Author: cjwright
Date: 2012-03-01 17:53
I've read all of the answers and responses up to this point, and while I think there's some good points, I would respectfully like to add my opinion.
Quote:
I think that he probably started asking Loree, if they could produce an oboe that would compliment his new reed type, rather than compensate for its more subdued vibrational characteristics. The fact that the Academy of Music’s hall was fairly dry sounding, may also have had an influence on this situation.
I find this statement difficult to accept. I've studied with plenty of students of the Philadelphia school, who are very conservative and subscribe (sometimes blindly) to everything Tabuteau taught, and not once have I ever been told or taught to find a way to subdue vibrational characteristics. The emphasis has always been placed on more vibrations, specifically to gain, overtones, color, and focus for projection. This includes reeds and reeds.
Regarding the date Tabuteau joined the Philadelphia Orchestra, it was 1915.
The Academy of Music's hall was originally built as an opera house, and has strange acoustics indeed because of the high ceiling, and short stage. (The stage itself was slightly angled, and one could drop a pencil from the brass and it would roll to the violins.) David Weber told me while playing on stage, it always felt like there was a layer of ether you were pushing your sound against, and that your sound didn't get past 10 feet of the bell of your instrument. I have speculated for many years that this is the reason why the Philadelphia sound was more directed toward purity and overtones to "cut" through this effect, rather than sheer dull volume. (On another note, Severance Hall has an opposite effect that takes a bunch of sound and filters it into a more pure tone. Mack had all sorts of buzz in his sound up close, but when on stage, it all got stripped away into the thick fat sound we characteristically have come to love. Mark Charette, the board administrator once mentioned that Frank Cohen had the same effect on clarinet.)
Quote:
The Loree BF51 oboe that I had bought new in ’62 was noticeably heavier than the BB20 I had a few years before. While I’m not sure if it was “darker” or not, it was, much smoother. Instead of it being “...unrelentingly darker…” and being “…in a box…”, I felt just the opposite, as I was able to use a more freely, blowing reed without the middle G# and B-natural sounding raspy. Wouldn’t we all rather play on a more freely-blowing reed vs. a more resistant reed, given (giving) the same volume of sound? Also, I would think that many first Flutists would have welcomed this trend, as they wouldn’t have to worry nearly as much, about being covered over, when they had to play in unison (La Mer!) or in duet with the first oboe...
I'm not sure you can use the "B series" as an accurate marker of the progression of Loree oboes, and an indicator of the trends demanded by professional oboists of the time. For one, timeline of the B series indicates that most of the series was Tabuteau was in the spot light of influencing the evolution of Loree. There seems to be much experimentation during this period as Peter Hurd would attest to. I've played early numbers that were as thick as anything I've ever played, and I've played late models that were as thick as anything. I've also played early models that were quite thinwall, and I've played late models that were also very thinwall. I've played some glorious B series, and some piece of crap B series. Also during this time, de Lancie was in discussions with Loree which led them to release a "de Lancie" model oboe, and later a "Special model" oboe (same bore as the de lancie model, but for reasons undiscussed they didn't want to use his name.)
As to the dark alternatives, there were plenty of other opportunities that Tabuteau had in terms of the instruments (Gordet), and there were plenty of other "darker players" such as Henri De Busscher that could have been strived for, but it was Tabuteau's more flexible, lively sound that was desired.
If one is really interested in this topic, I'd like to encourage them to go back and listen to this CD, which has a lot of history, and offers quite a bit of insight particularly in the playing of many of those early oboists.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0013UZC4U/ref=dm_sp_alb?ie=UTF8&qid=1330626600&sr=1-1-catcorr
I'd also like to encourage you to re-read chapter 6 from Laila Storch's Tabuteau book, discussing the appointment of Tabuteau to the Philadelphia Orchestra.
Anyways, just my two cents. Sorry for the diatribe.
Blog, An Oboe In Paradise
Solo Oboe, Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra
|
|
The Oboe BBoard
.jpg){kind=small}
