# I'm probably not gonna find anyone, but... BASSOONISTS UNITE!



## pileofsticks

Hey, I play the foghorn bedpost! What about you?

So to you bassoonists out there, what's your favorite part of playing your instrument?
(Mine is when people have no idea what it is)

Least favorite part? 
(Being called an oboe)

Favorite music?
(Mine's Marriage of Figaro and Weber's concerto)

Happy bassooning!
~pileofsticks


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## Jaws

I don't play the bassoon but I own 5 that are on loan to various people so that they can have a go at playing the bassoon. All of mine have names, they are called, The Drain. Waterloo and City ( this is a tube line in London that is referred to as the drain) Kings Sedgemoor Drain, (a land drain in Somerset) Vermuden's Drain (another land drain) and Street Elbow, (the join between the drain from your house to main sewer in the road.) I expect you can see that there is a theme here for the names.


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## Couac Addict

You're not alone! ...actually, there's at least a couple of us on the forum.

Favourite...blasting the flautists with a contrabassoon.
Least favourite...convincing airport airport security that it's not a bomb.

Favourite music... Saint-Saëns' bassoon sonata op.168


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## Redsilas

What's your favorite part of playing your instrument?
(Mine is when people have no idea what it is) - I have to agree with this

Least favorite part? 
- When people find out the German/Italian name of the instrument

Favorite music?
- So many, I enjoy almost any, as I term it, 'dead Russian composer' - Stravinsky, Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Tchaikovsky...

Sadly I had to sell my bassoon a few years back. I miss playing and once my kids are much older I hope to buy another one.


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## Redsilas

My other favorite was going into my local music store in the day to order some bassoon quartet music and the guy said 'under what rock did you find the other three?'


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## nau5ea

My favorite part of playing: hearing someone else play during a concert, and thinking about how beautiful it is
My least favorite part of playing: being out of tune 
My favorite bassoon music is: mozart bassoon + basso continuo sonata
i gotta say. bassoon rocks


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## Heck148

pileofsticks said:


> So to you bassoonists out there, what's your favorite part of playing your instrument?


Professional Bassoonist, [now largely retired] for over 45 years - I love exploring all of the tone colors and expressive possibilities of the bassoon....I also enjoy practicing and working out all of the technical problems associated with preparing performance music. I also enjoy making reeds [I'm good at it]



> Least favorite part?


having to play boring or unimaginative parts - some pops arrangements, etc, are really tedious....also, if I never have to play Tchaikovsky 4 or 5 again, that would be fine [overexposure] - I love the first 3 Tchaik symphonies - wonderful, great bassoon parts.



> Favorite music?


Too much to list. Always love playing Mozart, Beethoven, Ravel, Shostakovich, Sibelius - they all wrote so well for the bassoon.


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## Chiroptera

Favorite Part:
The Sound and the immediate consanguine affinity between bassoonists

Least Favorite Part:
Blowing out the Bocal

Favorite Music:
Weber's Concerto as well as the the little mini-Bassoon solos (in whatever pieces) no one but Bassoonists remember.


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## Totenfeier

I played bassoon for seven years in high school and college, so I'm not up to the level of you fine folks, but I can still point at a bocal and say, "That's a bocal," so I claim distant kin.

I am reminded of Prof. Peter Schickele, of PDQ Bach fame: "The bassoon gets its German name, fagott, meaning 'bundle of sticks,' because most who try to learn to play it wind up using it for firewood instead."


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## Heck148

Totenfeier said:


> I am reminded of Prof. Peter Schickele, of PDQ Bach fame


Schickele is/was a bassoonist, IIRC...He wrote some fascinating bassoon 4tets - "Last Tango in Bayreuth" [yes, Wagner, set a la Tango] and "Lip My Reeds" [for George HW Bush's famous "Read My Lips" comment.


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## Totenfeier

The "Ground" of _Iphigenia in Brooklyn_ has always tugged at _my_ heartstrings, or blown my double reeds, for sure.


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## Heck148

I played the 2ble reed slide tromboon on PDQ Bach "The Seasonings"......hardest gig I ever played :lol:
You're trying to play the part, and everyone, I mean everyone [soloist, conductor, all] in the place is LTFAO!! The conductor was in tears LHAO, and the soloist laughed so hard she had to stop singing for a short time...

I received one of the strangest, most back-handed compliments ever in my career - this very nice lady came up after the performance, obviously tickled, LOL, had enjoyed the whole thing:

"Oh, that was great, It was just awful, sounded really horrible, it was just perfect!! You must be a great musician to be able to make it sound that horrible!! er...I mean perfect....er...awful, er..um....well, you know what I mean, don't you??!!"

<<Sure thing, Lady, all in a day's work>> :lol::lol:


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