Contemporary Classics April 21, 2020 The Bassoon in Contemporary Classical Music

Sequenza XII is a composition for solo bassoon, written by Italian composer Luciano Berio in 1995 for, and dedicated to, the French bassoonist Pascal Gallois, who gave the world première on 15 June 1995.  It reflects Berio’s fascination with virtuosity, "understood not merely as technical dexterity, but as a manifestation of an agile musical intelligence that relishes the challenge of complexity".  In Sequenza XII Berio makes deliberate use of the different registers and explores the physical limits of performance through extended techniques, for example, through different uses of the tongue to modify airflow, by writing notes and phrases that are so long they require the performer to use circular breathing, the use of glissando, and multiple sounds producing by singing through the instrument while playing .

This work along with the Duo Sonata for two bassoons came about because of a collaboration between Russian composer Sofia Gubaidulina and bassoonist Valeri Popov.  Popov never commissions works but will work with composers who are interested in composing for the bassoon.   Gubaidulina explored the “personality” of the bassoon which led her to the decision that  the best match for that “personality” of the bassoon would be low- register strings- double basses and cellos. As she describes it “The interactions between the soloist and the surrounding instruments are complex, contradictory, as in a dramatic scene full of action. The concerto includes moments of reconciliation and hostility, tragedy and loneliness.”  

New York composer Mario Diaz de Leon describes A labrys is a double headed battle axe, which was widely used in ancient Minoan culture as a symbol of feminine divinity.  The feminine divinity here maybe the bassoonist Rebekeh Heller because the piece is built around extended techniques that are characteristic of the bassoonist Rebekeh Heller. Accompanied by shimmering, bass heavy electronics, Rebekah fluidly commands and extends the range of her instrument, encompassing hypnotic, lyrical, volatile, and luminous states.

By British Composer Patrick Nunn. Gonk is defined as ‘to prevaricate or to embellish beyond reasonable recognition’. Its musical connotations provide the starting point for the augmentation of the bassoon material.   The bassoon (and to some extent the electronics) has a melodic line that is reworked in a series of variations which are increasingly energized state until a point of virtuosity and liberation is reached where the soloist is released from their accompaniment.

Finnish composer Kalevi Aho writes “The instrument’s nature is twofold. The bassoon can, for instance, be used as the joker, the fool of the orchestra, but it can also express the deepest vehemence and anguish.  The Bassoon Quintet constitutes an inward journey – the work begins on the surface, so to speak, and, as it progresses, we gradually probe ever deeper towards the world of the final movements, full of disassociated emotions.”

On the title track, Brazilian born Felipe Lara explores how layering a solo bassoon upon 6 supportive bassoon - can create a new instrument entirely, or, a Metafagote (fagote being the word for bassoon in Felipe's native Portuguese). The chords and shrieking glissandos emitted from the6 supportive bassoons create an uneasy shadowing of a solo part that often departs from supportive framework on extended flights of fancy, but occasionally touches down to play with them. The wide-ranging gestural palette of the solo and supportive bassoons make this a dramatic showpiece