Perhaps a Preview to the Tabuteau Book?

Thursday July 26 2007

Found this IDRS… archive written by Laila Storch. There’s a brief introduction written by the editor at the time, perhaps Daniel Stolper. At the very bottom of the page it says “Most recently she (Laila Storch) has made two tours with Soni Ventorum for the State Department to South America in 1972 and 1973.” We can assume then that this archive was probably written close to 30 years ago! Is it possible that the Tabuteau book has been in motion for the past 30 years?

Editor’s Note×One of my most serious responsibilities as editor of this journal is to bring to the present generation an understanding of the important contributions of those oboists who are no longer active. The very name Marcel Tabuteau has become a legend, and in discussing the idea of a memoir devoted to him with two of his most distinguished students, John deLancie and John Mack, the name of Laila Storch occurred to both of them; not only was she a Tabuteau student but she was also a close personal friend. Her professional duties at the University of Washington are demanding but she graciously consented to consider this project, and in a recent letter she related this touching incident: “When I visited Madame Tabuteau last summer near Paris, I mentioned this project to her and expressed my feeling of inadequacy to get across a real picture of Tabuteau. She was paralyzed and barely able to speak, but when I asked her if she thought I should do it, she spoke a long and emphatic ‘Out’ (typo, probably “Oui” as in “Yes” in French). You can imagine this made me feel even more responsibility . . . and only a couple of weeks after my return from South America, Madame Tabuteau died. This, added to the realization that it is twenty years in February that he left the Philadelphia Orchestra, has made me feel an even greater urgency to keep the promise. “ I know you will share my pleasure in Miss Storch’s memoir; I hope other Tabuteau students will want to follow her example.

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Reed Ramblings

Thursday July 26 2007

I think the key to getting a thick, covered sound of an oboe reed is the shape of the inner tip layer (the funny hill hump shape). For example if you make it wider and rounder, covering more surface area, it will sound thicker, but will also have more breath resistance. So how do you compensate for the resistance? You scrape the heart flat in a parallel manner as the Mack school teaches. But doesn’t this leave the reed a bit buzzy? Yes, so you have to scrape more out of the windows to make the heart proportionately correct. But doesn’t this lower the pitch more? Yes, so you push more reed into the mouth.

The peculiar reed I made the other day was no longer peculiar when I went and picked it back up. The back was quite large, producing a larger opening than was comfortable. Furthermore, the thick tip didn’t give me the response I wanted while playing on the tip (but I could shove it into my mouth more, putting the fulcrum closer to the back of the heart/meeting of the windows, thus “pushing” down the opening with lip pressure (i.e. biting) thus getting the response and resonance necessary out of it. But I didn’t want to do all of that, and still prefer to play on the very end of the tip. So I thinned the tip, and scraped the heart to close the reed down, which left the heart proportionally too thick, so I ended up having to scrape that, eventually wearing it down until it had the correct opening, response, etc. By then, it was just another typical Philly style reed.

I realized that a major thing in my embouchure has changed since I’ve come back to oboe; I play WAY… on the tip. In fact, I think I play about as close to the tip as anyone can.

Why I say this is I’ve gotten occasional comments from oboists where they’ve picked up a reed and said. “Hey, this has a chirp!” And they go on to tongue 16th notes, all with a loud, distinctive chirp to it. Then I pick it up and tongue 16th notes, and there’s no chirp. Chirps which are audible while tonguing usually come from an imbalance in the tip, or a fluke thin spot in the tip that is somewhere in the middle of the tip. They’re quite common, usually not audible from a distance (but annoying to the oboist), and awfully hard to get rid of once they’re there. However, if you play on the extreme tip, your lips often cover the tip, and adding enough padding to cover the chirp. Occasionally it might come out, but usually not.

I remember when I was in college I frequently struggled with chirpy reeds. I don’t think my knife technique is a whole lot better now than it was then, I just think I play closer to the tip.

