Listen in quaking awe to the might of the classical contrabassoon
by James Bennett II
Our imperfect, flawed species does little, if anything, to deserve the majestic orchestral bulwark that is the contrabassoon — and we do even less to deserve the privilege of hearing its gracious forerunner. But thanks to David Chatterton of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, it’s here for us to enjoy.
In the above video, Chatterton demos the classical contrabassoon, which has a slightly softer and mellower sound than its modern cousin. It’s much longer, too, since instrument makers of the 18th century didn’t have the technology to create the curved bow we see in today’s instruments. The two-and-a-half-octave woodwind was used by composers like Haydn in his Creation oratorio to represent the beasts of the earth, and Beethoven, who was the first to use it to alongside trombones in his Fifth Symphony, to bordering-on-literal groundbreaking effect.