Why make reeds? (part 2.b) / Pourquoi faire ses anches? (#2.b)

Recall: These are MY opinions: I encourage everyone to try for yourself and come to your own. I think this blog is most useful if it starts conversations and helps people ask more intelligent questions (maybe help people realize they are not crazy if they have difficulties with reeds). Not everybody will share my opinions and that is good: the more contrasting conversations we can have, the better! I wanted to discuss this topic in 2 parts: the definition of a good reed comments on the makers. But some conversations I had on Facebook lead me to insert one more discussion in the middle.	Rappel: Ceux-ci sont MES opinions: j'encourage chacun à essayer pour soi et se former ses propres opinions. Je crois que ce blogue est utile à démarrer la discussion et aider aux gens de poser des questions intelligentes (peut-être à confirmer que la difficulté avec les anches n'indique pas la folie). Plusieurs ne partageront pas mes opinions et c'est bien ainsi: toujours bien d'avoir des discussions contrastées! Je voulais discuter le sujet en 2 parties: la définition d'une bonne anche commentaires sur les fabricants. Mais quelques discussions sur Facebook m'incitent à insérer une autre discussion au milieu.
Also, this experiment on reeds made by other people coincides with more elaborate experiments on my own reeds with new and old cane from different producers. I have found that different sources of cane favour very different tone colours AND feelings while playing: two sources can sound the same, but require very different embouchure habits – this is not an easy thing to modify while experimenting!	Aussi, cette expérience avec les anches fabriquées par d'autres coïncide avec des expériences plus élaborées avec des roseaux par différents producteurs. J'ai trouvé que différentes sources de roseau favorisent des timbres ET des sensations bien différents de l'une à l'autre: ceux de deux producteurs peuvent sonner presque pareils tout en exigeant des habitudes d'embouchure différentes – pas une chose facile à modifier en expérimentant!
Finally, I just acquired a new microphone. It is quite good, but almost the opposite from my old one, so I'm debating the possibility of recording sound clips from the different reeds.... with just my old microphone, it is very difficult to capture the small differences that are a big deal to us oboists, and that we hope the audience actually hears!	Enfin, je viens d'acquérir un nouveau microphone. Il est excellent, mais presque l'opposé de mon vieux, alors je jongle avec l'idée de faire de courts enregistrements avec chaque anche… avec mon vieux micro tout seul, il n'est pas facile de capter les détails sonores, si importants aux hautboïstes, mais qu'on ne peut qu'espérer que l'auditoire perçoit!

