Through the bassoon literature, I identified three different types of tremolo that can be played on the contraforte:
- A Berio sequenza-type tremolo, which is a fast distorted effect based on standard fingering but over an octave.
- Standard fingerings effectively used in the middle register and,
- Tremolos using non-standard fingerings. I was influenced by playing Billone’s bassoon pieces and focused on the contraforte between C3 to C5 on the contraforte using auxiliary keys (these being the three octave keys, E♭, and C#).
- A short video below demonstrates these:
The chart above shows tremolos based on the five auxiliary keys. The boxed note is the note to be played, while the 1,2,3 refers to the octave keys to be used. There are also references for the use of keys C#, Eflat, and B flat.
Contemporary Contraforte 