Early Music America Summer 2013 - (Page 47)

BOOK reviews Edited by Mark Kroll The Bassoon. James B. Kopp. Yale University Press, 2012. 352 pages. Reviewed by Richard Svoboda. James B. Kopp’s The Bassoon is a brilliant accomplishment, a monumental compilation of information, and at its core much more than a mere history of the bassoon. Through a systematic and thorough detailing of an unimaginable amount of minutiae, Kopp tells the story of an archaic instrument with a complicated and illogical construction that, against all odds and all efforts to the contrary by the scientific community, has evolved into the archaic instrument with a complicated and illogical construction that we know and love today. And the truly amazing thing is that the reader comes to understand how this came to be and why it must be so. This book has given me a new appreciation for my instrument and a realization that its idiosyncrasies are in fact assets and essential to its character. I will not lie to you. This book is dry, extremely dry, and can be a very slow read. It weighs in at 232 pages plus many more pages of bibliography and notes, but it seems longer. It is perhaps best appreciated in small doses. Some pages can take a while to decipher (for example, if the topic is fingerings or instrument construction), and I must confess that learning, among other things, that in 1840 Glen of Edinburgh bought eight bundles of Spanish cane in two sizes from Barnett Meyers in London is really too much information for me. Staying the course is worth the reader’s efforts, as it is with Moby Dick. Although at times my eyes glazed over, I found myself reading raptly (think Captain Ahab fighting the great white whale) when Karl Almenraeder and Wilhelm Heckle, through some form of witchcraft (or so it seemed), transformed the bassoon in very short order into essentially the instrument we play today. Among the joys of reading this book were happening upon little gems that spoke to me, or simply learning something rather fundamental that I somehow didn’t know. For me, this would include learning that, in its lowest octave, the bassoon’s fundamental is weaker than the next several overtones but that our brains interpret this aural information as representing the fundamental. And how cool it was to learn about double-vented tone holes and finally to understand their function on the bassoon! Most of all, I found it somehow validating to learn that all attempts to modernize the instrument using the latest scientific knowledge were utter failures, universally rejected by players The Bassoon has given me a new appreciation for my instrument and a realization that its idiosyncrasies are in fact assets and essential to its character. and composers alike, because they altered the fundamental character of the instrument that was (and still is) so prized. As much as I admire the accomplishment of this volume, I do have a few quibbles. I would loved more illustrations and would have appreciated reading about online resources (especially with regard to photographs) in the preface, rather than in the bibliography. I also found myself wondering how the various instruments really sounded, written descriptions notwithstanding. A companion CD to answer such questions would be wonderful. When I reached subject matter of which I was more familiar later in the book, I found myself disagreeing with a number of assertions and found other things to be somewhat arbitrary or conjectural. This leads me to wonder whether earlier content could also be called into question by suitably knowledgeable persons or whether it’s simply more difficult to write an unbiased account of recent history. But these are only quibbles. This volume is truly a giant achievement, a vast storehouse of information, and a slow but ultimately very rewarding read. The Bassoon greatly enhances our understanding and appreciation of the instrument, and this reader highly recommends it to players and fans alike. Richard Svoboda has been principal bassoonist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and member of the Boston Symphony Chamber Players since 1989. He is also professor of bassoon and chair of the woodwind department at the New England Conservatory. Bach’s Feet: The Organ Pedals in European Culture. David Yearsley. Cambridge University Press. 312 pages. Reviewed by Peter Sykes. Classical musicians are used to being misunderstood by non-musicians. Organists, by turn, are used to being misunderstood by other classical musicians. The organ, music’s most complex and imposing instrument, is a mystery to most people, for whom its multiple keyboards, stops, and above all pedalboard inspire perhaps more wonder and awe than understanding or sympathy. The organ is seen as an inhuman machine, its player a superhuman entity, both unapproachable. An organist at the console cannot usually see the entirety of the instrument he or she is playing, such is the vastness of the instrument. Bach, the living symbol of the organ, is invoked and honored far more than he is actually heard as an organ composer. In Bach’s Feet, David Yearsley examines a series of questions: Who first thought of the idea of playing with the feet? Where did it begin? How and when was this idea transmitted to other countries? What does it mean to use the feet in musical performance, and how is this related to walking or dancing? How is organ music written for feet and hands in cooperation? What is it really like to play music on the pedals—for us, and for organists of the past? Creating understanding Linking to the books: Yale University Press www.yale.edu/yup Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Instant Harmony www.instantharmony.net Indiana University Press www.iupress.indiana.edu Oxford University Press www.oup.com/us Alfred A. Knopf http://knopfdoubleday.com Scarecrow Press https://rowman.com/scarecrow Palgrave Macmillan www.palgrave.com Suggestions about books to review may be sent to Mark Kroll at books@earlymusic.org. Early Music America Summer 2013 47 http://www.yale.edu/yup http://www.cambridge.org http://www.instantharmony.net http://www.iupress.indiana.edu http://www.oup.com/us http://www.knopfdoubleday.com https://www.rowman.com/scarecrow http://www.palgrave.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Early Music America Summer 2013

Editor's Note
Reader Forum
Sound Bytes
Profile: Christopher Jackson
Musings: When the Music Becomes Ours
Recording Reviews
Early Music, 21st-Century Style
The Indigenous Musicians of Cuzco
Bird Quills, the Art of Touch, and Other Pleasures
Pallade Musica: A Swift Rise, All'Italiana
Book Reviews
Ad Index
In Conclusion: Finding "Local Content" in the Music of New Spain

Early Music America Summer 2013