A book by its cover / l’Habit fait le moine

On forums and Facebook posts as well as simple ordinary conversation over the past 30 years, there is a belief that a competent oboist will end-up sounding the same on any instrument s/he plays. This makes a certain amount of good sense because there is so much more than the instrument in the sound: reeds, embouchure, air stream (general body physique) and even hall acoustics play a huge role in how the instrument will sound. Moreover, I do believe that spending lots of time with an instrument will attenuate the differences, leaving personal style shine through. But I think people exaggerate when they say the a different instrument makes nearly no difference at all. Also, maybe spending more time with an instrument will allow a musician to aim for a different sound by letting go of old habits, necessary for one instrument, but not another	Ol’ Faithful / Vielle Branche (Lorée) Dr. Jones (Pan-American – Conn)	Des discussions sur les forums et messages Facebook, même des causeries depuis 30 ans laissent croire qu’un hautboïste compétent sonnera pareil sur n’importe-quel instrument. Ceci a un certain bon sens: le timbre est affecté par l’anche, l’embouchure, le souffle (le physique du corps) autant que par l’instrument; même l’acoustique affecte le timbre. De plus, je crois qu’à la longue, on s’habitue à l’instrument et les différences s’atténue, laissant le style individuel du musicien transparaître. Mais je crois que le monde exagère lorsqu’on dit qu’un instrument différent ne fait presqu’aucune différence. De plus, peut-être que passer plus de temps avec un instrument permettra de viser des buts différents en permettant de lâcher prise de mauvais plis qui étaient jadis nécessaires pour un instrument, mais pas un autre.
Meet Dr. Jones and Ol’ Faithful! Ol’ Faithful is that Lorée I’ve been using for my You-Tube recordings up to now. I’ve had it almost all of my oboe playing life and seems to me much better than new Lorées I’ve been trying. While I had it rejuvenated and revoiced by D. Teitelbaum (half of Laubin inc.) in 2010, I got a 1921 Pan-American (Conn) oboe on e-bay, just so I could blow some notes and work my fingers. It is a beginner model, but it’s sound opened my horizons on what is possible and made me realize that my struggles for tuning and dynamics might not be entirely my fault: even though Lorée is a very respectable professional instrument, nothing guarantees that it will actually help performance, especially because a great instrument for one person does not always “mesh” with another.	Computer Speakers, mobile devices or cheap ear buds might not allow you to hear the difference in tone colours. Les haut-parleurs d’ordinateur, téléphones ou tablettes et les casques d’écoute bon-marché ne permettront peut-être pas d’entendre la différence de timbre.	Dr. Jones et ma Vieille Branche! Vieille Branche est le Lorée que j’utilise jusqu’à maintenant pour mes You-Tube. Je l’ai depuis presque le début de ma vie hautboïstique et il me semble bien mieux que les nouveaux Lorées que j’ai pu essayer. Lorsque je l’ai fait remettre à neuf par D. Teitelbaum (la motié de Laubin inc.) en 2010, j’ai acheté sur e-bay un Pan-American (Conn) de 1921, juste pour que je puisse souffler un peu et faire marcher mes doigts. C’est un modèle débutant, mais il m’a ouvert les horizons sur ce qui est possible et que mes épreuves avec la justesse et les nuances ne sont peut-êtres pas de ma faute. Mon Lorée est un instrument professionnel très respectable, mais rien ne garantit que sa qualité m’aidera, étant donné qu’un excellent instrument pour une personne ne l’est pas nécessairement pour une autre.
