 The Oboe BBoard
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Author: Lux
Date: 2017-01-02 23:32
Why do English horns not come with a G#/A trill key? Why do most not go to a low Bb?
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2017-01-03 00:15
The G#-A trill is impossible to fit as you need a perforated fingerplate for LH3 for that to work and the LH3 fingerplate on cors has a separate pad cup a fair distance away from the fingerplate. Fitting the extra mechanism to make it possible will be a tough call as there's not much room to fit that. Fitting a side key for the G#-A won't be possible as the tonehole is too near the tenon, so getting decent leverage and venting and sufficient spring tension on that key will be difficult. Ring key conservatoire system cors have been made with the Ab-Bb side key as the tonehole is much further up the lower joint, but it still isn't an easy key to make or fit and can also wobble and become unreliable if the short key barrel has any wear or play in it.
Most cors don't go to low Bb as not much is written for that - the earliest only descended to low C, then the later ones were built to low B and that's how most are. Sometimes you have cors built with either a longer lower joint or a longer bell for the low Bb, but they're usually made by Italian, East German and East European makers. Even some making oboes d'amore to low Bb even though most d'amore music doesn't descend below low C. Bass oboes have also been built to low Bb - I've seen a couple of Loree basses that could be converted to play either low B or Bb depending if the barrel with the extra keywork was fitted or not.
You can get a specially made barrel to go between the lower joint and bell on cors for the low Bb - either:
- a plain barrel for just the low Bb,
- a barrel with a vent hole that can be opened and closed with a collar like a Bunsen burner for either low B or Bb,
- a keyed one that links to the bell vent link so it can give low B if not linked up or low Bb if engaged, or
- a keyed barrel and all the extra mechanism fitted to the instrument so you can play low B and Bb with the usual keyed fingerings instead of just one or the other.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: Wes
Date: 2017-01-03 02:19
For my HIxx Loree EH I made an extension to low Bb to allow me to play that note that is prominent in one of the Mahler symphonies. I added it before the passage and removed it after playing the passage. It seems like an ok thing to do but, on my instrument, there were some undesired side effects in that some notes in the normal range were affected by the added extension. That was 10 to 15 years ago so I don't recall the details, however.
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