Author: HautboisJJ
Date: 2007-12-03 14:33
There is a terrible misconception on this topic and it is interesting to think of the historical background that has caused this mishap, though i can't say for sure who started it. European reeds doesn't equal difficult to play or less flexible, same applies to the embouchure. Common sense accounts that, considering the availability of a good reed that VIBRATES, the thicker the heart, or too much rail on the sides of the scrapes, will encourage a more open reed and thus more lip strength required to control, and that itself has pros and cons.
I know a professional English Horn player who absolutely BITES her reed on oboe and has reeds with scrape lengths less than 10mm for oboe and she sounds absolutely incredible, beautiful sound, spot on intonation. According to her, it was a bad habit that even her conservatory teacher has never bothered to correct, but anyhow, the method of playing that she has developed is almost note-cracking proof, proving that the player matters more than the reed, though she of course, admittedly, like every oboists in the world, wants good reeds to start with!
To elaborate, the variety of reed styles in Europe is incredibly vast. The Dutch play on very wide but short length reeds that are incredibly free blowing thus the embouchure has a very slight frown look and firm but not tight embouchure and aims to let the reed vibrate freely as much as possible. The now "International German-French-English-Dark-Sounding-though sometimes too dark" way of playing aims to produce a super responsive reed that sounds warm and full, though the new French school favours a more resonant sound. More details on the older schools of playing is famously elaborated by Alan Vogel in one IDRS article which i hope is still accesible on the society website. Though it is said that the oboe sound has been much homogenised these days, i still find it quite a remarkable and unique thing, as to me, everyone still sounds so different from each other.
Another misconception is that we take in more reed in the mouth. That mght be true for some or little but definitely does not represent the majority of European style oboe players. I have observed that most European players do roll in slightly and REALLY, i mean slightly, for high A onwards.
To prove another fact personally, today, i bravely experimented on one of the American scrape reeds that i bought from K Ge, and played on it for a rehearsal of Vaughan William's 2nd symphony on 1st oboe. NO ONE could tell the difference, not even players from my section until i revealed so to them, and the reed worked quite well! Gulp..fortunately....
Regards,
Howard
Post Edited (2007-12-03 14:34)
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