Decades of journal publications by the International Double Reed Society, the National Association of College Wind and Percussion Instructors, the Galpin Society, and others have contained valuable suggestions on fingerings for instruments in the bassoon family. Much of this treasured information, however, lies buried in old journal issues. New readers are often unaware that this material exists, and those who have read the journals may have long since forgotten which specific issues contain these fingerings. The files contain indexes to fingerings in To the World's Bassoonists, The Double Reed, the Journal of the International Double Reed Society, the Instrumentalist, the NACWPI Journal, The Galpin Society Journal, and Woodwind Magazine among others. Included in the index are fingerings contained in Ronald Klimko's Bassoon Performance Practice, Teaching Materials, Techniques and Methods in the United States and Canada, and Marc Apfelstadt and Ronald Klimko's Bassoon Performance Practice, Teaching Materials, Techniques and Methods. In addition, fingerings are included from Everett LeRoy Timm's The Woodwinds; Performance and Instructional Techniques and Don Christlieb's Pictoral Fingerings for Bassoon, both which predate Cooper and Toplansky's Essentials of Bassoon Technique.
The indexes will support further contributions. Please contact Terry Ewell for further information, comments, or suggestions. Those fingerings which are accepted in the Bassoon-Family Fingering Companion will include the names of contributors together with the date and contents of their contribution.
The note names are designated according to the labeling system adopted by the Acoustical Society of America. In this system each C on the piano is numbered from the lowest C, C1, to the highest, C8. The pitch numbering system employed by the Acoustical Society of America is one integer larger than the system found in Cooper and Toplansky's Essentials of Bassoon Technique. Thus, Cooper and Toplansky's "C1" equals the Acoustical Society's "C2." Notes within an octave above the Cs receive the number of their lower C. Therefore, the lowest bassoon note, Bb, is labeled Bb1. The next three chromatic notes are labeled B1, C2, and C#2. Open F is F3, the F above that is F4, and the F above high E is F5. The contrabassoon pitches are referenced by the written pitch not the sounding pitch (the contrabassoon sounds an octave lower than written). Trills and shakes are indicated by two pitches connected by a hyphen as in A4-B4 or C3- Eb3.
Please now proceed to: Ascii fingering representation.