1969: The LOGICAL BASSOON - The ULTIMATE Bassoon? | Tomorrow's World | Retro Tech | BBC Archive

[@spiderprint]

This video satisfies a question barely any person ever asked

[@PlanetImo]

True!

[@NicolasConnault]

That's only because barely anyone plays the bassoon. As a bassoon player, I know exactly why this question is being asked :)

[@stepheng8779]

I like to play Pat Boone on the county bassoon when the evening sun goes down.

[@egparis18]

In 2023, I don't see anybody playing a logical bassoon in any orchestra.

[@AtheistOrphan]

But they still play ‘The logical song’ on the radio.

[@fffffffffffffffffark]

They're played by slot badgers and bush dodgers

[@jasonayres]

Dueling Bassoons. Yeah, that was fine music from the '60's,alright. Why, I'll never forget that long winded concert in 1969.. Ah.. Woodwind 🤔?

[@PlanetImo]

Cor blimey! I'm assuming this hasn't really taken off. I can imagine it finding its place in recording studios...

[@AaAa-oo4ci]

i've got to wonder if this had anything to do with the Lyricon from the 70s and other MIDI wind controllers

[@iixorb]

More from the Tomorrow’s World MIDI special which Howard Stableford presented in 1987 please, BBC 🙏

[@kaitlyn__L]

The air holes being purely open or closed really restricts the expressive opportunities. You can’t do anything involving half-covered air holes on this one, so they picked the “challenges” to favour the new invention. Nowadays there’s wind controllers for MIDI, which basically top everything this achieves in playability, with a wider range and variety of sounds. The market either wants fully authentic analogue bassoons, or is happy to play a bassoon sample pack on a wind controller (if they’re after a bassoon sound at all) It’s still pretty cool for the 60s though. That relay control would be fairly easily transferable to the early voltage controlled synthesisers of the time if someone wanted to. Maybe this thing is a grandpa of the first Electronic Wind Instrument and Electronic Valve Instruments, in form factor and hookup if nothing else.

[@NicolasConnault]

Most of the expressiveness on the bassoon is achieved through embouchure rather than through fingering, and the host of alternative fingerings, unlike the pragmatic left/right fingerings on the clarinet, are actually just ways to plays slightly less out of tune and reduce some of the nightmare of trills.

[@kaitlyn__L]

@@NicolasConnault I know, I also play conical wind. I regularly use the alternate fingerings to adjust the timbre of a held tone and add some extra texture. I also regularly tremolo with the keys to create a soft portamento effect, while this “logical bassoon” has much sharper cutoffs. Funnily enough, I have no idea how it works on tubular wind like a clarinet. Having a twelfth key instead of an octave key is baffling to me, and I have no idea what the alternate fingering would do on a clarinet - except by supposition from your comment that it does actually meaningfully affect the pitch?

[@NicolasConnault]

@@kaitlyn__L I'm no expert but from my experiments it appears that the alternative fingerings are mainly designed to make the instrument easier to play, particularly for trills and runs.

[@kaitlyn__L]

@@NicolasConnault alright, so that’s basically the same on tubular wind as with conical.

[@NicolasConnault]

@@kaitlyn__L I'm not sure, I feel that the bassoon fingerings are mostly designed to compensate for the instrument's extremely fickle tone, which varies per note for each reed. Or they're designed to torture me 😭

[@jamesbennettmusic]

Was this the inspiration for Synthesiser Patel?!

[@maryannecross4220]

Wow! 👏👏👏🇬🇧

[@TomEarley]

Logical bassoon? Sounds like an instrument used by Vulcans 🖖

[@PlanetImo]

I don't think this one lived long or prospered...

[@shusamsky]

Was the real bassoon player young Martin Gatt?

[@harryjones5260]

didnt anyone tell the inventor they dont use the bassoon for high notes anyway

[@davedogge2280]

This is just a covert video for making a bong.

[@lucpraslan]

What the hell is this?! lol 🤪🤪

[@awreckingball]

I remember when TV was mostly made up of boring programmes like this narrated by someone that sounded like Prince Charles.

[@jeanlefranc3817]

Sure, but you remember them when I’m sure you have completely forgotten half the KZbin videos you saw last week.