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Doublereed Archive - Posting 000019.txt from 2006/01
From: barbara trautwein <mzeztee@-----.edu>
Subj: [DR-L] [Fwd: oboe in O'Brian]
Date: Fri, 13 Jan 2006 11:16:40 -0500
Hey Gang!
The message below came from a colleague on the Wake Forest University
faculty while a professor in the Department of Classical Languages, is a
fine pianist, organist and singer.
Enjoy!
B
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: oboe in O'Brian
Date: Thu, 12 Jan 2006 16:49:47 -0500
From: ulery <ulery@-----.edu>
To: Barbara Trautwein <mzeztee@-----.edu>
Barbara,
I love the bits about music in Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin novels;
here's some about the oboe from The Yellow Admiral:
(Dr. Maturin)'And there are degrees of left-handedness, some quite
insuperable, others to be corrected if that is the right term, though
usually at a cost, sometimes very great, to the soul. The harp of Brian
of the Tributes, High King of Ireland and an unpersuadable man, carries
the melody in the left hand; and this boy's oboe, made by his father, a
skilful gentleman, from a length of bog-oak, is the mirror image of the
usual instrument. Would it be improper, do you think to ask him to play
with us? He blows the purest note.'
(Captain Aubrey)'Indeed I love an oboe: it has nothing of the
clarinet's cloying sweetness ...'
(Aubrey) 'Do you know the Mozart oboe quartet in F major?'
(Maturin) 'Yes, sir.'
'Of course you do, of course you do,' cried Jack. 'I was only calling
it to mind ... no, what I mean is that I should love to hear it again:
and Paisley is a respectable hand with a viola. We played it in Funchal
with those cheerful Portuguese friars, and again--where?'
'I forget. But I do remember that the viola broke a string in its most
important passage and we were all thrown into a sad confusion--a sudden
loss of all cohesion--the ground dropping from beneath one's
feet--anticlimax is far too weak an expression.'
'Naples. It was off Naples: the oboe was a castrato from the opera and
John Hill of the Leviathan played the viola. At least as far as we
went. I remember the grief of it--no spare strings ...'
***
'Good day, sir,' said Geoghegan, leaping up.
'And a very good day to you, Mr Geoghegan,' said Stephen. 'Please may
I see your instrument again?'
It was a beautiful oboe, formed from the most elegant dark, dark wood;
but neither praise of its appearance nor of its lovely tone seemed to
give much pleasure ...
The boy was tenser still when he appeared at the door of the Captain's
cabin, carrying his oboe in a green baize bag, as the last stroke of
five bells in the afternoon watch was struck ...
***
They spread their scores, and as they did so Stephen remembered with
some concern that in the F major quartet the opening notes were played
by the oboe alone: but when, after the necessary squeaking and grunting
as the stringed instruments tuned themselves, Jack smiled at Geoghegan
and nodded, these smae crucial notes came out clear and pure, with no
over-emphasis--a beatufiul round tone in which the strings joined almost
at once. And almost at once they were a quartet, playing happily along
with as nearly perfect an understanding as was possible on so short an
acquaintance.
With scarcely a pause they swam through the elegant melancholy of the
adagio, Jack Aubrey particularly distinguishing himself and Stephen
booming nobly; but it was in the rondo that the oboe came wholly into
its own, singing away with an exquisite gay delicacy infinitely enjoyed
by all four. And to all four, in spite of the music before them, it
seemed to last for an indefinite space before coming to the perfect
simplicity of its end ...
[unfortunately there is a tragedy to follow]
--
VOX HUMANA
Robert (Rob) Ulery Department of Classical Languages
ulery@-----.edu Wake Forest University
Voice (336) 758-5873 Box 7343, Winston-Salem, NC 27109
FAX (336) 758-4128 http://www.wfu.edu/~ulery
ETI TOI GERWN AOIDOS KELADW MNAMOSYNAN
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