Arias with obbligato bassoon:
the bassoon in vocal works, circa 1690-1850.
Jim Stockigt, Melbourne, Australia
jrs@netspace.net.au - for additions, corrections or comments
This website is a continuing extension of the review and preliminary list of works published in “The Double Reed”, Journal of the International Double Reed Society, 2008, vol 31/1, pp 86-109.
(Last revised and up-dated September 23, 2011)
Highlights:
- Listing of about 300 arias with obbligato bassoon from circa 1690-1850.
- An aria from Handel’s Messiah in a 1786 version with obbligato bassoon.
- Tuba Mirum from the Mozart Requiem published by Breitkopf in 1800 with solo bassoon.
- Arias with virtuoso obbligati by the Bach sons, Naumann, Righini, Sacchini, Himmel and Paisiello.
- About 40 Telemann arias with obbligato bassoon(s).
- Over 20 Handel arias with obbligato bassoon(s).
- In nine Steffani operas, there are 19 arias with obbligato bassoon; 16 scores are on-line here
- A Vienna collection of 12 arias with obbligato bassoon(s) by Fux, Caldara and their contemporaries.
- Over 60 arias with obbligato bassoon by Christoph Graupner and Georg Gebel.
- YouTube links to performances of over 90 arias with prominent bassoon parts.
- Links to scores or solo parts for over 60 arias.
This site gives information on about 300 vocal works written between 1688 and 1850 in which bassoon is used as an obbligato instrument, either alone, or with other instruments. Sources, published and unpublished are listed, together with links to performances on YouTube and to recordings of lesser known works.
Amongst this vast repertoire are numerous unpublished arias from the cantatas of Christoph Graupner (1683-1760, Darmstadt) and Georg Gebel (1709-1753, Rudolstadt), and a collection of 12 arias with obbligato bassoon by various Viennese composers, compiled in an early eighteenth century Sammelband, held by the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Wien. Generous permission has been given to reproduce solo parts or initial pages of scores from numerous works (see links to individual composers and acknowledgements).
Additions, corrections, details of further works and sources and recordings are welcome.
This repertoire collection is dedicated to the late William Waterhouse in appreciation of his unique contributions to bassoon literature, scholarship and organology. Without his stimulating and generous encouragement, this project would not have progressed. He was the key to many of the collaborations that are acknowledged here.
Bill Waterhouse and the author, examining manuscripts from this repertoire.
Sevenhampton, Gloustershire, September 2007.
Jim Stockigt
Jim Stockigt is a physician-endocrinologist who studied bassoon in Melbourne with Thomas Wightman. He has had professional experience on both modern and baroque bassoon and has been active in orchestral and chamber music in Australasia, California and London. He has participated in numerous Kronach symposia. Medical travel has often been enhanced by side-trips to music libraries.
The Munich bassoonist, Felix Reiner (1732-1783) From painting by Jakob Horemans, 1774
Postcard, anon, circa 1950