The Little Known Sex Appeal of the Bassoon

A Look at Musicians’ Lifetime Love Affairs with a Double Reed
By Aliese Willard

“I was like, I want to play saxophone and be cool. And my (junior high) teacher was like, ‘No, you’re going to get bored, you should try to play a double reed,'"--Jessie Sawyer, sophomore bassoonist

It’s 7:30 p.m. on Valentine’s Day. A time when lovers shower their significant others with flowers, sugar and costly baubles, in accordance with cultural norms.

Gary Moody has a wife, but this evening the CSU music professor’s focus is not on her—it’s on the 8-foot long wood bassoon in his hands. Moody’s Feb. 14 concert at the University Center for the Arts, “Romance and the Bassoon,” showcased a different sort of love: that for the instrument that has become his life’s work.

In honor of this unusual relationship, here are 10 reasons why the bassoon has an allure of its own.

CSU music professor Gary Moody with his beloved bassoon, Feb. 14

1. You don’t choose the bassoon; it chooses you.
It seems that bassoonists didn’t initially opt to play the instrument. Instead, wise band teachers select students who they think show promise to play the bassoon. Moody has been playing it since 1967.

“One day in the 7th grade, they handed me a bassoon, and said ‘here, you’re playing this,’” said Moody, the professor of oboe and bassoon at CSU. “It was lighter than the baritone saxophone (that I was playing), so I ended up playing it because of heft.”

Sophomore nursing major Jenny Brennan attended Moody’s concert, and said that her short career as a bassoonist in high school started because “(her) band teacher in middle school lead (her) to do it.”

Jessie Sawyer, one of Moody’s students and a sophomore music major, was introduced to the instrument in a similar manner.

“I was like, I want to play saxophone and be cool. And my (junior high) teacher was like, ‘No, you’re going to get bored, you should try to play a double reed,’” Sawyer said. She’s been playing the bassoon ever since, classified as a double reed instrument because it requires the musician to blow on two reeds to create the sound. Which brings us to reason number two…

2. It involves vibration.“In a double reed (instrument) there’s two reeds,” Sawyer said. “You’re blowing on the reeds and they’re vibrating against each other to make the sound form.”

Apparently double reed instruments also involve more manipulation with the mouth than other instruments in the orchestra. Julia Murphy, a sophomore music therapy major and another of Moody’s bassoonists, said that “with the bassoon it’s all in your mouth and how much air you put in.”

One can only imagine how much air it takes to blow sound out of an 8-foot instrument. But the increased lung capacity is worth it when musicians can travel to interesting places and show it off. Which is why the bassoon makes for some exciting adventures…

3. The bassoon can take you to cool places and people.
Throughout his career, Moody has worked as a guest artist and soloist in orchestras around the world. His favorite place to perform in was Breckenridge, Colo., with the Breckenridge Music Festival Orchestra.

But one of his more interesting memories was the year he spent performing with various orchestras in Cape Town, South Africa.

It was 1985, and the country was still struggling with the oppression of the apartheid. Moody says he could see Robben Island, the prison where South African leader Nelson Mandela was being held, from his apartment window. Though he says Cape Town “was a pretty liberal town as far as South Africa went,” the rascism was still apparent, and Moody defied it when he could.

“I made it my own policy to just do business with places that were open to everyone,” Moody said. “Most things were open. Some churches were open, and others weren’t. The Dutch Reformed Church of the Afrikaners wasn’t opened, so I turned down offers to play for them. I did play at Desmond Tutu’s church.”

Another famous name that Moody has encountered in his travels was world-famous cellist Yo-Yo Ma, who played as a guest soloist while Moody was playing the bassoon at the Des Moine Symphony in Iowa.

4. It has a nice sound.
Who wouldn’t want to listen to something with a mellow, sultry voice all day long? The instrument is known for its low and relaxed tone. Murphy wasn’t sold on playing the bassoon until she heard it performed. “I heard it at a concert once and thought it was beautiful and had a beautiful sound,” she said.

