Date of Award
1969
Document Type
Thesis
Department
Music
First Reader
Unknown
Abstract
The earliest ancestor of the bassoon was the bass pommer, bombard, or bass shawm. The instrument was long and perfectly straight with a metal crook fitted in the small end.
In the early part of the sixteenth century, Canon Alfranio was making instruments called phagotum, in which a long tube was bent back on itself several times. This idea, when applied to the bombard, produced the curtal--the direct ancestor of the bassoon. The phagotum itself was no relation to the bassoon, it being a form of bagpipe, but in it, Afranio was responsible for the idea used in bassoon construction. This instrument is where the bassoon got the name (French)--fagotte.
Recommended Citation
Rauch, Marilyn, "A History of the Bassoon" (1969). Honors Theses. 488.
https://scholarlycommons.obu.edu/honors_theses/488