Low B flat, the lowest tone in music that is not just a grunt, is sounded in orchestras by the contrabassoon or the contrabass tuba. Beethoven used the big woodwind in his Ninth Symphony. Haydn in his ...
In 1979 Lewis Lipnick, the contrabassoonist of the National Symphony Orchestra, played the world premiere of the first concerto ever written for this gigantic and growl-y instrument, which can descend ...