Expert: David Froom - 1/10/2009

Question
Dear David,Thanks for your very quick reply! I have a whole short introductory piece for this music in my head which I will send to you.It is how I think I remember the tune. It should give you a a lot more top go on.Also it is possible that it was scored for an instrument similar in sound to the contra,which might have been used more in the 18th century,such as the Contra Fagotto?many thanks, John.

Answer
Contra Fagotto is Italian for contrabassoon.  I did some further checking into its early uses.  I found reference to Bach using it in a cantata -- but my score of that cantata (#31) has only bassoon.  According to Wikipedia (surprisingly reliable):

The first composer to write a separate contrabassoon part in a symphony was Beethoven, in his Fifth Symphony (1808), although Bach, Handel (in his Music for the Royal Fireworks), Haydn, and Mozart occasionally used it in other genres

I know, of course, the Beethoven (the cbsn comes in to join the noise of the last movement -- and the contrabassoon even has a solo in the last movement of the 9th symphony.  But I hadn't noticed cbsn in anything before then, and had always understood that Beethoven was a pioneer in this.

Send me what you have to dfroom@smcm.edu.  No promises, but I'll do my best.

DF