Remember one of the slogans from last post (here): "A reed can play easily OR sound great, but not both". This leads to the question: what is a good tone colour on the oboe?   Harsh tone or harsh playing? Back in the 1980'-90's, when I was a music student, MANY people were criticizing Heinz Holliger for sounding like a swarm of flies in recordings he made in the early 1980's. I don't know if the recordings were faithfully reproducing his sound or if sound equipment and expertise at the time were inadequate, but it's clear that his tone colour is completely unimportant when you start grasping his unique expressiveness, vitality and the artistry in his ornamentations of baroque repertoire. Still, I think most people prefer a more velvety sound. For sure, I am trying to move away from the Indian snake-charmer sound oboes give in old black-and-white movies. But if sounding like a plush toy means getting headaches from blowing like an air compressor or being unable to extend a range past p-mf, then I'll leave that sound to other people.	Many years old and still one of my best playing/sounding reeds ever! Plusieurs années à me servir et sonner le vrai délice – reste une de mes meilleurs anches jamais faites!	Rappel d'un des slogans du dernier article (ici): "Une anche peut bien jouer OU bien sonner, mais pas les deux". Ceci mène à la question : c'est quoi, au juste, un bon timbre de hautbois?   Timbres durs ou dureté du jeu? Dans les années 1980-90, pendant mes études musicales, PLUSIEURS personnes critiquaient le timbre nasillard de Heinz Holliger (ses enregistrements au début des années 1980). Je ne sais pas si les enregistrements véhiculaient fidèlement son timbre ou si l'équipement et l'expertise de prise de son à l'époque manquaient d'expérience, mais il est claire que son timbre n'a aucune importance quand on commence à saisir l'expressivité unique, la vitalité et la musicalité de ses ornementations dans le répertoire baroque. Toujours est-il que la majorité du monde semble préférer un timbre plus velouté. Sans aucun doute, je vise à délaisser le timbre des envoûteurs de serpents de l'Inde dans le vieux cinéma. Mais si sonner comme un ourson en peluche équivaut à des migraines parce qu'il faut souffler comme un compresseur ou me limiter à p-mf, alors je laisserai ce timbre à d'autres.
When I started being active in Internet groups, I felt only very dark, baroque-like sounds (e.g. Louise Pellerin or Cynthia Steljes were good and everything else was bad musicianship. Over the years (thanks to You-Tube, Vimeo, Arte-Web, etc.!!!) I have come to appreciate edgy sounds, or clear sounds with a hint of a buzz in it, which I consider more "living" or "pastoral" (country-side) sounds. In high-school, beginner oboists honk their way through band class, so we want to stay away from any kind of hollow, strong sound. But as a performer reaches the control of the professional, a sustained goosey tinge to the sound, I find, is actually very nice in many respects. My own personal taste still prefers the tone of the Baroque Oboe (Marcel Ponnsele or John Abberger) over all others, but I now find quite a lot of modern oboe sounds to have pleasant qualities that simply don't occur in the period instruments. I'm not trying to be politically correct or sensitive to the preferences of others: there are still big names whose sounds bother me to the point of not being able to appreciate their artistry. And now I consider many professionals with heavenly tone-colours play without feeling or soul – in my opinion, of course. I have just come to appreciate variety: this makes my quest for the "one single ideal oboe" even more difficult!	Cynthia Steljes Louise Pellerin   Heinz Holliger   Marcel Ponsele	Au début de mon activité dans les groupes Internet, je croyais que seuls des timbres très sombres, riches et baroquescants (tels Louise Pellerin ou Cynthia Steljes) se respectaient et que tout le reste trahissait un manque de goût artistique. Au fil des ans (merci You-Tube, Vimeo, Arte-Web, etc.!!!), j'apprécie maintenant les timbres plus carrés, clairs ou même avec un soupçon de buzz, que je qualifie plus vivant ou pastoral. À l'école secondaire (le lycée), les débutants vont plutôt klaxonner leur hautbois. Par conséquent, nous cherchons à délaisser un timbre creux ou rude. Mais lorsque l'artiste acquiert le control professionnel, un soupçon de cacanement (cri de l'oie) soutenu à son charme. Mes goûts personnels favorisent toujours le hautbois baroque (Marcel Ponseele ou John Abberger) mais j'apprécie beaucoup plus les timbres modernes pour avoir des qualités plaisantes qui sont simplement absents des instruments d'époque. Je ne vise pas la rectitude politique, ni la sensibilité aux préférences d'autrui: il reste des grands noms dont le timbre m'achale au point de ne pas pouvoir apprécier leur musicalité. Je trouve aussi que certains professionnels avec des timbres célestes peuvent manquer d'âme dans le jeu – mon opinion, bien sûr. Mais j'apprécie maintenant la variété: ce qui rend plus difficile ma quête pour "l'unique hautbois idéal" encore plus difficile!
Best reeds: machine made or all handmade? Vicky's website is called "Handmade Oboe Reeds" and I know there is generally a general bias in favour of making reeds by hand rather than machine. But I think most large-scale makers of short-scrape reeds now start their reeds with profiling machines and produce first rate reeds; there are even profiling machines to make American reeds. Most makers will test and finish their reeds by hand; in the end, the only thing the machine did was speed up the process and prevent accidental chopped-off corners or holes where you don't want them. Which is better, American (long) scrape or European (short) scrape? This is probably the most emotion-packed and verbally violent debate among oboists in international discussion groups. Well, let me begin by pointing out that "long scrape" does NOT imply "American scrape". Actually, the very notion of "American" reeds actually becomes fuzzy because there are important variances and I have seen sketches of similar scraping styles characterizing Dutch reeds.	Looks can be deceiving: NOT American scrape! Gare aux apparences: n’est PAS le grattage américain!	Meilleures anches: fabriquées à la main? Le site web de Vicky s'intitule "Handmade Oboe Reeds" (anches faites à la main) et je sais qu'il y a un parti-pris général contre la fabrication à la machine. Mais je crois qu'en gros, les fabricants de style européen commencent les anches à la machine et produisent ainsi d'excellentes anches; il existe aussi des profileurs pour anches américaines. La majorité des fabricants vérifieront personnellement les anches ainsi produites et les termineront à la main; en fin de compte, la machine sert à accélérer le travail de gros et prévient les trous et coins rongés par accident. Quel est mieux, le grattage américain (long) ou européen (court)? Voici sans doute la question la plus remplie d'émotion, provoquant des "débats animés" dans les groupes de discussion internationaux. Commençons par préciser que grattage long n'implique PAS le style américain, notion qui devient floue parce qu'il y a nombreuses variantes et j'ai vu des esquisses semblables décrivant le style hollandais.
