Notes on Four Pieces for Bassoon

Sonata No. 5 Op. 26  

Joseph Bodin de Boismortier (1689-1755)

A prolific French composer, Boismortier’s works allowed him a life of fame and luxury. Boismortier was as much a performer, teacher, and publisher as a composer and wrote he works with a particular niche in mind: the prosperous, skillful amateur, bourgeois or noble. It was a mark of good breeding to show considerable musical skill and to pretend it was acquired without effort, so as a result the majority of his works are for small ensembles and require only moderate technical skills. Aware early in his career that short, thematically memorable movements on popular instruments of the day would be successful and enjoyable than cheerless exercises, his music has fresh and vital energy.   He excelled in adapting the styles of others, both French and Italian to create popular and attractive works.

This sonata is from a collection of five sonatas published in Paris in 1729. Boismortier suggests on the title page that the sonatas can be played on cello, viol or bassoon: a common practice at the time.

This work is a great example of Boismortier’s entertaining and charming writing style. Dance music had a huge influence on instrumental music during the Baroque period so the use of dance forms for both the first and the fourth movement is unsurprising. The second movement, Aria affettuoso, has a lilting opening theme that almost suggests sobbing, giving the movement a strong emotion. The Adagio serves as a kind of recitative that leads into the final movement, the Giga. 

Like a gifted conversationalist, Boismortier composed with wit and focus, and maintains interest by moving quickly from one topic to another in order to engage the listener and the performer.

Sonata for Bassoon and Piano (1952)        

Alvin Etler (1913-1973)

Born in American, Elter initially studied as an oboist and composer. In 1938 he joined the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra as an oboist and also travelled extensively in Latin America as an oboist and composer with the North American Wind Quintet. However after receiving two Guggenheim Fellowships (1940 and 1941) and other successes he abandoned his instrumental career in favour of composition and teaching. From 1942 to 1946 he worked at Yale University and there he studied composition with Hindemith for until 1944. Later, in 1949, he became a professor at Smith College in Northampton and it was during this time that he wrote his Sonata for Bassoon and Piano. 

The sonata is dedicated to Emil Hebert, a bassoonist, and is a substantial work for bassoon lasting around sixteen minutes. In this sonata the piano is not merely accompaniment but plays more of a duet with the bassoon, tossing ideas back and forth throughout the work.

The four movements show much variety, humor, and general vivacity. While the work does not have a strong sense of traditional key structure it still maintains a tonal centre, which not surprisingly is quite similar to Hindemith’s Sonata for Bassoon and Piano. However while Hindemith’s sonata breaks away from tradition by being only two movements, Etler is more conventional. His sonata is comprised of four movements, alternating between slow and fast. 

The opening movement’s sinuous character contrasts dramatically the following movement. Etler’s early works show influences of Bartók and Copland with jazz-like accents and dissonances thrown in. In the second movement is an example of this with its frequent syncopation and use of accents. The third movement acts in many ways as interlude to the fourth movement. It doesn’t have such strong themes as the preceding movements and gives contrast to the final movement’s breathless energy.

Concerto in Bb for Bassoon and Orchestra      

Franz Anton Rössler (1750? – 1792)

A contemporary of Haydn and Mozart, Rössler was a Bohemian composer and bass player, although there is no record of his birth. To add to the confusion, some time before 1773 Rössler adopted the Italian form of his name, and thereafter consistently referred to himself as Antonio Rosetti. There were several musicians at this time with the last name Rosetti, so the identification of his music is difficult.

Rössler was originally intended for priesthood and received his early education from the Jesuits in Bohemia but he was never ordained. After the abolition of the Jesuit order in Bohemia, he moved away and in September 1773 joined the Hofkapelle of Prince Kraft  Ernst zu Oettingen-Wallerstein, near Augsburg, as a musician and the next year was promoted to the official position of Hofmusikus. In 1777, he married Rosina Neher, with whom he had three daughters and after serving Prince Kraft Ernst for sixteen years he become Kapellmeister to the Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin in 1789.

In 1781, he was granted a leave of absence to visit Paris for five months, during which he actively promoted his music, and his works were performed by the best ensembles of the city. While in Paris, Rössler arranged for his music to be published, including a set of six symphonies published in 1782, however the majority of his works remain unpublished

 Rössler wrote six surviving bassoon concertos, several which appear to have been written for Christoph Ludwig Hoppius, who joined the Prince's orchestra in 1783, and who remained there throughout Rössler's tenure. This concerto was probably written in the 1780s making them slightly younger works than Mozart's (whom Rössler greatly admired) Bassoon Concerto, which was written in 1774.

While Rössler’s formulaic writing perhaps lacks the flair of Mozart, his tuneful and carefully crafted compositions are immediately attractive. This Concerto in Bb was published in 1955 after the parts were acquired by the British Museum and the trustees gave permission for publication.

 Rössler wrote a great deal of music, including many symphonies, concertos and vocal works. He is also known for writing the Requiem (1776), which was played at a memorial for Mozart in December 1791.

Trois Pièces Op.34 (1907)       

Charles Koechlin (1867-1950) 

Born in Paris, to a large, wealthy family, Koechlin eventually became a composer who stood apart from his peers. Though he was initially interested in music his family had other plans, and in 1887 he entered the École Polytechnique with the intention of becoming an engineer. However the following year he was diagnosed with tuberculosis and spent six months recuperating in Algeria. Finally in 1890, after a struggle with his family he began studies in composition at the Paris Conservatoire. Here he studied harmony with Taudou and composition with Massenet and from 1896 he was a pupil of Gabriel Fauré, who had a major influence on Koechlin; in fact he wrote the first Fauré biography in 1927.

Besides Fauré, Koechlin had an impressively wide range of styles and influences. From his classes at the Conservatoire he gained and interest in the works of J. S. Bach and well as modal and folk music. In contrast he also composed Seven Stars Symphony with each movement inspired by popular figures at the time such as Charlie Chaplin and Greta Garbo.

Koechlin’s unique ideas and uncompromising nature are part of the reason his works were never popular during his own lifetime. But they are also what set him apart from his contemporaries and as Wilfrid Mellers (an English music critic and composer) concluded in 1942, he ‘is among the very select number of contemporary composers who really matter’ 

The Trois Pièces op. 34 for bassoon and piano were composed between 1898 and 1907 so are some of Koechlin’s earlier chamber music works. The first two movements have a meandering, pastoral quality. The first movement places technical demands on the performer with its extensive high passages and its rhythmic looseness is reminiscent of plainchant with minimal input from the piano. The second movement has a gentle and lilting feel and the final movement is appropriately dramatic. With all of these pieces the focus on harmony, space and a sense of atmosphere.