One of the most prestigious awards which an American composer may receive is the Pulitzer Prize in Music. Columbia University has awarded these annually since 1943 for a work premiered in the U.S. in a particular year. While no composition for bassoon solo has won the Pulitzer Prize, six Pulitzer-winning composers have written such works. Perhaps because of their level of difficulty and/or their abstract contemporary style, some of these works are not widely performed nor even well known to bassoonists.
The composers, the year in which they won the Pulitzer Prize, their works for solo bassoon, and the year in which the bassoon works were composed are as follows:
| Composer/Pulitzer | DateBassoon Composition/Date |
| 1. Leslie Bassett/1966 | Metamorphoses for bassoon solo/1991 |
| 2. Charles Wuorinen/1970 | Bassoon Variations, accompanied by harp and timpani/1972 |
| 3. Joseph Schwantner/1979 | Chronicron for bassoon and piano/1967 |
| 4. Ellen Taaffe Zwilich/1983 | Concerto for Bassoon and Orchestra/ |
| 5. George Perle/1986 | Three Inventions for Solo Bassoon/1962 |
| 6. Gunther Schuller/1994 | Concerto for Bassoon and Orchestra/1984-85 Sextet for Bassoon and Piano Quintet/1986 |
Leslie Bassett composed his Metamorphoses for bassoon solo for L. Hugh Cooper on the occasion of Cooper’s retirement from the University of Michigan in 1991. Published by C.F. Peters, this fifteen-minute work consists of eight movements, each based on a bassoon orchestral excerpt. The excerpts are: Stravinsky, Rite of Spring; Prokofiev, Peter and the Wol;, Tchaikovsky, Symphony No. 4; Beethoven, Symphonies No. 3, 1, and 8; Scriabin, Poem of Ecstacy; and Chabrier, España. In the preface to the score, Bassett describes the music as follows: “Tempos, pitches and rhythms may be substantially changed from the original, yet the sources remain clearly recognizable, giving rise to the new music which follows: homages rather than quotations.” Three of the movements contain timbral shifts or timbral trills, and the movement based on the Scriabin excerpt exploits tremolos. Three pages of fingering and performance suggestions are provided by Cooper, Gwendolyn Rose (who performed the work’s premiere), and Richard Beene.
Charles Wuorinen’s Bassoon Variations for solo bassoon accompanied by harp and timpani was composed in 1972. Dedicated to Leonard Hindell of the New York Philharmonic, the work is approximately twelve minutes long; it was premiered by the Boston Symphony Chamber Players with Sherman Walt as bassoonist. It is published by C.F. Peters and has been recorded by Donald MacCourt on New World Records. Unfortunately, the recording is currently out of print. All three instrumental parts are technically difficult in many places, and the ensemble demands are challenging.
Bassoon Variations is an atonal work which incorporates serial techniques, and it is not lyrical in a traditional manner. The tempo is quarter note = 48 throughout, with no written tempo variation whatsoever. Rhythmic interest is achieved through a variety of note values rather than through tempo changes. The rhythms are complex, especially in the large central portion of the work. The beginning and ending sections are similar and are relatively static rhythmically. In both of these sections, the timpani and harp at times play the same series of pitch classes in long note values, but the beginnings of the notes do not occur together. In mm. 2-5, for example, the timpani plays Bb-C-Db-Eb in whole notes (four beats) while the harp plays the same notes in note values of three and three-quarter beats. Similar effects are found through m. 12 in the opening section and in mm. 141-149 in the closing portion. The tone row stated by the bassoon in the opening measures recurs in transposed retrograde at the end.
