Keyed Kontraptions was the ensemble in residence at the University of California Davis Music Department 2019-2020. The residency and concert was originally scheduled to take place in April but due the the pandemic it was postponed.
Last month UC Davis was able to set up a system of low latency audio/video which allowed us to be in separate rooms but play together. This worked great and allowed us to record the concert!
This is my arrangement of Symphony Fantastique movement 4, March to the Scaffold. This contains a passage which is one of our great bassoon excerpts, originally it’s for the entire bassoon section to play as a 4 player soli. But I set it here as 3 bassoons 1 contra with the other parts playing the pizz. string lines. I think that this arrangement would also work if played on all bassoons without contras.
Heitor Villa-Lobos wrote a series of 9 suites inspired by the composition style and harmonic procedures of JS Bach. Each of them is set with a different instrumentation and include traditional Brazilian folk tunes as well as popular melodies from 1930-1940.
Number 5 is for soprano and an orchestra of cellos. The original cello parts are divided into 4 cello parts with 2 players playing each part. In my video I stop before the middle section (because I didn’t want to deal with looping myself tempo changes)
Bachianas Brasileiras no 5 pdf
Die Moldau by Bedrich Smetana represents a river that flows through Prague. It’s in compound meter and has sixteenth notes running constantly in the accompaniment parts, which gives the piece a flowing feeling. I set the viola line into the bassoon 3 part which is pretty busy but fun.
The ‘big melody’ of this movement is a tune called “La Mantovana” dating from the sixteenth century. It has been used in many pieces, my favorite being Hatikvah which is the national anthem of Israel.
The PDF of my bassoon quintet arrangement is here:
Dvorak’s Serenade for winds is a piece that doesn’t get programmed enough. There is a whole catalogue of repertoire for large wind chamber ensembles that mostly goes unplayed, this work is one that gets a little more attention.
There are two passages of running sixteenth notes which originally trade off between bassoon, cello, and clarinet. I changed the voicing of this material to make it more bassoonable.
This Violin concerto by Vivaldi is well known and gets a lot of air time especially in commercials. I thought that it would be funny to set for bassoon quartet since the bassoon has a specific kind of dry articulation. There are some measures cut from the original to make it more bassoon friendly.
The pdf to the sheet music is here:
Violin RV 315 pdf
Scarlatti keyboard sonatas are a staple for harpsichord and piano players, and a few of them fit well on wind instruments. K.517 is quick but its also fairly simple and repetitive.
I have been arranging and recording some music during this 2020 quarantine period. So I wanted to make the arrangements freely available, I will be posting more of them in the next few weeks.
Passacaglia and Fugue BWV 582 pdf
I’m selling the Contraforte! It’s being sold through Midwest Musical Imports This is a chance to get a contraforte on a budget and with no waiting list.
This is the 2 flageolet (bocal vent) model
Included is an extra bocal, flight case, gig bag, push swab, extra drain felts, reeds, fingering chart, stand, contrabassoon reed-bocal adapter
This instrument is suited for a pro player, who is able to make reeds
Leigh Muñoz is selling her Fox Fast System Contrabassoon. It was made in 2010 and it’s in great condition. The Fast system was created by Arlen Fast and it has an updated vent system.
It will be available to try at IDRS 2019 in Tampa, July 14-18.
Kristopher King 