The bassoon is the orchestra's witty grandfather. In the high register it is called the “clown” (recall the grumbling broomstick theme in Dukas's The Sorcerer's Apprentice); in the middle — a warm, lyrical voice; in the low — the deep bass underpinning many orchestral ensembles.
Its forerunner, the dulcian, spread in the 16th century; the bassoon proper (with a body in four joints) took shape around the 1650s, probably in France. The modern construction features a complex key system and a double reed (the player often crafts it by hand). 20th–21st-century stars of the bassoon: Klaus Thunemann, Sergio Azzolini. The Ukrainian bassoon school is represented at the National Academy — the school of Ivan Yaroslavsky, producing many international competition laureates.
