Hiniker Oboe

Thursday October 09 2008

Yes, I have it. Yes, it’s gorgeous in every way. Yes, I will write a full review of it when I have time.

Interesting Ebay…

Thursday October 09 2008

I peruse ebay quite often to see what junk people are selling, and sometimes I just wonder what goes through people’s minds.

Like this guy who’s been selling this Laubin for a month now, and every week it goes down $100. (It’s now the LAST… HOUR… and I see that it gets marked 10% off to a bargain basement price of $4400! Still $800 or so overpriced.)

Or this guy, who thinks a 80 year old ring-system loree in a ghetto looking case is worth $2700. Yeah. Right. (Meanwhile, you can get this oboe which is a few years older that the other one, with closed holes, and looking in better condition for $2000 cheaper.)

There’s even this guy who’s willing to repad your instrument for $350! ($400 for cork pads.) A great deal if he does good work! Who knows if he does good work though.

And then there’s this guy who sells terrible cane. I bought some a year or so ago, and it was like swiss cheese; every time I made a round, the flake (notice I don’t use the word “curl”) came out with gigantic holes in it and was stringy. Couldn’t do anything with it. (If you’re looking for cheap cane, go with the Bargain Bin cane from RDG…).

I guess the saying, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” applies here. In any case, with the Dow dropping the way it is, it’s going to be hard to sell just about anything.

By the way, anyone interesting in purchasing an XL?

The Mystery Serial Number, Solved.

Wednesday October 08 2008

To Loree:

Dear de Gourdons,
I was wondering if you could tell me if this is a “Q” letter? It’s a funny looking letter, and wondered if it had special meaning.

Best of wishes,

Cooper

From Loree:

Dear Mr Cooper,

Yes it is the letter  “Q“  the one between the P and the R in the alphabet

there is no other meaning

With all our best

Anne de Gourdon

F.LOREE×DE GOURDON…
48 rue de Rome
75008 PARIS…
FRANCE…

Read the Rest

MQOD

Wednesday October 08 2008

“We enjoy strawberry cheesecake, but not because we evolved a taste for it. We evolved circuits that gave us trickles of enjoyment from the sweet taste of ripe fruit, the creamy mouth feel of fats and oils from nuts and meat, and the coolness of fresh water. Cheesecake packs a sensual wallop unlike anything in the natural world because it is a brew of megadoses of agreeable stimuli which we concocted for the express purpose of pressing our pleasure buttons— I suspect that music is auditory cheesecake, an exquisite confection crafted to tickle the sensitive spots of at least six of our mental faculties”

Steven Pinker, from How the Mind Works, pgs. 525, 534

Um— No comment.

Read the Rest

The C, the XL, and Brahms.

Wednesday October 08 2008

Well, I’m eagerly awaiting the arrival of the Hiniker, but I’m ready to hang up the XL. After working with it for over a month now, I’m convinced of the following effects:

• The bore is built for a darker, more covered sound. It has less focus or “edge” in the sound.
• The staple that works best with the XL for me seems to be the Sierra Chudnow. I tried EVERYTHING…. Pisoni, Rigotti, Loree, Weber, Chudnow, Stevens Pro #2, etc, and the Chudnow seemed to be the best fit.
• The reeds seem best with a wider shape, and consequentially thicker sides from the gouge. Woodhams said he uses a Pfeiffer-Mack tip, and on Schuring’s website he also suggests a Pfeiffer-Mack tip, which leads me to believe this is what he uses as well. I tried a Pfeiffer-Mack tip and it didn’t work very well for me, but a Brannen XN tip seemed just right.
• It’s easier to blend in an orchestra since it has a less “piercing” quality to it.

Trying to make reeds for the XL and my CI has been difficult, as the CI just needs smaller openings, thinner shapes, and thinner sides. I’ll be glad to get the Hiniker, which I know plays closer to a Loree, and therefore I’ll be able to adjust my gouge closer to the CI/Hiniker needs rather than the XL. It’s a beautiful horn, and if I had more than one gouging machine right now, it’d be easier to maintain the use of both. But being as it is, it’s taken too much for me to maintain both.

WARNING…: RANT…!!!

Meanwhile, in orchestra we’re playing Brahms 2. It’s a great part, with lots of oboe stuff, but I’m really getting tired of playing. Now, I consider myself to be a very flexible playing. I can play very VERY… quietly and covered. It’s been stressed in my musical training with Mr. Weber. (He used to always say that I hurt his ears, and that I should learn to play at a whisper.) That said, I got called out in orchestra 5 times today for playing too loud. Finally, I said “I’m sorry but I simply can’t play any quietly.”, to which the conductor replied, “Well, then the 1st flute needs to play up!”

I know I play quietly most of the time. I’m very conscious and very aware of it, but I’m getting really frustrated. There’s 22 violins, 8 violas, 10 or 12 cellos, and 4 basses, and full winds, and I simply can not believe that I’M overblowing everyone. At this point, I question why everyone else can’t play louder in the forte spots. Do they have less quality instruments which don’t resonate as much? Are the string players not as strong in their bowing arm? Why aren’t other wind players capable of playing louder?

I know I use a very fast airstream, which is very focused and helps me to produce a more focused tone, but really. This is just too hard for me to believe. I mean— come on! It’s BRAHMS…!!!