an open a circle [0] has three possible
meanings: 1) an open finger hole, 2) an open key at rest,
or 3) a closed key that is to be opened by a finger. Thus
it is not immediately clear whether the open circle means
that a particular finger is used in the fingering pattern.
The method employed below tranfers the original information
into a representation of the fingers that are actually
involved in each fingering pattern. This system, it is
hoped, will facilitate comprehension and comparison of
fingerings within and between the tables.
Where two sources were used to develop a single table,
the fingerings shown are from the first chart listed unless
otherwise noted. Variant fingerings, alternative
fingerings, and comments are given in the footnotes.
205
Table 1. Six-hole system based on G1
Source:2 Martin Agricola, Musica instrumentalis deudsch,
first and fourth eds. (Wittemberg, 1528 and 1545;
facsimile reprint, Gesellschaft fï¬r Musikforschung,
Leipzig: Breitkopf & Hartel, 1896), p. 174.
Pitch: Fingering: Pitch: Fingering:3
G xxx/xxx g oxx/xxx
G# 4 g# 4
A xxx/xxo a xxx/xxo
A# xxx/xox a# xxx/xox
xxx/xoo b xxx/xoo
c xxx/ooo c' xxx/ooo
c# 5 c#' 5
d xxo/oox5 d' xxo/xxx
d# xox/oox5 d#' xox/xxx
xoo/oox5 e' xoo/xxx
f oxo/ooo f' ooo/oox5
£4: 7 £#' 7’
g' oxx/xxx
a' xxo/oox5
1 Note the essential similarity of this system to that
of the seven-hole system on F in Table 2.
3 1545 edition only.
3 The player is instructed to blow more strongly for
this octave.
4 Omitted.
5 This omission is curious; [xxo/xoo] was well known.
5 Closing the lowest tone hole would have had little
effect on pitch; it was probably done to help hold the
instrument.
7 An analagous pitch is included as [ooo/oox] in a chart
for a similar instrument with a fundamental of C.
206
Table 2. Seven-hole system based on F
Sources: Sebastian Virdung, Musica getutscht (Basel, 1511;
facsimile reprint, Documenta Musicologica, Kassel:
Barenreiter, 1970), pp. [17-18]; Martin Agricola, Musica
instrumentalis deudsch, first and fourth eds.
(Wittemberg, 1528 and 1545; facsimile reprint,
Gesellschaft fï¬r Musikforschung, Leipzig: Breitkopf &
Hartel, 1896), p. 17.
Pitch: Fingering: Pitch: Fingering:8
F x/xxx/xxxx
F# x/xxx/xxxi9
G x/xxx/xxxo
G# x/xxx/xxio10 g# o/xxx/xxox11
A x/xxx/xxoo a o/xxx/xxoo
A# x/xxx/xoxo†a# o/Xxx/xoxo
B x/xxx/xooo b o/xxx/xooo13
c# x/xxo/xooo14 c#' o/xxo/xooo
d x/xxo/oooo d' o/xxo/oooo
d# x/xox/oooo15 d#' o/xox/oooo
x/xoo/oooo
f x/oxo/oooo
f# x/ooo/oooo15
g o/ooo/oooo
5 Agricola indicates a half-hole for the thumb for every
pitch in this octave except g#.
9 Agricola only.
15 Agricola: [x/xxx/xxox].
11 Agricola: [o/oxx/xxxo].
13 Virdung gives [x/xxx/xï¬oo] as an alternative.
13 Agricola: [i/xxx/ooxo].
14 Virdung gives [x/xxl/oooo] as an alternative.
15 Virdung gives [x/xlo/oooo] as an alternative.
15 Agricola omits this fingering, but gives [o/ooo/ooxo]
for the analagous note on an instrument with a fundamental
of C.
207
Table 3. Dulcian with two keys
Sources: Daniel Speer, Grund-richtiger, kurtz, leicht, und
thhiger, jetzt wal-vermehrter Unterricht der
musicalischen Kunst (Erben: n.p., 1687; second ed.,
Erben: n.p., 1697), opposite p. 240; Johann Philipp
Eisel, Musicus autodidacticus (Erfurt: Johann Michael
Funcken, 1738; rev. ed. Johann Jacob Lotter, Augsburg:
n.p., 1762), opposite p. 104.
