Published in part in The Double Reed 2008; 31: 86–109. Last revised 11January, 2012
(Published and unpublished sources and details of recordings and YouTube links are given with the list of works by each composer.)
Additions, corrections and comments are welcome.
The term obbligato, “an accompanying part of semi-independent melodic character played by a single instrument and combining freely with the remainder of the accompaniment” applies to many challenging and rewarding instrumental parts from the baroque and early classical eras. Amongst wind instruments, obbligati for bassoon are less common than for oboe, flute or trumpet, but there are outstanding examples in the cantatas BWV 149, 155 and 177 of Johann Sebastian Bach. The bassoon is also found as an obbligato instrument in works of Telemann, Graupner, Zelenka, the Bach sons, Carl Heinrich Graun, Handel, Keiser, Naumann, Hasse and Steffani, as well as Fux and Caldara and their Viennese contemporaries. A later example is the aria “Solo un pianto con to versare” ("Ah! nos peines", "Only to shed a tear with you") from Medea of Cherubini, performed in 1797. While Mozart wrote no aria with bassoon as the single obbligato instrument, he often used bassoon as part of a concertante group.
There appears to be no source that draws together the vocal works in which bassoon is used as an obbligato or prominent continuo instrument. This genre receives only minimal attention in the two most complete compendia of bassoon repertoire (1,2), although David Lindsey Clark’s book on woodwind repertoire identifies some important examples (3). This little-known repertoire is drawn together here by listing published and unpublished sources and selected recordings. Links to scores or parts that are available on-line, here or elsewhere, have been added, together with links to performances accessible on YouTube. (Unfortunately some important YouTube links were withdrawn during 2011; attempts will be made to re-establish these.)
A significant body of pre-1700 works, many probably written for dulcian, has not been catalogued here. Earlier vocal works with bass double-reed obbligati or major continuo parts by composers such as Heinrich Schütz, Dietrich Buxtehude, Samuel Capricornus, Marc Antonio Ziani, Georg Caspar Schürmann, Christian Liebe, Matthias Weckmann, Nicolaus Bruhns and numerous Spanish composers who wrote for this combination (4), deserve a separate catalogue. More modern works by composers such as Chabrier, Stravinsky, Britten, Poulenc, Weill, Grainger and Bantock, many of them mentioned by Clark (3), are not included here.
The initial focus of this collection was on arias in which the bassoon had a solo obbligato role, but this has been extended to include a larger repertoire in which bassoon can be used in the continuo group, particularly in the cantatas of JS Bach. Explicit bassoon parts exist for only about ten cantatas, but the use of bassoon was probably more extensive than that, especially with members of the oboe family. In the recordings of Bach cantatas directed by Harnoncourt, Gardiner, Koopman or Suzuki, bassoon is used quite extensively, although these authorities differ substantially in their choices. There are notable instances where solo bassoon has been used in arias where the designation is simply “continuo”, as in cantatas BWV 56, 86, 87, 97, 149 and 202. The appearance of bassoon in Handel operas also varies in different presentations. The Andrew Lawrence-King recording of the early Handel opera Almira (see composer listing) is an outstanding example of the successful use of bassoon as a major continuo instrument, whether with oboes or not. Bassoon may also be a continuo option in various cantatas from Telemann’s Harmonischer Gottesdienst.
Terminology in eighteenth century manuscripts was sometimes imprecise about the intended instrument. While the term “fagotto” is standard in the Vienna sources, the designations “bassono” and “fagotto” seem to be used interchangeably in many German sources, with “basson” dominant in France. In one Graupner cantata (419/13, 1711), the instrument is described as “Fagotto obl” on the title page, but “Bassono solo” in the score, apparently in the hand of the same copyist. Thus, conclusions about the intended instrument may be better based on the characteristics of the part and a study of organology than on the terminology used by copyists.
