Klarinet Archive - Posting 000805.txt from 2000/06

From: "Dee D. Hays" <deehays@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Proposal for oboe fingering
Date: Tue, 20 Jun 2000 18:01:35 -0400

----- Original Message -----
From: "Edwin V. Lacy" <el2@-----.edu>
Subject: Re: [kl] Proposal for oboe fingering

> On Tue, 20 Jun 2000, Stan Elias wrote:
>
> > I think I remember reading about someone who came up with a Boehm-like
> > fingering system for the oboe to make it easier for saxophone players
> > to make the transition. At the same time there were tiny single-reed
> > oboe mouthpieces. As I remember, the entire project was scrapped
> > because the intonation of the resulting hybrid was terrible.
>
> I believe you are correct on both counts. The Boehm-system oboe has been
> tried a few times in the 19th century, but abandoned because of one rather
> significant problem - it didn't sound like an oboe. Also, the single reed
> mouthpieces for both oboe and bassoon came quite a bit later. I first
> heard of them back in the early 1950's, and was under the impression that
> it was a new idea at that time. I was surprised to learn a few years ago
> that the person who marketed them, and who possibly invented them, Santy
> Runyon, was still alive and still selling them. Again, while intonation
> was certainly a problem, the main objection of many people to them was
> that they no longer sounded like the same instruments.
>

Could you elaborate a bit more? On the surface, it does not make sense that
changing the fingering system would make an oboe sound not like an oboe.
Perhaps there were some other design flaws? Afterall regardless of the
choice of which holes would be covered by fingers and which by pads and
which by levers, the actual hole placement and size has to be a function of
the note desired.

Dee Hays

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