 The Bassoon BBoard
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Author: Surprenant
Date: 2013-01-03 08:00
Is it a coincidence that the range of the oboe and bassoon both extend down to a low b-flat? Or does the note itself play a role? Both instruments can be modified to play a low A, but that doesn't seem very poplular.
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Author: wkleung
Date: 2013-01-03 16:56
Pure coincidence in my opinion. The bottom note of bassoon has always been Bb (since baroque), while the bottom note of oboe went from C to B, and finally to Bb. The extension of range from B to Bb was initially conceived to stabiliize the intonation of some other notes.
Sincerely,
Wai Kit Leung
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Author: Wes
Date: 2013-01-06 03:35
They have made low A bells for bassoon and low A oboes but lets hope these ideas don't spread. Bb is low enough! One can suspect that extending the range of double reed instruments will affect some higher notes in a negative way.
I made a low Bb extension for my English horn to allow playing a prominent Mahler part and it works for that. However, it screws up some higher notes on the EH and I would not leave it on the EH for long.
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2013-01-11 07:22
The low Bb barrels on cors anglais can also make the low D and E suffer too.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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