The range of obbligato parts is generally up to g’, extending to a' flat, notably in the aria “Willkommen, Heiland! Freut euch, Väter!” from “Auferstehung und Himmelfahrt Jesu”of CPE Bach and up to a' with J.S. Bach in the B minor Mass and Telemann in Die Donnerode. The upper register of the bassoon is extensively used in the operas of Rameau, although the diversity of eighteenth century sources and the questionable authenticity (5,6) of modern editions makes it difficult to establish what Rameau actually wrote. At the lower extreme of the range, B flat appears only occasionally (e.g. Zelenka's sixth Jeremiah Lamentation and in Gassmann's "Pallide ombre" from L'opera seria). The paradoxical B natural and contra G in “Du musst glauben” in JS Bach’s cantata BWV155 is probably explained by the fact that a bassoon “in tiefem Kammerton” (a' 392), would sound a minor third below an organ tuned “in hohem Chorton” (a' 466), so that fingered B flat would coincide with the contra G, and fingered D would produce B natural in relation to such an organ (7). In that relationship, the highest note in the BWV 155 aria would be a comfortable tenor f'. Original instruments at this low a' 392 “French” pitch have been found close to where Bach’s works were first performed (8).
The arias listed here cover a range of affect. In the religious works, arias with bassoon obbligato generally have a dark and sombre affect. Light relief is provided in the operas of Telemann and Keiser, in the works of Boyce, Gassmann and Storace and in the Vauxhall songs of JC Bach. The role of the bassoon in the works listed here ranges from a melodic obbligato that introduces and interweaves with the voice, often in da capo form, to that of an additional or elaborated continuo part. While bassoon may be specified as part of the ripieno continuo, tacet when the voice enters, there is a contrasting style in the early eighteenth century that uses bassoon in unison with the vocal line, particularly by Telemann. For some operas (eg Gluck, Die Pilger von Mekka) there appear to be several versions, with and without the colla voce bassoon.
The same material may appear in several works. For example, the well-known aria “Venti, turbini” with obbligato violin and bassoon from Handel’s Rinaldo is a re-run of an aria from a cantata Apollo and Dafne, written decades earlier. Handel’s aria “Pena tiranna” from Amadigi appears to be “borrowed” from Reinhard Keiser. Telemann was also known to "borrow" from Keiser. Haydn used the same material with obbligato bassoon in Il Mondo della Luna and Philemon et Baucis. There is a notable similarity between three Vivaldi works, the “baggage” aria “Ch’ alla colpa fa’traggitto” found in Copenhagen, the aria with bassoon obbligato “Non lusinghi il core amante” from L’Incoronazione di Dario and “Dell’alma superba” from Serenata a tre, RV 690. Mozart’s aria “Se il padre perdei” from Idomeneo with wind quartet, reappears as “Plasmator Deus” with obbligato for bassoon alone; the arranger is not known. Sacchini and Righini were amongst those who used exactly the same score, with different text, in operatic and liturgical works.
It may be more than coincidence that numerous composers wrote bassoon obbligati for tenor arias in the Metastasio setting of La Passione, Naumann and Salieri for Pietro in “Se a librarsi ...”, Paisiello for Giovanni in “Dovunque il guardo giro” and Lucchesi for Giuseppe in “Torbido mar che freme”. Naumann’s bassoon obbligato of concerto proportions in the tenor aria “Se a librarsi in mezzo all’onde incomincia il fanciuletto” in his 1767 Padua setting of La Passione, does not appear in the later 1787 Dresden version.
There was an innovation in the presentation of bassoon obbligati from the classical period in the 2004 Köln production of Wenzel Müller’s opera Kaspar der Fagottist, (alternative title, Die Zauberzither). In this magic opera, contemporary with Mozart’s Zauberflöte (9), the title character, Kaspar, is accompanied by a genie or fairy, Pizziki. Her role in the by-play and dialogue of this Singspiel is associated with prominent bassoon passages. In the 2004 production, the role of Pizziki was taken by a petite bassooniste in ballet tu-tu, whose playing on-stage was charming and dextrous.
