Author: jamesoboe
Date: 2008-11-07 18:13
Hi Everyone
speaking as probably the only one in this thread who has a job as a cor player, I might like to take issue with it being regarded as the 'easy to play' relative of the oboe. The very real fundamental flaws of the cor anglais make it quite hard to play in tune around the first octave. The depressing weakness of the upper register is a constant thorn in the professional player's side, and the nature of how it's used, often inconsiderately, by both bad and great composers, can up your stress levels to fairly unpleasant heights! Its lack of projection is a constant problem, being easily covered by moderate orchestrations, and it's very difficult to prevent it sounding bland and somewhat colourless! Granted, it is less strenuous to play than an oboe, but the oboe is far easier to sound expressive on. Competing with that discrepancy is often quite an undermining facet of being a professional cor player. Dealing, also, with picking up a cold instrument, with a dry reed, and being expected to play a long, harrowing solo, with a terrifyingly thin orchestration, is par for the course. It's not until you've tried to play, and make sound effortlessly beautiful, the unhappy key of A flat major in Dvorak 9; the murky key of B major in Ravel's piano concerto, in which most players get drowned and sound almost inaudible at the top C sharp climax; the naked texture of the Shostakovich 8 cadenza-like solo; the unaccompanied, cold instrument, dry reed solo of Symphonie Fantastique; the overwhelmingly thick string texture of 'the Swan of Tuonela' etc., etc., etc., that you start to realise it's every bit as formidable a mountain to climb as playing the oboe. I had a job as principal oboe for about a year in a chamber orchestra, and never felt the comparative difficulties that remain a constant part of cor playing. Coming to the instrument once in a blue moon will only give one a jaundiced viewpoint of what it is to be a cor player. Take it from one who knows!!!!! Rant over! James
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