Soon ‘as endangered as the panda’

August 3, 2015 5:23 pm 0 comments Views: 1

Giant panda Jia Jia eats bamboo next to her birthday cake. Pic: AP Photo/Kin Cheung.
Source: AP

LIONS, pandas, gorillas and …. now, the bassoon.

The what, you ask?

The bassoon, an orchestral woodwind instrument that Dutch musician Bram van Sambeek claims is at risk of extinction just like the endangered creatures named above.

The virtuoso bassoonist is so convinced it is on the verge of disappearing into the musical ether that he has launched a campaign to save it.

Not only that, but he has used a similar emblem made famous by the World Wide Fund for Nature to help highlight its scarcity.

The campaign began in Amsterdam in June and has since spread throughout Europe.

“The name of the campaign is deliberately quite dramatic because we want people to think about whether the bassoonist could be as endangered as the panda. There is a danger. And there is a danger to the future of the orchestra as a result,” van Sambeek told The Guardian.

“At the moment, only about one per cent of people on the street can even recognise this instrument,” he said. “I am always prepared for the fact that people won’t know what it is.”

Save the Bassoon began as part of the Holland festival, an annual arts event in Amsterdam run by British artistic director Ruth Mackenzie, The Guadian reported.

“We have big plans for bassoon events of the kind that cannot necessarily be performed in a normal concert hall. I expect to have news soon of how we will link up with musicians and orchestras in other countries. The most important thing is to have more international events under the label of Save the Bassoon.”

Bram van Sambeek with his bassoon. Picture: Wesley Monts
Source: News Corp Australia

Van Sambeek says it was his mother who introduced him to the bassoon, making him choose it based on the sound rather than what it looked like.

He said when he first heard its sound, he was hooked but fears other young musicians don’t get such an opportunity.

The bassoon, while regarded as the butt or orchestral jokes, is actually one of the more difficult instruments to learn.

It is also expensive which is one of the reasons aspiring musicians give it up.

“I played the bassoon from sixth grade to twelfth grade and then had to give it up because buying my own instrument to use in college and beyond was going to be extremely expensive,” Apartmentmanagerlady wrote on social media site Reddit. “Bassoons cost far more than your average violin or trumpet. I honestly would have loved to play professionally and still think about it often, but coming up with thousands of dollars just to be able to pick it up again as a hobby is not feasible even now that I am 30 years old. Maybe someday there will be actual wooden (not plastic) bassoons available for sale for a reasonable price so that more people would play them and schools could afford them.”

Reddit user iDelete_ laments the same.

“A lot of classical instruments have the same drawbacks. I mean I can get on craigslist and buy a decent guitar for a few hundred dollars. With that guitar, I can play rock, metal, jazz, country, blues, etc. I can gradually upgrade my equipment (amps, effects pedals).

“But a decent bassoon, like you said, costs thousands of dollars. There aren’t a lot of styles of music that demand bassoons.

“It’s a much narrower focus. Much like French horn or some of the other classical instruments mentioned here.

“I’m afraid that the idea of an endangered species is more apt than they even realise. It’s endangered because in a survival of the fittest scenario, something like a guitar has shown itself to be much more adaptable than a bassoon.”

However one Reddit user disagreed about the instrument’s potential demise.

“The bassoon has survived many centuries, in one form or another,” 0l_m00se wrote. “It will evolve and change.

“A bassoon does not cost $ 40,000 unless you want a brand new, top of the line Heckel, which most players don’t need. My bassoon costs under $ 15,000, and it suits all my needs. The bassoon will not die. It will evolve.”

Perhaps jazz flute legend Ron Burgundy could get behind the whirl-woodwind campaign?