Word: contrabassoonist
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...Orchestra Week as "a glory of the Southern Hemisphere," the Australian orchestra's bass-heavy Sydney sound was let loose in the more rarefied acoustics of halls in Tokyo and Osaka. "The technique in Japan is really polished, highly trained, actually perfect?no mistakes," says Tokyo-raised, Sydney-based contrabassoonist Noriko Shimada. "I like the SSO because you do play...
...Reader Tuthill should listen to a more resourceful contrabassoonist. The lowest note on the standard contrabassoon is BBB flat (the fourth B flat below middle C) but a length or two of extra tubing will take it down to AAA, or even AAA flat...
...resemblance to a child's coffin to a strong resemblance to an overcomplicated vacuum cleaner. Its 20-odd feet of wooden tubing are capable of emitting the lowest-sounds known to orchestral music-lower than any at the left end of a piano keyboard. To everybody but a contrabassoonist, its Stygian burps sound like abysmal Bronx cheers...
...Pounder. The outstanding contrabassoonist in the U.S. is a short, dignified Neapolitan named Roberto Sensale, of the New York Philharmonic-Symphony. Sensale first aspired to the cello. But when he applied for a scholarship at the Royal Conservatory of Naples, the only opening was a course in bassoon playing. In 1922 he joined the Philharmonic as a bassoonist. Fifteen years later, at the death of the Philharmonic's veteran contrabassoonist, a stately Anglo-German named William Conrad, Sensale moved down an octave to take his place...
When Sensale is not playing the contrabassoon he spends much of his time whittling the cigaret-shaped reeds of his 25-lb. instrument. He is interested in few extra-contrabassoon matters. Says he: "I would like better to be a playing contrabassoonist than a retired bassoonist...