Pitch: Fingering: Pitch: Fingering:
C x/xxx/(x,E)/xxxF
c# 17
D o/xxx/(x,E)/xxxF
D# o/xxx/(§,E)/xxxF18
E o/xxx/(o,E)/xxxF
F o/xxx/o/xxxF
F# o/xxx/(o,E)/xxx f# o/oxx/o/xxxF
G o/xxx/o/xxx g o/xxx/o/xxx
G# o/xxx/o/xxg g# o/xxx/o/xx)
A o/xxx/o/xxo a o/xxx/o/xxo
A# o/xxx/o/xox a# o/xxx/o/xox
o/xxx/o/xoo b o/xxx/o/xoo
c o/xxx/o/ooo c' o/xxx/o/ooo
c# o/xxo/o/xoo c#' o/xxo/o/xoo
d o/xxo/o/ooo d' o/xxo/o/ooo
d# o/xox/o/ooo d#' o/xox/o/ooo
o/xoo/o/ooo e' o/xoo/o/ooo
f o/oxo/o/ooo f' o/oxo/o/ooo
17 Not included in either chart.
15 This would be effective only on a dulcian with keys
for E and F; a D-key half-opened would not work well.
208
Table 4. Bassoon with three keys
Source: Joseph Majer, Museum musicum: Theoretico practicum
(Nï¬rnberg: Georg Michael Majer, 1732; rev. ed.,
Nï¬rnberg: Cremer, 1741), opposite p. 49.
Pitch: Fingering: Pitch: Fingering:
BBb (BBb,x,D)/xxx/x/xxxF
BB 19
C (x,D)/xxx/x/xxxF
C# 1
D (o,D)/xxx/x/xxxF
D# (o,§D)/xxx/x/xxxFâ€
E o/xxx/x/xxxF
F o/xxx/o/xxxF
F# o/xxx/x/xxx f# o/oxx/o/xxx21
G o/xxx/o/xxx g o/xxx/o/xxx
G# o/xxx/o/xxi g# o/xxx/o/xxi
A o/xxx/o/xxo a o/xxx/o/xxo
A# o/xxx/o/xox a# o/xxx/o/xox
o/xxx/o/xoo b o/xxx/o/xoo
c o/xxx/o/ooo c' o/xxx/o/ooo
c# o/xxo/o/xoo c#' o/xxo/o/xoo
d o/xxo/o/ooo d' o/xxo/o/ooo
d# o/xox/o/ooo d#' o/xox/o/ooo
o/xoo/o/ooo e' o/xoo/o/ooo
f o/oxo/o/ooo f' o/oxo/o/ooo
f#' o/xox/o/ooo22
13 Majer omits these pitches.
3†The D-key is to be half closed; the resulting D#
would be much less satisfactory than on the dulcian.
†Possibly an error, since it is so similar to the
fingering for 9; correct fingering is probably the dulcian's
[o/oxx/o/xxxF] as given Speer and Eisel (see Table 3).
33 Same fingering as d#'; probably an engraver's error.
"‘3
209
Table 5. Bassoon with four keys
Sources: Johann Philipp Eisel, Musicus autodidacticus
(Erfurt: Johann Michael Funcken, 1738; rev. ed. Johann
Jacob Lotter, Augsburg: n.p., 1762), opposite p. 101;
Henry Purcell, The Muses' Delight (London: John Sadler,
1754), p. 45.
Pitch: Fingering: Pitch: Fingering:
BBb (BBb,x,D)/xxx/x/xxxF
BB (BBb,x,D)/xxx/x/xxxF23
C (x,D)/xxx/x/xxxF
C# (x,D)/xxx/x/xxxF24
D (o,D)/xxx/x/xxxF
D# (BBb,o)/xxx/x/xxxFâ€
E o/xxx/x/xxxF
F o/xxx/o/xxxF
F# o/xxx/x/xxx35 f# o/xxx/o/xxxF27
G o/xxx/o/xxx g o/xxx/o/xxx
G# o/xxx/o/xxxG# g# o/xxx/o/xxxG#
A o/xxx/o/xxo a o/xxx/o/xxo
A# o/xxx/o/xox a# o/xxx/o/xox
o/xxx/o/xoo b o/xxx/o/xoo
c o/xxx/o/ooo c' o/xxx/o/ooo
c# o/xxo/o/xoo c#' o/xxo/o/xoo
d o/xxo/o/ooo d' o/xxo/o/ooo
d# o/xox/o/ooo d#' o/xox/o/ooo
†Only in Purcell; same fingering as BBb but lipped up.
1†Only in Purcell; same fingering as C but lipped up.
