bassoon

American  

[ba-soon, buh-] / bæˈsun, bə- /

noun

1. a large woodwind instrument of low range, with a doubled tube and a curved metal crook to which a double reed is attached.

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bassoon British  

/ bəˈsuːn /

noun

1. a woodwind instrument, the tenor of the oboe family. Range: about three and a half octaves upwards from the B flat below the bass staff

2. an orchestral musician who plays the bassoon

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bassoon Cultural  

1. The second largest and second lowest pitched of the woodwinds. (The less common contrabassoon is larger and has a lower pitch.) It is played with a double reed.

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Other Word Forms

• bassoonist noun

Etymology

Origin of bassoon

1720–30; < French basson < Italian bassone ( bass ( o ) low ( base ² ) + -one augmentative suffix)

Example Sentences

His 2023 release, “The Other One”—for which he conducted an ensemble including saxophones, bassoons, strings, percussion and piano—landed on the year-end best-of lists of several classical music critics.

From The Wall Street Journal

The recording quality was coarse, and the score was loudly amplified, a solo bassoon in its mysterious high register sounding like a pigeon being tortured.

From Los Angeles Times

In the Lento e deserto, the work’s only slow movement, the lonely yowlings of piccolo, bassoon and slide whistle formed a tender yet humorous trio.

From New York Times

The brass and winds would have benefited from being placed on risers, giving more acoustical and theatrical freedom to the stunning, mournful bassoon solos and abandoned brass outbursts.

From Los Angeles Times

But it was still marred by a muddled Infernal Dance, for example, and an overly tentative bassoon solo at the start of the “Rite.”

From New York Times