''Rhapsody'' by

Willson Osborne Willson Osborne (1906–1979) was an American composer. After completing the undergraduate program in composition and music theory at the University of Michigan (studying with Ross Lee Finney), Osborne was a student of Paul Hindemith at Yale Unive ...

is a piece originally composed for solo

bassoon The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family, which plays in the tenor and bass ranges. It is composed of six pieces, and is usually made of wood. It is known for its distinctive tone color, wide range, versatility, and virtuo ...

and later adapted for

clarinet The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The instrument has a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell, and uses a single reed to produce sound. Clarinets comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitches ...

. The composition was first published by Peters in 1958. It is the most frequently performed work in the solo bassoon repertoire. Osborne recorded the rhapsody in collaboration with

Sol Schoenbach Sol Schoenbach ''(né'' Sol Israel Schoenbach; 1915 – 25 February 1999) was an American bassoonist and teacher. Career Schoenbach was a student of the distinguished bassoonist Simon Kovar. He studied at the New York University, and held h ...

for a 1952 radio program of contemporary American music run by WNYC in New York. The piece's working title was "Study for Bassoon", but Osborne intended to make it playable on clarinet as well. According to the composer the piece was written as "abstract music" using "the Oriental technique of variation, in which short song-like fragments are in turn developed". The work is notable for its extensive use of descriptive instructions: only two staves have no such markings.

References

Compositions for bassoon Solo clarinet pieces {{composition-stub