Purcell also shows D# as an E-fingering that must have been
lowered by lipping.
1†Only in Purcell; effectiveness is questionable.
1†Only in Purcell. Eisel's omission is surprising; the
F#-fingering he gave for the dulcian (Table 3) would have
worked.
†Purcell only; Eisel's f# shown in left column, p.
195.
“’5
210
(Table 5, cont'd)
Pitch: Fingering: Pitch: Fingerim:
e o/xoo/o/ooo28 e' o/xoo/o/ooo
f o/oxo/o/ooo f' o/oxo/o/ooo29
f# o/ooo/o/ooo3o f# o/ooo/o/ooo7
g' o/xxo/o/ooo7
33 Purcell gives same fingering as d#; probably an
error.
†Only in Purcell.
†Eisel only; see Purcell's f# in right column, p. 194.
211
Table 6. Bassoon with five keys
Sources:31 Pierre Cugnier, "Basson," in Jean Benjamin de
Laborde, Essai sur la musique ancienne et moderne
(Paris: P. D. Pierres, 1780, vol. 2), p. 342; Etienne
Ozi, Méthode nouvelle et raisonnée pour 1e basson
(Paris: Boyer, 1787; reprint, [Paris]: Naderman, [ca.
1800]), plate 1.
Pitch: Fingering: Pitch: Fingering:
BBb (BBb,x,D)/xxx/x/xxxF
BB (BBb,x,D)/xxx/x/xxxF32
C (x,D)/xxx/x/xxxF
C# (§,D)/xxx/x/xxxF
D (o,D)/xxx/x/xxxF
D# (o,D,D#)/xxx/x/xxxF
E o/xxx/x/xxxF
F o/xxx/o/XxxF
F# o/xxx/x/xxx f# o/oxx/o/xxxF
G o/xxx/o/xxx g o/oxx/o/xxx
G# o/xxx/o/xxxG# g# o/xxx/o/xxxG#
A o/xxx/o/xxo a o/xxx/o/xxo
A# o/xxx/o/xox a# o/xxx/o/xox
o/xxo/o/xoo33 b o/xxo/o/xoo3
c o/xxo/o/ooo34 c' o/xxo/o/ooo4
c# o/xxx/o/xoo35 c#' o/xxx/o/xooS
d o/xxo/o/ooo d' o/xxo/o/ooo
†Cugnier's chart is unusual for its extremely high
range and for its large number of errors. Ozi's chart for a
similar bassoon with a vent key is used for comparison.
33 Same fingering as BBb; Cugnier instructs player to
adjust the pressure on the reed.
33 Error (on most other charts this fingering is used
for c# and c#'); Ozi: [o/xxx/o/xoo].
34 Error (same fingering as for d); Ozi: [o/xxx/o/ooo].
35 Error (on all other charts this fingering is used for
B and b); Ozi: [o/xxo/o/xooG#].
n- ..
M‘A’
212
(Table 6, continued)
Pitch:
d#
Fingering: Pitch:
o/xoo/o/ooo35 d#'
o/xox/o/ooo37 e'
o/oox/o/ooo38 f'
cu
c#"
d"
d#"
en
f"
Fingering:
o/xoo/o/ooo5
o/xox/o/ooo7
o/oxx/o/xxo39
o/oxx/o/xxx4O
o/oxo/o/oooG#41
D/xxo/o/ooo
D/xxx/o/xxx(G#,F)42
D/xxo/o/xxo(G#,F)43
D/xxo/x/xon44
o/xxo/o/xoo45
o/xoo/o/ooo45
o/ooo/o/ooo4'7
x/oxx/x/ooo17
o/oxo/o/xoo17
35 Error (on most other charts this fingering is used
for e and e'); Ozi: [o/xox/o/ooo].
†Error (on most other charts this fingering is used
for eb and eb'); Ozi: [o/xoo/o/ooo].
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
Ozi:
Ozi:
Ozi:
Ozi:
Ozi:
Ozi:
Ozi:
Ozi:
Ozi:
Only
[o/ooo/o/ooo].
[o/oxo/o/xxxG#].
[o/oxx/o/xon].
[o/oxx/o/xoo].
[(1,D)/xxx/o/xxxF].
[l/xxo/o/xon].
[1/xxo/x/xooF].
[1/xoo/o/ooo].
[l/ooo/o/ooo].
in Cugnier.
