A significant invention has been born in the recent past in Bucharest, Rumania. The bassoon professor, Gheorghe Cuciureanu, of the Music Academy "Ciprian Porumbescu" has realized after great personal sacrifices his prophetic thoughts about acoustics and mechanics of the bassoon, and has entered like a strong wind the historic family of the finest innovators of the bassoon who ever lived.
The first copies of his model have been seen at the 1965 solo bassoon competition at Budapest in the hands of the young Rumanian soloists. But the modifications to the keywork of their Hüller bassoons were not nearly as advanced as the instrument today, at the end of many long and successful experiments.
In my own writings on the bassoon's history, (which have appeared in Hungarian only to this date in: PARLANDO, 1972, 4, 5, 6), I have attempted to give the first new fingerings of the Cuciureanu model German bassoon. After sending this study to the bassoonist/inventor I received Professor Cuciureanu's fingering chart of that time, and from it (low register changes primarily) I determined that this instrument has the most perfect fingering I have seen to date! Since that time, Prof. Cuciureanu has also attacked the problems of the upper register of the instrument with great imagination and energy and has finally provided the complete structure of this new German Heckel bassoon (sic.). To my great pleasure, Prof. Cuciureanu recently sent me a very detailed account which I am publishing here and which I hope will make all my bassoonist colleagues rejoice - and perhaps also the whole world of the woodwind instrumentalist - because all which has been accomplished by the inventor acoustically and mechanically with this irregular conical tube (and particularly at the tenor joint) surpasses all former imagination and results!
"Very honored Mr. Oromszegi:
It will be proper that first of all I thank you heartily for the consistent attention full of interest and curiosity with which you follow my researches into the domain of our common profession.
I have been tempted for a long time to duly answer your letter and its cordial contents. I did not answer till now (April, 1975. Ed.) because the level of my researches did not permit a complete answer, so I would not make eventually uncontrolled statements about the results attained. Now I am in a position to answer fully and I am very pleased with it. I am now perfectly convinced about four principal points:
1. that I have achieved the perfection of the German bassoon;
2. that I have extended the classic fingering of the instrument by means of the cursive fingering;
3. that I have found a complete systemization and numeration of the fingering order of the bassoon; and
4. I have completed the study of reed making with my own method.
1. For the perfection of the bassoon I kept in view the following principles: to eliminate everything superfluous, and to place on the joints only the most necessary. So, where I thought it useful in the interest of a better functioning, I transformed some keys; I united some keys to others; I doubled the motion possibilities of some keys; I united pairs of keys into one key; I eliminated some keys and holes; I modified the place and diameter of some holes - thus I corrected several manufacturing errors. I acted in this way to perfect my Heckel bassoon. The exterior did not change excessively, the classic fingering holds remained unchanged, but I arrived at new, until now unsuspected fingering possibilities. The lower and upper range of the bassoon relieved itself of its century-old stiffness. On this bassoon constructed by myself, bassoonists can play all the half step and whole step trills and every tremolo within a perfect fourth. One may now play unhindered all the major and minor scales, C# major as easily as C major, G flat major as easily as F major, A flat major as easily as G major, etc. in the full extent of the range from low B flat1 to highest e''. And also the overblown sounds have a better tone realization; in other words, I eliminated the difficulties in the timbre of the complicated accidentals. Thus I obtained the homogeneity of the compass so long desired and expected! It seems incredible, but it is true.
2. In the case of this perfected bassoon we may speak of a differentiated fingering. That means we may say that we possess a fingering for phrasing or cantilena and a derivated fingering for quick or rapid playing. For the cantilena we continue to use the classic fingering - in the interest of velocity and virtuosity we will use the "course fingering" (cursive fingering. Ed.) The division of fingering into classic and cursive will probably be a novelty to you. I call classic those fingerings inherited from our predecessors. The Heckel firm publishes the catalogue of this fingering by Professor Enzo Muccetti; according to it the range of the bassoon embraces about 90 fingering positions. This fingering order, used by our predecessors and for decades by ourselves, will continue to be used as long as the bassoon will exist.
What does cursive fingering mean? To answer this we need a brief theoretical and practical introduction. Let us play on the bassoon the G major scale in the first octave up and down. We will observe that the fingers one after another raise then return to the instrument- the movement passes from one finger to the other, simply and without any exertion. Let us now play B major in the upper octave. Here we observe that the motion of the fingers represents an entirely different scheme. The change of the positions from one degree to the other is realized by cross movement; that means that while one or more fingers are raised the others are replaced onto the instrument. The motion is not simple but complex, difficult, requiring strength -- entangled.
