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