In my own personal definition, "American" scrape is always nearly full-cane-length and requires one very special characteristic: the back "windows" must be thinner than the heart, with the heart typically rather thick. A reed can be scraped very long, but if it the thinning is continual from back to front without an important hump, then by my definition it is not American scrape. Many of my own reeds look American because of a long W behind the heart, but the back "gullies" (as I call them) are thicker than the heart: these reeds are popularly called "hybrid" (i.e. half-way between American and European scrape). The length and gullies serve to control opening on obstinately open reeds. The words "European" or "short" scrape can be used almost interchangeably. Short scrape is a straight-forward technique and very likely the oldest: just always get thinner towards the tip (and the sides). People still talk about German or French or English scrape, but there are really numerous variances that cause impressive differences in sound and behaviour. People now adapt them to their own tastes and country-label is really only useful for discussion. Dozens of profiles and scraping length can vary from 1/4 to almost all of the cane length. In general, the idea is "not American".	Machine-made American scrape. Grattage à l’américaine faite à la machine.	Selon ma propre définition, le grattage "américain" couvre toujours presque toute la longueur du roseau et exige une caractéristique particulière: l'arrière (les fenêtres, "windows") doit être plus mince que le coeur, avec le coeur typiquement assez épais. Une anche peut être grattée longuement, mais si la minceur procède continuellement jusqu'au bout, sans bosse importante, par ma définition ce n'est pas une anche américaine. Mes propres anches peuvent parfois paraitre américaines en raison d'un W allongé derrière le cœur, mais ces cannelures restent plus épais que le cœur: on appelle souvent ce style "hybride" (mi-chemin entre européen et américain). La longueur et les cannelures servent à contrôler l'ouverture d'anches qui s'obstinent à trop ouvrir. Les expressions "grattage européen" et "grattage court" sont presqu'interchangeables. Le grattage court suit un profile intuitif et fort probablement très vieux: on amincit tout simplement vers le bout (et les côtés). Le monde parle toujours d'anches allemandes ou françaises, mais il y a de nombreuses variances qui produisent des différences importantes dans le son et le comportement de l'anche. On adapte le profile pour ses goûts personnels et le libel national n'est utile que pour la discussion. On retrouve des douzaines de profiles avec des longueurs de grattage d'un quart à presque toutes la longueur de l'anche. En gros, l'idée est "pas américain".
So which is the better scraping style? The common "safe" answer is "it depends on your goals for sound". I'm never convinced of the sincerity of this answer because I would expect an explanation on which scrape is better for which sound.... and that rarely follows. Besides, I have found that any sound characteristic that can be found on American scrape can also be produced on short scrape. The preference for long or short scraped reeds is interesting because I find more and more Europeans trying (and selling) American scrape reeds. Conversely, a number of Americans and Canadians I know personally (and others via Facebook) are abandoning American Scrape and returning to short scrape. In my personal view, the ideal reed style should a function of your PHYSIOLOGICAL characteristics; how your own body responds to blowing and the resistance from the reed. Many people will say that short scrape requires more strength and biting: but I assure you my some of own reeds put an end to that idea! Many people will say that American scrape produces a softer, mellower, darker tone: but old and new recordings of oboes with very metallic and harsh tones are easily found with long scrape reeds.	Very different hand-made (by pros.) Amercian scrape reeds. Anches professionnelles américaines très différentes faites à la main.	Alors quel est le meilleur grattage? La réponse commune est "cela dépend de tes objectifs sonores". Cette réponse ne m'a jamais convaincue parce que je m'attends à une explication de quel style fait quoi…. ce qui suit rarement. De toute façon, j'ai trouvé que tout ce qui peut décrire le grattage américain est aussi disponible avec le grattage court. La préférence pour un style particulier et curieuse parce que je vois de plus en plus d'européens essayer (et vendre) des anches américaines. À l'inverse, un nombre d'américains et de Canadiens que je connais personnellement (et autres via Facebook) abandonnent le profil américain pour reprendre le grattage court. À mon avis personnel, le style idéal doit concorder à vos caractéristiques PHYSIOLOGIQUES; comment votre corps répond au souffle et à la résistance de l'anche. Plusieurs prétendent que le grattage court exige une embouchure plus forte et un peu de morsure: je peux vous assurer qu'un nombre de mes anches mettent fin à ça! Plusieurs diront que le grattage américain produit un son plus rond, sombre et velouté: mais des enregistrements de tout âge présentent des anches américaines au timbre métallique, nasillard et rude.
Several players of European-scrape reeds told me they found American scrape reeds are much easier to blow and more responsive: I used to make American reeds for myself – I also have some made by other people in my collection – and I really disagree with that point of view: American scrape can be very restrictive and stop responding after a few minutes of blowing.		Plusieurs jouers d'anches européennes m'ont qu'ils trouvent le grattage répond mieux et sont plus facile à souffler: je fabriquais jadis mes anches à l'américaine, et ma collection comprend quelques-unes faites par d'autres – et je ne suis vraiment pas d'accord sur ce point de vue: le grattage américain peut grandement restreindre la nuance et arrêter de répondre après quelques minutes de jeu.
Conclusion: The more I discuss with people, the more I am of the opinion that preferring long/short scrape and specific details is a function of climatic conditions: a matter of fitting the effects of climate on the cane and the requirements of your specific comfort at playing. Different sources for cane REALLY produce different kinds of cane (hard, spongy, waxy, grassy...) resulting in reeds that behave differently. So factors like gouge and scraping profile, I think, might suit one type of cane more than another. For me, personally, the sprightly nature of short-scrape, with its ability to cope with very weak and very strong blowing suits me better – but I also have preferences in cane to go along with it. Therefore, there is no correct answer to this question apart from: "try and decide for yourself". Furthermore, my own experience, a person's stamina and tolerance will change a lot in different climates... just as the reed will change its behaviour too. The important thing is this: if you're getting dizzy spells or turning red when playing, try a reed with a different cane, staple and/or scraping style!!!	Hybrid Scrape (on the short side). Grattage hybride (plutôt court).	Conclusion: Le plus je discute avec le monde, le plus j'ai l'opinion que la préférence entre grattage long/court et les détails techniques est une fonction du climat: question d'apparier les effets du climat sur le roseau et les exigences particulières de votre confort à jouer. Différents producteurs produisent du roseau à caractéristiques VRAIMENT différentes (dur, mou, spongieux, cireux…) ce qui donne un comportement vraiment différent à l'anche. Alors des facteurs comme la gouge et le profile, je crois, peuvent mieux s'appliquer à un type de roseau qu'un autre. Pour moi, personnellement, la nature dynamique du grattage court et son adaptation au souffle très faible et très fort me convient mieux – mais j'ai mes préférences de roseau pour aller avec. Il n'y a donc aucune réponse correcte à la question sauf: "essaie-les et décide pour toi-même". De plus, selon mon expérience, la vigueur et l'endurance d'une personne changera aussi avec le climat… tout comme l'anche changera son comportement. La chose à retenir est ceci: si vous éprouvez des étourdissements en jouant, essayez un anche avec un autre roseau, tube et/ou profile de grattage!!!

