Bassoon

For those of you who have wondered what a bassoon is here is the answer:

Often, when I finish performing with my chamber groups ( I have a trio which has been busy playing for over 9 years and an octet that meets every year from May to September while most of the large ensembles take a break for the summer), audience members comment that they have never seen a bassoon before. I finally realized that unless you are a musician, you would not see the complete bassoon during performance. When watching performances, you see the top half of the bassoon with the reed that the player blows into. Many people do not realize that there is just as much instrument hanging down below. For those of you who can not picture how big this instrument is, I am just over 5 feet tall and when standing can rest my chin on the top of the instrument when it is resting on the floor.

Some of you might ask how I got started playing this large and actually moderately heavy instrument and I do have that story ready for later in the week. It was published in a music journal this past week. In the meantime, I have to get back to practising. Played Brahms Requiem this past weekend and that was challenging but fun- the audience responded with a standing ovation which is always gratifying and an incentive to keep working.

Hope that you have some music to listen to. Will check about some clips to post.