Where Are All The Oboists These Days? Options

[A.U.K]

Lordy Lord it seems that all the Oboe threads have vanished in my absence..I see there are a couple one about reeds (no surprise there then.. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif) ) and one by Notmusicmum about Dynamics but all the Oboe ones seem to have vanished..

I have been on my travels recouperating after a long spell in Hospital, having collapsed at the IDRS last summer in Birmingham on the first evening can you believe it..I wound up in Birmingham city Hospital and then got shipped off a few days later to West Bromwich with my Oboe and Cor in their double case..I would like to add that my dear friend Marsha Burkett a lovely American Oboist came completely to my rescue and ran back and forth to the hospital with messages and gifts from so many of the performers and companies with CD's etc, their genrosity and kindness astounded me..Thankfully I lived to tell the tale but it was a bad time..

So its nice to be back online I thought I would stop by and say hello..I hope everyone is well and enjoying their music making. See you all soon..

Andrew

[Isi]

Hi Andrew

I am by no means an oboist, but a very enthusiastic beginner! (3 lessons so far (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) )
I read any and all oboe threads with huge interest, and spend most of my time feeling completely flummoxed!

I look forward to one day being able to join in conversations about reeds, technique, fingerings, repertoire etc etc but at this point am still struggling with how to tongue!

Everyone on here seems very knowledgable and keen to help so I look forward to more interesting threads in the future!

[katica]

Hi Andrew

I am by no means an oboist, but a very enthusiastic beginner! (3 lessons so far (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) )
I read any and all oboe threads with huge interest, and spend most of my time feeling completely flummoxed!

I look forward to one day being able to join in conversations about reeds, technique, fingerings, repertoire etc etc but at this point am still struggling with how to tongue!

Everyone on here seems very knowledgable and keen to help so I look forward to more interesting threads in the future!

Of course you are an oboist! And don't worry - feeling flummoxed will very quickly give way to complete addiction to all this "stuff". So glad it's going well...

My first teacher used reeds built like pieces of steel and my current teacher is similar, so I've got used to the tougher european scrape and have a very strong embouchure now - as I discovered when I cracked an expensive Fortay reed!

This happened to me in the middle of a recital! Mind you, my reed wasn't like "steel" but had been rather overly well "domesticated"- "had the life scraped out of it" no doubt some of you would say, and well "played ". I finished my piece (fortunately) but had to rush outside for a new reed, do a doublequick warm-up and rush back on for a duet. Horrible!

As a cheap alternative for an adjustable thumbrest, buy a clarinet one. They are much cheaper than oboe ones and fit. I bought one via mail order for my oboe and cor anglais after seeing a post on here somewhere. (I think Skylark started it).

Good tip! I just found out that my teacher did the exact same thing on his Lor?e.



ON REEDS... fascinating AUK and kerioboe. I wish we could meet up so I could actually see what you're talking about. I can sort of imagine but not quite...

Note these are the ramblings of a rank novice who hasn't scraped a reed which can be played on yet. Please discuss if you think it's worthwhile - or put me in my place

American reeds.
On the one hand, Europeans like to say that Americans scrape the life out of their reeds (I think it was Holliger who said it first). Americans counter that scraping windows in the reed helps the back to vibrate producing more low harmonics hence a richer sound.

Americans seem to think Europeans sound thin and reedy. Strangely, Europeans seem to think the same of the Americans.

pushpull - where would be that place that we could possibly put you???!!!

Ah yes, that American-European thing again...

I have a completely personal theory about this mutual perception. I think they mean different things by "thin". To folks over here (American-influenced largely) and even a bit to me, European (and quite a few British) players often sound reedy with bit of a "brassy" ring that folks here call "brilliant". I don't like using the world "brilliant" because I think it means something else to me. But somehow they associate that brightness/reediness with thinness. Of course this is a gross generalisation because many British and other players vary a lot, to the extent it's difficult really to say that there is a distinguishable British or European sound.

On the other hand, there are quite a few American-style players who have a clear, sweet sound but without that brassy reverberation that to European ears gives the sound more "meat" - and therefore also sound "thin" but in a different way.

Something like that, anyway.

I've never heard of anyone accusing a German player of sounding "thin", though. Have you?

My unscientific research (which consists of listening to oboists) concludes that the player makes a bigger difference than the reed. Indeed I know one player who having learned for years on very heavy German scrape reeds and producing a big, rich sound (on a Loree!) now uses an American scrape (because the market she is in now demands it) and I can't detect much difference to the sound she makes.

I'm still "out" on this one. Certainly my teacher has a quite rich, full sound in all registers - more than some other very good oboists who studied with the same teachers and scrape similar American-style reeds. I think he sounds a bit closer to a "German" sound, if that exists. (Indeed, his fantasy is a Ludwig Frank oboe.)

On the other hand, I know that different reeds can make quite a big difference to my own sound. A while back I had a favourite reed which was almost at its perfect point (it's a shame that doesn't last, isn't it?!). Then my teacher made me a new reed, with new materials I had bought in Birmingham last year. Usually I struggle a bit with new reeds - it takes a few days for me to like them. But almost immediately this was a huge pleasure. Though a bit hard at first it produced a wonderful dark, vibrant sound. At section practice with the flutes, though, I noticed it needed a bit of adjustment (very slightly flat) so I got out my other reed and warmed up... They all turned round and gasped! The sound of the older reed was so noticeably more bright and reedy that one of them actually thought I had changed to a completely different instrument! Sadly, the lovely dark reed only lasted about three weeks...

But I suppose kerioboe's teacher would prove to me that I could have produced something better on my old brassy reed?