Back to our Roots – Louise Pellerin à/in Montréal – Retour à nos racines

Rehearsing Christmas Carols is nothing difficult at all… unless you want to make them more interesting and while working 12 hour days at your “day job”… Not much time to go considering. Trying to cram into a few days what should be months worth of exploring ornamentations and variations to make repeating simple traditional melodies something people want to hear over and over again, without falling into the traps of just adding trills or modulating a tone like in waiting-room music. But this is a marvellous opportunity and I know this return to stage will be a really happy event!		Travailler les cantiques de Noël n’a vraiment rien de difficile… à moins qu’on cherche à les rendre plus intéressants tout en faisant des jours de 12 heures à l’ouvrage … Ça vient vite, tout considéré. Esseyons d’entasser dans quelques jours des mois d’exploration en ornementations et variations afin qu’entendre maintes reprises de simples mélodies traditionnelles soit agréable, sans tomber dans le piège des trilles et modulations par ton qu’on entend dans les salles d’attente. Mais c’est une occasion merveilleuse et je sais que retourner sur scène sera un événement joyeux!
Inspiring vacation in Montréal! Last week, Louise Pellerin (internationally renowned oboe soloist and chamber musician) came to Montréal to participate as jurist at le Concours de l'OSM (Montréal Symphony Orchestra Competition). The two major music schools there, Conservatoire de Musique de Montréal and McGill University's Schulich School of Music, did the very wise thing of inviting her to do masterclasses for their oboe students. Louise also got Marigaux to exhibit their instruments in both locations - they got a very warm welcome and results exceeded anyone’s expectations! Of course, I could not pass up the opportunity to weasel-my-way there to all events!	Masterclass Conservatoire de Montréal: Robin Tropper, Louise Pellerin, Lise Beauchamp	Vacance inspirante à Montréal! La semaine dernière, Louise Pellerin (hautboïste-soliste et chambriste renommée mondialement) est venue à Montréal pour agir sur le jury du Concours de l’OSM. Les deux écoles de musique principales de Montréal, le Conservatoire de Musique de Montréal et l’École de Musique Schulich de l’Université McGill, ont montré la grande sagesse de l’inviter à donner des classes des maîtres, pour leurs étudiants en hautbois. Louise a apporté la maison Marigaux pour montrer ses instruments et permettre à tous les visiteurs de les essayer – ils ont reçu un chaleureux accueil à Montréal dont les résultats ont dépassé les attentes de tous! Bien sûr, je ne pouvais pas m’empêcher d’aller écorniffler tous les événements!
This is the first time Marigaux came to Canada. It was well worth the effort: for Montrealers to try Marigaux was a rare opportunity and the instrument received a very warm welcome, impressing students and professionals alike. In fact, at least two professionals gladly converted to Marigaux. The way I see it, this is a great way to open the doors to a variety of makers rather than blindly following dogmatic standards. This should let oboists feel more free to choose what best serves their goals!		C’est la première fois que Marigaux vient au Canada. L’effort en a bien vallu la peine: occasion rare pour les montréalais d’essayer Marigaux, qui a reçu un accueil très chaleureux, impressionnant les étudiants comme les professionnels. En fait, deux professionnels se sont convertis à Marigaux. La manière que je vois ça, c'est la porte qui s'ouvre à une variété des fabricants, au lieu de suivre ‘a l’aveuglette des normes dogmatiques. Ainsi, les artistes peuvent se sentir plus à l'aise de choisir l'instrument qui voit à leurs buts!

