 The Oboe BBoard
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Author: EaubeauHorn
Date: 2022-12-29 19:51
As a musically proficient (degreed) elder adult who is on the learning path with oboe, with goals of a) playing in a woodwind quintet, and b) in a community orchestra or band, I'm wondering what courses of study (books) are recommended.
I was given Barrett when I took three years of lessons from an excellent teacher who has since moved away, and I had to deal with some major health issues in the last decade, but am once again making the effort. I'm up to #13 in Barrett and wondering if I get through this book and can play its contents competently, is there anything else I actually need? From my years as a pro violinist I am a good sight reader, and from here it appears that what I basically need is a structured approach to "all the necessary technique to play at the level I want to." Is Barrett enough? I have no desire to be a soloist (been there done that,) and in larger groups I prefer the support parts as opposed to the solo parts.
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Author: Hotboy
Date: 2022-12-29 22:52
If you can master up to page 107 with good tone, intonation, and dynamics, you will be at the level of a top college oboist and should be able to competently play the standard woodwind quintet and community orchestra or band literature.
If you can master up to page 158 with good tone, intonation, and dynamics, you will have the technique to play even tougher literature.
The only other learning resource I would recommend is a set of orchestral excerpt books to get a head start on learning the difficult and exposed parts in standard orchestra literature.
- Less expensive: Difficult Passages Vol 1 & 2 by Evelyn Rothwell
- More expensive: Crozzoli Solos and Technical Passages, Vol 1 through 5
Dane
Bay Area, California
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Author: mberkowski
Date: 2022-12-30 17:37
As a high school student starting with my first serious teacher, (who played in a major US symphony) his exact words to me when handing me that book were "When you can play through Barrett, you can play the oboe."
To more or less echo Dane, a focus at at least on the 40 progressive melodies makes for a fantastic foundation and would likely put you far ahead of most players in a typical community or non-professional group.
Michael
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Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2022-12-30 18:07
Hotboy wrote:
> The only other learning resource I would recommend is a set of
> orchestral excerpt books to get a head start on learning the
> difficult and exposed parts in standard orchestra literature.
I might have said the same thing 25 years ago, although even then getting complete parts was preferable, if expensive. But now IMSLP provides complete parts for downloading, often in multiple editions, for nearly the entire public domain orchestral repertoire free of charge.
The clarinet excerpt books, which I'm more familiar with, are full of errors and miss a lot of important and challenging non-solo passages.
Karl
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Author: EaubeauHorn
Date: 2022-12-31 00:47
I suspect hotboy has a different edition than I do (I have the Martin Shuring?) edition. The page number he gave me was the end of Sonata number 2. However, it appears most patterns are addressed in the exercises (I'm on 13-16 now.)
I did note that I haven't seen any pitches (maybe I just haven't found them yet) above two-leger-line D. When taking lessons I got up to the G above that, but was just messing around.
My major problem (other than reeds) at this age is cementing new fingerings; I don't know how many times I've looked up that two leger line C#, always having to go look it up AGAIN the next day. However, I have a lot of built-in hand facility from life-long piano and violin, so that is not a blockade. Having been a violin major with a "famous teacher," I learned how to learn an instrument and so know that scales and arpeggios are where you start, and all kinds of patterns with those.
Around here, the amateurs tend to lack musicality, and a few of them can't find intonation anywhere; but so far the ones that are playing in the groups often have technique quite beyond what mine currently is. Hopefully my physical health holds up long enough for me to reach that level, if I don't lose interest. The reed thing may stop me yet. And of course in the community group world, once you have a chair you don't give it up until death do you part. Easier to move somewhere where they need an oboe/cor than wait for a chair to open up.
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Author: mberkowski
Date: 2022-12-31 01:53
EaubeauHorn wrote:
> I don't know how many times I've looked up that
> two leger line C#, always having to go look it up AGAIN the
> next day.
Well in your defense, the fingering for the high C# is weird and mostly an outlier on the instrument. The ONLY note where LH1 is wide open for its normal fingering.
I believe some of the later Barrett etudes reach altissimo F but I the G above it just isn't that common except as a "concerto ender" kind of note.
Pg 107 in the old edition corresponds to the end of the 40 progressive melodies; Pg 158 is the end of the final Sonata. While you are on 13-16 of the progressive melodies, I would recommend also starting out on maybe 1-4 of the Fifteen Grand Studies. They're more difficult than the 40 etudes, focusing on the technical rather than the melodic, but they'll engage your scales & theory brain in a way you might enjoy as an experienced musician. I find them a lot more fun to play, yet not frustrating.
