Author: Loree BF51
Date: 2012-04-17 00:28
In the thread, "How long does it take to make a playable reed" Mr. Tropper replied to some comments that I had made and I would like to respond to some of them, outside of that thread, as they are not directly related to that thread. He wrote:
What I read in your reply is mostly performance style related.... not clear how this is related to the time it takes to make a good reed. Everyone is entitled to their own preferences in style, but this is one very prolific soloist... seems it would be more productive to learn from these masters rather than the contrary.... otherwise, you'd better start criticizing the sound of Heinz Holliger!
I apoologize for this, as I should have left it alone and out.
"Fasson" is from the German "fassonschneider" (style-cutter) which is the shaper. I do agree that the shaper has a big impact on sound and many other issues but I'll refrain on criticizing untill I reach this level of playing.
I don't think I would ever want to show anybody, how to shape cane with a shaper tip that has an ear broken off!
On his web site, Martin Schuring (American scrape!) says to scrape for function first, not the tone. I think this has been echoed by most great oboe teachers in the U.S.
http://www.public.asu.edu/~schuring/Oboe/Reedguide.html
From the amount of frustration I read in these posts, I have to wonder how much function there is in there!
For myself, when I get the crow up to a B or so, I start to think about the tone and begin to ask whether this reed is going to be good enough to be a "performance" reed, a "practice" reed, or a "wastebasket" reed. I can't help but ask, exactly what you mean by "... in there!"?
You say long scrape has a more agreeable sound.... that's an opinion, not a quantifiable fact. Would you say that this Italian (with short scrape) has a less agreeable sound... this is another prolific soloist.
http://youtu.be/9oaD0GVhO5c
I went and listened to this and he started out well enough, but when he got to the strong high B-flats, I want to shout, "Stop using so much vibrato, you're overwhelming the tone!" Overall, there is just too much vibrato for my taste. On that same page in youtube I saw what looked like an older player, a Guido Ghetti, and I started to listen to his Saint-Saens sonata and within about 30 seconds I could tell that here was a very, very fine player of artist caliber. I also listened to a little of his Poulenc Sonata and for me, this is how vibrato should be used: with great sensitivity and kept "within the tone", not exceeding it.
Mr. Tropper's statement about "...opinion, not quantifiable fact" got me going on a small writeup, that I had wanted to do about a month ago, and now I have real motivation to do it, as it has some very relavent information to this subject. It will follow shortly, as its about half finished. I'm going to stop now because of the lousy server I'm on. Regards, Loree BF 51
I don't care if someone prefers long or short scrape, deep or no windows, humps or whatever. It makes no difference to me if a reed takes 5 minutes or 3 hours to make. None of this matters. What matters is how the reed works for your own playing - how much it helps or hinders your enjoyment of the art.
Robin Tropper
M.A.Sc., B.Mus., B.Ed.
http://RobinDesHautbois.blogspot.com/
Post Edited (2012-04-14 12:36)
R. Still former student
Post Edited (2012-04-18 00:21)
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