Bassoon Duets from Orchestral Excerpts, Vol. 1

These duos are designed to provide an enjoyable and pedagogically sound context in the study of orchestral excerpts for bassoon. By learning both parts of the duets, you should develop a better sense of the harmonies and rhythms that are present in other parts of the orchestra. Each piece is designed to have clear beginnings, endings, and transitions so that the arrangement feels like a short piece, rather than a collection of disjointed excerpts. In order to accomplish this, I have added and modified some material based on the original orchestral parts.

Volume 1 contains music that is fairly technically accessible, while Volume 2 is considerably more challenging. If your goal is to use these duos to help familiarize yourself with these excerpts before you have all the technical skills needed, then you may try starting with some of the easier accompaniments or try simplifying some of the solos by changing tempos, octaves, articulations, etc.

-- Peter Simpson

Music printed as performance score.