The high-point of obbligati for single instruments is in church music from the first half of the eighteenth century, in the case of JS Bach often in the format voice(s), solo instrument and continuo in da capo format, generally emphasizing a single affect around a brief repeated text. From about 1760, the instrumental soli, even those that are complex and highly demanding, become more absorbed into the orchestral texture, a trend that is notable in the works of JC Bach that are listed here. A gradual decline of solo obbligati through the eighteenth century may be reflected by the fact that Telemann’s Lukaspassion of 1727 includes extensive bassoon obbligati, whereas his Lukaspassion of 1744 has no specified bassoon part. A notable exception is the extensive obbligato in Neris’ aria “Ah! nos peines” from Medea of Cherubini, first performed in 1797.
Despite the apparent decline in new obbligati, arias with obbligato bassoon continued to appear in concerts, for example when James Holmes (10) accompanied a Mrs Ashe in a performance of Paisiello’s “Ah fate, O Dio di pianto”, from his cantata “Il Ritorno di Perseo” on Friday 14 February 1806 in London, on the same program that featured a New Grand Symphony for a full band by Beethoven (11).The William Boyce aria “Softly rise,O southern breeze” was performed in York on Thursday September 25, 1823 at the Yorkshire Grand Music Festival, sung by Mr Vaughan, with bassoon obbligato by Mr (John) Mackintosh (1767–1844) (10), (The Harmonicon, vol I, p151, 1823). Lesser known works included an aria "Angel of life" by Callcott sung by Mr Phillips, with bassoon obbligato by Mackintosh, performed 13 February 1828 at a Guidhall concert for the benefit of Italian and Spanish refugees. On March 29 1828, a recit and aria "The snares of death" by Sir J. Stevenson was performed at the same place by the same performers, for the benefit of City of London National, Ward and Parochial schools. (The Quarterly Music Magazine and Review 1828, vol IX, p 361, p 476.) The source of an aria with obbligato bassoon "Odi grand 'ombra", variously attributed to DeMajo or Sarti, has not so far been located. (The Harmonicon, vol III, p110–1, 1825; vol X, p115, 1832).
Bassoon obbligati were prominent in Berlin, as documented in the Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung, with Carl Bärmann playing an obbligato from the Righini opera Atalanta e Meleagro (1 May 1805, page 517). The AMZ of 18 April 1804 p 479 refers to Georg Wenzel Ritter playing an obbligato in an aria by Friedrich Heinrich Himmel (1765–1814), probably “Deh tergi quel pianto”, which was also played later in Schwerin, with Rapp and Haydner as soloists (10). Both the Himmel and Righini arias have intensely soloistic bassoon parts. The original parts and scores of both these arias are excellently preserved – see composer listings for details. The Dramaturgisches Wochenblatt of October 1816 gives an account of a Berlin performance of Mozart’s Clemenza di Tito in which the obbligato in the aria “Non più di fiori” was played by bassoon rather than the customary basset horn. The critic was positive about the obbligato, but was critical of the singer. The performance material has not so far been located; the obbligato part is on-line here in a reconstruction for bassoon.
Several controversial bassoon obbligati appear in this listing, for example in two standard works of Mozart and Handel (12). The details of Hiller’s bassoon obbligato in the aria “If God be for us” that appeared with the 1803 Breitkopf publication of the Mozart revision of Handel’s Messiah have recently been documented (12). In that paper, Dennis Pajot (12) also gives an account of the uncertainty that surrounds the 1800 Breitkopf publication of the Mozart requiem with bassoon instead of alto trombone soloist in the "Tuba Mirum". Another puzzle surrounds the 1985 recording of Rossini’s Il Signor Bruschino (1813) from the Warsaw Chamber Opera in which the florid english horn obbligato in the aria “Ah voi condur volete ala disperazione” is played an octave lower on bassoon, with some success. The provenance of the bassoon version is not known. It is interesting that Rossini’s virtuoso english horn obbligato in the "Gratias agimus tibi" of the Missa di Gloria (CD Hänssler Classic 98.359) may also have been played on the bassoon (13). However, it should be noted that Rossini’s english horn parts were often notated in bass clef in nineteenth century scores, particularly in Italy, so that an english horn in F would sound at the intended pitch when played with bassoon fingerings! Thus, a potential misunderstanding that these parts were intended for bassoon.
