Klarinet Archive - Posting 000882.txt from 1997/09

From: avrahm galper <agalper@-----.com>
Subj: And now oboe reeds!
Date: Thu, 18 Sep 1997 20:44:18 -0400

And now oboe reeds!

I see that the story about a clarinet reed, "borrowed" by his teacher,
turned into a tale of woe for some oboe reed players that studied at
Curtis.
I just spoke with Perry Bauman, a former student of Tabiteau's and the
principal oboe and a colleague of mine in the Toronto Symphony for many
years and asked him about some aspects of Tabiteau.
I asked him about Tabiteau's legacy.
Tabiteau apparently had a system of musical intensity notation. Phrases
went from 1 to 10.
Notes were indicated as, let's say 5 or 6 etc. depending on where they
were in the phrase.
According to Perry, the system of intensity numbers was introduced
because the teacher felt that not every student was really musical, so
he tried to give them some semblance of musicality.
He said that he could take a garbage collector and within two years of
this system, everyone might think he's a great musician.

He also introduced a system that made groups of four notes 1234 become
1 2341 2341, a system that is very efficient.
If, at the lesson, Tabiteau didn't say anything or stop, you knew the
lesson was good. If he said it was good, which was rare, then you could
really be happy.
I asked Perry about the reed breaking story. He didn't think it was
true.
As regards Tabiteau's toughness, Perry said, that he asked his teacher
many years later, why he was so tough with pupils?
His answer was: "If the pupils could play for and put up with me, they
would be able to play for and withstand any conductor!"

Avrahm Galper