_ï¬Â§
213
Table 7. Bassoon with six keys
Sources: Ezekiel Goodale, The Instrumental Director
(Hallowell, Massachusetts: E. Goodale, 1819; third ed.,
Hallowell: Glazier, Masters, 1829), p. 9; and Samuel
Holyoke, Instrumental Assistant (Exeter, New Hampshire,
1807), vol. 2, pp. 6-7.
Pitch: Finggring: Pitch: Fingering:
BBb (BBb,x,D)/xxx/x/xxxF
BB 48
C (x,D)/xxx/x/xxxF
C# 1
D (o,D)lxxx/x/xxxF
D# (o,D,D#)/xxx/x/xxxF
E o/xxx/x/xxxF
F o/xxx/o/xxxF
F#' o/xxx/(o,F#)/xxxF f# o/oxx/o/xxxF
G o/xxx/o/xxx g o/oxx/o/xxx
G# o/xxx/o/xxxG# g# o/xxx/o/xxxG#
A o/xxx/o/xxo a o/xxx/o/xxo
A# o/xxx/o/xox a# o/xxx/o/xox
o/xxx/o/xoo b o/xxx/o/xoo
o/xxx/o/ooo c' o/xxx/o/ooo
c# o/xxo/x/xoo49 c#' o/xxo/o/xoo
d o/xxo/o/ooo d' o/xxo/o/ooo
d# o/xox/o/ooo d#' o/xxo/o/xxx
o/xoo/o/ooo e' o/xoo/o/ooo
f o/ooo/o/ooo f' o/ooo/o/ooo
f#' o/ooo/x/xxxF
g' o/oxx/o/oooG#
g#' (o,D)loxx/x/xooFso
45 Omission of BB and C# is an archaic feature.
49 Holyoke: [o/xxo/x/xooF].
5° Only in Holyoke.
214
Table 8. Bassoon with seven or eight keys
Sources: Etienne Ozi, Méthode nouvelle et raisonnée pour le
basson (Paris: Boyer, 1787; reprint, [Paris]: Naderman,
[ca. 1800]), plate 2; J[ohann] Froelich, Vollstandige
Theoretisch-praktische Musikschule (Bonn: Simrock,
[1810-11]), unnumbered page.
Pitch: Fingering: Pitch: Fingering:
BBb (BBb,x,D)/xxx/x/xxxF
BB (BBb,x,D)/xxx/x/xxxF51
C (x,D)/xxx/x/xxxF
C# (§,D)/xxx/x/xxxF
D (o,D)/xxx/x/xxxF
D# (o,D,D#)/xxx/x/xxxF52
E o/xxx/x/xxxF
F o/xxx/o/xxxF
F# o/xxx/x/xxxS3 f# o/oxx/o/xxxF3
G o/xxx/o/xxx g o/xxx/o/xxx
G# o/xxx/o/xxxG# g# o/xxx/o/xxxG#
A o/xxx/o/xxo a o/xxx/o/xxo
A# o/xxx/o/xox a# o/xxx/o/xox
o/xxx/o/xoo b o/xxx/o/xoo
o/xxx/o/ooo c' o/xxx/o/ooo
c# o/xxo/o/xooG# c#' o/xxo/o/xooG#
d o/xxo/o/ooo d' o/xxo/o/ooo
d# o/xox/o/ooo d#' o/xox/o/oooS4
“ Same fingering as BBb; probably lipped up to pitch.
†Froelich's bassoon has a D#-key for the little
finger: [(o,D)/xxD#/x/xxxF].
53 For some reason Ozi does not use the F#-key;
Froelich: [o/xxx/(o,F#)/xxxF] for both octaves.
“ Ozi gives a different fingering [o/xxo/o/xxx] for eb.
1
4‘01:
215
(Table 8, continued)
Pitch: Fingering: Pitch: Fingering:
e o/xoo/o/ooo e' o/xoo/o/oooS
f o/ooo/o/ooo5 f' o/oxo/o/xxxG#7
f#' o/oxx/o/xon8
g' o/oxx/o/xoo9
g#' (o,D)/oxx/o/ooo
a' (o,D)/oxx/o/oxxG#10
a#' (l,o,D)/xxx/o/xxxF11
b' (1,o)/xxo/o/xonâ€
c" (1,o,D)/xxo/x/xooF13
c#" (1,o)/xoo/o/ooo13
d" (l,o)/ooo/o/ooo13
5 Ozi's alternative [o/xoo/o/xxx] is Froelich's standard
fingering.
