Bassoon Duets from Orchestral Excerpts Vol. 1

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.

Duets included:

Giuseppe Verdi – Quid sum miser from Requiem                                                                 

Ludwig van Beethoven – Ode to Joy from Symphony No. 9                                                  

Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky – Canzona from Symphony No. 4                                                    

Johannes Brahms – Violin Concerto Movement II                                                               

Paul Dukas – The Sorceror’s Apprentice                                                                              

Felix Mendelssohn – Symphony No. 4 Movement II                                                            

Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky – Symphony No. 6                                                                        

Gustav Mahler – Symphony No. 1 Movement III                                                                 

Ludwig van Beethoven – Violin Concerto Movement II                                                       

Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky – Waltz from Symphony No. 5                                                       

Johannes Brahms – Haydn Variations                                                                                

Georges Bizet – Les Dragons d’Alcala, Entr’acte from Carmen Act II                                   

Edvard Grieg – In the Hall of the Mountain King from Peer Gynt Suite #1, Op. 46                 

Jean Sibelius – Andante from Symphony No. 2                                                                  

Hector Berlioz – March to the Scaffold from Symphonie Fantastique