Appearing in its modern form in the 19th century, the bassoon figures prominently in orchestral, concert band, and chamber music literature, and is occasionally heard in pop, rock, and jazz settings as well.

Playing is facilitated by closing the distance between the widely spaced holes with a complex system of key work, which extends throughout nearly the entire length of the instrument.

Prior to soaking, the reed maker will have lightly scored the bark with parallel lines with a knife; this ensures that the cane will assume a cylindrical shape during the forming stage.

The bound reed blank is then wrapped with thick cotton or linen thread to protect it, and a conical steel mandrel (which sometimes has been heated in a flame) is quickly inserted in between the blades.

Additionally, if the "e" in the bass clef staff is sagging in pitch, it may be necessary to "clip" the reed by removing 1–2 mm (0.039–0.079 in) from its length using a pair of very sharp scissors or the equivalent.

A full consort of dulcians was a rarity; its primary function seems to have been to provide the bass in the typical wind band of the time, either loud (shawms) or soft (recorders), indicating a remarkable ability to vary dynamics to suit the need.

The man most likely responsible for developing the true bassoon was Martin Hotteterre (d. 1712), who may also have invented the three-piece flûte traversière (transverse flute) and the hautbois (baroque oboe).

Sometime around 1700, a fourth key (G♯) was added, and it was for this type of instrument that composers such as Antonio Vivaldi, Bach, and Georg Philipp Telemann wrote their demanding music.

In the 1960s, Giles Brindley began to develop what he called the "logical bassoon", which aimed to improve intonation and evenness of tone through use of an electrically activated mechanism, making possible key combinations too complex for the human hand to manage.

Increasing use of the dulcian as a basso continuo instrument meant that it began to be included in opera orchestras, in works such as those by Reinhard Keiser and Jean-Baptiste Lully.

[1] While the bassoon was still often used to give clarity to the bassline due to its sonorous low register, the capabilities of wind instruments grew as technology advanced during the Classical era.

In 1829, he wrote that the bassoon was capable of expressing "the worthy, the virile, the solemn, the great, the sublime, composure, mildness, intimacy, emotion, longing, heartfulness, reverence, and soulful ardour.

[2] He also wrote for the bassoon to change its timbre depending on which instrument it was paired with; warmer with clarinets, hollow with flutes, and dark and dignified with violins.

[2] Emphasis also began to be placed on the unique sound of the bassoon's staccato, which might be described as quite short and aggressive, such as in Hector Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique, Op.

[2] In Modest Mussorgsky's Night on Bald Mountain, the bassoons play fortissimo alongside other bass instruments in order to evoke "the voice of the Devil.

A famous example of this is the beginning of Igor Stravinsky's Rite of Spring in which the bassoon plays in its highest register in order to mimic the Ukrainian Dentsivka.

[2] Much of the new music for bassoon in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, often included extended techniques and was written for solo or chamber settings.

One piece that included extended techniques was Luciano Berio's Sequenza XII, which called for microtonal fingerings, glissandos, and timbral trills.

The next few decades saw the instrument used only sporadically, as symphonic jazz fell out of favor, but the 1960s saw artists such as Yusef Lateef and Chick Corea incorporate bassoon into their recordings.

Lindsay Cooper, Paul Hanson, the Brazilian bassoonist Alexandre Silvério, Trent Jacobs and Daniel Smith are also currently using the bassoon in jazz.

French bassoonists Jean-Jacques Decreux[17] and Alexandre Ouzounoff[18] have both recorded jazz, exploiting the flexibility of the Buffet system instrument to good effect.

More recently, These New Puritans's 2010 album Hidden makes heavy use of the instrument throughout; their principal songwriter, Jack Barnett, claimed repeatedly to be "writing a lot of music for bassoon" in the run-up to its recording.

Played by UK bassoonist Louise Watson, the bassoon is heard in the tracks "Cold" and "Mr Skeng" as a complement to the electronic synthesizer bass lines typically found in this genre.

The bassoon is played with both hands in a stationary position, the left above the right, with five main finger holes on the front of the instrument (nearest the audience) plus a sixth that is activated by an open-standing key.

Alternatively, a similar method is called "venting", which requires that the register key be used as part of the full fingering as opposed to being open momentarily at the start of the note.

While bassoons are usually critically tuned at the factory, the player nonetheless has a great degree of flexibility of pitch control through the use of breath support, embouchure, and reed profile.

The lips provide micromuscular pressure on the entire circumference of the reed, which grossly controls intonation and harmonic excitement, and thus must be constantly modulated with every change of note.

Apart from the embouchure proper, students must also develop substantial muscle tone and control in the diaphragm, throat, neck and upper chest, which are all employed to increase and direct air pressure.

Attacking a note on the bassoon with imprecise amounts of muscle or air pressure for the desired pitch will result in poor intonation, cracking or multiphonics, accidentally producing the incorrect partial, or the reed not speaking at all.

[24] Students in America often begin to pursue the study of bassoon performance and technique in the middle years of their music education, often in association with their school band program.