Bassoon Duets from Orchestral Excerpts Vol. 2

These duos are designed to provide an enjoyable and pedagogically sound context in the study of orchestral excerpts for bassoon. By learning both parts of the duets, you should develop a better sense of the harmonies and rhythms that are present in other parts of the orchestra. Each piece is designed to have clear beginnings, endings, and transitions so that the arrangement feels like a short piece, rather than a collection of disjointed excerpts. In order to accomplish this, I have added and modified some material based on the original orchestral parts.

Volume 1 contains music that is fairly technically accessible, while Volume 2 is considerably more challenging. If your goal is to use these duos to help familiarize yourself with these excerpts before you have all the technical skills needed, then you may try starting with some of the easier accompaniments or try simplifying some of the solos by changing tempos, octaves, articulations, etc.

Ludwig van Beethoven – Finale from Symphony No. 4                                                         

Hector Berlioz – Witches’ Sabbath from Symphonie Fantastique                                           

Edward Elgar – Enigma Variations                                                                                       

Franz Joseph Haydn – Symphony No. 88                                                                           

W.A. Mozart – Finale from Symphony No. 41                                                                     

Richard Strauss – Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks                                                              

W.A. Mozart – Overture from The Marriage of Figaro                                                         

Igor Stravinsky – Gavotta from Pulcinella                                                                           

P.I. Tchaikovsky – Finale from Symphony No. 6                                                                  

Igor Stravinsky – The Rite of Spring                                                                                   

Bedrich Smetana – Overture from The Bartered Bride                                                        

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov – “Price Kalandar” from Scheherazade