You can ask Howarths to put you on a list to be informed when they get a second-hand cor in as they told me that most of the time conservatoire cors don't even make it onto their list.

My teacher sold his cor last year as he got fed up of the professional orchestra he sometimes plays for when they need an extra oboist asking to borrow his cor to give to someone else to play. He said he would buy another one when the orchestra had bought their own.

Thanks for the tip!



I bet that would be a problem for me too... People would start asking to borrow the cor for private gigs.

I WOULD NEVER LEND MY COR OR OBOE TO ANYONE. PERIOD...I go hot and cold at the thought of it..

NEVER lend out what you cannot afford to replace..I don't care who it is..

"Sorry Albrecht Lovey you should have bought yours with you"...

The reeds for my oboe have arrived.

I can actually get an oboe like sound out of my oboe

Now to find a teacher....................

While you make a joke about Albrecht I do think that my teacher, as a professional, was in a slightly more awkward position than you or Katica or I would be. The orchestra employs him when they need a third oboe (and occasionally if one of the two permanent oboes is unavailable for some reason). They hired the cor from him (so all above board and insured in case of damage and he got some money for it) and he didn't feel he could refuse because then they might cross him off their list of potential players. He wanted to be hired alongside the cor

And Katica, if you buy a thumbplate cor, no one will borrow it from you because they won't be able to play it

I know you didn't like the thumbplate oboe you tried but I doesn't necessarily mean you won't like a thumbplate cor. In some ways I find the thumbplate more comfortable as it makes the cor slightly thicker and I seriously considered buying a dual system oboe ... until I tried one and hated it because I couldn't remember to keep my thumb down. Somehow my brain thinks of the cor and oboe as two different sets of fingerings without a problem but refuses to rethink the fingering on the oboe - that's why I compared it to playing descant and treble recorders.

Excellent ---- how exciting

Hope you enjoy it - really is the best instrument ever!!

Enjoy
You should definitely have a go at the Poulenc 1st movement and you could probably have a good stab at the first two movements of the Saint saens too. I first looked at the Poulenc not long after starting lessons with my current teacher so probably about grade 6/7.

Arethusa - is generally going OK, the first and third sections are feeling a lot smoother and more secure now. The trills are definitely getting better but I am not happy with them yet - they sound rather lumpy and uneven still.

Handel - I'd like the last set of semis in movement 2 to be a bit more secure but generally this is OK. Need to make sure that I breathe in the right places! Need to be careful of intonation in first movement. The hardest thing in this is the very first note I think! That C on the oboe can be a pretty horrible note and I find it can so easily be flat...not a great note to start the exam on. But at least I feel like the piece can only get better!
I spent a lot of time on these over the summer playing the notes in groups of 5 with a metronome, gradually edging up the speed, to try and make them even. It definitely improved them a lot but, the first one especially, can still sound a bit lumpy and uncontrolled around the break.

I had a bad reed day yesterday - my teacher did say it would probably need some adjustment but I was really struggling to get anything about a D out cleanly and all the low notes were horrible flat. I think it was compounded by overdoing it a bit at the weekend - I managed 90 minutes on both Sat and Sunday, and yesterday I was just blowing raspberries into it so struggled to get through an hour. Hopefully tonight will be better at orchestra, may need to play one of my older, more comfortable, reeds.

I hope you managed to sort your reeds out. Autumn has suddenly arrived here - cold and wet - and my reeds don't like it

I am, however, feeling quite excited as I have just found out that I'm going to be able to play Gabriel's Oboe again in the Christmas concert (I just have to stop worrying about whether I can play it as well a second time and convince myself that having done it once, I can do it again ).

oooh, how exciting. I'm sure you'll be fab. - and if you have done it once you can definitely do it again.

My teacher adjusted my new reed today so it is much better now, thanks. I had another session with my accompanist this evening, and I am pretty sure that I am going to go for the Poulenc rather than the Saint-Saens. It just sounded so much better and I do prefer it. Just waiting for a date now.

Excellent choice. I'm pretty sure if I was at your level it's the one I would pick. Have you heard Emily Pailthorpe's recording? Wonderful.

I think this is one of the best showcase pieces for the oboe (very good writing by Ennio Morricone), very lyrical and in a lovely key to play. The major problem (for me) is getting the rhythms accurately to keep in step with the steady accompaniment.

The cynic in me wonders how Father Gabriel thought his oboe would survive the climactic conditions in the jungle, let alone hostile natives (see here for the story). Did he not consult the experts on this forum for advice?

Hmm. I think it's pretty ordinary. Though I agree some of the rhythms are, erm, interesting (and that's playing a simplified version I think).

