The Proud Bassoon: An Exhibition Showing the Development of the Bassoon over the Centuries. The Waterhouse Collection of Bassoons and Related Items. (Mounted at the Edinburgh, Scotland, University Collection of Historic Musical Instruments during the Edinburgh Festival, August 17-31, 1983. )
William Waterhouse's collection of bassoons and objects related to the bassoon (documents, pictures, music, reeds, etc.) is rapidly becoming one of the greatest collections in the world. And to see the most choice items of his collection, some 114 in all, so handsomely displayed at Edinburgh this last August was a truly exciting event, guaranteed to win the heart of both the bassoonist and organologist alike.
The exhibition was in the same room where Mr. Waterhouse had mounted a smaller showing during the 1980 IDRS Conference in Edinburgh, the one that houses the University's own fine collection. But this time care had been taken to give the instruments and related objects room to breathe, so that each one could be appreciated for and by itself. And for those objects that couldn't (or wouldn't) be aesthetically incorporated, there were two loose-leaf folios provided at the end of the collection that one could leisurely peruse.
The "meat" of the exhibition was the display of instruments; twenty-six bassoons, three double bassoons, two tenoroons, one dulcian, one racket, one sordune, and one contrebasse à anche. Of these only four were not original instruments and only two, the Tauber double bassoon (Viennese), and the Morton bassoon (English), weren't from Waterhouse's collection. The instruments were presented historically in the three national groupings of English, French, and German, with additional subdivisions for Renaissance and Baroque instruments (all copies of originals), Boehm-- and related reform -- system instruments, Heckel family instruments -- both old and new, and other instruments of the bassoon family (tenoroons, double bassoons, etc.).
The English collection contained such gems as the Thomas Stanesby, the oldest surviving English bassoon; the Stanesby Junior dated 1747, which is the instrument used as a model for the Philip Levin replica; and the Milhouse (or Millhouse) bassoons by father Richard and son William. The French collection contained a late 18th century Porthaux, a Savary Jeune from 1823, a Simon and Brelet from the mid 19th century, and a c. 1930 Buffet. The German collection was rich with specimens by Kirst (Potsdam, late 18th century); Griesling and Schlott (Berlin, early 19th century); Tauber (Vienna, early 19th century); Wiesner (Dresden, 2nd quarter of the 19th century); Greve (Mannheim c. 1830); and Schaufler (Stuttgart, mid 19th century).
Among the Heckel family of instruments exhibited were specimens dating from c. 1870, c. 1875, c. 1882, and two from 1907, numbers 4602 and 4614. The latter instrument was built in the French style cosmetically, a style referred to by San Francisco collector, Dante Perfumo, as the "world model." It was part of Heckel's ultimately successful attempt to penetrate the British and American markets of the early 20th century, which were almost exclusively French-system instruments, by offering an instrument which "looked" French but "played" German. The two modern Heckel instruments displayed were a 1938 bassoon (#8224) and a 1930 double bassoon (#433).
The most unique instruments, however, were yet to come, the group of reform-system instruments. Nowhere in the world can one find more of these than in the Waterhouse collection. These comprise various attempts by 19th century makers to revise and redesign the bassoon. With the recent addition of two new prizes of this genre to the collection it stands unrivaled in the world in this area. The new additions are the English Cornelius Ward/Guiseppi Tamplini bassoon and a German instrument by Friedrich Kruspe of Leipzig. The Ward bassoon was thought to be lost for many years, but apparently it had been given to a Professor Orioli who taught bassoon at the Bologna conservatorie by Tamplini before his death in 1888 in the hope that it might be adopted there. Built in England to the principles of Theobald Boehm by Ward and Tamplini about 1853, it had been championed by Tamplini his entire life. Apparently this is one of the two instruments owned by Tamplini when he returned to Italy. The other is presumed lost. The Kruspe bassoon was built by the C. Kruspe firm of Erfurt around 1893 and exhibited by Friedrich Kruspe at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago that same year. It was recently purchased from the United States. Only two specimens of this instrument seem to have been built. The other is in a museum in Leipzig as part of the holdings from the Kruspe firm when it closed down. Added to the display of these two instruments were Waterhouse's other reform-system bassoons, the Triébert/Marzoli/Boehm instrument of ca. 1860, the "pure" Boehm-system bassoon of which only four examples are known to exist; and an unstamped French reform bassoon, probably by Gautrot, from about 1875, which is also truly "one of a kind. "
The remainder of the instruments exhibited consisted of not one but two tenoroons--one by Savary Jeune (Paris, c. 1842) and the other by Marzoli (Paris, c. 1860). These unique instruments, pitched a 5th higher than the bassoon, seem to have been built for practice only. There is no known music literature for tenoroon, even though over 75 examples exist worldwide. Finally, the well known double bassoon by Tauber (Vienna, first quarter of the 19th century), on loan from the Bate collection of Oxford University, and a contrebasse à anche by Besson and Co. (London, early 20th century) rounded off the instrumental display.
The other bassoon artifacts, which were aesthetically displayed among the instruments, ranged in variety from reeds and reed boxes; to sculptures, paintings and photographs; to music for the bassoon; and finally to documents pertinent to the history of the bassoon.
The reed collection had examples as early as the second quarter of the 19th century and as recent as plastic ones from the United States. The various pictures and sculptures showed bassoon and dulcian players over the years as well as more recent photographs of makers and players. One such photograph showed an aging Wilhelm Heckel and his granddaughter, Edith Reiter, along with American bassoonist, Lawrence Intravaia (1920-1973) in his GI uniform, taken in Biebrich in 1945 shortly after the liberation.
The musical display ranged from copies of the first edition of the Galliard Sonatas (London, 1733), and the autograph of the two famous Studies by Julius Weissenborn (c. 1887, lent by Mrs. L. Weissenborn, widow of the composer's grandson), to the autograph copy of the Partita by Gordon Jacob, which is dedicated to William Waterhouse. The documents displayed included letters from makers such as Almenräder to Schott in 1838 complaining bitterly about the behavior of his erstwhile "partner", Johann Adam Heckel; and composers such as Claude Debussy to his friend Caplet in 1909 praising the bassoonists whom he had heard at the conservatoire, and Jean Françaix to William Waterhouse in 1966 thanking the latter for rediscovering his Divertissement for bassoon and strings of 1942. (Waterhouse was subsequently awarded the dedication of the work when it was published by Schott.) Finally, a variety of other documents -- treatises, reviews, fingering charts, contracts, patents, etc. --rounded off this most comprehensive exhibition.
Mr. Waterhouse is to be highly praised for mounting the finest exhibition for the bassoon ever attempted. Further, he deserves our deepest thanks for his willingness to display and share all the treasures of his collection with the world. Indeed, if you missed the exhibition you may still obtain a copy of its excellent illustrated catalogue: The Proud Bassoon, (with annotations by Waterhouse and a foreword by Lyndesay Langwill) by writing to:
The Proud Bassoon
Edinburgh University Collection of Historic Instruments
Reid Concert Hall, Bristo Sq.
Edinburgh EH8 9AG
Scotland
The cost of the catalogue is 5.00 pounds plus 1.00 pound postage for overseas orders. There is also a cassette tape of William Waterhouse playing on twelve of the instruments of the collection (a taping of a lecture/recital given by him on Sunday, August 21, 1983, in conjunction with the exhibition) available for 3.00 pounds plus postage. I strongly recommend both objects for your bassoon library.