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Doublereed Archive - Posting 000013.txt from 2003/05
From: PhilFrei@-----.com
Subj: RE: [DR-L] opening throat upper register oboe
Date: Fri, 2 May 2003 05:18:08 -0400
Hi -
The question was asked: what muscles are involved in the opening or closing
of the throat?
I think the tongue has the most to do with it. We are used to focusing on the
tip of the tongue, but it extends and shapes the air column for quite a
distance back down into the throat.
The "closed" throat positions described in oboedom usually seem to correspond
to vowels that have a highly placed back tongue, e.g. "ee" or short "i" (as
in fit) or "eh" or even "uh" (though by the time you get to "uh" the jaw has
dropped/extended to where it weakens the embouchure support, undermining the
boost one gets from the narrowed air column).
I'm going to offer counter-argument to David Lurie's contention that the open
throat is necessary for a good, vibrant tone quality. But before I do, I want
to say that I DO think cultivating a relaxed ("ah" or "oh") open throat is a
good thing. While I've been faulted for a lot in my oboe playing, I've rarely
gotten criticism for my tone. Come to think of it, one would probably not
criticize Marc Lifschey's tone, but he made at least some use of what he
described as an "ih" or "eh" or "hhh" to boost the top range, according to
his student Bill Banovitz who I once studied with.
It is not clear whether or not the mouth cavity's resonant properties affect
the tone or help a note to sound more readily. Years ago, I wasn't able to
dig up anything conclusive in research papers. I know when I asked the the
head professor of the Phonetics/Phonology research lab at U.C. Berkeley, he
answered that he thought the contribution would be quite minimal. I disagreed
at the time, but in every experiment I came up with, it seemed that some
other aspect of the vowel was affecting the tone. In particular, jaw
placement on different vowels has a big effect on embouchure pressure, which
has a direct effect on tone production and tone qualities. In one experiment,
I found that using vowels that dropped or extended the jaw but closed the
throat (e.g. "oo" as in food) did better at aiding low-note production than
open-throat vowels with a more closed jaw. (These were not "formal"
experiments, but rather investigative one's in which I was my own subject.)
I've also tried playing around with Tuva-like effects, playing a long, low
B-flat and making different vowel shapes, but could barely make them out on
tape, even though they seemed audible in my head when I was playing. Skulls,
I guess, are not generally noted for their ability to transmit sound like
some fine resonating gourd, except to the ears directly attached.
Still, someone who was more skilled at this would probably be better able to
affect more tone color change than I managed. I think, though, that maybe the
flute, of all the winds, is most sensitive to such manipulations (because
there the mouth is open, as it is in Tuvan singing).
There is no real reason why one can't use the tongue/throat as a source of
support/vibrato, as it definitely possible to squeeze the air column this way
and thus provide extra support. It's just that this muscle is much weaker
than the abdominals, and is prone to muscle strains (speaking from bad
personal experience). That's why I would never recommend using it unless the
abdominals are your primary and dynamic source of support, and you are being
very selective in the tongue/throat usage.
A common beginner problem: mistakenly thinking that a fixed, tense abdominal
squeezing can be used for all playing situations. However, when the high,
loud notes go flat, as they will in a fixed-support situation relative to
middle register notes, these players have to resort to some other source of
support, e.g. tongue/throat, clenching cheeks, shoulders, anything to prop up
the pitch. Better and simpler to use a dynamically changing amount of
abdominal pressure depending upon the need.
And better to simpler use a dynamically changing amount of embouchure
pressure, too, rather than working out a "vowel system" for different ranges
of the oboe (as was taught, for example, by Bill Banovitz). At least, that is
my current state of understanding of the matter.
Phil Freihofner
Oakland
