Klarinet Archive - Posting 000178.txt from 2008/11

From: "Curtis Bennett" <curtis.bennett@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Alternatives to bassoon for a quintet?
Date: Thu, 13 Nov 2008 15:48:12 -0500

Surely good baritone saxophonists are even more rare than good bassoon players!

On Thu, Nov 13, 2008 at 2:46 PM, <kurtheisig@-----.net> wrote:
> 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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--
Curtis Bennett

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