Michael
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Author: EaubeauHorn
Date: 2022-12-31 03:22
Thanks; I just looked at those last night and thought I should start on those too. It will give me more to do in the fairly limited time I have before my chops fail and I end up blowing my upper lip out. From previous experience I know I have to just have patience and stick with it and the endurance will eventually be there.
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Author: mschmidt
Date: 2023-01-01 10:40
Ferling isn't part of anybody's recommendations?
Mike
Still an Amateur, but not really middle-aged anymore
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Author: EaubeauHorn
Date: 2023-01-01 20:26
There is a guy who has put a recording of each of those on youtube and they sound very nice.
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Author: Hotboy
Date: 2023-01-01 22:07
I love the Ferling studies and learned them in high school and college. I often revisit the fast ones to keep up finger speed and coordination, and I play thew slow studies when my embouchure endurance is in need of a boost.
When I have students who are advanced enough, I have them begin to work through the slow studies to learn about new rhythm combinations, altissimo passages, phrasing requirements, and ad libitum examples. The Ferling studies are in a Romantic style and provide excellent training for playing exposed lines in symphonic works by Brahms, Rossini, Schubert, Tchaikowsky, Strauss, Delius, Elgar, and Rachmaninoff.
I would recommend the Ferling studies as an alternative to the Fifteen Grand Studies and the rest of the Barret book, but I suspect that EaubeauHorn's musicality skillset is already imbued with what Ferling can provide.
Dane
Bay Area, California
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Author: EaubeauHorn
Date: 2023-01-01 23:22
My first teacher (just a couple months) was a student of my final teacher (three years.) The first one had me buy the Schuring edition and then the final one had me buy the original edition. I lost everything in a house disaster 12 years ago, and when I re-bought I went ahead and got the Schuring edition, remembering that it was easier to read from. They are slightly different but I don't remember how.
The Ferling would be fun to read on violin with a pianist if I could find one. My 1903 Italian violin was stolen last June, and I don't have much desire to play the replacement I got at a pawn shop.
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Author: mberkowski
Date: 2023-01-02 03:47
Again I agree - Ferling as an alternative to the rest of Barret is a good call.
The Ferling etudes are MUCH more interesting musically than the Barret 40 melodies and about on par with the difficulty of the 15 Grand Studies. The 15 are mostly technical exercises whereas the Ferling etudes play more like real thoughtful compositions. They get pretty diabolical once they enter into oboe-hostile keys like D flat major, G# minor.
The fast D major & fast B flat major are an absolute delight to play. And the slow F# minor makes such great use of the low range - it's a key you practically never find in oboe solo literature and the etude sits so perfectly in the middle register against low, dark Chopin-ish chromaticism around the C# dominant. Love it.
Both the slow & fast B major etudes are great too, making it fun to play in an otherwise unfriendly and sloppy-fingering key.
Wow, ok last thing singing the praises of the Ferling book: the oboe Duos Concertante at the end are much better pieces of music than the Barret Sonatas and as a bonus you get a printing of the first oboe from the Beethoven Trio Op 87.
Michael
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Author: Hotboy
Date: 2023-01-02 21:04
Karl, you have a point, but the beauty of the excerpt books is that they identify which parts are the important ones to study and learn. I use IMSLP for full parts to learn prior to an engagement, so I find it to have excellent utility.
Dane
Bay Area, California
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Author: EaubeauHorn
Date: 2023-01-03 19:38
I have the Vade Mecum -- but have used it mostly for digging out Cor solos because of the lack of "standard literature." I decided that getting my oboe technique as high as I can get it in reasonable time would afford me more opportunities in groups that hopefully also need a Cor. My rosewood Laubin Cor is spectacularly in tune and easy to play, while the oboe is quite a bit more work.
I looked up the Ferling in imslp, and I would say they are well beyond me at this point in time, and I'll look again after I am quite a bit farther along in Barrett.
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Author: Hotboy
Date: 2023-01-03 20:53
The Evelyn Rothwell "Difficult Passages" volumes also contain many EH solo passages.
Dane
Bay Area, California
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Author: mschmidt
Date: 2023-01-03 22:06
There's also Geoffrey Browne's "The Art of Cor Anglais."
Mike
Still an Amateur, but not really middle-aged anymore
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