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BASSOON

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Originally appearing in Volume V19, Page 953 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BASSOON .) The reform in the construction of the See also:

flute due to See also:Theobald See also:Boehm of See also:Munich about 1840, a reform which principally consisted in the rational See also:division of the See also:tube by the position of the lateral holes, prompted Triebert to try to adapt the innovation to the oboes and bassoons; but he failed, because the application of the See also:system denaturalized the timbre of the See also:instruments, which it was necessary, before all things, to preserve, but further improvements made upon the same lines by Barret and later by Rudall See also:Carte, have trans-formed the See also:oboe into the most delicate and perfect of See also:reed instruments. In 1856 a See also:French bandmaster, M. Sarrus, thought out the construction of a See also:family of See also:brass instruments with conical tubes pierced at See also:regular distances, which, by diminishing the length of the See also:air See also:column, has rendered a See also:series of fundamental sounds easy—more equal and See also:free in timbre than that of the oboe family. Gautrot of See also:Paris realized the inventor's See also:idea, and, under the name of " sarrusophones," has created a See also:complete family, from the soprarino in E See also:flat to the contrabass in B flat, of which his See also:firm preserves the See also:monopoly. In See also:order to replace the old See also:double-bassoon of See also:wood, the firm of C. Mahillon, See also:Brussels, produced in 1868, a reed contrabass of See also:metal, since much used in orchestras and military bands. The first idea of this See also:instrument goes back to 1839, and is attributed to Sch011nast & Son of See also:Pressburg. It is a conical brass tube of very large proportions, with lateral holes placed as theory demands, in geometrical relation, with a See also:diameter almost equal to the See also:section of the"tube at the point where the hole is cut. From this it results that for each See also:sound one See also:key only is required, and the seventeen keys give the player almost the facility of a See also:keyboard. The See also:compass written for this contrabass is comprised between and (~t but sounds an See also:octave See also:lower. See See also:CONTRAFAGOTTO. (V.

M. ; K. S.) 7 See Doppelmayr, Historische Nachrichten von Nurnbergischen Matematikern and Kiinstlern, Nurnberg, 1730. 8 See complete edition, vol. iii. No. 4. 2 Vol. xiii. No. 1. 10 A See also:

fine edition has been published with reproductions of the See also:original sketches for the scenes and the full See also:score by See also:Adler in Denkmaler der Tonkunst in Oesterreich, Bd. iii. p. See also:xxv. u See See also:Captain C. R.

See also:

Day's See also:Catalogue of the Musical Instruments exhibited at the Royal Military See also:Exhibition (See also:London, 1891), p. 75, No. 151. 12 Ib. p. 75, No. 150.

End of Article: BASSOON

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BASSOON (Fr. basson; Ger. Fagott; Ital. fagotto)

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