At a concert Wednesday, Per Hannevold’s music swayed from high notes to low notes, from allegro to adagio. For Hannevold, it was reminiscent of a past tug of war between a musician and his instruments.
The bassoon won.
Hannevold, a Norwegian bassoonist, visited the University this week as part of the School of Music’s Manship Guest Artist Series. Though he has been the principal bassoon of the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra in Norway since 1979, Hannevold was once caught in a love triangle with the trombone and the bassoon.
Hannevold grew up in a small town with a “good music life” that persuaded him to begin playing the trumpet. He soon switched to the trombone and later picked up the bassoon.
Studying the two instruments at the same time proved incompatible, though. The trombone has a mouthpiece while the bassoon has reeds, calling for different skill sets.
“My trombone teacher asked me to stop playing the bassoon because it ruined my trombone playing, and my bassoon teacher asked me to stop playing trombone because it ruined my bassoon playing,” Hannevold said.
When Hannevold discovered the bassoon — initially just “a strange sound I heard on the radio” — he knew he had to learn to play it. Hannevold said he realized he could not quit that dream. Instead, he quit the trombone and left for Oslo, Norway’s capital, to take bassoon lessons.
Hannevold, who also taught a guest lecture to University students this week, said one-to-one teaching is valuable, but musicians must learn to listen to and teach themselves.
“It’s learning about being able to stand alone,” he said.
Bassoonists, however, are never completely alone — their instruments often demand a relationship, according to visiting professor of bassoon Darrel Hale.
Commitment in this relationship is serious. A bassoon can carry a price tag of $50,000 or more. Beginner models cost about $7,000 — double the price of the average professional clarinet, Hale said.
One reason prices are so high is because bassoons are handcrafted by a few makers, Hale said. No parts are factory-made either.
A bassoon can survive about 80 years of use. Hale said they get better with age because the rubber lining loosens and lacquer starts to breathe. Each aging process and each instrument is distinct.
Although the School of Music will host two more bassoon recitals next month, those events are rarities, just like the musicians and instruments behind them, Hale said.
There are not many bassoon composers, so “you always get something different,” Hale said. Hannevold’s lineup Wednesday featured classical sounds as well as ragtime and jazz-inspired pieces.
Fortunately, the bassoon is versatile, with a sweet, lyrical side and clown-like staccato capabilities, Hale said. The bassoon’s “speaking quality” and wide note range positions it as the bass voice of the orchestra, but Hale said few people even know what the instrument is.
Like the oboe, although much larger, the bassoon is a double reed instrument. Hale said players must learn to handcraft their own reeds that suit their needs.
Perhaps more difficult to master is the bassoon’s nearly 30 keys that employ the thumbs, unlike any other wind instrument.
Hale said most instruments were updated in the 19th century, when the bassoon had only five keys. So-called improvements to the bassoon made it sound like a “bad saxophone,” Hale said, so bassoon builders added extra keys to expand the instrument’s abilities. The keys permit different intonations, or “how well notes speak,” he said.
In 1765, before all those keys were added, Hannevold’s orchestra in Norway was founded.
“We were playing Mozart when Mozart was still alive,” he noted.
Hannevold said he often reminds himself that he is a member of a long chain of musicians. Each member has a duty, he believes, to ensure music is passed along to the next generation in a good condition.

Gallery • 11 Photos

Angela Major

Bassoonist Per Hannevold, professor at the Greg Academy, University of Bergen and member of the Bergen Wind Quintet, performs Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2014 in the LSU School of Music Recital Hall.