The bassoon is a 17th-century development of the earlier sordone, fagotto, or dulzian, known in England as the curtal. It was first mentioned about 1540 in Italy as an instrument with both ascending and descending bores contained in a single piece of maple or pear wood. Many examples of these early instruments survive in European museums. The present construction in four separate joints is thought to have been developed in France by 1636. The development of the bassoon, which is the bass voice of the woodwinds, is believed to have closely followed the reconstitution of the shawm as an oboe.

During the 18th century, the bassoon's value to the ensemble was first recognized, and, to the present day, Western orchestras have typically employed two bassoons. It also became valued as a solo instrument, particularly for concerti (concerto). Well into the late 18th century, no mechanism was used beyond the four keys, as most semitones outside the natural scale of C were obtained by cross-fingerings opening the holes nonconsecutively. Keys were added from about 1780 to approximately 1840, when the Paris models of Jean-Nicholas Savary, with additional improvements in bore and mechanism, became the 20-keyed standard. That version, made by the firm of Buffet-Crampon, continues to be used in France, Italy, and Spain and by some British players.

In 1825 Carl Almenräder, a German instrument maker, initiated alterations that minimized the inherent unevenness of tone and the unsteadiness of the notes typical of the French version of the bassoon. A reformed model was developed by the firm of Johann Adam Heckel and perfected in the German bassoon that is now standard everywhere except in France, Italy, and Spain. It is made of European maple, with its own positions and sizes of the holes to give a more even and positive response throughout the instrument's range.