5 Froelich: [o/ooo/o/xxx].
7 Froelich: [o/oxo/o/xxx].
3 Froelich: [o/oxx/o/xoxF].
3 Froelich: [o/oxx/o/ooxF].
1° Ozi gives an alternative: [(1,o)/oxx/o/ooo];
Froelich: [(1,o,D)/xxx/o/ooo].
11 Froelich: [(o,D)/xxx/o/xxx(F,G#)].
13 Froelich: [(o,D)Ixxx/o/xxo(F,G#)].
n Only in Ozi.
216
Table 9. Bassoon with nine keys
Source:
Pitch:
ssh
BB
C#
D#
F#
G#
A#
c#
d#
[George E. Blake], An Introduction to the Art of
Playing the Bassoon (Philadelphia: G. E. Blake, 1826),
p.
7.
Fingering: Pitch:
(BBb,x,D)/xxx/x/xxxF
64
(x,D)/xxx/x/xxxF
1
(o,D)/xxx/x/xxxF55
(o,D,D#)Ixxx/x/xxxF
o/xxx/x/xxxF
o/xxx/o/xxxF
o/xxx/F#/xxxF f#
o/xxx/o/xxx g
o/xxx/o/xxxG# g#
o/xxx/o/xxo a
o/xxx/o/xox a#
o/xxx/o/xoo b
o/xxx/o/ooo c'
o/xxx/c#/ooo57 c#'
o/xxo/o/ooo d'
o/xox/o/ooo d#'
o/xoo/o/ooo e'
o/ooo/o/xxx f'
f#'
g'
64
65
66
67
Fingering:
o/oxx/o/xxxF55
o/oxx/o/xxx
o/oxx/o/xxxG#
o/xxx/o/xxo
o/xxx/o/xox
o/xxx/o/xoo
o/xxx/o/ooo
o/xxo/c#/ooo4
o/xxo/o/ooo
o/xox/o/ooo
o/xoo/o/ooo
o/oxo/o/xxx
o/oxx/o/xxxF
o/oxx/o/ooo
Blake's omission of BB and C# is an archaic feature.
Blake omits the D-key; probably a printer's error.
That Blake does not use the F#-key here is curious.
Or: [o/xxo/o/xoo].
(Table 9, continued)
Pitch: Fingering:
55 Blake omits this pitch.
217
Pitch:
g#'
a#'
Fingering:
68
1/oxx/o/ooo
2/oxx/o/ooo
fl
218
Table 10. Almenrader system bassoon, ca. 1820
Sources: Karl Almenrader, "Treatise on the Improvement of
the Bassoon Including Two Tables," (Mainz: Schott, ca.
1820); illustrated in Fig 448 in Will Jansen, Th3
Bassoon: Its History, Construction, Makers, Players and
Music, five vols. (Buren, The Netherlands: Fritz Knuf,
1978-1984), vol. 5, unnumbered page.
Pitch: Fingering: Pitch: Fingering:
ssh (BBb,BB,x,D)/xxx/x/xxxF
BB (BB,x,D)/xxx/x/xxxF
C (x,D)/xxx/x/xxxF
C# (x,D)/xxxC#/x/xxxF
D (o,D)/xxx/x/xxxF
D# (o,D)/xxx(C#,D#)/x/xxxF
E o/xxx/x/xxxF
F o/xxx/o/xxxF
F# o/xxx/F#/xxxF f# o/oxx/o/xxxF59
G o/xxx/o/xxx g o/xxx/o/xxx
G# o/xxx/o/xxxG#70 g# o/xxx/o/xxxG#71
A o/xxx/o/xxo a o/xxx/o/xxo
A# o/xxx/o/xoxG#72 a# o/xxx/o/xox'73
o/xxx/o/xooF74 b o/xxx/o/xoo
c o/xxx/o/ooo c' o/xxx/o/ooo
c# o/xxo/o/xoo75 c#' o/xxo/o/xoo76
d o/xxo/o/ooo d' o/xxo/o/ooo
5†Or: [o/ooo/x/xxxF].
'†Or: [D#/xxx/(F#,G#)/xxx].
'n Or: [D#onx/(F#,G#)/xxx] and [a'/oxx/o/xxxF].
'†Or: [o/xxx/o/xxA#].
'†Or: [o/xxx/o/xxA#].
'“ Or: [o/xxx/o/oxo].
'†Or: [c#lxxx/o/ooo].
'†Or: [c#lxxx/o/ooo].
