Bassoon
The bassoon is the instrument with the lowest pitch in the woodwind family.
It is really a sort of bass oboe,, having a double reed and a conical bore. The
tube is 9 feet long, and so is bent double to make it practically manageable.
It
has the enormous range of 3� octaves, from the 3rd Bb below middle C (MIDI Bb1)
up to the 2nd D above middle C (MIDI D5).
There is a bassoon part in
nearly all orchestral scores written since 1700, as well as in all chamber wind
ensembles. There is not a great deal of solo music for the bassoon. Mozart wrote
a bassoon concerto, as did 3 or 4 other composers. Probably the most
famous bassoon passage is from Grieg's "In the Hall of the Mountain
King" from his Peer Gynt suite, and another well-known extract is from
Dukas's Sorcerer's Apprentice.