Louise Pellerin's masterclasses were simply wonderful! The students from both schools clearly made good use of her time with them and their performance before and after her coaching showed clear benefit from the experience.	Les classes des maîtres de Louise Pellerin étaient simplement formidables! Les étudiants des deux institutions ont clairement fait bon usage de son temps et leur jeu et avant ses instructions ont clairement montré le bénéfice de son expérience.
Her ebullient and authentically kind and pleasant personality immediately puts people at ease and really opens their artistic expression with their oboes. As I listened to her and saw her effects on students, I felt her instruction touched more than stylistic aspects of the pieces performed; I felt she elucidated the very way we approach rehearsal and even our relationship with music itself.	Son rayonnement, sa gentillesse et sa personalité plaisante frappent par leur autenticité, mettant ses interlocuteurs immédiatement à l’aise et ouvrant les portes à l’expression artistique par le hautbois. En l’écoutant et voyant son effet sur les étudiants, j’ai senti que son instruction toucha plus que le style dans l’interprétation des pièces jouées; j’ai trouvé qu’elle élucida la manière qu’on approche la répétition et même notre relation avec la musique elle-même.
It would be very tempting here to list some of the key points she emphasized, but it’s really not the same without context. In our generation, it has become the habit to search the internet for “how-to’s” in the hopes of becoming a master at something. This does work (to some extent only) for computer development and technical skills, but it sure does not work for the arts: playing the oboe especially, requires human contact with someone how has the experience to touch what you need to improve and develop.	La tentation est forte pour élaborer les points saillants de ce qu’elle enseigna, mais ce n’est vraiment pas pareil hors contexte. Notre génération est accoutumée à chercher les réponses-rapides sur Internet, espérant maîtriser une discipline. Jusqu’à un certain point, celà fonctionne assez bien pour le développment informatique et autres habiletés techniques, mais ça ne marche vraiment pas pour les arts: jouer le hautbois, surtout, a besoin du contact humain avec quelqu’un avec l’expérience à savoir toucher ce qu’il vous faut pour avancer.

