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An Article That Changed My Outlook

Author: Ken Shaw
Date: 2002-11-11 21:41

I found and scanned in the following article by the great oboist Robert Bloom. I read it when it came out in 1959, and it changed my outlook forever.

Ken Shaw

Whip Up a Tone Palette
By Robert Bloom
Woodwind World, Jan.-Feb. 1959, p. 8

"No, my dears, I am conscious of a flute and a bassoon. That's not what I want. I want to hear a third instrument, the result of a happy marriage between the two." The speaker is Toscanini; the phrase is in Debussy's "Iberia" at the beginning of the third movement.

Those few words of a great maestro contain the key to one of the secrets of fine solo and ensemble woodwind playing; the ability to vary the tonal color of one's instrument at will for the purpose of blending with other instruments or voices.

Many players think they are fulfilling their duty to music when they play with a pleasing tone, good intonation and finger dexterity, a good range of piano-forte, and a good feeling for rhythm. The foregoing are very necessary, but there are other important factors that distinguish the artist from the merely competent performers. Unfortunately, these other qualities are less tangible. They are difficult to teach and to learn. Being closely allied with one's personal talent and imagination, they belong in the category of aesthetics rather than mechanics.

A LETTER

My desire to write about the variety and blending of tonal colors came about through a letter I received some time ago. A few days before the receipt of the letter, some colleagues and I were discussing the very interesting subject of "why some instrumentalists are easier to play with than others." I remarked that I prefer to play with a musician who has a flexible tone even though his scale be a little erratic.

With us that night was a talented young clarinetist who was just starting his professional career. He had received his instrumental and general musical education at a good school, and had composed music that indicated outstanding talent. He wrote the letter from which I quote a part: "'The talk the other night opened my eyes to an aspect of playing that I had neglected. Until now, I thought it necessary to have *a* good tone. Now I see that I must acquire *many* good tones. I think all young players should be made to realize this."

Bravo! How boring it is to hear players who "turn on" the same tone for every measure of music they play. They have never learned there is a difference between La Boheme and the Eroica. Musicians who would never tolerate this monotony in singing or string-playing, have very often in the past accepted it as inevitable in woodwind playing.

If tonal variety is important in solo playing, it is the quintessence of ensemble playing. As an oboist, I am well aware of the difficulty of making the tone of my instrument approach that of the flute or clarinet while still retaining its own distinctive hue. I know that the same difficulties are encountered by the other woodwinds, but I feel that young woodwind players should be warned that conductors are no longer satisfied with the standards of a few years ago. They are constantly demanding more and more flexibility.

PROGRESS

If you doubt this last statement, listen to the woodwind players in the newer symphony orchestras of our nation's smaller cities. Listen to them critically, and I think you'll agree that much of the woodwind playing is of the caliber which only a few years ago was reserved for our major symphony orchestras. There were always outstanding artists, but now, artistry is demanded as the rule rather than the exception.

Good woodwind teachers have always insisted on careful intonation and enough flexibility for the execution of extreme nuances. Now we have advanced to a period when a command of tonal colors is becoming mandatory. "But," one may ask, "Why all this talk about colors? Doesn't every woodwind have its own distinctive timbre?"

The question is justified, but one may be overlooking the fact that every color has many shades. The shade of tone used when playing with one man would sound wrong when playing with another. If you will permit, I would like to cite some personal examples.

In my orchestral experience I have had the pleasure of playing with Baker, Mariano, and Wummer; all three are outstanding artists on the flute. It is unnecessary to tell flutists that each of these players has a different conception of flute tone. That is as it should be. Nothing is as uninteresting as a lot of carbon-copies. I have had to match my tone to each one individually, and they have had to do the same for me. I hope the effort has been as artistically rewarding for them as it has for me.

In our work with the Bach Aria Group, Julius Baker and I have had the interesting problem of blending with vocalists. These arias are not to be confused with our modern conception of arias in which the voice is of prime importance, everything else accompaniment. Bach has treated his voices and instrumentalists as equals; thus making his arias chamber music in the purest sense.

A FLOBOE

Once at a Victor recording session with Stokowski (who is an acknowledged master of orchestral color) Wummer and I were listening to a play-back of the second movement of the "New World Symphony." When the second theme in C sharp minor entered (flute and oboe unison), Wummer looked at me and said, "Bloom, we sound like a floboe." We had achieved success. Here was the third instrument.

One of the most memorable examples of this kind of playing I have ever heard was the blending of Tabuteau's oboe and McGinnis' clarinet in the first theme of Schubert's Unfinished. Indeed the spirit of this whole subject was expressed very succinctly by McGinnis (as he expresses everything). Once, when I congratulated him on the way he took over a passage from the flute in "L'Apres Midi," Bob said, "Well, I was actually playing flute for the first three or four notes."

One cannot hope to fully cover this subject in an article of this length, but I hope I have aroused the reader's interest. I know there is very little in what I have written that can be put to immediate technical use, but I will feel my aim accomplished if young players are encouraged to think and experiment along these lines.

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One of Marcel Tabuteau's outstanding students, Mr. Bloom, upon graduation from the Curtis Institute, became the English horn player in the Philadelphia Orchestra. He then went to the Rochester Symphony to play first oboe, leaving there to play first with Toscanini at NBC. At present he is devoting the major part of his time to the Bach Aria Group in New York City.

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