Some Factors Affecting Intonation and Tone-Quality of the Bassoon

The bassoon is a conical instrument blown with a double reed.In the modern (German pattern) instrument, the cone expands from a diameter of A to around 110mm in a length of some 2.5m.The "missing" portion of the cone -up to its theoretical apex -is approximately 260m.The range of the instrment is from Eb (55.3112) to D (58011:) or a note or so higher.The tone-holes are distributed somewhat irregularly and are of widely differing sizes.Some are long and narrow, others (particularly at the outer end of the instrument) short and of larger diameter.Four or five holes are covered directly by the fingers.The fingering of the modern instrument is (moderately) regular up to the region of l" (349llz), a tone-hole being provided to facilitate the playing of each note of the chromatic scale.Above this region, acoustical reasons introduce an apparently haphazard complexity into the fingering.