In The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, the variation for this instrument is a march.
In the fourth movement of Shostakovich's Ninth Symphony, this instrument plays solos between brass passages; later, it opens the fifth movement. In The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, the variation for this instrument is a march. Two of them introduce the song "What comes there from on high?" in the Academic Festival Overture. Strings and this instrument open the overture to The (*) Marriage of Figaro. In The Elixir of Love, a solo for this instrument introduces the main theme of the aria "Una furtiva lagrima." It plays a solo in the lullaby from The Firebird. The Rite of Spring opens with a solo for this instrument, which represents the grandfather in Peter and the Wolf. For 10 points, name this instrument whose "contra" variety is the lowest-pitched woodwind instrument.
In the fourth movement of Shostakovich's Ninth Symphony, this instrument plays solos between brass passages; later, it opens the fifth movement.
bassoons [or fagotto; or fagotti]