Unfortunately, the lower range of the bassoon often requires its musicians to play simple and uninteresting melodies in ensembles.
“In orchestral music, you’re more appreciated and featured—you get the better parts,” Sawyer said, “But in wind band music, we just get the low parts because they think that’s all we can play, but that’s not quite the truth.” Which brings us to point five…

5. It’s flexible.
In reality, the bassoon can comfortably play several octaves, and it not limited by its low, rich sound.

One of the pieces performed in Moody’s concert, “Three Romances, Op. 94” by Robert Schumann, was not even written for the bassoon, but for violin and cello. But Moody says as long as it sounds good, it can be played on the bassoon.

“Lots of people borrow different things. They all work for the bassoon,” Moody said. “If it’s interesting enough, and it’s not calling for you to do things the instrument can’t. The bassoon has a pretty wide range.”

6. It’s a rare and timeless classic.
Apparently, bassoons are both uncommon and traditional, both amiable qualites in any companion.

“You don’t have too many bassoons in an ensemble,” Murphy said. “Last year in symphonic band, we had five bassoons, and that was a lot.”

And of that small group of instruments, all are still made in a similar fashion to those of centuries ago. According to Moody, changing the way the bassoon is made would alter the sound.

“The bassoon is an instrument that, when they applied many of the 19th century improvements to some of the other instruments, the bassoon came out not sounding like it had, so it doesn’t have some of the 19th century improvements, so it’s a little more antiquated,” he said.

And though this keeps the rich sound, it makes the bassoon both an enriching and difficult experience, much like a romantic relationship.

7. The bassoon is a challenge.
For Sawyer, playing the instrument has proved to be a test. She says she didn’t like it initially.

“For me it was an acquired taste. When it started out I cried a lot because it was so much harder than the saxophone and the flute,” she said.

Often times, a challenging teacher can be a blessing to students when learning the bassoon, and according to his students, Moody’s teaching style is as complex and rewarding as playing the instrument.

“(Moody’s) a very challenging teacher. Sometimes I feel like my brain has been through a trash compactor after a lesson,” Murphy said. “He’s very intellectually difficult, and really big on getting away from the music and using your ears, and taking your theory and applying it. He’s very good at what he does.”

Part of the difficulty comes from the design of the instrument—the 17 to 28 keys that musicians must be able to cover, but most bassoonists agree that the most complicated aspect of playing the bassoon is the reeds, which musicians must fashion themselves. Which brings us to reason number eight that the bassoon is appealing:

8. You get to carve things.
No, you don’t get to carve your initials in a tree, but bassoonists do spend inordinate amounts of time hand carving and fashioning reeds to play with.

The process involves soaking a stalk of cane from a cane plant in water until it is soft, then whittling and carving it down until it fits in the instrument and is comfortable for the musician. Bassoonists need several reeds on hand at all times; during his Valentine’s Day performance, Moody had to change reeds after all five pieces of music.

Gary Moody's reeds, arranged from start to finish. Musicians begin with the piece of cane on the left.


Murphy estimates it takes a week to make a good reed. For Sawyer, it’s a few days. Either way, bassoonists end up spending a majority of their time making reeds in the “reed room” at the UCA, since a reed will only last about three weeks in the best conditions. But all that time in the reed room has its own perks…

9. (Bassoon) is what brings us together, here, today
It’s a generous time commitment, but bassoonists say they form close friendships as double reed musicians. The small group of bassoonists at CSU, numbering only about 15, are all enjoy each other’s company, a phenomenon they say occurs more quickly because there are so few of them.

“I think we have our own sense of humor, that no one else understands,” Murphy said.

But Sawyer thinks the oboes have an appreciation for the bassoonist lifestyle, mainly because they play with double reeds as well.

The oboes kind of get it- they spend just as much time, if not more in the reed room as us. We have more bonding time, time around each other because of all the extra work we do,” Sawyer said.

So, with all that time together, are any of the bassoonists more than friends? According to the students, no. But that doesn’t mean things don’t heat up in a different way…

10. Bassoons are steamy
Literally. According to Moody, “you get some condensation in wind instruments, and you have to go mop that out.”

But it’s just another quirk, another reason why bassoonists are addicted to their craft.

“I play the bassoon for fun. For me, it’s my therapy,” Murphy said. “I just like the sound of it. It adds a texture to the ensemble, an unusual sound.”

And for bassoonists, it’s a love song.