(Table
Pitch:
d#
219
10, continued)
Fingering: Pitch: Fingering:
o/xox/o/ooo77 d#' o/xxo/o/xxx78
o/xoo/o/ooo e' o/xoo/o/ooo79
o/ooo/o/ooo f' o/oxo/o/xxx80
f#' o/oxx/o/xoo
g' o/oxx/o/xooF
g# o/oxx/o/oooF81
a' l/xxx/o/oooF
a#' 1/xxx/x/oxo
b' 2/xxx/o/xxxF82
c" 2/xoo/o/xon‘333
c#" 2/xoo/x/xxx
d" 2/xoo/o/ooxG#
d#" 2/ooo/(F#,G#)/oooG#84
e" c#/§xx/x/xxA#,F
f" 1/5xx/x/xxA#,F
g" 2/xoo/F#/oooF85
77
78
79
80
81
82
Or:
Or:
Or:
Or:
Or:
[c#/xxo/o/ooo].
[c#/xxo/o/ooo] and [o/xox/o/ooo].
[o/xox/o/xxx].
[o/xoo/xxo] and [o/ooo/o/ooo].
[o/oxx/x/ooo].
Almenrader shows an additional (BBb,BB,x,D) for the
left thumb; this seems to be very awkward. Or:
[l/xxo/o/xon].
53.Almenrader shows an additional (BBb,BB,x,D) for left
thumb here also.
54.Almenrï¬der shows an additional (C#,D#) for left
little finger.
35.Almenrader adds (BBb,BB,x) for the left thumb.
r-er-wg
220
Table 11. Almenrader system bassoon, modern
Sources: Julius Weissenborn, Method for Bassoon (Leipzig:
Pitch:
Bab
BB
C#
D#
F#
G#
A#
n.p., 1887; rev. Fred Bettony, New York: Cundy-
Bettony, 1950), unnumbered loose page; Hugo Fox,
Let's Play Bassoon, rev. ed. (South Whitley,
Indiana: Fox Bassoon Company, [n.d.]), pp. 12-15;
Lewis Hugh Cooper and Howard Toplansky, Essentials
of Bassoon Technique (Union, New Jersey: Howard
Toplansky, 1968).
Fingering: PitCh: Fingering:
(BBb,BB)/xxx/E/xxxF85
BB/xxx/E/xxxF1
C/xxx/E/xxxF87
C/xxxC#/E/xxxF2
D/xxx/E/xxxF
D/xxxD#/E/xxxF
xxx/E/xxxF
w/xxx/xxxF
w/xxx/F#/xxx88 f# w/§xx/XXxF#89
w/xxx/xxx g w/ixx/Xxx90
w/xxx/xxxG#31 g# w/ixx/xxxG#
w/xxx/xxo a xxx/xxo
w/xxx/A#/xxo92 a# xxx/A#/xxo
w/xxx/xoo b xxx/xoo
1†The BB-key interlocks with C- and D-keys to close
them as well.
87
The C-key closes the D-key as well.
1†Or: [w/xxx/xxxF#]; both F#-keys close the F-key as
well.
3
Or: [w/Qxx/F#/xxx].
9° The C#- or D#-key is sometimes added to help in
tuning.
91 Or: [w/xxx/G#/xxx]; same for next octave but with a
half-hole.
93 Or: [w/xxx/xxA#]; same for next octave, but without
the whisper key.
(Table
Pitch:
c#
d#
11, continued)
Fingering:
w/xxx/ooo
(w,c#)/xxx/ooo93
w/xxo/ooo
w/xox/ooo
w/xoo/ooo
w/ooo/ooo
221
Pitch:
c#'
d!
d#'
fl
f#'
gl
g#
a#'
b'
Cu
c#"
d"
d#"
f"
g"
Fingering:
xxx/ooo
c#/xxx/ooo34
xxo/ooo
xxo/xxx
xoxD#/xxx
xoxD#/xxo
oxx/xooâ€
)xx/xooF
Qxx/oox
(1,c#)/xxx/oox
(l,c#)/xxx/xon95
2/xxoD#/xon
2/xooD#/o/xon
2/xox/E/xox
2/xoxC#/ooxG#
c#/§xx/c#ooG#37
c#/oxx/E/xxx98
c#/§xo/A#/xxxG#99
1/xoo/ooo100
93 The D-key is usually added in both octaves to improve
intonation and timbre.
94
95
96
97
98
99
Or: [xxx/c#oo].
Or: [ixx/A#/xxo] or [)xx/xon].
Or: [(1,c#)/xxx/E/xxo].
