The Bassoon

Like the other members of the woodwinds family, the bassoon possesses several holes that allow for the changing of pitch, as well as a certain number of keys (which vary depending on the time period) that enable holes inaccessible to fingers to be closed.  A bocal, a piece of curved metal resembling a pipe, is located at the smaller end of the instrument’s body, and attached to this bocal there is a double reed enabling the emission of vibrations that will be amplified by the instrument.  The appropriately named double reed is made of reed, a plant similar to bamboo, cut very thinly so that  the two layers are able to vibrate against one other, somewhat like a blade of grass vibrating between two fingers.  Although it was chiefly an orchestral instrument, soloist literature for the bassoon was particularly rich during the Baroque period.  Vivaldi wrote 39 concertos for this instrument and more than a dozen concertos were written by Fasch, Telemann, Boismortier, and Johann-Christian Bach.