The Prelude from Bach Cello Suite 5 works well on contra, and the pacing of the piece allows for places to breathe. I attached the urtext of the sheet music, I am playing off ot this printed version from Barenreiter. If you play from their printed collection make sure not to play the scordatura version, which has different printed pitches for cello with alternate tuning.

bachcellosuite5urtext.pdf

Presto from Bach’s Sonata No. 1 in G minor BWV 1001 for solo violin arranged for bassoon. This movement often gets played seperately from the rest of the piece.

PDF of the arrangement BachPresto.pdf

This is an arrangement of Silvestrini’s “Six Etudes” for oboe. Oboists put this on recitals (and play it much faster lol) This is a tough one and a rare time to use front F# for the low octave Gbs. Especially connecting the low Gb to low Eb.

Silvestrini5contra.pdf

 

Here is an arrangement that I did of Paganini Caprice #3 for Violin, set for Contrabassoon. The Sostenuto in the begining and again at the end can be played in whichever octave is comfortable to you. This setting shows a little bit what the Kronwalt register key system can do.

PaganiniCaprice3.pdf

This is an arrangement I did of Paganini’s Caprice #5. I have been finding some high note fingerings on the Kronwalt contrabassoon that allow me to play this double high A and now the range is even a fifth higher than that! Here is the sheet music of the arrangment for anyone who would like to work on it.

Caprice5.pdf

This bassoon was built in 1907 and was a part of William Waterhouse’s collection. World system bassoons are a combination of German and French key layouts, most of the bassoon is German system with the long joint being French. The bocal and reed style are the same as what is used on German system bassoons and so produces a sound like other Heckel bassoons. For sale at Midwest Musical Imports.

Here is Paganini Caprice 24 for amplified Contrabassoon. I used different combinations of pedal effects for each variation. Arrangment downloadable for free paganiniCaprice24

Electric equipment used:

Fender amp rumble 2×10 500 watt

Earthquaker Plumes

Earthquaker Spacial delivery

MXR bass distortion

MXR bass octave

Electro-harmonix pitch fork

Electro- harmonix intelligent harmony machine

Electro-harmonix Big muff

Electro-harmonix C9 organ machine

Little-Jake pickup

 

I did an arrangement of Paganini Caprice 24 for Contrabassoon (or bassoon) I am making this avaiable for free to download. Let me know if you end up working this up for performance!

PaganiniCaprice24.pdf

My arrangement of C.P.E. Bach Solfeggietto is now avaiable at Trevco Music