I guess he used a Buffet Greenline

I think geuine baroque (eg Telemann) is musically superior but it is very lyrical and non-oboists seem to like listening to it. What I really enjoyed (and am looking forward to again) was the experience of being accompanied by a string orchestra - a completely different experience to being accompanied by a piano.





Although, I think Katica once contemplated playing this in situ .

A shame he wasn't in demand for film scores eh?

A real shame (Reminds me of a meeting at my university once when we were trying to decide who to invite as a guest speaker at a conference at someone remarked that we should avoid the temptation to invite a living novelist ).

Shock of shocks in my oboe lesson today my teacher said : "I don't know if I ought to tell you this but for the first time ever your crescendo was too long"

Owowowow!!! I just got out of hospital and giggled so much at this it hurt (wound still a bit sore)!
(Oboe teacher phoned earlier and also full of naughty jokes so doubly sore!!!)



That's a brilliant idea!!!

Actually, I didn't dislike the thumbplate - it was just hard to get used to and I was very glad to get back to my beloved XL. Definitely worth considering a TP cor, especially if it opens up the options...



I'm sure you will too...


I did indeed. More than contemplate it, in fact. I have a facebook profile picture as evidence... In fact it wasn't in Paraguay with the Guarani (where the film is set) but in Bolivia in the Chiquitan?a - but it's all Franciscan/Jesuit mission territory and the Chiquitanos have really kept the baroque tradition alive.

Probably scored a wapping raspberry on the pushpull naff-o-metre, though!

Over and out for tonight. Don't think I'm going to have much energy these days except for oboe threads...

Glad you're on the road to recovery Katica, hope it's swift & trouble free
Take Care & listen to lots of lovely oboe music.

Rubbra Oboe Sonata

Any oboe news?

Hope you are recovering well Katica.

Not much to report here, just putting off going upstairs to practice scales. Exam 2 weeks today.

Very best of luck with the exam Flobiano

Should be plenty of oboe news to report next week.

The Gloucester Adult Learner's Concert on Saturday, followed by The Big Double Reed Day on
Sunday, followed by a trip to Howarth's on Monday.

I can feel my purse getting considerably lighter already!

Thank you, I feel like I'll need it - seem to be getting worse rather than better at the moment.

Hope you have a lovely weekend, sounds fab. I look forward to hearing all about it!

Yep, there will be a lot to report...

flobiano, all the best!!! Feeling like it's getting worse right now might be a good sign - you'll be on the up for the exam! Certainly better than feeling it's getting worse the night before.

The first few days back home I was doing really brilliantly - loads better than I expected - and then nose-dived. Apparently that's very normal. Probably doing more than I should. Saturday I snuck out (with all due precautions) to hear our Symphony Orchestra (Rossini, Ravel, Prokovief - Alexander Nevsky), justifying recuperation disobedience with arguments to self about the curative power of music. It was good timing actually as 2nd oboe actually gets some solos in AN, so teacher duly stood up by the conductor to take his applause.

Haven't been able to do much musical other than listening, though I do have a small keyboard to play with beside the bed (found it's actually quite fun and ordered a tutor book). And another day I got as far as putting the recorders together but realised it was going to be one of those days I needed to spend largely lying down.

All in all, things going very well. When I think I'm going to go potty I just remember that getting back to the oboe will be longer if I don't take it easy now...

Good to know you're on the mend Katica.
I think the concert was justifiable too - glad you enjoyed it, & yes, music has amazing powers to cure & soothe.
Take Care & before long, you'll be oboing again!
Helen X

I had a really enjoyable lesson tonight playing bits of the Molique Concertino In some ways it was one of the strangest lessons I've had as my teacher just seemed to be picking bars out at random and flicking backwards and forwards from one page to another (there are six pages of it). After a while, I decided to suggest a a few bars that I had been having particular trouble with. Although there didn't seem to be much logic to what he was doing, by the end of the lesson I realised that I actually have a very clear idea of what the particular problems are and how to work on them.

He also managed one of those "instant successes", which are always gratifying. I had become very frustrated by one particular passage where I just couldn't get the articulation right at speed despite trying lots of different ways of practising it. I was convinced that I was having problems with the detached notes, my teacher insisted that it was with the slurred notes and that if I focussed on the slurred notes, the detached notes would look after themselves. Amazingly, after playing it once with a heavy accent on the first note of each slur and ghosting all the other notes, I was able to play the whole passage at speed with the correct articulation (Of course it remains to be seen whether I can still do it tomorrow but I am hopeful that it was not just a fluke).

