Author: ohsuzan
Date: 2013-12-12 12:14
Hi all,
I have a burning question about what is appropriate for a director to request in regard to intonation on an oboe.
I am quite sure that in my earlier years as an oboist, my pitch was all over the place. As I have matured on the instrument, I have gotten pretty good at playing within a narrow range of deviation from a scale based on A=440 -- using stable reeds, good embouchure, knowing the tendencies of each note and fingering, etc. I have always thought that this was a good thing.
So, last night, the cellist in the small ensemble with which I was rehearsing ended up at least 25 cents flat on a final note, and instead of asking the cellist to come up to pitch, the director told me, as the oboist, to come down to the cellist's pitch.
Her assertion is that the oboist must be prepared to come down or up to the pitch of others in any given situation, even when the others are playing massively out of tune.
I understand than an ensemble needs to be in tune with itself, and not the tuner. And I generally don't have a problem pitching up, but I really have trouble pitching down, esp. when playing on a very stable reed. My experience is that there are just points below which I cannot go.
When I tell the director this, she just tells me that her sister is an oboist and she can do it.
Leaving aside for a moment the question of why a director would ever ask the one in tune to match the one NOT in tune, how much downward pitch flexibility SHOULD I be able to command?
Susan
Post Edited (2013-12-12 13:34)
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