Odd quote of the day…

Wednesday August 13 2008

From an interview with Eugene Cook, a former editor of Time-Life magazine.

Cook: When you were performing with the Philharmonia it looked to me as though your breath was what singers might call a “high breath.”

Bloom: Absolutely not— I tell students to accept the fact that we play a wind instrument and that they must blow. I’ve noticed that my beginning female students have a tendency to breathe high.

Cook: Some women look good taking high breaths—

Bloom: (laughing) Yes, but unfortunately oboe playing is not a spectator sport.

Taken from To the World’s Oboists, October 1976

Man, if an editor said that today, he’d get ROASTED… by all sorts of activist groups.

The greatest 80s rock band…

Saturday August 09 2008

Driving home from the beach today, my wife and I were listening to an 80s CD I burned a week ago, and “Right Now” came on.

Me: Do you know who this is?

Wife: No.

Me: Think. It’s the greatest 80s rock band ever.

Wife: Um— Scorpions?

Me: Uh, no. Van Halen.

Wife: Never heard of them.

And she’s never even seen the original Star Wars Trilogy! How did we ever end up together?

It is fixed!!!!

Tuesday August 05 2008

I spent about 8 hours today tinkering with my Graf gouging machine. I shifted the sides thicker, and I got the opening bigger but I lost resonance (it got thuddy, and too covered.) I’d thin the sides to gain more resonance and I would end up making the sides too thin, so that I wouldn’t be able to get enough “beef” in the reed.

So— I’d regrind the blade to a different curve, and I’d start over.

I’m starting to get an idea as to how the blade curve needs to be for the reed to be resonant and open, but have enough depth in the sound. At first it was simply hit or miss; it worked well or it didn’t, in which case I’d end up just blindly grinding the blade. But now it’s beginning to become clearer.

When I visited Laila Storch up in Seattle, we had a discussion about grinding blades and guides and what-not and she bemoaned that it seems to be a lost art nowadays. As she put it, it seems as though people just want to stick their piece of cane in the machine, crank it out, tie it on and scrape it into something that plays. Even Mr. Mack was using a Innoledy machine toward the very end of his life, a machine of which I’ve heard virtually everyone I’ve ever speak to say that it produces “good reeds” but not “great reeds”. Perhaps Mr. Mack finally got fed up grinding blades and what-not. Granted, it’s not for everyone, but certainly should be something that us as oboists (and particularly us who gouge our own cane) should not be afraid to tinker with. After all, Tabuteau came over with french-style gouging machines, which gouged cane for short scrape reeds. (In case you’ve never made a short scrape reed, the sides are MUCH… thinner, the shape is generally wider, and the piece of cane itself in the middle is a bit thinner to get enough vibration without having to take too much off.) Just think of how much tinkering and work he had to put into in order to get something that would work for a long-scraped reed!

Well, I’ve finally fixed it now, and am satisfied with the results. Mr. Weber is curious as to what I set my gouge to so I’ll probably be sending out a few pieces to him soon to double check. What a patient friend he is—

Richard Woodhams Masterclass continued…

Thursday July 31 2008

So the masterclass ended with about 20 minutes left to spare, and I managed to get in a few questions that I had been pondering about for quite some time.

I prefaced the first question by stating, “Every year you hear a hundred fantastic young oboists with perfect technique and—” to which he cut me off right there by shooting back. “No. Really. I really don’t.” while shaking his head in disbelief. The group had a momentary chuckle about his well-timed answer. I continued to ask my question of what he looks for in a student when he chooses a student to attend Curtis. Mr. Woodhams seemed to ponder this question, and wasn’t sure how to answer it, but he did say several things that eluded to an answer. He mentioned that he looked for a student who had something to say musically, rather than playing everything on the page. (I couldn’t help thinking he was looking for Simon Cowell’s “It” factor, but I shook this thought off.) He continued to explain that all of us have innate musical ability but some simply have more. So I guess he’s looking for musicality.

The last thing he said was that he just looked for “a good person”. Hm— a good person who can play their pants off I suppose.

The second question I got to ask (since nobody else seemed to jump in with a question) was how he had changed his sound/setup during the move from the Academy of Music to the Kimmel Center. He mentioned that he didn’t realize how oboe-friendly the Academy was until he had moved out. The Academy was infamously (yes Patty INFAMOUS…!) known for being acoustically dead, but the oboe sound would carry out in a pure and clean sound. When he moved to the Kimmel Center, he mentioned the piccolo sound seemed like it would come from the left of him when the piccolo player would be to the right. He also mentioned that he STILL… hadn’t figured out a setup for the Kimmel Center that he felt comfortable with.

One other question I remember was that someone asked what his reed setup was like, to which he sarcastically replied, “Um— Donax Cane, 47 millimeter Stevens 2 pro staple, nylon thread—” at which the group laughed again. He did mention that he used a Mack Pfeiffer tip, and felt that anything narrower would do the oboe a disservice and one would “lose something from the oboe sound”. I’m still pondering what this “something” might be, but it was worth noting.

MQOD

Thursday July 31 2008

“Imagine a water glass. If you hit it on the side, it can make a sound. But if you take a thin crystal wine glass and hit it, it can ring and make a beautiful sound. That’s what an oboe reed should be like.”

- John de Lancie, as retold by Laila Storch

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