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Significant bassoon producers and makers of the world
Skalický, Radovan ; Herman, František (advisor) ; Seidl, Jiří (referee)
Bassoon is woodwind instrument with a conical bore, which is sounded by a double-reed and is used as a tenor or bass line of the woodwind section of the orchestra or chamber ensemble. Quite long evolution of bassoon begins in 1525 with instrument called Phagotum. This instrument is followed by dulcian made of one wooden part, through bassoon of the classical and romantic period, which was made from more joints, to the modern shape of instrument, which is known from first half of 19th century. In this time two main types of bassoon were established: French type (with subtle construction, softer sound and easier reaching of upper register) and German type (robust with a dark homogenous sound mainly in low register). German type, which now dominates in the whole world, was designed especially by Carl Almenraeder (1786 ? 1843) and Johann Adam Heckel (1812 ? 1877). Modern bassoon is made of maple wood and consists of five joints: bell, bass joint, butt, wing joint and bocal. As a sixth joint can we eventually count in a double-reed. In contemporary praxis there exist two sizes of the instrument: bassoon and contrabassoon, sounding one octave lower.
The most significant German-bassoon producers before Second World War were beyond Heckel also German firms Adler, Hüller, Kohlert, Mollenhauer and Mönnig. Current main producers of this bassoon type are: Amati (Czech Republic), Bell (Canada), Fox (USA), Heckel (Germany), Mönnig-Adler (Germany), Moosmann (Germany), Püchner (Germany), Schreiber (Germany), Takeda (Japan), Walter (Germany), Wolf (Germany) and Yamaha (Japan). French type of bassoon was formerly produced by Mahillon (Belgium), Boosey & Hawkes (England) and Morton (England). In these days it?s made only by Buffet-Crampon (France) and Selmer (France). Except for these producers wide range of historical replika?s can be mentioned. The most important are for example: Olivier Cottet, Laurent and Vergeat (Francie), Moeck, Rainer Weber and Guntram Wolf (Germany), Matthew Dart, John Hanchet, Graham Lyndon-Jones and Barbara Stanley (Great Britain), Peter de Robinson and Konningh (Holland), Robert Cronin and Ross (USA).
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Francis Poulenc - chamber compositions for bassoon
Skalický, Radovan ; Seidl, Jiří (advisor) ; Herman, František (referee) ; Hlaváč, Jiří (referee)
Francis Poulenc became famous as a member of a group of composers which was founded in the beginning of the 20th century in Paris and is known as a Group ?Les Six?. With Poulenc also Darius Milhaud, Arthur Honegger, Georges Auric, Louis Durey and Germaine Tailleferre take part in it. Their music doesn?t have much more common, though they are usually assigned to a stream of musical neoclassicism. Great inspiration for the group was a person of Eric Satie; their speaker was then Jean Cocteau, whose manifesto The cock and Harlequin says a lot about philosophical ideas of the group.
Francis Poulenc was born on 7th of January 1899 in Paris and lived there for a most of his life. He studied by Ricardo Viñes (piano) and Charles Koechlin (composition). He was a famous pianist at first (in Duo with baritone Piérre Bernac or soprano Denis Duval), then he became reputable also as a brilliant composer. He died of a heart attack on 30th of January 1963.
By Poulenc we would find works from every music forms and genres. Mostly he wrote songs and piano music. Famous are also his operas (e. g. Les Mamelles de Tirésias or Dialogues des Carmélites), then concertos (e. g. Concert for piano and orchestra or Concert Champêtre for harpsichord) and also his religious music (Litanies à la vierge Noire or Stabat Mater). But among listeners his chamber music is loved the most, critics value its balance and beautiful melodies.
In three of his chamber pieces there is written a bassoon part: In Sonate for clarinet and bassoon (1922), in Trio for oboe, bassoon and piano (1926) and in Sextuor for flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, French horn and piano (1939). Each of these pieces has its own specificity and bassoon is there used different way. Sonate for clarinet and bassoon is based on the part of clarinet. Bassoon plays there only figurations and leaps as an accompanist. In Trio piano plays the main role and couple of oboe and bassoon second it. Though they are not only the accompanists, but they play also much of the piece themes. The last piece, Sextuor, is then well balanced chamber composition, in which all instruments are equally used.
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