With something as intimate as the oboe, videos or lists of pointers just won’t cut it. Even for a seasoned player like myself, seeing a master like Louise Pellerin in person just does that much more than any amount of reflection on CD performances. So I really recommend people to go take classes with her, for example at the Orford Arts Center.	Masterclass 2014	Avec de quoi d’aussi intime que le hautbois, les vidéos et listes de conseils n’aboutiront à pas grand chose. Même pour un vieil habitué comme moi, voir un maître comme Louise Pellerin en personne fait bien plus que toute la méditation possible sur les CD. Alors je recommende vraiment d’aller prendre des cours avec elle, par exemple au Centre d’Arts à Orford.
Personal corroboration: Although I did not persevere to their professional levels, I am grateful for having learned oboe at the Conservatoire de Musique de Montréal with Bernard jean. Looking back on the experience, and absolutely no "lip-service" or fake-flattery here, this was quite a privilege: 4 years in a heavenly setting. Heavenly in 2 ways: a historical setting that cannot fail to inspire artistic excellence and also a social setting where everyone lives and breathes the pursuit of musical artistry.		Confirmation personnelle: Bien que je n’aie pas persévéré dans une profession musicale, je suis reconaissant d’avoir aussi étudié le hautbois au Conservatoire de Musique Montréal sous Bernard Jean. En rétrospection, et sans aucune fausse flatterie, c’était tout un privilège: 4 ans dans un contexte paradisiaque… un lieu historique qui ne peut faire autre chose que d’inspirer à l’excellence musical et un contexte social où chacun vit et respire la quête artistique.
Bernard Jean also taught Louise Pellerin and my first oboe teacher (after high-school), Lise Beauchamp, who now succeeded him as principle oboe of the Orchestre Métropolitain as well as teacher at the Conservatoire in Montreal. After her own studies at the Conservatoire, Lise went on to complete her musical training at the Julliard School of Music! She now brings the best of both American and European aesthetics home to Montréal. So many years ago, Bernard instructed me to get lessons with Lise in preparation for my audition for the Conservatoire: in only a few months, she clearly did quite well. Now, by the masterclass performance of her next-generation students at the Conservatoire, it is clear that she is passing Bernard's legacy along with her own impressive experience.	Bernard Jean My main oboe teacher. Mon principal prof. de hautbois.	Bernard Jean a aussi formé Louise Pellerin et mon premier prof. de hautbois., Lise Beauchamp, qui l’a succédé comme hautbois principal de l’Orchestre Métropolitain ainsi qu’en tant que prof. au Conservatoire de Montréal. Après Montréal, Lise a complété sa formation à l’école de Julliard à New-York! Elle rapporte maintenant à Montréal le meilleur des deux esthétiques (européennes et américaines). Il y a tant d’années, Bernard m’avait dit de prendre des cours avec Lise en préparation pour mon audition au Conservatoire: en quelques mois seulement, elle a clairement très bien fait. Maintenant par le jeu de ses étudiants au Conservatoire, il est clair qu’elle passe le flambeau de Bernard tout en ajoutant la sagesse de sa propre expérience impressionnante.
Trust in the system and persevere in your quest: I left the Conservatoire and went to McGill University (where I also had fantastic experiences and amazing teachers) but this had nothing to do with Bernard and everything to do with being a nervous wreck at the time. When I started playing oboe again, after 10 years of nearly total absence from it during engineering school, I finally began to understand the sense of what Bernard had taught, both by instruction and by example, and also just by his behaviour around me and everyone in our entourage.		Ayez confiance dans le système et persévérez dans votre quête: Lorsque j’ai quitté le Conservatoire pour aller à l’université McGill (où j’ai aussi vécu de merveilleuses expériences avec des professeurs formidables) mais ça n’avait rien à faire avec Bernard et tout à voir au fait que j’étais un paquet de nerfs à l’époque. Quand j’ai repris le hautbois, après un hiatus de 10 ans pendant mes études en ingénierie, j’ai enfin commencé à comprendre ce qu’il m’avait enseigné verbalement et par exemple et même par son comportement autour de moi et tout le monde.

His entire personal presence taught more than the oboe or even music, but also about how life and and being end-up showing in musical performance. It took me 20 years to appreciate what Bernard passed on… I hope I’m doing him justice now.

Je suis maintenant capable de comprendre ses leçons, qui outrepassent le hautbois et même la musique, mais incluent un optique de vie qui se manifeste finalement dans la musique. Ça m’a pris 20 ans apprécier ce que Bernard m’a transmis.

Witnessing Louise Pellerin in both masterclasses, I immediately saw the living aesthetics of our common teacher, Bernard Jean, as well as the energetic refinement of her subsequent teacher, Heinz Holliger, wrapped with a humanistic understanding which is all her own. There was quite a lot of artistic maturity in the rehearsal techniques she passed on and the expectations she held at both the Conservatoire and McGill University; maturity that cannot fail to move those very fortunate students greatly on their journey to a life blessed with the oboe!

Voyant Louise Pellerin dans les deux Masterclass, j’ai immédiatement vu l’esthétique vivante de notre prof. commun, Bernard Jean, ainsi que le raffinement de son prof. subséquent, Heinz Holliger, le tout enrobé d’un sens humaniste qui est propre à Louise. Il y avait là considérablement de maturité autant dans les techniques de répétition qu’elle enseignait, que dans ses attentes au Conservatoire et l’université McGill; maturité qui qui ne peut manquer à émouvoir ces chanceux étudiants dans leur cheminement merveilleux avec le hautbois.

Oboe Innovations – Appearance and Sound

You know the old joke?

A conductor is in love with two women; one is ravishingly beautiful but hates music, the other is a wonderful coloratura that looks like a blowfish. Being a deeply artistic musician, he decides to marry the soprano. But on the morning after the wedding, he wakes up to see his new bride “in the light of day”. In a fit of panic, he shakes her violently saying : “For God’s sake, SING!”

It is very easy to say that what matters in an instrument is the sound, not the way it looks. In fact, for generations, nearly all oboes essentially looked like high-school band instruments! In a picture, an oboe by any maker could be passed off as any other maker.

NOTE: this post does not intend to compare the quality or merit of instrument brands. My purpose here is to show some of the more noteworthy innovations in the art and science of making oboes and how the manufacturers are aiming to recapture sound and qualities that might have been lost with standardization and industrialization.