Few bassoonists, even those who live in Vienna, are aware of a unique collection of baroque arias with one or two obbligato bassoons in the Östereichische Nationalbibliothek (14). A tenor aria with a double obbligato of cello and bassoon in an “authentic instruments” broadcast from Vienna of Fux Orpheo and Euridice, led to the Garland publication of that opera, which showed that Fux had written for two bassoons. The incipit of this aria, reproduced with Michael Nagy’s paper on Fux obbligati for bass wind instruments (15), gives a library call number that leads to five volumes of early eighteenth century transcriptions of arias by Vienna court composers of 1710–1740, bound according to the obbligato instrument, somewhat in the style of orchestral studies. (Three other volumes contain arias with violin, ‘cello and trumpet obbligati; a fifth, possibly for flute or oboe, is lost). The bassoon volume contains transcriptions of twelve arias with obbligato parts for one or two bassoons. The material is so well preserved after almost 300 years (see composer listings) that prints from microfilm can be used directly for performance! Court records give clues to the players who first performed these works (see 12 Vienna arias). Further examples of a rich tradition of bassoon obbligati in Vienna of the early eighteenth century are documented in Bruce Mac Intyre’s 1986 publication The Viennese Concerted Mass of the Early Classical Period (16).
There is still much to be added to the collection documented here. Many of the composers who are listed only once use the bassoon so elegantly that it is likely that they wrote more than one work in this genre. More works will undoubtedly emerge, for example as RISM sources are explored. It is notable that a distinguished Australian musicologist, the late Andrew McCredie, in his 1964 doctoral thesis: Instrumentarium and Instrumentation in the North German Baroque Opera (17), gave details of obbligati in the operas of Telemann, Reinhard Keiser and others, as well as location of sources. This valuable resource is now accessible on-line (17). Kleefeld (18) has also given information about instrumental resources in that era of the Hamburg opera.
The recovery of the collection of the Singakademie zu Berlin, sequestered in Kiev from 1945 till 1999 (19), has led to the rediscovery of many vocal and instrumental works. From the bassoon viewpoint, previously forgotten or lost works works of Telemann (20) and CPE Bach (21) are particularly interesting. Much of this material is now available on microfiche (20, 21).
There are many obbligati for one and two bassoons, some with oboe, amongst the more than 1400 cantatas of Christoph Graupner, held at the Hessische Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek, Darmstadt. The scores and parts of almost all these cantatas are now accessible on-line (22)! After 250 to 300 years, the material is remarkably complete and well preserved. Some early cantatas, e.g. 419/13 from 1711, demonstrate a style of melodic solo writing for bassoon that seems well ahead of its time; others are elaborate ostinato continuo parts, often with oboe. Some da capo arias with complex bass lines require extraordinary technical facility and endurance. In a cluster of cantatas from 1716 to 1724, two obbligato bassoons play in octaves with violins or violetti. In other arias, bassoon or viola d'amore are listed as alternative soloists. Bassoon is also a prominent obbligato instrument in at least 20 of about 150 cantatas by Georg Gebel written in Rudolstadt, Thüringen in 1747–1751. Details of these works are given in Schröter's Gebel Werkverzeichnis (23). The solo bassoon parts from 15 of these cantatas are presented here (see Gebel listing). It appears that his oboe obbligati remain unexplored.
It would be interesting to have more information about the first performers of these works. In some instances, challenging obbligati were written for particular players, for example Georg Wenzel Ritter (1748–1808) in JC Bach’s Temistocle and in Reichardt's Brenno (10,24). Court records give some clues to the identity of virtuoso players. For example, JL Brauer and later Johann Christian Klotsch played for Christoph Graupner in Darmstadt in the period 1709–1753 (25). The obbligati written by Georg Gebel in Rudolstadt were probably played by Johann Wihelm Gehring (d.1787), who also played violin and flute (10,26), as supported by Gebel’s cantata HKR 951 where the manuscript part indicates that the same player was responsible for traverso 1 and fagotto solo. There are clues to the careers of these pioneers in Hodges’ compilation of player biographies (10). The players involved in the cluster of arias from the Vienna court of 1710–1740 are discussed in the link 12 Vienna Arias.
