Chuck: I was always attracted to the lower-sounding instruments. When I
was in 3rd grade, my town's school system had a good string program. I
wanted to play the cello, but my mother talked me down to a violin,
which I didn't really like. That lasted only a couple of months. I
learned folk guitar instead, and continued to take piano. I also taught
myself Baroque recorder while in high school.
Fast forward to 1974, the summer before my senior year of college. I was
conducting a summer theater with an orchestra. We were doing Rodgers and
Hammerstein's "Carousel." One evening after rehearsal, I was talking to
one of the horn players, who was kind of the "den mother" of the
orchestra. I mentioned that working with the orchestra, I'm really
feeling that I'm missing out on both an aspect of musicianship and a lot
of fun by not playing an orchestral instrument. I told her about the
cello. But, I said, it's really too late for me to start a string
instrument as an adult, it would take too long to get even tolerably
competent. But the bassoon is the same range, and I like the sound and
character, and I look kind of like one. So if I ever find a bassoon in
someone's attic, I'll figure it's fate and I'll learn to play it.
And she said, "Peter, I have a bassoon in my attic."
It turned out to be an old French-system bassoon, very different from
the German (Heckel) system that is used almost everywhere except France.
I borrowed it for a few months, managed to jerry-rig fix it enough to be
playable and taught myself the rudiments. I soon realized that if I was
going to get anywhere with the bassoon, I'd better play the standard. I
ended up buying a German-system instrument from a Boston Symphony player
who lived in my town, and started taking lessons. I got pretty good
pretty quickly, and was playing in a couple of community orchestras and
my college musical a few months later.
In 1990, a carpal-tunnel-like computer injury sidelined me. I had
surgery and recovered from the injury, but I didn't want to risk my
livelihood by putting additional strain upon my hands. So I didn't play
bassoon for over 20 years. Then about 2.5 years ago, I realized that
something important was missing from my life. I realized that I just had
to play again, and did.
--Peter
> On Tue, Mar 25, 2014 at 10:27 AM, Chuck Norcutt <
> chucknorcutt [at] chucknorcutt.com> wrote:
>
> > Thanks. I've always wondered how one comes to play a less usual
> > instrument such as a bassoon.
> >
> > Chuck Norcutt
> >
> > On 3/25/2014 3:08 AM, Peter Klein wrote:
> > > The Rain City Symphony woodwind section, taken by the son of one
of our
> > > orchestra members. I'm the guy playing bassoon sitting just to the
> > > right of the female clarinetist in the center in the picture.
> > >
> > >
> > > --Peter, speaking softly but carrying a big stick.
> >
>
> Nice. Looks like you're having fun.
>
> --
>
> Paul Braun
> Certified Music Junkie
--
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