[1] Dupin Imperial [2] violin [3] past Fossati

[4] Th. Orlowski (oboe) [5] Gebr. Mönning (d’Amore)

I can understand that the very complex keywork requires an even body to facilitate the mechanism, but how very bland compared to instruments from the classical or baroque eras. Even the Viennese oboe has retained a sense of woodwork. But this blog post intends to explore the opposite possibility: manufacturers who are passionate about giving their instrument a true personality might very much want to reflect that in the appearance as well as the sound.

Besides, it is very likely that the measurements of the wood in different parts of the instrument might well influence the sound: that is why great violins are not made of plywood! So “decorating” the instrument with different looking crowns or bells must certainly affect the sound.

Heinz Holliger, naturally, was my first oboe hero and he remains my standard for ornamenting Handel and dynamic expression. But when I heard Louise Pèllerin (Marigaux) my jaw dropped and my sense of sound aesthetic changed forever. Although Pèllerin remains a benchmark for me, Albrecht Mayer keeps turning my head when I hear him. At first, it was on the radio and I thought he played baroque oboe with a mediocre sound…. when I learned he played modern instruments, this was a revolution!

Top: Marigaux M2
Left to right: Gebr. Mönning Platinum (Albr. Mayer),
Ludwig Frank, Marigaux 2001 Altuglass,
Fossati 20th An. Soliste, Josef 2th An., Dupin Impérial.

A.Mayer: Mön. Plat.

Google-searching Mayer is how I discovered the work of Ludwig Frank (here ) and how his instruments look different, inside and outside. At the insistence of Albrecht Mayer, Ludwig Frank developed a conical bell for his Oboe d’Amore and English Horn (branded as Mönning Platinum).

Gregor Witt: L. Frank

Although actual Ludwig Frank oboes already had a unique looking “traditional German” bell, similar to those made by Thomas Orlowski (tan and brown bells above ) Mayer also influenced the Mönning Platinum oboe that is more French in design, but still looks and sounds most distinctly. Although Mayer made the Gebrüder Mönning (here ) Platinum better known around the world, I have heard excellent oboists playing the real Ludwig Frank with a really special sound: “full-body velvet”! That is, as warm and smooth as one can imagine, yet capable of every dynamic and articulation: a real work of art!

François Leleux: M2

Marigaux is probably the instrument played most by international soloists and orchestras of all levels in Europe. has gained much attention with their “Altuglass” oboe (here ), and more recently with their M2 (here ) instrument has a particular design: the top joint has only the octave keys and the middle joint has all the finger keys! You typically buy a wooden head joint and a synthetic one to prevent cracks due to weather. The head joints also come in 3 lengths to help tuning for different orchestras.

J-L Fillon: 2001 Altuglass

The Altuglass need not fear cracking as it is fully synthetic: but the sound remains easily as beautiful as any wood instrument, ebony, rosewood or cocobolo. The M2 is becoming a favourite of soloists in Europe: the sound leaves no question as to why!

Tomoharu Yoshida: Fossati

Fossati (here ) decided to give a fully contemporary look to their instruments by removing almost all decoration. They produced a German-looking bell for a short while on special request. This bell gave a darker richer tone. It also served as the basis for their newest Soliste 20^th Anniversary line: although the bell looks very plain, it is supposed to exaggerate the warmth and fullness of the tone. Perhaps Fossati’s most noteworthy innovations are a the trill keys that use only one hole and the metal alloys they use on the keys. The single hole trills help prevent cracks whereas the metal alloy apparently resists wear and tear from sweat and rubbing much better than silver, chrome or gold.

Simon Emes: Josef

Japan is one surprize after another: you can find there a whole society devoted to the Viennese oboe, a soloist (Oboe, Ob. d’Amore and English Horn) who is a fervent expert on Dupin oboes (below) and a maker of innovative modern instrument with the vision of creating the perfect oboe with a Japanese personality. Josef (here ) is this instrument maker and one of the means to get a Japanese personality is to change the decoration of the crown and the bell. The one pictured here is only one of several very different looking models.

Christoph Hartman and Renato Bizotto, Dupin Imperial.

Did I save the best for last? A true innovator while at the same time conserving the age-honoured craft of making oboes completely by hand, Rolland Dupin (here ) and his son Christophe have a solid reputation for making the most dependable modern oboes. They also make baroque oboes, which might explain how they imagined the Imperial oboe which has not only a very stylised bell, but also a decorated head-joint: not quite Viennese, but similar to baroque.The Imperial (made famous by Christoph Hartman) is capable of a variety of tone colours from the clear and virtuosic to warm and expressive. Dupin oboes are highly prized in Northern-Europe and many other places around the world. My absolute favourite style of orchestral playing is Scandinavian: when any instrument plays a solo, you don’t need to guess – you hear the flute solo, clarinets freely sound their beauty and oboes don’t sound as if they were ashamed of their tone. The oboes have remarkable qualities, rustic yet sophisticated, bold yet sensitive: truly my favourite style of playing. Perhaps the preference for Dupin instruments there might have something to do with it.

