Wide Reed Experiment/ation sur les anches larges

Heiko Frosh (Oboe-Shop.de ) put this picture on Facebook, claiming that it allows English Horn reeds to play in tune in a modern oboe (the picture shows an old Marigaux 901). Apparently, the 2nd oboe from a prolific European orchestra does this to help play softly in the low register. For years, I have tried to get English Horn and d’Amore reeds to play in my Lorée oboe, but have been frustrated time and time again.

Heiko Frosh (Oboe-Shop.de ) a mis cette image sur Facebook, affirmant que ça permet aux anches de cor anglais à jouer juste dans un hautbois (dans l’image, un vieux Marigaux 901). Paraît-il qu’un 2e hautbois d’un orchestre prolifique européen fait ceci pour faciliter un grave doux. Depuis des années, j’essaie des anches de cor anglais et de htb. d’amour dans mon Lorée, mais je me vois frustré presqu’à tout coup.

The sound is better in some respects and disappointing in others, but mostly, the difficulty in proper tuning and the loss of stability becomes maddening. But this image and its claims, coupled with some success using d’Amore reeds in New-York (see post ) make me want to try again.

La sonorié en est amélioré par certains critères mais décevante par d’autres. Surtout, la difficulté de jouer juste et la perte de stabilité est enrageante. Mais cette image et une mesure de réussite avec les anches de htb. d’amour à New-York (voir cet article ) me font vouloir essayer à nouveau.