Joseph Schwantner’s Chronicron for bassoon and piano is dedicated to James Berkenstock, who also performed the work’s premiere. It was composed in 1967 and is published by C.F. Peters. Like the Wuorinen Bassoon Variations, Chronicron is stylistically abstract, rhythmically complex, and in general difficult to perform. Some new notation is present in the work, including expanding/contracting beams, proportional rhythmic notation ( e.g., one inch equals one second), and cluster indications in the piano part. Special effects in the bassoon part include “bassoon pizzicato,” which Schwantner describes as follows in the score: “This sound is produced by attacking the tone, then having the tongue stop the sound immediately by closing the air flow with the tip of the toungue against the reed.” Schwantner uses this in the lowest range of the bassoon, where it is most resonant. The final four measures contain three multiphonics. all of which are clearly indicated with fingerings, and all of which respond readily on various makes of bassoons. During the last multiphonic, the soloist is instructed to lip up, causing the lower sounds of the multiphonic to gradually disappear until only a single pitch remains. This is done during a diminuendo from mezzo-forte to pianissimo, and it is a unique and dramatic ending to the work.
Pedaling indications for the sostenuto (middle) pedal as well as the damper pedal are very specific in Chronicron, and these two pedals are used simultaneously at times. Piano chords to be held with the sostenuto pedal are circled with dotted lines in the score. In other places Schwantner indicates the silent depressing of piano keys for long periods in order to raise the dampers of those notes.
The newest of the seven solo bassoon works by composers who have won the Pulitzer Prize in Music is the Concerto for Bassoon and Orchestra by Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, composed in 1992. The work is dedicated to conductor Lorin Maazel, bassoonist Nancy Goeres, and the Pittsburgh Symphony, all of whom participated in the premiere performance. The instrumentation of the orchestra is small: six woodwinds, four brasses, one percussionist, and strings. Orchestral parts are available on rental from Merion Music, which also publishes a piano reduction by the composer. The piano reduction was written to help prepare the bassoon soloist for a performance with orchestra. Therefore, some aspects of the piano part—such as percussion cues and some orchestral dynamics—cannot be played on piano. In the piano score Zwilich stipulates, “When performed in recital, the pianist should feel free to adapt and simplify the piano part as needed.”
The work consists of two movements. The first is a large ABA form, with slow, lyrical outer sections and a fast middle section. Although this movement is not extraordinarily difficult for the bassoon soloist, the second is more demanding technically. Its tempo is Allegro molto (quarter note = 168), and the movement contains many scale passages in sixteenth notes. Most of these sixteenths are slurred, but the tongued ones may require double-tonguing. Like the first movement, the second is basically a three-part structure. In this movement, fast outer sections contrast with a large central cadenza.
The Zwilich concerto is written very idiomatically for bassoon. Many of the technical passages, for example are based on octatonic scales-alternating whole-steps and halfsteps-and these “lie well under the fingers” for bassoon. The highest notes—high Eb and E—are approached chromatically, and this facilitates their production. Another notable aspect of this work is that the orchestral scoring is very light when the solo bassoon is playing, always allowing the bassoon to be heard clearly.
George Perle is the only composer to have won a Pulitzer Prize in Music for a woodwind chamber work - his Wind Quintet No. 4. His Three Inventions for Solo Bassoon was composed in 1962 and is published by Theodore Presser. The work has been recorded twice, by Arthur Grossman and Andrew Cordle on the Coronet and Orion labels respectively. Unfortunately, like the recording of the Wuorinen Bassoon Variations, both of these are out of print.
Dedicated to and premiered by William Scribner, the total length of the Three Inventions is less than seven minutes. The first movement is characterized by wide intervallic leaps and constant tempo fluctuations. The movement contains ten low F’s (including the first and last notes), which in the manuscript draft, according to Scribner, were multiphonics produced by adding the Bb key to the fingering for low F. The premiere was performed in this manner, but the multiphonics were removed by the composer prior to the work’s publication.1 The second movement consists of sections containing sixteenth notes contrasting with slower-moving sections. The motivic compression at the end of this movement coincides with a diminuendo to ppp. The third movement begins with an introduction, then becomes a perpetual motion of constant fast sixteenth notes. The performer must work out breathing places carefully and must breathe as quickly as possible in order to maintain the rhythmic momentum. In the last six measures the continuous sixteenths are finally interrupted by a few rests.
