Author: Oboe Craig
Date: 2011-06-07 13:16
I only attended those for oboe and english horn, so not sure about the bassoon side.
Oboe-wise, I attended classes by Nicholas Daniel, Richard Woodhams and Peter Cooper. The english horn class was by Robert Sheena.
Each class could easily support many pages of essay so I'll go with just a few observations. First, the musical emphasis by each was definitely a preach what you practice thing, as demonstrated in each performer's own performances.
The classes featured 3 - 4 players doing different pieces except the Peter Cooper class focused only on the Strauss Concerto with a different player for each movement.
Each teacher had his own personal style, with some of them playing to the room more than others and with some definitely more nurturing to the players.
I thought Daniel's was more of a holistic coach than the others, with his concerns for body balance and warnings about long-term physical damage from poor posture or rigid shoulders. He also gave a good historical perspective on Benjamin Britten tying war years to the British sensibilities as they related to the music. He put a lot of emphasis on the preparation for a note and suggested avoiding the noisy parts where the air starts before the tongue... I do that a lot, so need to rethink it myself.
The Woodhams class kind of surprised me. Our friend Cooper played first (with a beautiful centered sound and intonation, BTW) and as he has indicated, he really only got through a few measures. The Woodhams' approach was a microscope applied to the finest and smallest detail and so, even a few notes or phrases received all the attention. That theme followed the remainder of that class, and any flaw such as a sharp reed or a tired reed or an out of adjustment oboe screw ended up taking all the coaching time. None of those issues were a problem for Cooper. One good take away was Woodham's statement about tone and pitch, that its expected and not the goal. Its the base and music is built upon that. (I paraphrase, but not by much.)
Peter Cooper's class was very useful for me. I liked that he allowed players at least a full phrase (and they are long in the Strauss) before coaching the players. A strong theme with him is use of variety to generate interest. So, with the many repetitive phrases and gestures in Strauss, he had the players rephrase them several ways to explore them and generate interest and variety and to, in his words, 'tell a story'. He also played many phrases from memory to demonstrate his points. While he did address the audience, he also managed to maintain a primary focus on the players. I was impressed by that. He showed a circular breathing technique to exhale while playing as a Strauss survival strategy. I shall learn to do that.
The Sheena english horn class made a similar impact on me. His very positive feedback to the players and some good self-effacing humor was part of his style.
He also played to demonstrate, complained about his own reed (which still sounded great where I sat), and made good musical points about taking risks... go very soft and risk a no-note, kind of thing.
All-in-all, I'm not sure they would tolerate an older player like me as a candidate for a master class, but I am sure, I would not sign up for a Woodhams class...
Too mush pressure for me these days...:) ![[toast]](http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/smileys/smiley15.gif)
Post Edited (2011-06-08 00:34)
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