Test Tune, work, weather and reeds: My apologies if being out of practice is an insult to the Strauss Oboe Concerto. I find this excerpt to be a fantastic test for a reed’s character. Cacked notes, messed slurrs, bad tuning and stuffiness are are precisely what I want to discover with the tests, so these recordings left them all in. There are no staccati, but it requires real flexibility of dynamics, feeling and super-dependable tuning and stability: The weather was rotten all week (recorded 2 weeks ago) I almost didn’t practice at all (too much work at my day-job). in 2 weeks I spent at most 15 minutes scraping these reeds (exept the purple d'amore used in New-York): half of them in one sitting, half of them in two. Because of this, the reeds mostly play flat. They will definitely get better over time, as they settle and with more finish-scraping, but even so early, a reed’s character can be found. Careful! The following recordings are experiments, not any claim of the right thing to do! As an hobbyist, it is very interesting for me to perform these experiments, but beginners or students risk wasting valuable time and fail to develop important skills by doing these. Professionals can decide for themselves if there is any value in performing such experiments.	RDG–1 / Chiarugi #3   KM 720 / Chiarugi #3 RDG #2 / Chiarugi 3	Pièce d’évaluation, boulot météo et anches: Mille excuses d’insulter le concerto pour hautbois de Strauss. Je considère cet extrait formidable pour trouver le caractère d’une anche. Les notes craquées, liaisons manquées, justesse foutue et notes étouffées sont exactement ce que les tests cherchent à découvrir, alors aucune cachotterie! Pas de stacatti, mais exige une vraie flexibility des nuances avec intonnation et stabilité sans failles: La météo était affreuse toute la semaine (enregistré il y 2 semaines) Je n’ai presque pas répété depuis 2 semaines (trop de travail au boulot). Sauf l’anche violette pour d’amour (utilisée à New-York), j’ai passé au plus 15 minutes à gratter les anches: la moitié à un seul grattage, les autre à deux grattages. Par conséquent, les anches jouent un peu (parfois beaucoup) trop bas. Ils vont absolument s’améliorer avec le temps et le grattage de finition, mais on y trouve déjà leur caractère. Attention! Ce qui suit consiste d’expérimentations, pas d’indications sur ce qui doit être fait. En tant qu’amateur, cette sorte d’enquête est captivante, mais un étudiant perdra son temps et risque de faillir à développer des habiletés importantes en répétant ces expérimentations. Les professionnels peuvent décider pour eux-mêmes s’il y a de la valeur dans la question.
Remarks Sharp reeds: offer full stability, but get extra sharp in the upper register (comparatively flat in the lower register) Flat reeds: tend to be unstable and more stuffy notes with flatter upper register comparatively to a “sharper” lower register. Pulling out sharp reeds to play at 440: just like Heiko Frosh says, creates instability. Wider shapes (7.3+ mm): easier to play pp and ff dynamics and also articulations. But they are harder to make well and tend to need more biting (not always). They sound more free and alive, but also clearer. Narrower reeds (±7.1mm): offer more of the creamy warm sound coveted today. Tied on open oboe staples, they can offer a more baroque-ish feeling. D’Amore Shape seem to play better on Chiarugi 7 oboe staples than on d’amore staples, especially for the 3rd octave. E.H. Reeds: these must be cut very short or they will be flat. The 3rd octave becomes very difficult. Conclusion: Obviously, a professional will get much better results than this! But there is sufficient success to try those reed rings with the d’amore and EH reeds. I really like playing wide reeds more (KM 750 or RDG 2) and they lean toward the sound that I like more. The use of d’Amore staples does provide a depth of sound I like from baroque instruments. Heiko Frosh suggests that Guercio EH staples might be very better suited with the rings. But perhaps “strange setups” are not suitable to Lorée, so I will have to try all these reeds again on Marigaux, Mönnig, Howarth, Püchner, Fossati and all the others at IDRS 2013!	RDG–2 / Chiarugi 7 Kunibert Michel 750 (ob. d’am.) Kunibert Michel 750 (ob. d’am.) KM 750 / Guercio d12 KM 750 / Guercio d12 Kunibert Mchel 860 / Guercio	Remarques Anches trop aiguës: pleine stability, mais aigü trop haut (grave comparativement trop bas) Anches trop basses: instabilité et notes étouffées avec aigü trop bas grave comparativement trop haut)  Sortir l’anche: faire jouer à 440 les anches trop aiguës cause de l’instabilité  Tailles larges (7.3+ mm): plus facile à jouer pp et ff et articuler. Mais plus difficiles à monter et gratter et ont parfois (pas toujours) besoin d’être mordues. Wider shapes (7.3+ mm): easier to play pp and ff dynamics and also articulations. But they are harder to make well and tend to need more biting (not always). They sound more free and alive, but also clearer. Tailles étroites (±7.1mm): sonorité plus crèmeuse telle que préférée de nos jours. Attachées sur tubes ouvertes, peuvent offrir une qualité ‘baroquescente’. Taille pour htb. d’amour: semblent mieux jouer sur Chiarugi 7 pour htb. que tubes d’amour, surtout au 3e octave. Anches de cor anglais: doivent être coupées très court, sinon jouent très bas. 3e octave assez difficile. Conclusion: Évidemment, un professionel aura de bien meilleurs résultats que ceci! Mais ça montre assez de mérite pour essayer les anches de CA et de htb. d’amour avec les anneaux. J’aime beaucoup mieux jouer les anches larges (KM 750 ou RDG 2) et ils tendent vers la sonorité que je préfère. Les tubes de htb. d’amour donne une sonorité plus ample que je remarque chez les instruments baroque. Heiko Frosh suggère que les tubes de CA Guercio pourraient mieux marcher avec les anneaux. Il est possible que ces “montages étranges” ne soient pas utilisables avec Lorée, alors je devrai essayer toutes ces anches à nouveau sur Marigaux, Mönnig, Howarth, Püchner, Fossati et tous les autres au IDRS 2013!

Comparing many oboes!

University of Ottawa Oboe Event

People don’t usually think of Ottawa (Ontario, Canada) as a hub of oboe activity (compared to Toronto, Montréal or New-York!), but U.of O. professor and principle oboe at the National Arts Centre Orchestra Charles “Chip” Hamann organized a really fantastic event. With the additional sponsorship of Lorée and Gary Armstrong Woodwinds and the presence of very noteworthy guest professionals, this turned out to be quite a memorable weekend.

This is intended as an annual event, it took place last year and before, and will hopefully take place again next year: I really recommend people to attend! There were 3 principle focus points: U.of O. students, local amateurs and fostering a spirit of “oboe community”. Normally, these events focus almost exclusively on the first point, and it’s a real credit to Chip and co-organizer Angela Casagrande for having the broad vision to incorporate the rest.

Many oboes to try!

