Paul Coats
07-27-2003, 04:47 AM
Many years ago when Santy played in the Chicago Theatre, he doubled on all the woodwinds, one of which was bassoon. Sam Jordan, bassoonist at that time with the Chicago Symphony, dropped by Santy's studio and said, "Santy, I have admired your playing on the radio for some time now, but I just found out that it was also you playing the bassoon!"
Santy did not have time to fool around with bassoon reeds, and had devised a small bassoon mouthpiece that fit on the bassoon's bocal in place of the double reed. Sam Jordan took one to try and found that Santy's bassoon mouthpiece did not make the raucous low F (that has that odd overtone). So, he used it for recording some of the pieces he played with the Chicago Symphony's Woodwind Quintet.
After seeing one of Santy's bassoon mouthpieces Jack Linton was inspired to create a tiny silver oboe mouthpiece.
Runyon Products manufactured these bassoon mouthpieces for many years, and still does to this day. As an aside, I wish you guys had heard Santy do Yakety Sax on the bassoon! Hah!
Anyway, back to the story... about 5 years ago I had attended the Midwest Clinic with Santy, and was assisting him at his booth. I had a Runyon Products ID badge to get into the show with him. Going up to my room a lady in the elevator with me noticed the Runyon badge on my lapel and mentioned she was a bassoonist. She said that she was one of Sam Jordan's students and still used the Runyon bassoon mouthpiece on some numbers.
"Too bad they don't make those anymore," she commented, "I would love to have all my students get them."
"Well, the Runyon booth is right downstairs in the expo, and they have those mouthpieces," I told her. She came down later and bought ALL of them!
These mouthpieces use a standard clarinet reed. A 2 to 2 1/2 reed works best, and the extra edge from a Rico Plasticover seems to give the best bassoon tone.
Schreiber of Germany used to buy these and put them in with their student bassoons, and many universities have used them for their woodwind classes for music education majors. You know, those classes where you have to take a semester on each instrument.
Band directors... you need a bassoonist for your junior high or high school? It is easy to have a clarinetist or saxophonist double with this mouthpiece. In fact, I assisted a young flutist with this. Within 5 minutes she was making a VERY good bassoon tone. She needed help with assembling the instrument (HAH!!!), and with the fingerings, which are quite strange, but obtaining a good tone was no problem at all. Yes, within MINUTES. And a listener would never know, without seeing, that it was not a regular double reed.
No, it was not invented for using the bassoon in marching band. It was invented for doubling by a single reed player.
If the fit is not perfect on the bocal, wrap a piece of clear scotch tape around the end of the bocal to obtain a good fit. The Runyon bassoon mouthpiece is pushed onto the bocal all the way until it bottoms out. Tuning is still done where the bocal plugs into the body of the bassoon, just as when using a double reed. The teeth may be rested on top of the mouthpiece, as is done with saxophone and clarinet, or a bassoon style double-lip embouchure may be used.
For about the price of three commercially made bassoon reeds you can buy one of these mouthpieces, and have plenty of money left over for some clarinet reeds. They are absolutely amazing. Current retail price is $50.00 USD.
At the Runyon site, www.runyonproducts.com, click Clarinet at the hotlink near the bottom of the page.
Santy did not have time to fool around with bassoon reeds, and had devised a small bassoon mouthpiece that fit on the bassoon's bocal in place of the double reed. Sam Jordan took one to try and found that Santy's bassoon mouthpiece did not make the raucous low F (that has that odd overtone). So, he used it for recording some of the pieces he played with the Chicago Symphony's Woodwind Quintet.
After seeing one of Santy's bassoon mouthpieces Jack Linton was inspired to create a tiny silver oboe mouthpiece.
Runyon Products manufactured these bassoon mouthpieces for many years, and still does to this day. As an aside, I wish you guys had heard Santy do Yakety Sax on the bassoon! Hah!
Anyway, back to the story... about 5 years ago I had attended the Midwest Clinic with Santy, and was assisting him at his booth. I had a Runyon Products ID badge to get into the show with him. Going up to my room a lady in the elevator with me noticed the Runyon badge on my lapel and mentioned she was a bassoonist. She said that she was one of Sam Jordan's students and still used the Runyon bassoon mouthpiece on some numbers.
"Too bad they don't make those anymore," she commented, "I would love to have all my students get them."
"Well, the Runyon booth is right downstairs in the expo, and they have those mouthpieces," I told her. She came down later and bought ALL of them!
These mouthpieces use a standard clarinet reed. A 2 to 2 1/2 reed works best, and the extra edge from a Rico Plasticover seems to give the best bassoon tone.
Schreiber of Germany used to buy these and put them in with their student bassoons, and many universities have used them for their woodwind classes for music education majors. You know, those classes where you have to take a semester on each instrument.
Band directors... you need a bassoonist for your junior high or high school? It is easy to have a clarinetist or saxophonist double with this mouthpiece. In fact, I assisted a young flutist with this. Within 5 minutes she was making a VERY good bassoon tone. She needed help with assembling the instrument (HAH!!!), and with the fingerings, which are quite strange, but obtaining a good tone was no problem at all. Yes, within MINUTES. And a listener would never know, without seeing, that it was not a regular double reed.
No, it was not invented for using the bassoon in marching band. It was invented for doubling by a single reed player.
If the fit is not perfect on the bocal, wrap a piece of clear scotch tape around the end of the bocal to obtain a good fit. The Runyon bassoon mouthpiece is pushed onto the bocal all the way until it bottoms out. Tuning is still done where the bocal plugs into the body of the bassoon, just as when using a double reed. The teeth may be rested on top of the mouthpiece, as is done with saxophone and clarinet, or a bassoon style double-lip embouchure may be used.
For about the price of three commercially made bassoon reeds you can buy one of these mouthpieces, and have plenty of money left over for some clarinet reeds. They are absolutely amazing. Current retail price is $50.00 USD.
At the Runyon site, www.runyonproducts.com, click Clarinet at the hotlink near the bottom of the page.