Herbert Howells (1892-1983) was an English composer and teacher who is perhaps best known for his choral music in the Anglican tradition most famously his voluminous settings of the evening canticles.Minuet was composed in 1945 for solo Bassoon with Piano accompaniment. It was written for the birthday of Hugh Crosthwaite an English academic and amateur bassoonist who was studying at that time at Cambridge where Howells was working as an acting Organist for the duration of the war. It is subtitled Grace for a Fresh Egg; i.e. a thanksgiving for what was a rarity in wartime Britain.

After the Oboe and Clarinet sonata the Bassoon sonata forms the conclusion of the wind compositions from Saint-Saens due to his death in 1921 - the also planned Sonata for English Horn never to be composed.Playing thehumorous not too technically demanding work you can hardly imagine that the composer did not feel particularly familiar on this instrument.