He is going to try and make arrangements for me to play it with a pianist on the 18th Fortunately the pianist is only there on Fridays and next Friday (the 11th) is a bank holiday so that gives me an extra week to try and iron out the remaining problems.

He also told me that he had been contacted by the other music school to ask if he had an "advanced" pupil who would be interested in playing some chamber music so he gave them my phone number. He did tell me not to get too excited in case they decide that they can't have someone from the "wrong" music school and change the repertoire they've chosen so that they don't need an oboist but I'm keeping my fingers crossed - one of the pieces is the Mozart quartet.

OOW how exciting - Hope it comes to fruittion & glad you had such a positive lesson - it's always so encouraging when that happens.

Hardying, I think on another thread you said you are playing an oboe/flute/piano trio at the Gloucester event. If this is the case, would you mind telling me what you are playing?

I have started playing music with a flautist once a week. This morning we played the slow movement of Dring's trio for oboe/flute/piano and I think it's I have ordered a copy of the Jacob for flute and piano that Katica mentioned but other ideas of other things to explore would be welcome

Yes, it's the Quantz Trio Sonata in C minor & we're playing it tomorrow at the Gloucester adult learner's concert! It's a really lovely piece - we're only doing the 1st 2 movements as time is limited, but the whole sonata is lovely!

Hope you enjoy playing with the flautist - chamber music is the best I reckon, as it's more relaxed & intimate than an orchestra & you have more choice over what you play.

You're the second person to suggest this, so I think I might look into getting a copy. I hope you enjoy playing it tomorrow


I'm very much enjoying playing with the flautist. She is about my age and she started flute lessons at the same music school the same year I started oboe lessons (although she is a flute-returnee, having learnt as a child and then not played for twenty years) but we only discovered each other's existence last year when the music school created an orchestra.

The only thing that is stressing me is that we are going to play to her teacher either next week or the week after. Her teacher was the one who provided us with the first piece (a Telemann duet) but I was secretly hoping that we would be able to play it to my teacher first. Unfortunately though the flautist works on the day my teacher teaches and I don't work on the day she has her lesson so the sensible thing is for me to go to hers rather than try to rearrange things. Her teacher was on the jury for my exam last year and, although she is probably perfectly nice, in my head she is associated with a stressful situation and I don't like playing in front of strangers anyway

Feeling very happy and comforted today because I just got a phonecall from the principal oboist of our National Symphony Orchestra to see how I am getting along.
He's my flatmate's teacher and a thoroughly nice man,


I hope it's not too easy for you. I haven't played it properly yet but it's certainly not beyond intermediate level. My flautist friend says she's really been enjoying it...

I am duly putting the Dring on MY to-buy wishlist. Which Telemann have you been playing?

I do hope it turns out to be a lot of fun and a lot less stressful than you expect.


Have lots of fun, Hardying!!!! Looking forward to hearing how it goes...

My oboe hasn't had an outing from its case for quite a while I suppose I should really alter that

I have suddenly found a motivation to learn to play loudly and confidently. As I have mentioned in other posts, my windbands have an accordionist playing the oboe part and I am finding it increasingly frustrating. Initially it was hard because everyone (conductors included) expected me to sound like the accordion and of course I don't because I'm not an accordion. More recently I have been finding it frustrating that I can't phrase things (for example decide where I'm breathing) my way and also that whenever we don't play something exactly together it is always my "fault" (even when it's not).

Anyway, a new oboist has turned up. She is much better than me - she wanted to be a professional when she was younger and did have the odd engagement with professional orchestras but got fed up of not having a regular wage and became a classroom teacher instead. She said she hasn't played regularly for over ten years but she is still by far the best player in the whole windband. We had an all-day rehearsal yesterday and I discovered that she can drown out the accordion. I am jealous She didn't play loudly all the time but when the accordionist was trying to play something "his" way, she just somehow "turned on" a more forceful sound and you could only hear her. And he only tried to tell her once that she had made a mistake when they weren't together.

My teacher said to me once that he suspected that one of the reasons I have trouble playing loudly is that I don't really see any fundamental need for it and that wanting to do it to please him is not sufficient to overcome my natural introversion. I am now wondering if I can turn up to my next lesson saying I have just discovered I do have a "fundamental need" to play loudly

Excellent - glad to hear you have an ally against the accordian too.

Hope your chamber music opportunity materialises. Sounds like fun, I have been trying to set a date to get together with some friends from orchestra to play some chamber music -think it is likely to be in the new year now.

Katica - how nice of him to ring you up! Hope you are continuing to recover.

I'm still just doing exam prep, just want to get it out of the way now. Only a week to go!