Recording Wreck! I know at least one instrument vendor who was asked to make recordings for clients who did not want to make the long drive to his store without knowing if it would even be worthwhile. He declined to do so because it is REALLY hard to capture the different tone colours on a recording. In fact, I spent a whole week playing with recording settings on both my microphone and computer software as well as different layouts in the room – the 2 instruments always sounded nearly identical in the recording! Also, trickery does not work: normally a recording is passed through a “low pass filter” to remove the distortion from room reverberation: when I do this, even my best contrast recordings end-up making the two instruments sound the same.	Summer 2010 : rebuilding my oboe mouth and fingers while Ol’ Faithful got overhauled in New-York. (Lunch time at work every day!) Été 2010 : refaire ma gueule et mes doigts pendant que ma Vieille Branche se faisait mettre à neuf à New-York. (Midi à l’ouvrage à tous les jours!)	Enregistrements Enrageantes! Je connais au moins un revendeur d’instruments avec des clients qui demandent des enregistrements pour savoir s’il possède un instrument avec un timbre pour justifier la route. Il refuse de le faire parce que c’est VRAIMENT difficile de capter les différences de timbre en enregistrement. En fait, j’ai passé la semaine entière à jouer avec les ajustements sur mon micro et mon ordinateur en plus de la disposition de ma pièce – les 2 instruments sonnaient toujours presqu’identiques sur l’enregistrement! Tenter de tricher ne marche pas: normalement on passe un filtre “passe-bas” sur l’enregistrement pour éliminer la distortion dûe à l’écho de la pièce. Quand je le fais, même mes enregistrements montrant les contrastes les plus nets finissaient par faire sonner les 2 instruments pareils.
Microphones are NOT ears! Now wait, does this mean that the recording is right and ears are hearing what we want to hear? Uhhh, no. The old notion that a camera sees the truth will be quickly debunked by any professional photographer and the same is true for microphones. The ears are VERY different from any kind of microphone, no matter how sophisticated and humans also hear with the whole body: bones, skin, even fat and muscles react to air vibrations and transmit everything to the hearing centers. Conclusion: I have HUGE respect for recording sound engineers!	Reed used in the recording. Anche utilisée dans l’enregistrement.	Les micros ne sont PAS des oreilles! Minute-moumoutte! Est-ce que l’enregistrement prouve qu’on entend ce qu’on veut? Aaahh non. L’idée qu’une caméra capte la vérité est rapidement démentie par un photographe professionnel; il en est de même pour les micros. Les oreilles sont TRÈS différentes que même les micros les plus sophistiqués et nous entendons aussi avec le corps entier: les os, la peau, même le gras et les muscles réagissent aux vibrations dans l’air et contribuent à ce qu’on apèlle “entendre”. Conclusion: j’ai un ÉNORME respect pour les preneurs de son!
What makes the difference in sound? I don’t actually know. For sure the bells are different and I suspect Dr. Jones is more conical (smaller bore at the top, same at the bell joint, but much more flaring at the bell). But wood thickness also plays a role and God-knows-what-else might affecting the tone colour. Dr. Jones is a very old beginner-model (probably made for marching bands) so it will never play as easily or with the versatility of a pro. model. But it did serve a great purpose, it really opened my horizons at what a different instrument could do for me.		Que fait la différence dans le timbre? Honnêtement, sais pas. Sûrement que les pavillons jouent un rôle et je soupçonne Dr. Jones d’être plus conique (perce plus mince à la tête, pareille à l’articulation du pavillon mais un pavillon beaucoup plus évasé). Mais l’épaisseur du bois joue aussi un grand rôle et Dieu-seul-sait-quoi-d’autre peut affecter le timbre. Dr. Jones est un très vieux modèle à débutant (probablement conçu pour les parades) alors il ne jouera jamais aussi facilement ou avec la polyvalence d’un modèle pro. Mais il a très bien servi à m’ouvrir les horizons à ce que pourrait me valoir un nouvel instrument.

