below the usual oboe.  The tenoroon, with which the oboe di caccia has been compared, was a high bassoon really on octave and a fifth below.  It has been sometimes overlooked that there are two octaves in pitch between the oboe and bassoon, which has led to some confusion in recognizing these instruments.  There was an intermediate instrument a third lower than the oboe, used by Bach, called the oboe d’amore, which was probably used with the cornemuse or bagpipe, and another, a third higher than the oboe, called musette (not the small bagpipe of that name).  The cor Anglais is in present use.  It is a melancholy, even mournful instrument, its sole use in the orchestra being very suitable for situations on the stage, the effect of which it helps by depressing the mind to sadness.  Those who have heard Wagner’s “Tristan und Isolde” will remember, when the faithful Kurwenal sweeps the horizon, and sees no help coming on the sea for the dying Tristan, how pathetically the reed pipe of a careless peasant near, played in the orchestra on a cor Anglais, colors the painful situation.

The bassoon is the legitimate bass to the oboe and to the wood wind in general.  It was evolved in the sixteenth century from the pommers and bombards:  the tenors and basses of the shawm or oboe family.  With the older instruments, the reeds were not taken hold of immediately by the lips, but were held in a kind of cup, called pirouette, which only allowed a very small part of the reed to project.  In the oboe and bassoon the player has the full control of the reed with the lips, which is of great importance, both in expression and intonation.  The bassoon economizes length, by being turned back upon itself, and, from its appearance, obtains in Italy and Germany the satirical appellation of “fagotto” or “fagott.”  It is made of wood, and has not, owing to many difficulties as yet unsurmounted, undergone those changes of construction that have partly transformed other wood wind instruments.  From this reason—­and perhaps the necessity of a bassoon player becoming intimately familiar with his instrument—­bassoons by some of the older makers—­notably, Savory—­are still sought after, in preference to more modern ones.  The instrument, although with extraordinary advantages in tone, character, and adaptability, that render it valuable to the composer, is yet complicated and capricious for the performer; but its very imperfections remove it from the mechanical tendencies of the age, often damaging to art; and, as the player has to rely very much upon his ear for correct intonation, he gets, in reality, near to the manipulation of the stringed instruments.  The bassoons play readily with the violoncellos, their united tone being often advantageous for effect.  When not so used, it falls back into its natural relationship with the wood wind division of the orchestra.  The compass of the bassoon is from B flat, an octave below that in the bass clef, to B flat in the treble clef, a range of three octaves,