# "Bassoon-Off" -- Fun piece for bassoon duet.



## Chopinator

This is most likely impossible because of the *insane jumps*, but I find it fun to listen to nonetheless. What do you guys think? 






Score, audio files, and MuseScore file can be downloaded from video description.

Sorry it's MIDI-esque.


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## arpeggio

Without seeing the score I can not say. I am just an amateur bassoonist so it is extremely difficult for me to say from just listening to a synthesized recording. I would have to hear a performance with live bassoonists.

Based on my limited ears, it seems to me that the real challenge would be executing some of the more intense tonguing passages. Maybe a real professional who can double tongue could pull it off. Since you play the sax could you tongue some of this stuff?

It seems to me that the composer has no idea what a real bassoon can and can not do. This is the problem with composing on a computer. A composer with limited orchestration knowledge will compose something that will sound great with a midi but when he gives it to real musicians it is a disaster.

There is music that can be performed on a computer that real musicians can not manage (like those insane tonging passages). On the other hand there is also music that a human musician can perform better than a computer.


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## SergeOfArniVillage

Arpeggio ... That's a seriously great signature.

I know absolutely nothing about any instrument except the piano. I think if it is playable, it probably would be a lot of fun, for the players and the audience. Bassoon showdown!

http://s580.photobucket.com/user/Bury_Me__/media/friday-gun.gif.html


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## PetrB

arpeggio said:


> It seem to me that the composer has no idea what a real bassoon can and can not do.


Praise Apollo, pass the hat, and Amen to that!

The more computers and midi playback are readily available, the more of this useless in reality music we will be hearing. One TC composer has paper thin ideas, awash in a heavy midi orchestration, with such number of players that it is impractical -- the rationale that it is for midi performance for a film or video game score. That bypasses the need to still make some use of your instruments to a point vs. mere filler.

Here we have the near unplayable because _*someone who does not know the instrument has decided -- what, to write for the instrument?*_ The completely whack out of touch quality of that is both laughable, and pathetic if the composer has goals of real musicians playing the music.

Learn about the instruments and what they can and cannot do, including whether it is to the technical level of high school players, college level players, college conservatory level players, or world class performers, and then write your piece.

My advice and admonishment? *Write for real or get off the dance floor,* because you're wasting a lot of people's time, including your own.


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## arpeggio

*Checked out the score.*

I finally figured out how to check out the score and it confirms my suspicions.

Chopinator,

The problems are not the intervals. I pulled out my horn and I had no problem with them.

The challenge is that the composer expects the bassoonists to tongue everything. I could sight read most of the more difficult passages because I know how to double tongue. I will concede that it is a virtuostic piece that can only be performed by A level professional bassoonists.

The one totally insane section are measures 78 through 80. It would take a great deal of coordination to have even two outstanding bassoonists to perform those measures together. Maybe if the parts were slurred.

For most bassoonists trying to perform this work as articulated would be chaotic. It would be torturous for the players and the audience.

Edit: I subsequently found the following note by the composer at the You Tube site: "Something I threw together in a few hours. This was not meant to be possible, however I commend anyone who dare try it.":


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## PetrB

arpeggio said:


> I finally figured out how to check out the score....
> I subsequently found the following note by the composer at the You Tube site:
> *"threw together in a few hours... not meant to be possible"*


Like I said, a waste of just about everyone's time.


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## Couchie

Limiting musical creativity to the playing abilities of humans is so _humdrum_. And decades out of fashion.

I for one welcome our computer overlords.


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## PetrB

Couchie said:


> Limiting musical creativity to the playing abilities of humans is so _humdrum_. And decades out of fashion.
> 
> I for one welcome our computer overlords.


With the newer tools and toys, why limit it to what normally 'could sound from a bassoon' when the sky is literally the limit?

When it comes to extended range impossible for the real instrument, you can take a flute, alto flute or bass flute sample and bring it down to the lowest note of the piano keyboard, and lower, and make good use of it. The sample can be morphed with other samples or altered and morphed with 'pure' electronica.

Why use samples of 'real instruments' at all?


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## Guest

Couchie said:


> Limiting musical creativity to the playing abilities of humans is so _humdrum_. And decades out of fashion.
> I for one welcome our computer overlords.


You been talkin' to Milton Babbitt, Couchie?


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## PetrB

TalkingHead said:


> You been talkin' to Milton Babbitt, Couchie?


Couchie often has conference calls with the dead. (He's had so many with Wagner that he now completely believes Wagner's self-promoting hype that he is the greatest composer of all time

On those other conference calls Couchie makes as host, Wagner is usually listening in, still very obsessed with his status, but deigns to say nothing to the later generations of the dead.


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## Chopinator

arpeggio said:


> The challenge is that the composer expects the bassoonists to tongue everything. I could sight read most of the more difficult passages because I know how to double tongue. I will concede that it is a virtuostic piece that can only be performed by A level professional bassoonists.
> 
> The one totally insane section are measures 78 through 80. It would take a great deal of coordination to have even two outstanding bassoonists to perform those measures together. Maybe if the parts were slurred.


I took the liberty of editing the score, since I use MuseScore as well. I added articulations, accents, slurs, etc. I also attempted to make mm. 78-80 more possible, without taking away from the point that I suspect the composer was making at that point. I also replaced the 16th note triplets with two 16th notes of the same pitch.

Overall, arpeggio, if you have time, could you take a second look at my rendition of this score?

PDF: http://www.mediafire.com/view/hwu128y22ju4jul/Bassoon-Off.pdf


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