You could try the Salieri concerto. It's not particularly difficult and rather nice. I had an oboist boyfriend in the youth orchestra I was in many years ago, so I have some flute and oboe repertoire.

Had a great time at my first 'Big Double Reed' event. Day just flew by. Started with a reed making session and I got to scrape my first reed

The recital/concert was excellent featuring Baroque instruments all the way through to Chris Redgate's 20th Century Oboe ( I have enough to cope with semitones let alone 1/4 tones!! )

Also enjoyed the playing Workshop and Rachel Broadbent was lovely, givng me alot of new things to think about

Tried out a Cor - I want one - and enjoyed the Massed Ensemble Rehearsal and Performance at the end

Great day, I'll be back next year

I have just taken my oboe to my local repair workshop.

The instrument is a Howarth S20 which is around a year old, but the joints (particularly the bottom one) were getting very tight and I was afraid I was going to bend or break something in assembling it or taking it apart. In half an hour, she fixed that problem (scraping wood from inside the joints), tightened up a couple of screws that were on the point of falling out (I hadn't noticed ), adjusted the linkages in the F / Eb / C# area and provided advice on a couple of areas (oiling and servicing) that I would trust over other sources.

She then popped in a reed (she is an oboe player and specialises in double reed instruments) and doodled for a minute or so to check all the keys worked to her satisfaction and it sounded OK to her ears. That trip is the best thing I have done in a long time and I will definitely return there in the future at the first sign of any trouble, and rather earlier than I had left the stiff joint problem.

I had quite a comic lesson this afternoon.

I played the second movement of the Madeline Dring trio in my lesson this afternoon with my teacher sight-reading the flute part. He coped admirably with pretending to be a flute until there was a stratospheric B (or C I've forgotten which), at which point his oboe gave a sort of squawk and he said "I don't even know what that's supposed to be"

Then in the Molique Concertino he told me that one of my turns wasn't quite in place rhythmically. Unfortunately it is on a B and is followed by a C. He decided to sing it to help me so I was saying in my head B,C,B,A,B,C and he was singing Si,Do,Si,La,Si,Do. Since my "c" was at a different time to his "si", the end result was that I got totally confused and couldn't even play the right notes in the right order. He couldn't understand why I was getting worse instead of better so in the end I said the note names are just too confusing and he decided he'd sing them in English instead. He had four or five attempts and discovered that not only did he keep singing the wrong note but he was concentrating so hard on trying to sing the right note that he wasn't in rhythm At which point he said he hadn't realised how confusing it must be for me and he was impressed that I didn't get more of his instructions wrong more often.

kerioboe! (My teacher needs to talk to your teacher! )

While on a health-related Forum for women, I just came across this:

"I do notice a difference without the uterus but it's like a symphony without an oboe, not a huge loss."

As you say:

Did the poster say why she had decided the oboe was not particularly essential to a symphony orchestra?

I think I'm right in saying that several Mozart symphonies do not have oboe parts. He WAS of course hugely impressed by both the basset horn and clarinet. I've often thought the arrival of the clarinet on the scene must have been a bit like the first Les Paul electric guitars. All that power.

That quotation did make me think "so that is what I've been blowing into".

Nope. Just what it says here. The reference was actually to the uterus not being essential to "intimate relations" but I thought that might be too much information!!!!


The famous No.40 is scored for two oboes. Apparently he re-wrote the oboe and flute parts to accommodate the clarinets - as you say, must have been an exciting development. I may be wrong but I think No.41 has no claris and No.39 no oboes but someone else may know better...

Glad you enjoyed it pianophrase - I had a good time too. I was in Alison Teale's group & there were only 4 of us prepared to play so we had half hour each of excellent tuition!

The Gloucester Adult Learner's Concert the day before was great fun too.

On Monday at Howarth's I bought a few trios for 2 oboes & cor, by Wenth & Poessinger, (no idea what they're like!) some Albinoni concertos for 2 oboes with piano accompaniement & the Yvon cor anglais concerto. I also went to the 2nd hand book/sheet music shop in Bell Street, & got a range of music there too at a far cheaper price. Been too busy at work since to try out any of this , but look forward to doing so.

Had a few minor disasters too. Before leaving for the Guildhall on Sunday the crown came off one of my teeth as I was flossing it, (fortunately not a front one) & on the Monday as I was running across a busy London street I strained a muscle in one of my calves causing a London cab to break to avoid hitting me, & when I got back to the car to drive home I slammed the boot down hard & hit myself with it on the head - OUCH!

