The World’s Rarest and most Innovative Bassoon?

The 'Experimental Bassoon' by Edgar Brown

The Veriam Music Trust is very pleased to announce its latest acquisition, a bassoon designed and made by Edgar Brown, a physicist and acoustician in the department of Physics at King’s College, London, in the 1980s and 90s.

It was recently given to the Trust by his family along with all the papers associated with it – detailed drawings and plans, photographs and notes.

Without any hesitation this bassoon, dubbed the ‘Experimental Bassoon’, is one of the rarest (because there is only one) and most innovative bassoons (because it was designed acoustically and mechanically from first principles) in the world. It is a remarkable instrument which is the creation of two top-level acousticians - Edgar Brown and Arthur Benade - and a professional bassoonist, Zoltan Lukacs.

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This bassoon probably has the most complex bassoon mechanism ever made, with a view to being easier to play than a standard bassoon.

A single key for sharps and flats

All sharps and flats on this bassoon are played with a single key, whereas Heckel-system bassoons have multiple individual sharp and flat keys for the chromatic scale e.g. right-hand Bb key for thumb, little finger F# key, etc. The Experimental Bassoon only has one key, called the universal sharp key, which plays all sharps and flats on the whole bassoon.

In other words, with one single key, an entire chromatic scale can be played, alongside more or less standard whole-tone fingerings found on a Heckel-system bassoon. That is quite remarkable and technically easy to learn and play. The bassoon plays in concert pitch like a Heckel-system bassoon, so with no keys down it plays an open F, and descends down to low Bb.

See Fingering Chart for more information on fingering for this bassoon.

Fingering Chart for the Experimental Bassoon

How does it sound?

The sound of the bassoon is as close to the Heckel-system bassoon as Edgar Brown could get it, but with more even intonation. This was a key aim for Edgar Brown – to maintain the characteristic bassoon sound we all know and love, whilst making it easier to play.

This is not a ‘logical’ bassoon, such as the Boehm-type instruments made in the 19th century, which often ended up sounding bright and loud, more like a saxophone, owing to their large tone hole sizes with short chimneys. The aim of the Experimental Bassoon project was to make an instrument that was much easier to play/learn, but crucially without losing the characteristically warm, round sound of a standard Heckel-system bassoon.

For more information on the history of the Boehm type bassoons, and also what makes the Heckel-system bassoon sound so special, try Dr James Kopp’s book The Bassoon (see 1 below), which gives a fantastic overview. James recently visited the Trust and had the opportunity to take a quick look at this bassoon.

In order to maintain the special sound of the Heckel system bassoon in this ‘revised’ easier- to-play bassoon, many clever acoustic design innovations have been applied. Tone holes have been put in acoustically-optimal positions for evenness of scale/intonation. And importantly, the traditional long chimney-shaped tone holes have been maintained, which on a standard bassoon act as a filter for the sound waves. These contribute to the rich and dark sound, full of overtones, for which the bassoon is so much valued and which were lost on other bassoon re-designs in the past.

Importantly, the Experimental Bassoon keeps the conical bore of normal bassoons. It follows the taper and width of Heckel bassoons very closely (several were measured to that end during the development process); ensuring further that the traditional bassoon sound was maintained.

Several attempts to ‘modernise’ the bassoon have been tried over the years, but arguably none have succeeded, and the modern Heckel-system bassoon is still very much based on the original baroque bassoon (e.g. long extension to the bore below low F for extra range, and long, narrow tone holes). Other attempts to change the design of the bassoon have resulted in the loss of the special rich, chocolatey sound it is famous and cherished for.

Edgar Brown, Arthur Benade and Zoltan Lukacs

The Experimental Bassoon started in the 1980s with a collaborative project between Arthur Benade (the well-known author of books on wind instrument acoustics), Zoltan Lukacs and Edgar Brown. Arthur Benade died in 1987 and Edgar took on the project himself with continued expert input from London-based Zoltan Lukacs.  The original prototype of this bassoon was operated using electronic actuators. Unfortunately, that prototype is no longer in existence although photographs remain.

Edgar started the project at King’s College, London, but, as it took on a life of its own, he carried out the vast majority of the work in his own time over more than a decade. As well as designing the bassoon in general terms, he designed and made every single part on it – the joints and all of the keywork – much of which shows a highly innovative approach not seen on any other bassoon.

The Experimental Bassoon was completed in 1997 and generated quite a lot of publicity at the time. Edgar (see 3. below) presented the bassoon at a number of academic conferences and published several academic articles on it (see 2. below), plus it had coverage in the British Double Reed Society’s Double Reed News edition no. 42, Spring 1998. It was also featured on the British science and innovation TV show Tomorrow’s World, and was played by Zoltan Lukacs on the show.

Although it just about plays currently it does need a thorough service to bring it back to its original playing condition, so the Trust will be doing that shortly. The Trust will also carry out more research into the design and mechanics of the bassoon, and invites any interested person with a background in musical instrument acoustics (or any bassoonist with a sense of curiosity) to visit the Trust and conduct their own research.

The Veriam Music Trust houses a collection of more than 50 woodwind instruments, about a third of which are bassoons, dating back up to 250 years.

It also has a collection of woodwind-related sheet music of historical interest from the estate of the late Archie Camden inlcuding, for example, a first edition of the Galliard Sonatas for the Bassoon from 1733 and a collection of original manuscripts of pieces premiered by Archie Camden last century.

If you would like to visit the Trust please contact the Trust: enquiries@veriammusictrust.org.

References:

1. The Bassoon: Yale Musical Instrument Series, James B. Kopp, Yale University Press, 2012

2. Proceedings of the Institute of Acoustics, An Experimental Bassoon, by A. Edgar Brown, Physics Department, King’s College London, (Vol 19 Part 6 1997)

3. It is worth mentioning that the Experimental Bassoon was not Edgar Brown’s only foray into the bassoon world – he also undertook the acoustic design of William Waterhouse’s concert space in his specially-built barn.