William Waterhouse's multifaceted career as bassoonist, organologist, teacher, writer, and lecturer, is continuing to gain international attention. He has served as principal bassoonist of such orchestras as the Covent Garden Opera Orchestra, the London Symphony, and the B.B.C. Symphony, and has performed on four continents. Conductors with whom he has appeared include Toscanini, Furtwangler, Monteux, Britten, Boulez, and Stockhausen. Since 1964 his tours and recordings with the Melos Ensemble have contributed to a distinguished chamber music career.

His practical experience in organology (a study of instrument design and construction) has developed, in part, through nurturing his collection of historical woodwind instruments which features some forty bassoons. These include four "reform Boehm" models, as well as the two earliest surviving English bassoons. This assemblage of instruments is perhaps the finest representative collection of its kind anywhere in the world. His comprehensive library of reference material was recently augmented by the valuable bequest of Lyndesay Langwill's archive of correspondence and books.

At the AMIS-Galpin Society meeting on June 1, 1985, during the Boston Early Music Festival, Mr. Waterhouse read a paper, "Langwill and His Index" in which he traced the historical background of dictionaries of woodwind instrument makers over the past century. He also discussed his work on the Seventh Edition of Langwill's Index of Musical Wind Instrument Makers which is the only biographical dictionary dealing with wind instrument makers in any language. It is due to be published in London by Tony Bingham in 1988. A grant by the Leverhulme Trust was awarded Mr. Waterhouse in 1984 to enable him to carry out the necessary research for this unique project.

In this Seventh Edition, Mr. Waterhouse plans to limit the scope of the earlier editions by restricting the content to makers active up until World War Two. He similarly feels that the task of documenting the ownership of historic woodwind instruments known worldwide, is beyond the scope of such a book. (Perhaps this might be attempted some day with the aid of an international computer center.) Instead he proposes to concentrate on biographical data and bibliographic references relating to the various makers.

In the past Mr. Waterhouse's research has produced the twenty-seven articles in the New Groves Dictionary of Music and Musicians which cover relevant aspects of the bassoon: its history, literature, and celebrated performance.

As a pedagogue, Mr. Waterhouse has been the Principal Tutor in Bassoon at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, England, since 1966. In 1972, he taught at Indiana University at Bloomington as a visiting professor.

While a guest of the Waterhouses on several occasions in the Highgate area of London, this author had the privilege of learning to know Mr. Waterhouse, his wife Elisabeth Ritchie, and their three children, Graham, Celia, and Lucy. Since each member of this remarkable family is an avid string player - Mr. Waterhouse plays viola - the opportunities to join them in chamber music were most rewarding. Other hours spent with Mr. Waterhouse playing the sonata literature for violin and keyboard were enhanced by his collaboration on the piano, fortepiano (he owns a copy of an Anton Walter, Vienna 1795) and harpsichord. This provided an opportunity to discuss aspects of phrasing gleaned from his many years of working with great conductors and soloists. Mr. Waterhouse considers that his most valuable lessons in phrasing were actually learned while playing in the pit accompanying opera singers.

It was back in 1978, that this author first was introduced to the rich varieties of tone color produced from bassoons made over the past several hundred years. Mr. and Mrs. Waterhouse were preparing one of their first lecturedemonstrations using a number of instruments from the collection. The meticulous care given to matters of intonation is one of the aspects of this rehearsal which is most vividly recalled.

Since each bassoon required a different embouchure, Mr. Waterhouse explained that the real challenge was to adapt the lips and diaphragm very quickly as each successive instrument was played.

Several years later, while listening to a cassette upon which he had recorded thirteen bassoons, it became evident how successfully he had learned to deal with the challenge of playing in tune while adjusting to the varying embouchures in quick succession. This recording, which included a succinct commentary on each instrument, was produced to accompany a display featuring historical instruments at the Edinburgh, Scotland, Festival in the summer of 1983. The catalogue which accompanied this exhibition, including photos of both sides of twenty-six bassoons, dating from the eighteenth century to the present, received a positive review in the Galpin Society journal.

Mr. Waterhouse's current schedule comprises a variety of musical activities. During the past eighteen months he has appeared as concerto soloist; chamber musician; and orchestral player on modern, classical and baroque bassoons. In addition to teaching in the New College Festival in Sarasota, Florida (summer of 1985) he has been Artist in Residence in Melbourne, Australia. He has served on the Music Advisory Panel of the Arts Council of Great Britain and adjudicated in the Munich International Bassoon Competition in September, 1984. Having retired from a nearly full-time orchestral post with the BBC Symphony, he finds his current schedule of activities more satisfying because of the variety of musical challenges it offers.

About the writer...

Dr. Paul Carlson is Professor of Music at Pittsburgh State University and first violinist in the Resident String Quartet. A regional winner of the National Federation of Music Clubs Contest, he has appeared as soloist with members of the Chicago Symphony, The Chicago Conservatory Orchestra, and the Northwestern University Chamber Orchestra.

As a baroque violinist, his performances with the Early Music Consort of Kansas City have introduced many midwestern audiences to the sound of seventeenth and eighteenth century music performed on instruments of this period.

A contributing editor to The Symphony 1720-1840 (a recently completed series of sixty volumes), Dr. Carlson's publications have also appeared in journals of the American and European String Teachers Associations and the Violin Society of America.

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