These are double reeds used on
oboes, English horns and bassoons.
A few of the woodwinds employ two reeds in order to make sound. The cane reeds are placed against each other and the player holds them between the lips and blows air though them. They vibrate together and cause the whole instrument to make sound. The type of sound is determined by what type of instrument is attached to the reeds.
The double reeds seem to give this family of instruments a sort of "nasal" closed sound. The oboe and the English horn - which is longer - are constructed much like a clarinet, with a long wooden or resin body and lots of shiny metal keys. They also have cork joints and lots of pads to cover the holes.
The bassoon stretched out would be about 9 feet (almost 3 meters) long!
The bassoon is a larger version of the oboe which is about nine feet long! It has a bore which is doubled back on itself so that the player doesn't have to stand on a ladder to play it. The sound comes out of the top instead of the bottom. Since it is so long it makes a deep dark sound. Some of the older French bassoons made of maple wood have a brighter more oboe-like sound - but over time people opted for the darker sounding German version made of grenedilla wood or rosewood. (For an even deeper, darker sound, try the contrabassoon!) But bassoons are not made exclusively of wood. Like clarinets and oboes a bassoon may also be constructed of ABS resin.