Amazing Unknown…

Well, she’s not really unknown because she did study under Heinz Holliger, she did a decent number of recordings including at least one with H.H. and I believe she is a teacher and orchestral oboist in Switzerland… but I don’t know where and Google is not very helpful in getting information on her.

Parenthesis:

I was planning to record another couple of impressionist tunes, but I’m running out of decent performance reeds and I kind of promised I’d do something for the Twitter group #BachChat (find me @RobinDesHautboi – no ‘s’ – and join the fun!). They are having a party on the 21st and people are already going wild with it! I’m getting a wisdom tooth pulled out a few days before that, so I thought I’d concentrate on one Bach recording before then, next week.

Handel : Lascia Chio Pianga

Louise Pellerin:

(http://www.marigaux.com/en/musiciens/pellerin-louise)
So in the meantime, I really think this Canadian (born and trained) oboist is fantastic and she deserves to be better known…. or perhaps the music lovers everywhere deserve the pleasure of knowing her music better. Like I said, before discovering Albrecht Mayer, she was my favourite. So here are a couple more of her tunes recorded at the monastery Abbaye St-Benoit du lac (near Sherbrooke Québec Canada) with a treasure of an organist, the monk Dom André Laberge (Benedictine).

Handel : Flammende Rose, Zierde den Erde

Recording breakthrough:

In a few old posts (Recording Tricks, Microphone Tips #2), I mentioned that correctly positioning the microphone an lowering the recording level yielded a true sound. Well today I did that and plugged it into an old Aiwa boom-box: my wife was climbing the stairs and jumped startled when she saw me, she thought that was me in the other room playing!

Haendel – difficult joy! (IMS #3, good)

32 countries have visited my blog! Wow, the Internet age is really impressive: and the love for the oboe is evidently universal!

To celebrate, I did a little You-Tube of an oboist who is really worth getting to know: Louise Pellerin studied in Montréal with my teacher (Bernard Jean) and also in Europe with Heinz Holliger! They have even recorded double concertos and double sonatas together.

Before Albrecht Mayer, I had always found her sound to be the best. The discovery of so many extraordinary oboists in the world thanks to You-Tube (see Learning from the Masters Electronically) might make her interpretation seem a little old-fashioned, but there is a lot to be learned from her. You can find Heinz Holliger’s influence… and also Bernard Jean’s style, if you know what to look for!

32 countries love the oboe!

This excerpt comes from a recording she made at the monastery Abbaye St-Benoit-du-lac (close to my home town) with a really important organist (and monk in the monastery) Dom Andre Laberge. For the video, and to thank all of you, I put the flags of all the countries that visit here! To avoid any political or moral insensitivity, I put the countries in alphabetical order as the names are spelled in English (the language of this blog!). Notice that this way, my own country is 5th in the progression! Also, I may have missed your country, because Blogger Statistics don’t show them all, only the most frequent 10 in a specified time frame. If I missed yours please let me know and I’ll fix it!

So far, thank you to:
Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Chile, Columbia, Egypt, France, Germany, Italy, India, Ireland, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Netherlands (Holland), Portugal, Romania, Russia, Singapore, Slovenia, South Korea, ,Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, U.K., Ukraine, U.S.A.

Handel: beautiful but …..

I absolutely LOVE the music of Haendel and Telemann. I also think they are the most difficult to play of all composers of all time! Looking at the sheets and the notes and rhythms makes them appear simple, perhaps enough for and advanced 1st year student to master. But the soul in there is so strong that the technical simplicity makes it hard to reach!

Heinz Holliger has to be the master at ornamenting Haendel, but it is too easy to overdo ornaments and drown the musical soul in technical dazzle.

3rd IMS treatment – worthwhile!

When I get to the treatments, the fear of the pain is getting hard to bear. Some needles do not hurt at all and some are really painful. But when the needle is out, that’s it. So the mental apprehension is worse than the treatment.

This week was bad because the weather changed a lot (from –15 to +15 Celcius, from rain to snow to gusting winds) and that usually causes pain to flare-up the entire body. But my neck is usually a lot worse, and my right hand has begun to really relax and stay relaxed. I can compare with my left (not yet treated): it is “normal”, so always tensed, always clutching and always a little sore. My right used to be like that, now it is becoming truly normal: relaxed, open and no pain.

Yep, definitely worthwhile!