In contrast to arias in which the bassoon obbligato relates to the vocal line, there are some challenging examples from the later classical period where arias are introduced with an extended cadenza-like bassoon solo, for example “So bin ich nun verlassen” in Weber’s Euryanthe, “Vorrei veder” in Rossini’s Ciro in Babylonia and “Da tanto duolo” in Sofonisba of Ferdinando Paer.
There have been few recitals that feature arias with bassoon obbligati, for example that given by Keith Sweger of works of JC Bach at the 1993 International Double Reed Society Conference (27) and a program of “Hidden Repertoire” at the IDRS conference in Melbourne in 2004 (28). In Bolzano in 2008, Sergio Azzolini performed the JC Bach tenor arias with virtuoso bassoon obbligati from Temistocle and Alessandro nell’Indie. In June 2011, at the Hochschule für Musik in Basel, Mélodie Michel gave a successful masters’ recital in which she presented seven secular arias with obbligato bassoon by Heinichen, Rameau, Pergolesi, Fux, Caldara, Telemann and Sammartini.
Greater familiarity with this repertoire will allow arias with obbligato bassoon to be programmed alongside vocal works with flute, oboe or clarinet, together with arias that combine several instruments. Quality keyboard reductions, now becoming more readily available, will be useful in making this possible. The "Works for performance" link identifies some of the arias with obbligati for bassoon, alone or together with other instruments, that are suitable for chamber or recital performance. Included are three virtually unknown works that include extensive obbligati through multiple movements for either one or two bassoons (Ryba, Missa Pastoralis; Gilles, Grand Motet, Laudate Nomen Domini and Per la tre Ore Dell'Agonia di Nostro Signor Giesu Cristo, probably by Zingarelli, rather than Jommelli (29,30).
The "Listen on YouTube" link leads to recorded performances, many with associated video, of over 90 arias with prominent bassoon parts, while the "Scores and parts on-line" gives direct access to key sources, published and unpublished, many of them available for down-loading. Details of sources are given in the entry for each composer.
The number of published works with bassoon obbligati has increased significantly since 2002, particularly in collected editions. The CPE Bach edition from Packard Humanities Institute includes his Saint Matthew Passion (2002) and Dank-Hymne der Freundschaft (2006), while the Telemann Werke series from Bärenreiter has added Trauerserenata für August den Starken (2007) and Sieg der Schönheit (2008). The Reichardt setting of the Singspiel on Goethe's Claudine was published by AR Editions in 2009.
In his notes for the CD “Unbekannte Arien für Sopran und concertierende Instrumente” (31), clarinettist-scholar, the late Dieter Klöcker, commented on the genre of arias in which the voice is partnered by an obbligato instrument – “Judging by music publishers’ current catalogues, a musical category that seems hardly to exist any more, this combination of voice and one or more soloistically-treated wind or string instruments was extremely popular in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.” His rediscoveries, some recorded with the bassoonist Karl-Otto Hartmann, show how this repertoire, much of it of high quality, can be brought together again from unpublished sources.
Familiarity with vocal works that include obbligato bassoon will enrich recital, recording and teaching repertoire, as well as pointing the way towards innovative graduate student work and personal research. What could be a better parallel to instrumental training, than to seek out a little-known baroque or classical vocal work with challenging instrumental obbligati, prepare a performance edition and present the work in recital? Electronic access to original sources is advancing apace and the possibilities are immense (32,33). For example, the Darmstadt autograph scores and manuscript parts of the 1400-or-so Graupner cantatas, many with bassoon obbligati, are now accessible on-line (22). Further details of most of the sources cited here can be found in Répertoire International des Sources Musicales (RISM) on-line (34).
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, as well as participating in numerous Kronach symposia. Medical travel has often been enhanced by side-trips to music libraries. email: jrs@netspace.net.au