Endurance at 30 minutes à l’endurance.

45 thousand blog visits from 90 countries! I consider this to be an Olympian feat in itself! I can only thank everyone for your interest! GO CANADA AT LONDON 2012! I’m not usually a sports fan, but I like the idea of the Olympic games. Moreover, they focus on many sports we do not usually see as part of prime-time TV athletics! The goals of the Olympian athlete is summarised in the words “faster, farter, stronger”. That makes this post very well suited to the beginning of the games. Most of last year, I complained that endurance was low. I wasn’t sure if practicing 30 minutes a day would be enough to build enough endurance to play in concert, let alone a full solo recital. Well, I’m ecstatic to say that, with time, it is!

Really demanding repertoire on endurance!

45 mille visites au blogue venant de 90 pays! Je considère ceci un exploit olympien en soi! Je ne peux qu’exprimer ma joie à vous tous pour votre intérêt! VAS-Y CANADA À LONDRES 2012! Je ne suis pas un amateur de sports, mais quand il s’agit des Olympiades, mon fusil change d’épaule! Surtout qu’on y voit des sports habituellement absents de la télé. Les mots qui décrivent l’horizon olimpique sont “plus vite, plus loin, plus fort”. Cet article coïncide donc très bien avec le début des jeux de 2012! Durant l’année passée, je me suis plaint d’une faible endurance. Je doutais que 30 minutes par jour soit assez pour bâtir l’endurance nécessaire à un concert, sans espérer un récital solo. Mais en voici la preuve!

This video presents 4 impressionist tunes (OK, perhaps not by definition, but the style is right). One year ago, I could not have hoped to attempt recording Vocalise, let alone all 4 of these. And that’s not all, to put the video together, I had to record about a dozen takes of the entire suite (video and audio)! I did this in one day with no trouble at all! I’ll reserve a critique of this video for the next post. Now that the video is complete, I believe this is the most difficult repertoire I have ever played – ever! The rhythms are easy, the notes are mostly very comfortable, but the gentle articulation, sustained over entire pieces, was really the most difficult thing I have ever had to practice.	Cette vidéo présente 4 pièces impressionnistes (enfin, pas par définition, mais le style y va). Il y a un an, je n’aurais pas pu considérer enregistrer vocalise, encore moins tous les 4. Mais encore mieux, pour assembler la vidéo, j’ai dû faire plus d’une douzaine de prises entières, une après l'autre (vidéo et audio)! J’ai fait tout ceci dans un seul jour sans aucun ennui! J’en ferai la critique au prochain article. Maintenant que la vidéo est faite, je crois que c’est le répertoire le plus difficile que je n’ai jamais joué! Les rythmes sont faciles, les notes très confortables, mais l’articulation si douce, soutenue le long des pièces entières fut vraiment le travail le plus rigoureux de mon expérience!
Bad weather, bad oboe, bad me? I would like to blame the flaws in sound on the weather or an instrument with unstable tuning in this recording, but the truth is, I just don’t know. For sure, my reeds last week didn’t really crow, they quacked! They would crow after a few minutes of playing…. but still not the ideal raven (not even a blue-jay!): this is definitely weather! But I cannot know if another instrument with legendary reputation or new amazing technology would really make my tuning and sound more stable. The only way to determine this would be to try other instruments in bad weather conditions with quacking reeds! Either way, a competent musician is supposed to compensate and play well regardless. The question is then, with my 30 minutes a day and with this instrument, am I progressing adequately?	Ennuis de météo, d’instrument ou de moi? J’aimerais bien accuser l’instrument ou la météo pour les défaillances de justesse dans cette vidéo, mais en toute honnêteté, je ne sais pas c’en est le cas. Sans aucun doute, la semaine dernière, le cri de mes anches faisaient plus un canard qu’un corbeau… au moins si c’était un geai-bleu! Ceci est absolument et sans conteste la météo! Mais je ne peut pas savoir si un autre instrument avec réputation légendaire ou technologie de pointe pourrait faciliter la stabilité et le timbre. La seule façon de le déterminer serait d’essayer de tels instruments quand la météo fait de mes anches des appeaux de canard! De toute manière, un musicien compétent doit compenser et bien jouer. La question demeure, à 30 minutes par jour sur cet instrument, mon progrès est-il adéquat?
Lessons Learned: This production consisted of capturing video through a web-cam connected to my lap-top and sound separately on my recording device. This caused as many problems as possibilities. I was very lucky to meet a real expert in home-recording () who will help me in the weeks to comes with the next recording. Solutions will require more experimentation, other blog posts, but in the meantime, a list for thought: My microphone & room layout is all wrong! This required more noise reduction after the recording. Put together, the sound is not natural. Synchronizing audio and video is really difficult and long! Extra “takes” make it even harder, because note lengths are never the same!	Leçons apprises: Cette production consiste de vidéo capté par web-cam et la prise de son sur une enregistreuse externe, rassemblé et corrigé par la suite par logiciel. Je suis chanceux d’avoir rencontré un expert en enregistrement à domicile () qui m’aidera avec mon prochain enregistrement. Les solutions demandront plus d’expérimentation, mais entretemps, à considérer: L’emplacement du micro vis-à-vis la salle était complètement dingue! Ceci a exigé plus de réduction de bruit par logiciel. Tout considéré, le son n’est pas naturel. Synchroniser vidéo et audio s’est montré plus difficile et long qu’à l’habitude! Les prises répétées ont rendu la tâche plus ardue parce que la fin des notes n’ont jamais la même longueur!