Or: [2/1xx/c#ooG#].
Or: [c#/§xx/xxx].
Cooper and Toplansky only.
“m Cooper and Toplansky only.
if
. ï¬nk-“I
k
,1"..-
222
Table 12. Jancourt system bassoon, modern
Source: Eugene Jancourt, "Chromatic Scale for French
Bassoon (Perfected System 22 Keys)," in Julius
Weissenborn, Method for Bassoon (Leipzig: n.p., 1887;
rev. Fred Bettony, New York: Cundy-Bettony, 1950),
unnumbered loose page.
Pitch: Fingering: Pitch: Fingering:
BBb BBb/xxxw/x/xxxF101
BB (1313b , BB) /xxxw/x/xxxF1
C C/xxxw/x/xxxF102
C# (C,C#)/xxxw/x/xxxF2
D D/xxxw/x/xxxF
D# (D,D#)/xxxw/x/xxxF
E xxxw/x/xxxF
F xxxw/o/xxxF
F# xxxw/(o,F#)/xxx
G xxxw/o/xxx g Qxxw/o/xxx
G# xxxw/o/xxxG# g# D#/§xxw/o/xxxG#
A xxxw/(o,F#)/xxo a xxx/x/xxo
A# xxxw/x/xxA#â€3 a# D#/xxx/o/xxA#104
xxxw/o/xoo b d"/xxx/o/xoo
xxxw/o/ooo c' d"/xxx/o/ooo
c# xxxc#/o/ooo105 c#' xxxc#/o/ooo105
d xxow/o/ooo d' xxo/o/ooo
d# xxd#/x/oooâ€7 d#' D#lxxo/o/xxx108
ҠThe BBb-key interlocks with C- and D-keys to close
them as well.
3� The C-key closes the D-key as well.
?â€3 Or: [xxxw/x/xox].
3â€4 Or: [D#Ixxx/o/xox].
?â€5 Or: [xxxw/o/c#oo].
â€5 Or: [xxo/o/xoo].
3â€7 Or: [xox/x/ooo] or [xxo/o/ooo].
?â€5 Or: [xox/x/ooo], [xxd#/o/ooo], or [xxo/o/c#oo].
(Table 12, continued)
Pitch:
f#
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
223
Pitch:
e'
f.
f#'
g'
g#
a'
a#'
b'
C"
c#"
d"
d#"
en
f"
Fingering:
xoo/x/oooâ€9
D#/oxo/o/xxxG#â€Â°
D#/oxxw/o/xon112
oxxw/o/xoo
oxx/o/oooâ€3
(1,D)/xxxw/o/ooo
l/xxxw/o/xxxF114
1/xxow/o/xxA#115
2/xxow/x/xonâ€5
2/xoow/o/xoo
2/ooow/o/oooâ€7
2/od#"ow/o/ooo
2/e"d#"ow/o/ooo
f"d#"ow/o/ooo
[D#/xxo/o/xxxG#] or [xox/o/xxx].
[D#/xoo/o/xxxG#] or [ooo/o/oooF].
Fingering:
xoo/x/ooo
ooo/o/ooo
ooo/o/xxxF111
Or:
Or:
Or: [oox/o/xxxF].
Or: [xd#"o/o/ooo].
Or: [D#/§xxw/o/ooo].
Or: [xxow/c#/ooo].
Or: [1/xxow/o/xon].
Or: [2/xoxw/x/xxxF].
Or: [2/xoow/o/ooo].
my
224
Table 13. Boehm-system bassoon
Source: Emmanuele Krakamp, Metodo per fagotto (n.p., 1872;
rev. Enzo Mucetti, Milan: G. Ricordi), 1959; illustrated
in Vincent Pezzi, "The Boehm Bassoon." Woodwind 4, no.
1 (September 1951): 8-9.; reprint, Rudo S. Globus, ed.,
Woodwind Anthology, New York: Woodwind Magazine, 1952,
pp. 13-14.
Pitch: Fingering: Pitch: Fingering:
BBb (BBb,B)/xxx/xxxx :‘
BB B/xxx/xxxx E
C C/xxx/xxxx H
C# C#/xxx/xxxx t
D D/xxx/xxxx118
D# D#/xxx/xxxx119
E xxx/E/xxxx
F xxx/xxxx(F)â€Â°
F# xxx/xxxx(F#)â€1 f# oxx/F#/xxxxâ€2
G xxx/xxxxâ€3 g oxx/xxxxâ€4
G# xxx/xxx g# l/xxx/xxx
A xxx/xxo a 1/xxx/xxoâ€5
A# xxx/xoo a# 2/xxx/xoo
xxx/0x01†b 2/xxx/oxoâ€7
c xxx/ooo c' 2/xxx/ooo
â€5 Or: [xxx/D/xxxx].
