The orchestra and its instruments . ng forthis instrument occurs in the opening of the Finaleof the Ninth, or Choral Symphony, where the themeof the movement, played by violoncellos and violinsin unison is accompanied by the first bassoon in along independent melody of the greatest ingenuityand interest. * Cherubini gave the bassoon a solo in his opera ofMedea; Gluck gave it a solo in some of his dancemusic in Orjeo; Rossini opens his Stabat Mater with it;and Weber gave it much to do in his operas. Weberwrote a Concerto for it and also an Andante and Hun-garian Rondo. Mendelssohn also was fond
The orchestra and its instruments . ng forthis instrument occurs in the opening of the Finaleof the Ninth, or Choral Symphony, where the themeof the movement, played by violoncellos and violinsin unison is accompanied by the first bassoon in along independent melody of the greatest ingenuityand interest. * Cherubini gave the bassoon a solo in his opera ofMedea; Gluck gave it a solo in some of his dancemusic in Orjeo; Rossini opens his Stabat Mater with it;and Weber gave it much to do in his operas. Weberwrote a Concerto for it and also an Andante and Hun-garian Rondo. Mendelssohn also was fond of Stone has well summed up his use of this instru-ment as follows: Mendelssohn shows some peculi-arity in dealing with the bassoon. He was evidentlystruck not only with the power of its lower register,a fact abundantly illustrated by his use of it in theopening of the Scotch Symphony and with the trom-bones in the grand chords of the Overture to Ruy Bias,but he evidently felt with Beethoven the comic and 1 Dr. W. H. BASSOON, SYMPHONY SOCIETY OF NEW YORK Ugo Savolini THE WOODWIND FAMILY 95 rustic character of its tone. This is abundantlyshown in the music to the Midsummer Nights Dream,where the two bassoons lead the quaint Clowns Marchin thirds and still farther on in the Funeral March,which is obviously an imitation of a small countryband, consisting of clarinet and bassoon, the latterending unexpectedly and humorously on a solitarylow C. In the Orchestra the bassoon also suggeststhe braying of Bottom. It is worth notice how theacute ear of the musican has caught the exact intervalused by the animal without any violation of artisticpropriety. Modern composers have delighted in exhibitingthe telling qualities of the bassoon. A notable ex-ample is in Tschaikowskys Pathetic Symphony andin the waltz movement of his Fijth Symphony. Inhis Marche Slave it is very effective in unison withthe violas. Brahms shows it off well in his C-minor Symphony;Strauss in his Helden
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectmusicalinstruments
