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The contrabassoon is a supplementary orchestral instrument and has often been included in large works for symphony orchestra, doubling the bass trombone or the tuba to octave. Both Brahms and Mahler used it frequently. It is a very singular instrument: with a double reed and a lower octave, almost at the limit of human hearing. If we unfold it, measure about six meters, which when folded is 1.6 meters and weighs about ten kilos. It is a really big one that was developed in the middle of the 18th century (Bach already included it in Johannes Passion and Beethoven in the Fifth Symphony) and that Brahms used in great works such as Ein deutsches Requiem. You can see a copy in the Music Museum, a Buffet-Crampon donated by the OBC in 1978, when it was replaced by a more modern one.