The bassoon is the instrument with the lowest pitch in the woodwind family.
It is really a sort of bass oboe,, having a double reed and a conical bore. The
tube is 9 feet long, and so is bent double to make it practically manageable.
It has the enormous range of 3½ octaves, from the 3rd Bb below middle C (MIDI Bb1) up to the 2nd D above middle C (MIDI D5).
There is a bassoon part in nearly all orchestral scores written since 1700, as well as in all chamber wind ensembles. There is not a great deal of solo music for the bassoon. Mozart wrote a bassoon concerto, as did 3 or 4 other composers. Probably the most famous bassoon passage is from Grieg's "In the Hall of the Mountain King" from his Peer Gynt suite, and another well-known extract is from Dukas's Sorcerer's Apprentice.