The Baroque Bassoon Home Page
This page provides information relevant to acquiring, playing and enjoying the baroque bassoon.
For Beginners: "Can I play the baroque bassoon," and other reflections
About this page:
Welcome to the Baroque Bassoon Home Page. It grew from my own trouble in getting access to this information when I first considered purchasing an instrument, and I hope that it will help others across the globe to get over the initial hump of getting started, when you are not fortunate enough to have a qualified teacher at hand. However, I do hope that some of the information contained here (e.g. the section on "Makers" and "Reeds") will also help more advanced players.
This page owes much to many people who have helped me along the way. I owe a special thanks to Suzuki Atsushi in Tokyo, who introduced me to other lovers of early music in Japan, provided the starting information for the list of makers on this page, and who also introduced me to an early music group in Sendai where I live. A special thanks to Uchida Yuka whose baroque bassoon home page provided the stimulus to make my own, and who thought up the questionnaire on reed sizes. Another special thanks to the members of "Meditatio Musica," Sendai, who have welcomed me into their ensemble and have always been very forgiving all along my faltering progress up the learning curve on my bassoon. Thanks also to the members of the doublereed discussion list who have provided encouragement and information from overseas: especially to Scott Cassada, Eduardo Adrian Rodriguez and Rachel Bristly-Rubin for their enthusiastic responses to Uchida-san's questionnaire on reed sizes.
Finally, a special word of thanks to you for visiting this page. This page would not have possible without the generous help of the people mentioned above, and many others. If you have any information or comments you can offer that may help to make this a better source of information, please contact me at: jfmorris@mgu.ac.jp
Yours faithfully,
John Morris
Tagajo, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan
P.S. All Japanese names given on this page are given in Japanese name order, surname first: e.g. Tanaka Masahito's family name is "Tanaka," his personal name is "Masahito.
Other Pages by me
Sendai Castle: the Uses and
Abuses of History