5-minute reed : experiment successful !

I was going to write about the master class for adults at the University of Ottawa Oboe Event, but then I made this experimental reed that deserves blogging! Actually, at the end of the master class, prof. Hamann (Chip), mentioned group lessons where everyone is expected to make a good reed in 15 minutes, so it still fits the bill. My account of the master class next time.

Experimenting with shapes and lengths

Following my blog and/or the BBoard, people know I like to experiment with shapes and stuff in the hopes of making an easier reed that sounds more “baroque-esque”. Well try this one on for size. But 1st, repeat: this is an experimental reed, so yes there are flaws with it, but there are also some really cool things about it.

Bad stuff, good stuff

The picture above shows (and the video below sounds) the reed and another blank just like it. Because this is an experimental reed, I’m not worried about these 3 flaws:

1. it plays really flat (about 30 cents flat, so I guess A=435?)
2. it is unstable in the usual 1st octave-key notes
3. there is some buzz remaining in the sound

The buzz can be explained by the fact I spent only 5 minutes scraping it… more like 3, actually. The flatness and the instability can be explained by the measurements: it is 73.5mm in total length on a 45mm staple. This means it is very long cane compared to the norm, so stability might be better ensured with thicker cane than what I used (the usual 0.60mm). The shaper is also actually for oboe d’amore (Kunibert Michel 750), so really wide tip and really big belly. Finally, it is tied on Chiarugi #7 (really big … those of you who use Lorée staples would freak!).

Reed test–5 minute scrape.

But for the good part, if I can get the buzz out, this is starting to sound like my ideal. I’m curious to try this reed in a Marigaux: many people have stated that pretty much any reed will play with great stability. The dynamic range is great, it was really easy to scrape and the response is also great (with a rather thick tip). I’ll need to confirm if it still plays this well tomorrow, but here is what it sounds like: 3 minutes of scraping a freshly chopped blank!

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.

Christmas: an oboe is (re)born.

The Yuletide season has always been special to me. My parents and I would always make a big fuss over decorating the tree (which we used to fell straight out of the woods, a 15 minute walk outside our front door) and making cookies while listening to high calibre Christmas music including the Mormon Tabernacle Choir (unsurpassed recordings of the 1970s) and now with very special Polish Choirs (Stefan Stuligrosz) and Soloists. But 1985 made the season really special: on Dec 14th, I got my Lorée oboe, the one that would bring me to the Conservatoire de Montréal and follow me faithfully through the ups and downs of life.

The first thing I did was to play it with my father’s choir at a Christmas concert. The choir never had another instrument with it before and no parts were given to me: I elected to improvise counter-melodies and flourishes around the song. “Improvising” is used loosely, I had pretty well practiced what I would do and it never budged from the simplest arpeggios mirrored licks. The experience was a resounding success: never the same again.

Birth and rebirth

That was the birth of my oboe. A week ago marked our 25th anniversary together and we gave each other presents for the occasion. I gave it its present during the summer: had it revoiced by Laubin’s finisher! The present it gave me was a renewed passion, far greater then ever before, for both the instrument and playing it.
My wife and I actually got our Christmas presents during the summer and fall: for her, its photography. But it is during the holiday season that I will be able to use them to produce something. My revoiced Lorée plays like a dream, especially when using reeds shaped with my Kunibert Michel 7.25 shaper. My job allows me to take the week off between Christmas and New-Year’s day, so guess what?
I realized, a little while ago, that although I can play in tune and with decent dynamics alone (as testified by recordings), there is a big difference when playing with recorded accompaniment such as Music Minus One and MIDI files. So I’ll be working on a recording of myself playing with MMO and MIDI. If its not too embarrassing, I’ll make some You-Tube postings of it.
In the meantime, I wish you all a Very Happy Yule and all the best for the New-Year. May playing music (oboe, singing, anything) bring cheer and memories to share for years to come!