With the description of the two types of movements we have: one which is light and requires little strength, and the other which is complicated and entangled. The first promotes movement, the second hinders it.
The elaborated cursive fingering which I have designed extends the simple and light movements to all the positions of the bassoon, to all the scales, and it excludes the cross movements. This innovation was possible first of all by the improvement of the instrument, on the other hand by a long and persevering research.
The cursive fingerings, because of the great need, became a realized fact. We can now resolve all the fingering problems of the universal literature of the bassoon by means of the cursive fingerings. Thus the bassoon has equaled and even surmounted the technical level of the other wood wind instruments. The most difficult concert pieces of high level may be played easily on the improved bassoon with cursive fingering.
3. In the interest of extending and applying my cursive fingerings, I elaborated the system of the numerated fingering of the bassoon. It is very simple and easy to appropriate it. The numerated system (Cuciureanu) is the means by which we may assure in written form the cursive fingerings in performing scales and all music composed for the bassoon. For bassoon fingering in the analyzed bassoon part there appear numbers from 1 to 10 above the notes, as in parts for pianoforte and stringed instruments. The difference revealed between the bassoon numbers and the numbers for piano or strings is as follows: with the latter the number implies which finger will be used to produce the sound of a given note; with the bassoon the number indicates the fingering of a given note according to my catalogue, thus its serial order. The possibilities of the numeration are best expressed in the upper register where a bassoon tone may be produced by 4, 5 or even 10 stoppings (fingerings). If one of my pupils has not kept in mind the 4th fingering of the a flat, he must look for it in the catalogue and then apply it. It is the same as looking for a word we do not understand in a dictionary. Later, by means of repetition the numerated fingerings will be imprinted on the player's memory and the catalogue will constitute a precious reserve of the memory. The catalogue and numeration system is the key for any bassoonist to reveal the cursive fingerings. It may be learned without the teacher's aid. Fortunately, the creation of this numerical system was easier than finding the actual fingerings on the improved bassoon - a work that required many years of testing. The numbering system issued easily out of the latter.
Above I mentioned Prof. Muccetti's list of bassoon fingerings containing about 90 classic fingerings. The catalogue of the fingerings for the improved bassoon, which includes the classic fingerings and all cursive fingerings, contains 230 fingerings, around 150 trill and 110 tremolo fingerings. This catalogue is the means by which we can understand and teach others the numerated fingering of the bassoon. As mentioned earlier, the numerical fingering is quasi the graphical design characteristic of the G major scale (in its simplicity), the extension of this even and simple movement to the whole range and to all the modes. The advantages of this system are enormous - partly because we can exclude the many insurmountable fingering difficulties, and partly because one never forgets a well-realized and numbered fingering.
The music after Stravinsky posed for the bassoon player problems that made necessary this research at an appropriate level and the systemization. The invention of the drawings of the bassoon keys (probably to the merit of Prof. Muccetti) in the form of a rubber stamp has allowed me to set down my fingerings in neat figures and to arrive at the numbering system for the cursive fingerings. I am very pleased that my work in this direction has been crowned with success. It remains that the realization may be spread so that all bassoonists will be aware of this progress.
4. In the fourth part of my letter I should like to say something about the reeds. I gave up entirely the classical manner of reed making. I now prepare the reeds according to my own method. It would take much time to describe it in a letter.
Therefore I hope to meet my colleagues in Budapest soon to show them this new method which has already spread to many countries.
I am not sure that you have a clear idea of my realizations from my writing. I know that the Ministry of Education and Instruction proposed to send me to Budapest for a week with the purpose of accomplishing further experiments and documentation. There I will be able to explain all in a more concrete way. The number of the document concerning the perfection of the bassoon is 1554/1957.2.12 The innovation was executed by the firm Hüller of the German Democratic Republic. I sought contact with the Heckel company 15 years ago. Then I did not succeed, but now the situation is different and I hope to arrive at a satisfactory issue within a few months.
It would be difficult to explain what my new improved bassoon is really like. I can say that the musical results surpass the imagination, and the instrument weighs 2.827 kg., less by 1/2 kg. than the normal bassoons made by the firm. Beyond the better musical effects, I kept in view also the diminution of the bassoon's net weight.
Yours sincerely, Prof. Gheorghe Cuciureanu"