Digital sound archive for bassoon

There is no way around the creative, constructive and also critical examination of the opportunities and risks of digital communication for art and culture. The interest of cultural institutions that applied to the Aventis Foundation for funding for their digital projects as part of the "experimente#digital" cultural initiative showed that the topic is topical and is gaining in importance as digital technology and networking progress.

The foundation awarded funding to seven projects. One of the funded projects was the digital sound archive for bassoon, which was created at the University of Music and Performing Arts in collaboration with the Institute for Contemporary Music IzM under the project management of Johannes Schwarz.

Digital Sound Archive for Bassoon: A Pilot Project

With the help of digital techniques, the Institute for Contemporary Music at the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts aims to make the tonal possibilities of instruments accessible to an extent not previously known. Starting with the bassoon, the digital sound archive will promote contemporary artistic creation through the exchange of playing techniques. It will be available free of charge on the Internet and will be used as a reference work and source of tonal inspiration as well as for basic scientific research.

After completion of the pilot project for bassoon and its recording completion, the sound archive will be extended to other instruments. With an intuitively understandable and user-friendly appearance, multilingual explanations, instructions on playing techniques as well as search and listening functions will be usable. With this sound archive and its integration into the training system, the University of Music and Performing Arts is taking on a pioneering role.

With the kind support of the Aventis Foundation.

Bassoon notation database, 26000 sound samples and rollover "baooooh"

We (MESO Digital Interiors GmbH) developed an online bassoon sound-encyclopedia for bassoonist Johannes Schwarz. It is the most extensive contemporary sound archive for the bassoon, including more than 26,000 different sounds and more than 100,000 specific items of information on tones, noises, notation, and different styles of playing. The online archive is available all over the world and is suitable for both amateurs and musicologists.

The archive is intended to provide composers and musicians with a communication tool to explore the possibilities of the bassoon. At the same time, amateurs have a comprehensive source of general information and can easily find answers to more specific questions.

The archive contains traditional playing styles as well as all other possible playing styles of the instrument, including recordings, analysis, and descriptions of all playable tones and noises.

The tool is already being used in the academic and artistic field, for example, in joint workshops with students of the master's course or at rehearsals for chamber orchestra performances. Further expansions such as an intuitive input of fingering options, a mobile version, and a tool for automatic tone detection via smartphone are conceivable.