â€9 Or: [xxx/D#/xxxx].
(â€0 The F-key is operated by the palm; or: [xxx/F/xxxx].
1†The F#-key is operated by the palm; or:
[xxx/F#/xxxx].
3†Or: [oxx/xxxx(F#)], using a palm F-key.
1†Or: [xxx/G/xxx].
1†Or: [oxx/G/xxx].
1†Or: [2/xxx/xxo].
3â€5 Or: [xxx/xBo].
1†Or: [2/xxx/xBo].
(Table
Pitch:
c#
d
d#
13, cont'd)
Fingering:
xxxc#/oooâ€8
xxo/ooo
xoo/xoo
xoo/ooo
ooo/F/ooo130
128
129
130
131
132
133
Or: [xxx/c#/ooo].
Or: [2/xxx/c#/ooo].
225
Pitch:
c#'
dl
d#'
f!
f#'
g!
g#'
a#'
bl
c#"
d"
d#"
en
f"
Fingerigg:
2/xxxc#/oooâ€9
2/xxo/ooo
2/xoo/xoo
2/xoo/ooo
2/ooo/ooo
oxx/(3)xxxx(F#)131
oxx/(3)xxxx132
4/xxx/xxx
4/xxx/xxo
4/xxx/xoo
4/xxx/oxo
4/xxx/ooo
4/xxxc#/oooâ€3
oxxc#/ooo
oxo/xoo
1/xoo/xoo
f"/xoo/ooo
Or: [ooo/oooF], using the palm F-key.
(3) is a side octave key; or:
(3) is a side octave key; or:
Or: [4/xxx/c#/ooo].
[oxx/F#/(3)xxxx].
[oxx/G/(3)xxx].
226
Table 14. Brindley's "Logical bassoon"
Source: Giles Brindley, "The Logical Bassoon," Galpin Sociey
Journal 21 (March 1968): 154.
Pitch: Fingering:â€4 Pitch: Fingering:1
AA o/xxx/l/xxo
BBb #/xxx/1/xxo
BB o/xxx/l/xoo
C o/xxx/l/ooo
C# #lxxx/l/ooo
D o/xxo/l/ooo
D# #/xxo/1/ooo
E o/xoo/l/ooo
F o/xxx/xxxx13$ f o/xxx2/xxxxâ€5
F# #/xxx/xxxxâ€7 f# #/xxx2/xxxx3
G o/xxx/xxx g o/xxx2/xxx
G# #/xxx/xxx g# #lxxx2/xxx
A o/xxx/xxo a o/xxx2/xxo
A# #/xxx/xxo a# #/xxx2/xxo
o/xxx/xoo b o/xxe/xoo
c o/xxx/ooo c' o/xxx2/ooo
c# #/xxx/ooo c#' #/xxx2/ooo
d o/xxo/ooo d' o/xxo2/ooo
d# #/xxo/ooo d#' #Ixx02/ooo
o/xoo/ooo e' o/xooZ/ooo
f o/ooo/ooo138 f' o/ooo2/ooo139
â€4 [#1 indicates the special left-thumb key that is used
to create all the chromatic pitches.
(â€5 Or: [o/ooo/l/ooo].
â€5 See alternatives for f, f# at bottom of left column.
1†Or: [#Iooo/l/ooo]; omission of right thumb in
Brindley's fingering chart is probably an editorial error.
â€5 See alternative at top of right column.
â€9 Or: [o/xxx2/1/xxxx].
227
(Table 14, cont'd.)
Pitch: Fingering: Pitch: Fingerigg:
f# #/ooo/ooo140 f#' #loooZ/oooo141
g' o/xxx2/1/xxx
g#' #/xxx2/1/xxx
a' o/xxx2/1/xxo
a#' #/xxx2/1/xxo
b' o/xxx2/1/xoo
c' o/xxx2/1/ooo
c#" #/xxx2/1/ooo
d" o/xxoZ/l/ooo
d#" #/xx02/1/ooo
e" o/xooZ/o/ooox142
“0 Or: [#/xxx2/xxxx].
“1 Or: [#Ixxx2/1/xxxx].
“3 The right little finger uses a special key for this
fingering.
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