The only technically extraordinary aspect of the Three Inventions is the appearance of high G above the treble clef. It occurs once in the first movement and twice in the second, each time preceded and followed by rests. The rests will allow the player to re-form the embouchure and possibly to place the teeth directly on the reed. A special bocal and/or reed will probably be necessary as well. An ossia note - high E - is indicated as a substitute for the high G’s.
Gunther Schuller, who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1994, composed his Concerto for Bassoon and Orchestra (subtitled “Eine kleine Fagottmusik”) in 1984-85. Unfortunately, the work is not widely performed because it is not published and available for sale. Despite the fact that it has been recorded, the music is available only by rental from Associated Music Publishers. A perusal copy of the solo part and a piano reduction by the composer may be obtained by bassoonists who wish to consider performing the work. Like the Zwilich concerto, the piano reduction reflects the entire orchestral fabric and would need simplification to be performed. The compact disc recording on the GM Recordings label features Kenneth Pasmanick of the National Symphony Orchestra as soloist and the composer conducting. The instrumentation of the orchestra is somewhat large; twelve woodwinds, eleven brasses, harp, timpani, percussion, and strings.
The five movements of the Schuller concerto (all of which begin with the letter B) are: “Ballade,” “Berceuse,” “Burlesca,” “Blues,” and “”Badinerie.” The tempo of the first movement is Andante, and that of the second is Molto adagio. Both are lyrical in nature, and the second movement is accompanied by strings only. The “Burlesca” contrasts with the two opening movements; here the solo bassoon has fast, technical work much of the time. The blues style of the fourth movement is obvious from the opening double bass passage. Some improvisation is allowed by Schuller in this movement: for twenty-four measures the soloist is instructed to “improvise ad lib.: Blues in C.” In the recording, Pasmanick takes advantage of the opportunity by humorously quoting the Magic Flute Overture, The Rite of Spring, and Peter and the Wolf. The mixture of traditional orchestral and jazz styles in this movement makes it an excellent example of”third stream” music, a term coined by Schuller himself. Another notable aspect of the movement is the writing of rich harmonies for bassoon quartet—three from the orchestra plus the soloist. The “Badinerie” is a light, playful finale; percussion instruments play an important role in the accompaniment at the end.
Schuller’s Sextet for Bassoon and Piano Quintet was composed in 1986 and is published by Margun Music. The first movement opens with an Allegro prologue. At first the bassoon plays in its lowest register, but this is immediately followed by several high C-sharps and D’s. An accelerando leads to a long Allegro section in 6/8 meter. This movement ends with an Andante epilogue which for the first six measures is a varied repetition of the prologue at the same tonal level. Each of the three movements is dedicated to an instrumentalist, but only the second movement, Arioso, is dedicated to a bassoonist—Sol Schoenbach (who performed the premiere). Following the opening section, which is played by strings and piano only, the lyrical capabilities of the bassoon are exploited. The final movement is a technical showpiece, containing driving rhythms and glissandi in all six parts. Like the “Blues” movement of the Schuller concerto, “third stream” characteristics are evident here, especially in the rag-like syncopated rhythms and stride piano (“boom-chuck”) texture in the piano's left hand. The piano is featured as soloist in a portion of this movement, and another section features the bassoon and piano together in a rhythmically intricate passage. The final Presto section begins with a return of the movement’s opening material transposed up a major second.
