Author: Craig Matovich
Date: 2007-01-09 22:45
Mack played a few seasons in the National Symphony before the Kennedy Center was their hall. He lamented to my graduate school oboe teacher Dick White (ehorn) that he could not get his sound past the front of the stage of the Kennedy center when he was on tour there.
The point of the conversation was Dick White trying to get me to let go of the 'up close' sound I liked, which I think is akin to the thick or creamy qualities being discussed. He taught me to go for a bit of a 'growl' up close, as a barometer of how the sound would project easily.
He also had me experiment with listening to my sound recorded from a variety of different distances to learn how the sound develops as it crosses space and to develop an appreciation for various room acoustics and how they are really an extension of the oboe.
I still love Mack's sound and did hear differences over the years he recorded. The Mozart Quartet CD is what I refer to as the best Mack sound. Mozart concerto recorded later seems thinner to me, definitely brighter. And that brings up something I learned in Acoustics about how we hear differently as we age.
Presbicusous, I think was the term, for how we lose high range acuity with time, and then brighter may still sound 'darker' as we remember it.
This is just tone quality, and as pointed out by others, musicality is a different matter, and beautiful expression is still beautiful regardless a range of basic tone color.
Post Edited (2007-01-10 22:56)
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