Author: Bobo
Date: 2007-01-14 15:28
Oboe1960 has hit the nail on the head...the American oboe geneaology tree is still so easily traceable to a handful of giants in the early 20th century...wasn't it Newton who said, "If I have seen further than others it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." There are just so many more points of reference today! I'm sure it's no different in Holland with Han de Vries, or in Germany with Lothar Koch, etc....so comparing today's great players to those of the past is a bit of a circular exercise...Alex Klein and Eugene Izotov would not be the artists they are without Tabuteau and his progeny. As someone who put down the oboe for 25 years and then started to play again, I stepped out of a time capsule to find a world in which the playing field has been transformed by the information revolution, better oboes, numerous suppliers of oboe gadgets, forums like this one, IDRS, reedmaking manuals, etc. Inevitably, the threshhold for greatness has to rise. To use another sports analogy, it's like comparing today's baseball players to the '27 yankees...take one look at Babe Ruth: he would definitely have had to pump iron to be competitive today! Also, even though the instrument and reeds haven't evolved THAT much, we're dipping into much larger population pools for talent...many of the Tabuteau heirs stumbled into playing the oboe because there was actually more demand than supply for oboists back in the day (imagine that!). So, i guess I agree that we should treasure the variety of sounds that results from this evolution, even if we don't find them all equally agreeable to listen to!
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