All oboists have chirps though. I remember hearing Mack play on a chirpy reed. Even on Zupnik’s etudes CD, you can hear that one of the reeds she recorded on had a chirp in it that came out every so often. I think learning to play closer to the tip has given me a lot of help, but this is certainly a biggy.

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Another "liked most of them" review

Thursday July 26 2007

Jillian Camwell of Prairie Oboe Companion gave me a relatively good review as well recently. I’m glad they are working decently for her. Most of them at least. This completes the four reviews from the four people I gave out complimentary reeds to for them to try out. (Although Jillian says she might right more.)

• One rave
• One “liked most of them”
• One “usable”
• One “pretty good”

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A "all usable" reed review

Thursday July 26 2007

So Patty finally got around to writing a reed review of my reeds. I’m actually surprised that she viewed my reeds as respectable since I think she might be a bit picky about her reeds. I sent her 2 Weber 1-b shaped reeds with a thinner gouge, 2 Weber 1-C shaped reeds with the thicker gouge, and 2-RDG… 2 shaped reeds with a thicker gouge.

Cooper Wright: Sent reeds for free too see if I liked them (Thanks Cooper!)
Arrived July 12, 2007
Reed shipped in “reed coffins”, and then all the containers were taped together. All reeds survived shipping from Korea
#1, labeled I-B: 70mm, fake cork, crow multi-C, A-440, slightly tweety/buzzy, I clipped the tip just a smidge, plays fine now
#2, labeled I-B: 70mm, fake cork, crow multi-C, full sound, A-440, slightly tweety/buzzy
#3, labeled I-C: >70mm, fake cork, one C crow, have to take in a bit more reed for stability, but quite usable
#4, labeled I-C: <60mm, fake cork, crow multi-C, A-440, lighter feel, a bit tweety
#5, labeled +2: >70mm, fake cork, crow multi-C, A-440, full sound, plays very well, more resistance then the above reeds
#6, labeled +2: >70mm, fake cork, crow mulit-C, A-440, full sound, plays well, more resistance than 1-4

FINAL… THOUGHTS…: I thought I’d wind up using reeds 5 & 6. Turned out I actually used one of the +2 reeds and one of the I-C reeds for the opera I was playing. All the reeds work well enough to use … this is the first batch of reeds I’ve received where I believe all reeds are usable, although I think #1 and #2 will probably just work for practice.

… and thanks Cooper!

Note: I do believe reed 4 is 70 or 69mm, not 60mm. The synthetic cork staples are all Weber tubes, my favorites.

I am also not my oboe.

Wednesday July 25 2007

In her recent post, Patty proclaims that she is “Not her oboe”. I too can resonate such a claim, although an ongoing disagreement with my parents suggests that people still think otherwise. (My cousin’s wedding is planned for the same day as the Northwest Oboe Conference, and I’m trying to figure out a way I can juggle both. This feels like a bad episode of Seinfeld.)

From 6th grade through college, I was known as “the oboe guy”. In fact, many people are shocked when they find out I was on the chess team in high school (a team that won third in the U.S. high school nationals), played little league and basketball, and somehow learned to extreme rollerblade in the middle. I also studied theology, accounting (although my grades prove me to be terrible at it), and a passionate researcher. I believe one of the major reasons why I decided not to continue my oboe studies immediately after graduation was to prove to myself as well as others that I was capable of doing other things.

That said, when people ask me, “What would you do if you didn’t play oboe?” I quickly respond with, “A lot!” In fact, when people tell me they want to start oboe, I strongly discourage them from doing so, because I believe it is not an instrument that you can merely pick up as a hobby and keep up well. I usually tell people, “If you refuse to play anything else but oboe, and are wholly committed to learning the instrument out of sheer determination, then be my guest. Otherwise, pick up the flute.”

Though this may be the single dorkiest nerdy oboe blog on the internet, I do enjoy other things, and I do have a life. Just check my other blog if you don’t believe me.

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