where does the bassoon sit in the orchestra
Woodwind section The woodwind section of the late 19th-century symphony orchestra (for instance, in compositions by Wagner, Brahms, Bruckner, Tchaikovsky, and Richard Strauss) typically includes: flutes (sometimes with one doubling piccolo)[vague], oboes[vague] (sometimes with one doubling cor anglais), clarinets[vague] (sometimes with one doubling bass clarinet and/or another doubling E-flat clarinet), bassoons[vague] (sometimes with one doubling contrabassoon).[1] The section might also on occasion be supplemented with saxophones.[1] In the early part of the 20th century the woodwinds (as well as other sections) were often considerably expanded. For example, Mahler in his Symphony No. 8 (1910) employs 2 piccolos, 4 flutes, 4 oboes, cor anglais, 2 E-flat clarinets, 3 B-flat clarinets, bass clarinet, 4 bassoons, and contrabassoon.[1] After World War I, the number of instruments was often reduced, approaching the size of a chamber orchestra, with individual instrument combinations differing for each composition. The change can be illustrated by comparing two works by Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring (1911â€“1913) with a large woodwinds section similar to the above and his Histoire du soldat (1918), which only utilizes one clarinet and one bassoon.[1]