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Doublereed Archive - Posting 000015.txt from 2003/05
From: David Lurie <david.lurie@-----.net>
Subj: RE: [DR-L] opening throat upper register oboe
Date: Fri, 2 May 2003 11:53:50 -0400
At 03:00 PM 5/1/2003 -0600, you wrote:
>I have to jump in here. Could someone explain the physical properties
>behind an open throat ? The trachea can t actual expand and contract can
>it? And moving all the other stuff in the throat (swelling of the neck,
>etc.) shouldn t affect the air stream any, or does it?
Without getting into the detailed anatomy of this, which I am incompetent
to do in any case, it is easy to see "all the other stuff" that you refer
to move even if you only do something so simple as to blow on a reed. If
you blow hard enough on the reed, you can observe the outside of the neck
physically swelling to a larger size. The importance of this is that it
makes a difference to playing music on the oboe if the air stream is
altered by the neck/throat changing size during playing. This can be heard
if you listen carefully enough. The effect is one of inconsistency in the
musical line. Having a reed that is sufficiently resistant is one of
several steps that can be taken to solving this problem.
> I understand how the mouth would affect things, and perhaps the opening
> of the throat at the point where it connects to the mouth (I don t know
> if that can be controlled voluntarily or not).
IMO, there may be a little - but very little - voluntary control over it.
> What actually opens or closes , and does the swelling of the neck
> actually affect the air? I ve used the term open your throat myself for
> a long time, but one of my students (a physician, actually), challenged
> me on it recently. I promised to do some research, and this is a good
> opportunity. Any answers?
I would like to know what was your student's challenge?
David Lurie
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: doublereed-l-admin@-----.edu
>[mailto:doublereed-l-admin@-----.edu] On Behalf Of David Lurie
>Sent: Thursday, May 01, 2003 1:27 PM
>To: doublereed-l@-----.edu
>Subject: Re: [DR-L] opening throat upper register oboe
>
>
>
>I would like to add my 2 cents here. this subject has come up before, but
>I don't recall any resolution to it, and there probably is no resolution
>to it as long as different system of playing are used. What you describe I
>believe is one of the basic differences between one of the European
>systems and the American system of oboe playing. So of course there are
>going to be some fundamental factors involved here. I will speak about
>what I learned in the American system, in which the throat must be as open
>as possible at all times. This allows the production of a ringing vibrant
>tone quality that is well supported and which sounds solid. In order to
>accomplish this, there must be sufficient resistance in the reed so that
>when you blow, it forces the tissues in the throat to remain in an open
>position. IOW, a fairly resistant reed is required, to prevent any
>activity in the throat - muscles which could only cause it to close and
>which would interfere with the production of an open sound. The muscles in
>that area of the body are under very little voluntary control, so there's
>not much that can be done with them except to interfere with column of air
>by closing it down. When this happens - with a less resistant reed - it
>is possible to produce a throat vibrato, although that represents an
>interference with the sound, not an integral part of it, which the vibrato
>should be. Vibrato is of course a separate although closely related subject.
>
>In this system, the reed should allow the use of a full column of air and
>a feeling of something fairly substantial to push against when blowing. If
>it is done correctly, this will cause the outside of the neck to enlarge
>and be visibly larger. The neck should stay that way during the entire
>time the instrument is being played - and constitutes proof that the
>throat is really fully open. In this system, if the neck/throat
>combination is used to modify the sound, then it will have a definite
>affect on the tone quality - in my opinion a negative one.
>
>David Lurie
>
>At 06:22 AM 5/1/2003 -0700, you wrote:
>
>Dear oboists,
>
>I'm a little confused about the opening of the throat while oboe playing.
>My teacher -whom I adore and is really very good!!!- took lessons with T.
>Indermuhle and M. Bourgue and he teached me an exercise to create a
>brilliant tone in the upper register: just take you're reed out of your
>instrument and blow a c on it (not crowing, but playing). Then, by
>changing only the opening of you're throat (making it smaller) move on to
>a cis and d without changing the lippressure!! Then play on the
>instrument the upper register with the narrow opening and the lower
>register with a more open throat. My big problem however is dat when I
>"close" my throat to play the notes in te upper register with more
>brilliance and energy, the pitch is much too high. My teacher says this is
>because my lip pressure is maybe to high, but when I play a high c and I
>don't change my lips and only the opening in my throat,its pitch is
>ascending too!!(and this is only a logical result o! f the exercise I
>think, since the pitch is also rising while making the opening in you're
>throat smaller when playing on the reed alone)
>In panic I consulted the internet about this subject and I did find an
>interesting article about it:
><http://www.idrs.org/publications/Journal/JNL4/oboe.html>http://www.idrs.org/publications/Journal/JNL4/oboe.html
>Unfortunately I'm more confused, since it stresses the importance to play
>with on open throat all up to the upper register with a high speed of air.
>The throat should always be open, this article says.
>Since the director of the orchestra in which I 'm playing also asks an
>open throat I'm desorientated in my oboe playing what's going on about my
>throat. Please, can someone help me?
>
>Thanks a lot,
>Marianne
>
>
>
>
><http://us.rd.yahoo.com/search/mailsig/*http:/search.yahoo.com>The New
>
>
