Author: oboedrew
Date: 2008-08-02 13:38
cjwright wrote:
> I have absolutely no idea what a "sweet tone" means.
> Can you quantify this idea or give a comparison
> (i.e. such and such sounds sweeter than such and such on recording A.)
Good question. Note that I put such descriptive words in quotation marks, just because I think it's mostly gibberish to describe sound. We toss around all these descriptive words, but I don't believe any of them can be quantified, nor do I think there's any real agreement from one oboist to another on what this or that term means. I may say that this oboist's sound is "dark," or that another one's is "bright," but inevitably another oboist will assert just the opposite.
Anyway, it seems to me that "sweet" is the acceptable way of saying "bright." Everyone wants a "dark" tone, and nobody wants a "bright" tone, so much so that "dark" and "bright" have become indications of quality, not descriptive terms. Whatever we like we describe as "dark," whatever we dislike we describe as "bright." But apparently a lot of oboists are more comfortable with "sweet" as a term to describe a tone that is poignant and piercing... but in a good way. So around here I hear the term "sweet" applied to classic Ray Still and Marc Lifschey recordings, or more recently to players as diverse as Albrecht Mayer and Gordon Hunt. Hope that helps a bit!
Cheers,
Drew
www.oboedrew.com
Post Edited (2008-08-02 13:41)
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