There is SO MUCH that can be said about the event – especially a striking concert by all professionals who participated – that it would be too easy to ramble on for hours. For this post, I’ll limit myself to a precious opportunity afforded by the event: trying and comparing over a dozen oboes! Gary Armstrong Woodwinds of Toronto came over to offer repair services and exhibit some of their stock for sale. These consisted of mostly Lorée (used and new – including 1 Royal), a good number of Howarths (new – including 1 XL), a used Strasser, a used Buffet Green Line, a used Covey and 2 new English Horns, a Fox and a Lorée and even 2 oboes for youngsters!

Reeds, weather and Climate Control

I had purposely brought some good and mediocre reeds because I wanted to see how these instruments handle the varying quality. On the 1st day, that went fine and I made some observations that I wanted to confirm on the 2nd day…… problem, on the 2nd day all reeds had 2 phases:

1. In the morning, they were all rock hard, didn’t crow, didn’t wheeze, just hard!
2. After some warming up, they seemed to behave reasonably the same: near concert grade! This made it difficult to really make a clear difference between one oboe and another.

Furthermore, the hall where the exhibition took place seemed to play a huge role in how these instruments were behaving: on the 1st day, I had tried and was really impressed by the tuning of almost all instruments…. then I tried mine as a standard…. mine was playing much more in tune and with better character than usual! So here’s a case where a favourable hall for performance makes it difficult to find the faults in the instruments!

Observations: Lorée afresh and other wonders

The following are my own opinions, highly coloured by my lack of experience and lost mastery of the instrument. Other people can have very different opinions which are fully valid. I’ll limit my observations to the positive attributes, because I don’t think I had enough time with the instruments to really qualify any flaws. The new instruments (Lorée and Howarth) were all easy to play in the altissimo register). None of them left me with any “super sensational” feeling making me want to rush out and change my instrument.

1. Lorée:
   1. All Lorées on exhibit seemed to … this is not a flaw at all … “frame” the sound. It is favourable to a consistent tone quality among different players. But it also makes me wonder why people feel they have more “freestyle expression” with it.
   2. There was an A-series and a C series: their legendary reputation is well deserved! Light weight yet full body sound. Not the most beautiful thing to see, but who cares! Really easy to play. Absolutely worth the trouble to rejuvenate the mechanics, these instruments deserve to be heard in public!
   3. The standard bore oboes were new or younger than the year 2000. Their tuning and stability were far improved compared to mine (1985).
   4. There were used and new AK bores: these exhibit much less restraint on blowing while maintaining the Lorée character.
   5. Royal: heavy, but that’s OK because it really “sits” its sound solidly. Extremely free blowing but dependable tuning throughout. It is superior to the standard models, but if money is an issue, the AK is really nice.
2. Howarth:
   1. All of them were very free blowing: no feeling of congestion anywhere or at any time.
   2. The little finger keys are especially comfortably positioned: I did not realize this had such an impact. You must try and compare to fully grasp the implications.
   3. The XL has all the good qualities of the Lorée Royal – choosing a favourite between the two is not easy at all.
3. Covey:
   1. A pleasant enigma. The repair work was fine for reselling, so everything played well, but more work on rejuvenating it would prevent misconceptions.
   2. At first, I did not like a sense of resistance from it. But the more I played, the more that sense gave way to a kind of restful feeling.
   3. It has a beautiful quality I don’t know how to explain: it very gracefully transitions between notes with more fluidity than any other instrument I have tried to this day.
   4. Very light, yet fine sound and comfortable to play.
4. Strasser:
   1. This was a very pleasant surprise. I was expecting a flawed “junior” model, but I really have no criticisms against it whatsoever…. and I tried many tricks to make it sound bad: it never did.
   2. The one word that characterises it is “comfort”. Comfortable to blow, comfortable to hold, comfortable mechanisms.
   3. My hands are big, this instrument might be designed for smaller hands. Nonetheless, I think I could play it very happily.
   4. I think it is the ideal model for both beginner and serious students because you can sound fully professional with it.
5. Buffet Crampon Green Line:
   1. I fully understand why people like this instrument.
   2. I remember, on the 1st day, remarking that this instrument is very forgiving on reeds: my mediocre reeds played very easily and in tune.
   3. Lorée players might not like it: difficult to explain, the 2 instruments “blow differently” – switching (alternating) between the 2 is not an easy task.
   4. This one is the very definition of “free blowing”.
   5. The tuning is fully dependable and it can sound almost any way you want.
6. Children’s oboes
   1. There was a Cabard “petites mains” and a Howarth Junior oboe.
   2. Both had exquisite sound and flawless tuning.
   3. These are proof positive that oboes are NOT impossible instruments!!!

