Klarinet Archive - Posting 000177.txt from 2008/11

From: kurtheisig@-----.net
Subj: Re: [kl] Alternatives to bassoon for a quintet?
Date: Thu, 13 Nov 2008 15:46:00 -0500

Curtis,

A good Classical Baritone Saxophonist can fill in for bassoon.

We just add 3 sharps and read bass clef like it was treble.

I have been called on to play bassoon parts in chamber orchestra even, and had the conductor much prefer the sound over bassoon!

As conductor of the Heisig-Hastings Band, which Danny used to be the Bass Clarinet player for, I freely substitute baritone sax for bassoon, PROVIDED, we have a good classical bari player available. No rubber boot players allowed!.

I must confess that a lot of the secret is a good mouthpiece, and I make those. We also use Vandoren #5 standard reeds, that have been balanced.

Kurt

-----Original Message-----
>From: Curtis Bennett <curtis.bennett@-----.com>
>Sent: Nov 13, 2008 9:23 AM
>To: klarinet@-----.org
>Subject: [kl] Alternatives to bassoon for a quintet?
>
>So, earlier this year, I formed a woodwind quintet, and invited an
>oboe player from a local community band to join me. I quickly, and
>easily found a good horn and flutist to round out the set, and even
>found a good college-aged bassoon player who played with us for a
>short time, but had to leave because he graduated, and his instrument
>belonged to the school. I guess he wasn't terribly interested in
>playing with us anyway. So, only joined us a few times.
>
>So we've been without a bassoon player ever since then. The horn
>player has a friend who plays cello, and I told her to ask her to join
>us. In my (somewhat naive) mind, a cello player should be able to
>read bassoon music without any problems, since both are in the same
>key, and both read bass clef.
>
>Can't a cello player read bassoon music without any difficulty? Am I
>wrong in thinking this?
>
>
>--
>Curtis Bennett
>
>------------------------------------------------------------------
>

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