But I still enjoyed my 3 days immersed in music enormously

3 days immersed in music and 3 minor disasters

Pleased to hear you enjoyed the BDRD

Glad to hear you both had a good time at the Double Reed Day - were there many adult learners there? It said that places for adults was limited so I got the impression it was more targetted at kids. Will definitely consider going next year though, sounds like a worthwhile day.

Hope you have fun playing through your new music Hardying, glad that Gloucester went well - hope you've recovered from your mini accidents now though.

Pianophrase - I want a Cor as well, big birthday coming up in just over a year so maybe then!

Thanks Flobiano

Yes, got over all mishaps, thankfully.

Both years there have been lots of adult players at the BigDoubleReed Day, so I'm sure you'd be fine. The masterclasses are arranged so that it's people of similar ability & age ranges together.

Have you taken your grade 8 yet & how did it go?

If not yet, then very best of luck for the Big Day & I hope you get your cor & enjoy playing it before too long.

Thank you, I'm taking it tomorrow morning.

I have everything crossed for you

Thanks, it's all done. Could have gone a lot better but I'm reasonably confident I did enough to pass...just feel like I let myself down a little bit - I am capable of playing much better than I did.

Handel -wasn't too bad, some minor slips, intonation a bit ropey in the first movement, second movement better I think.
Poulenc - so much worse than I usually play it, notes were generally there but it was just a bit flat (not intonation wise just performance wise) and dynamics weren't great. Top D towards the end didn't come out properly, and just sqwarked really loudly rather than being beautiful and quiet. Very disappointed in how I played this.
Britten - this was probably the best of the lot. Really pleased with it.

Scales - so hit and miss entirely due to nerves. I had another top D which didn't come out, had a compete blank on dominant 7th in D, messed up the turnaround at the top of my scale in thirds, think my melodic minor was a bit of a hybrid of harmonic/ melodic on the way up. Some were good though - chromatic on Ab, diminished on Eb, dominant in B (my F# sounded beautifully!). Hard to tell. May have got 19 if he is feeling generous.

Sight reading - in D (think by this point he had cottoned on to the D problem!) lost its way rhythmically in the middle and I trilled to completely the wrong note, but I kept going and it sorted itself out towards the end.

Aural - Hard to judge. Cadence right I think, chords not so much, sightsinging OK, i know I didn't get the last bar right but he didn't give me a second go (I'd sung it right when practising to myself), confident on modulations and I waffled on for the last section. Probably enough to pass those I think.

I should have done better on the Poulenc, the scales and the sight reading. Possibly may have managed a merit but I think I should have been able to get distinction, annoyed that I didn't do myself justice.

oh well, onwards and upwards. May take myself out to lunch somewhere nice. Working from home this afternoon and then have to go to the dentist... what a day.

[Thanks, it's all done. Could have gone a lot better but I'm reasonably confident I did enough to pass...just feel like I let myself down a little bit - I am capable of playing much better than I did.

Handel -wasn't too bad, some minor slips, intonation a bit ropey in the first movement, second movement better I think.
Poulenc - so much worse than I usually play it, notes were generally there but it was just a bit flat (not intonation wise just performance wise) and dynamics weren't great. Top D towards the end didn't come out properly, and just sqwarked really loudly rather than being beautiful and quiet. Very disappointed in how I played this.
Britten - this was probably the best of the lot. Really pleased with it.

Scales - so hit and miss entirely due to nerves. I had another top D which didn't come out, had a compete blank on dominant 7th in D, messed up the turnaround at the top of my scale in thirds, think my melodic minor was a bit of a hybrid of harmonic/ melodic on the way up. Some were good though - chromatic on Ab, diminished on Eb, dominant in B (my F# sounded beautifully!). Hard to tell. May have got 19 if he is feeling generous.

Sight reading - in D (think by this point he had cottoned on to the D problem!) lost its way rhythmically in the middle and I trilled to completely the wrong note, but I kept going and it sorted itself out towards the end.

Aural - Hard to judge. Cadence right I think, chords not so much, sightsinging OK, i know I didn't get the last bar right but he didn't give me a second go (I'd sung it right when practising to myself), confident on modulations and I waffled on for the last section. Probably enough to pass those I think.

I should have done better on the Poulenc, the scales and the sight reading. Possibly may have managed a merit but I think I should have been able to get distinction, annoyed that I didn't do myself justice.

oh well, onwards and upwards. May take myself out to lunch somewhere nice. Working from home this afternoon and then have to go to the dentist... what a day.
[/quote]


Hope you get a nice surprise - it's always hard to tell, so hopefully you've done much better than expected.
Don't waste energy being hard on yourself. Indulge in some treats instead

Good luck with your results Flobiano