“Its lowest tones,” writes Lavignac, “are solemn and pontifical, like an organ pedal. Its medium register has a sweet sonority of some richness but little strength; and its high register has the most expression, but is painful, distressed and dejected. At the same time this instrument has comic possibilities. In the medium, and lower registers certain _staccato_ notes which have been often used have a certain grotesqueness bordering on awkwardness.” “The bassoon was first used,” says Dr. Stone, “in Cambert’s _Pomone_, Paris, 1671; but it has gradually risen to the position of a tenor, or even alto, frequently doubling the high notes of the violoncello, or the lower register of the viola. The cause of the change is evidently the greater use of bass instruments, such as trombones and ophicleides, in modern orchestral scores on the one hand and the improvements in the upper register of the bassoon itself on the other. There is a peculiar sweetness and telling quality in these extreme sounds, which has led to their being named ‘vox humana notes.’ We have good evidence even in Haydn’s time that they were appreciated; for in the graceful _Minuet_ of his _Military Symphony_ we find a melody reaching to the treble A. Haydn uses it as one of the most prominent voices of his orchestra.” Until Mozart’s time the bassoon was little else but an instrument for doubling the bass of the Strings; but Mozart did great things with it. He even went so far as to write a Concerto for it. It is important in his operas, particularly _Don Giovanni_; in his _Requiem_; and in his _Symphonies_. After Mozart fixed its place in the Orchestra, Beethoven brought it forward and made its part so conspicuous and so elaborate that the performers had to set to work to improve their technique. “Beethoven never failed to employ it largely, reinforcing it, in some cases, by the double-bassoon. The _First Symphony_ is remarkable for the assignment of subject, as well as counter-subject, in the slow movement to first and second bassoons working independently; both afterwards joining with the two clarinets in the curious dialogue of the trio between strings and reeds. The _Second Symphony_ opens with a prominent passage for the bassoon in unison with the bass strings; in the _Adagio_ of the _Fourth Symphony_ is an effective figure exhibiting the great power of _staccato_ playing possessed by the bassoon; in the first movement of the _Eighth Symphony_, it is employed with exquisite humor and in the _Minuet_ of the same _Symphony_ it is entrusted with a melody of considerable length. Perhaps the most remarkable passage in Beethoven’s writing for this instrument occurs in the opening of the _Finale_ of the _Ninth_, or _Choral Symphony_, where the theme of the movement, played by violoncellos and violins in unison is accompanied by the first bassoon in a long independent melody of the greatest ingenuity and interest.”[23]