Related compositions by other composers who have won the Pulitzer Prize in Music include Morton Gould’s Diversions for bassoon and orchestra as well as bassoon quartets by William Schuman, John Harbison, and Norman Dello Joio. Diversions for bassoon and orchestra by Gould was published with a piano reduction in 1994 by G. Schirmer, and the full score and parts are available on rental. The work has not been included in the above discussion because it was originally composed for solo tenor saxophone. It contains five movements and is twenty-five minutes in length. Schumann’s bassoon quartet is entitled Quartettino (1939); it is published by Peer International. The quartet by Harbison is his Canzonetta (1962), published by Bubonic Publishing. The bassoon quartet by Dello Joio was composed in 1937. Like several of Dello Joio’s early works, this quartet has been withdrawn, and it is mentioned here only in the interest of completeness.2 The Concerto for Contrabassoon and Orchestra by Gunther Schuller should also be mentioned, although it has not been included in the above discussion because it is a contrabassoon work rather than a bassoon work.
As previously observed, it is unfortunate that of the four commercial recordings of these works, three—the recording of the Wuorinen and the two recordings of the Perle—are out of print. The fourth—the compact disc recording of the Schuller concerto—is a fine recording, but the printed music is currently available by rental only. Another disappointing general observation is that there are relatively few works written for solo bassoon by Pulitzer Prize-winning composers in comparison with their works for other solo instruments.
Nonetheless, the compositions discussed above are important contributions to the contemporary bassoon repertoire. They represent a variety of styles ranging from traditionally lyrical to quite abstract. All merit further study as well as a larger number of performances and recordings. v
About the Author …
William Davis has been a faculty member in the University of Georgia School of Music since 1981. He earned Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees at the University of Kansas, and the Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the Eastman School of Music. His main bassoon teachers have been Austin Ledwith and David Van Hoesen, and he has studied composition with John Pozdro, Samuel Adler, and Warren Benson. He has served in several officer positions in the International Double Reed Society, the Southeastern Composers League, and the National Association of College Wind and Percussion Instructors.
Footnotes
1. William Scribner, telephone interview by author, May 31, 1995. [return]
2. The author wishes to thank Bruce Gbur for pointing out the existence of the 1937 bassoon quartet by Norman Dello Joio. [return]
Bassett, Leslie. Metamorphoses for bassoon solo (1991). New York: C.F. Peters, 1992.
Gould, Morton, Diversions for bassoon and orchestra (1994). Originally composed for solo tenor
saxophone. Piano reduction by the composer; full score and parts available by rental from the publisher. New York: G. Schirmer, 1994. Distributed by the Hal Leonard Company.
Perle, George. Three Inventions for Solo Bassoon (1962). Byrn Mawr, Pennsylvania: Theodore Presser Company, 1967.
Schuller, Gunther. Concerto for Bassoon and Orchestra (1984-85). New York: Associated Music Publishers, 1985 (rental only).
Schuller, Gunther. Sextet for Bassoon and Piano Quintet (1986). Score and parts. Newton Centre, Massachusetts: Margun Music, 1986.
Schwantner, Joseph. Chronicron for bassoon and piano (1967). New York: G. Schirmer, 1968.
Wuorinen, Charles. Bassoon Variations (1970), accompanied by harp and timpani. New York: C.F. Peters, 1972.
Zwilich, Ellen Taaffe. Concerto for Bassoon and Orchestra (1992). Piano reduction by the composer; full score and parts available by rental from the publisher. Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania: Merion Music, 1994. Distributed by the Theodore Presser Company.
Perle, George. Three Inventions for Solo Bassoon. Andrew Cordle, bassoon. Included in The Virtuoso Bassoon. Orion Records ORS 77269 (out of print).
Perle, George. Three Inventions for Solo Bassoon. Arthur Grossman, bassoon. Included in Arthur Grossman Plays Bassoon. Coronet stereo 2741 (out of print).
Schuller, Gunther. Concerto for Bassoon and Orchestra. Kenneth Pasmanick, bassoon; Gunther Schuller conducting the Saarbrucken Radio Symphony Orchestra. Included in Gunther Schuller: Three Concertos. GM Recordings 2044CD.
Wuorinen, Charles. Bassoon Variations, accompanied by harp and timpani. Donald MacCourt, bassoon; Susan Jolles, harp; Gordon Gottlieb, timpani. Included in New Music for Virtuosos, New World Records NW 209 (out of print).