Fingering Charts
Below are my fingering charts for baroque and classical bassoons. When it comes to fingerings for historical instruments, the options can be seemingly endless! Please use these as a starting point, and feel free to experiment as you go along to find the fingerings that work best for you and your setup. Many thanks to David Wells for his wonderful blank charts!
My Fingering Chart for Baroque Bassoon, HKICW by Guntram Wolf
*Classical Bassoon Fingering Chart Coming Soon*
Making Historical Reeds
Coming Soon!
Telemann Transcriptions
Telemann wrote beautifully and idiomatically for the bassoon, taking advantage of its broad range and lyrical qualities. Remarkably, much of this repertoire was indicated to be performed on either bassoon or recorder, despite the discrepancies between these instruments in range and timbre. Taking inspiration from the versatility of Telemann’s works, I’ve been exploring possibilities for expanding the repertoire for our instrument. Below are a few pieces I’ve adapted for the bassoon, adjusting the keys and registers as necessary to fit our instrument. Please feel free to download and share—I hope you enjoy playing them!
Telemann, Canonic Sonata in C major, TWV 40: 118 (original in G major)
Telemann, Canonic Sonata in D minor, TWV 40: 119 (original in G minor)
Telemann, Canonic Sonata in G major, TWV 40: 120 (original in D major)
Telemann, Recorder Sonata in F major from Der Getreue Music-Meister, TWV 41: F2
Telemann, Oboe Sonata in G minor, TWV 41: a3 (original in A major)
Bach Chorale Arrangements
Have four bassoonists? Play some chorales!
Some of my favorite early memories of learning the baroque bassoon involved playing Michael McCraw’s arrangements of Bach chorales. Not only are these beautiful pieces, but they are also wonderful tools for thinking about things like intonation, blend, and harmonic function. In an effort to add to what my teacher started years ago, I have begun arranging more chorales. What I have here is just a start—please check in over time as I add more.