Surprize: instability on different notes!

Those of us who became solid players around the 1980’s and 1990’s were accustomed to special fingerings on most brands of oboe for the F# and G (sometimes the E-natural) with the 1st octave key. Some notes with the 2nd octave key might be flat or sharp or even unpredictable, but they would not “wobble” in the middle of a crescendo.

Strangely, some of the instruments I tried, I was very surprized that this “wobble” happened on either the 2nd octave key A or the “normal” F with the 1st octave key. Because my reeds all played more consistently on the 2nd day, I was not able to reproduce it, and I forgot which instruments. I just remember it was not the Strasser, the Royal or the XL.

Reed Cases Galore

Awhile ago on the OboeBBoard (excellent place, by the way), someone asked where he could get affordable cases because he wants to carry as many reeds as possible with him. My wife took some excellent pictures of some reed cases I made myself which I linked on the BBoard and posted on my Facebook account… but I just realized that Facebook is kind of ephemeral, posts go down, down, down the page as one’s friends add their own posts. So here is a better selection of pictures with explanations. You can find more excellent photos on my wife’s flickr account. Except for one store-bought case, they are home made, inexpensive, very solid and dependable.

I’ll start with the store-bought case for 25 reeds (I got it from Le Roseau Chantant). I like it for many reasons (apart from keeping 25 reeds):

1. it uses that ribbon pincher method which keeps the reeds nice and separated,
2. they don’t move in the case
3. mostly, it has a pivot mechanism built on a 2-level background: press on the bottom of the staple and a “dip” in the backing will lever the reed out of the pincher.

This is fantastic to prevent reeds rubbing one another or turning around and suffering breakages that way. Compared to many other cases I own with the same mechanism, this one seems better built and wants to last longer… other ones tend to loose their grip on the reeds. It was very expensive, even on sale, but I’m glad I have it as I use it a lot and it’s nice to have so many reeds side by side for comparison and categorising.

My most practical case is made of a tin box that comes when you buy Fishermen’s Friends Cough Pastilles. It has just the right dimensions to put 2 levels of 5 reeds each (oboe, d’Amore or E.H.). So I have 10 reeds in a virtually indestructible box that fits very nicely in the pocket of a shirt or jacket or tuxedo! Although not necessary to do so, but made side and top walls for the levels which does 3 things:

1. it gives a little extra rigidity and support to the levels,
2. prevents accidents with the reed tips
3. helps lift up the upper level by pivoting on the walls of the lower level (no bottom wall to impede the pivot). 

I made the 2 levels of reed pinchers using thick cardboard and foam underpadding for carpets. The foam is just glued on the backing with carpenter’s wood glue and slits cut with an X-Acto knife (2 very handy things to keep around the house or apartment!). Slits cut in foam are much easier to make than those pincher ribbons and the pressure from the foam makes it easy to put the reeds in while keeping them very firmly in place. The walls are glued, but this is made easier by first taping them with ordinary office tape. The entire backing was painted with automotive spray paint: this makes it very resilient to wear, no worries about toxicity after drying, it is water proof and easy to clean with household rubbing alcohol. The foam is glued when the paint is dry and the slits are cut after the glue is very well set.

My last case works in the same way as the one above. It was made hastily when I shipped my Lorée to Peekskill N.Y. to be revoiced (the revoicer wanted to know how I like reeds to better assess the final work). Once closed, the box does not open unintentionally and the plastic protects the reeds well while fitting marvellously in the smallest pockets.

I didn’t bother painting the cardboard backing because I wasn’t expecting the reeds to come back. They did come back and it turned out to be a very practical box. I’m sure you can find such plastic boxes in a variety of places, this one came from specialized cotton swabs to clean my dogs’ ears. There would have been room for a pivot-band, but I didn’t bother as it was not intended to be as useful as it finally became!