Author: HautboisJJ
Date: 2007-06-13 01:36
According to my mentor, Lorees are extremely well known for their sharp middle Es, flat high As, and flat middle Fs. This is of course in strong relation to how the reed is constructed, and some people prefer differently how the reed reacts or repsonses and that affects the intonation a bundle. (E.g. a longer scrape on a typical European construction brings more vibrations but flattens the reed at he same time.) In fact, most middle Es on any oboe is stuffy, sharp and resistant. I know oboes can be professionally adjusted to fix these 'problems', but i also believe that it it the nature of the instrument itself and one has to learn to conquer that 'accoustical' property/weakness of the instrument.
Try this:
Chose a good comfortable major scale (e.g. F major)
Adjust your metronome to 80-90=quarter note/crotchet beat and switch on the sound function on your electronic tuner to the tonic of the the scale you have chosen.
Play the tonic note 8 beats forte fully supported, relax and with as resonant a sound as possible, and without any rest on the 9nth beat play subito piano and let it sound for 8 beats. After a total of 16 beats, slur without a bump to the next note in the scale (in this case G) and let that ring for 2 beats, and if possible with a morendo. This is extremely tiring and as one can imagine, and extremely difficult. Rest 8 beats and repeat this for the remainder of the scale for 2 octaves and for other keys as well. Breath in and out comfortably and in a relaxed manner so that one does not black out during this exercise!
This excercise develops stamina, a feel for intonation and also support and contrasts of dynamics. Morendos like this happen more often than one expects in standard orchestral repertoire.
Going back to the main point of this thread, one realises when reaching upon the note D and slurring to E at the ending 2 beats, the E becomes absurdly difficult to sustain and to do a morendo in piano dynamic. Subito piano on the note E itself is also difficult when one does the exercise on that particular note. The intonation of E is also often sharp and considering that it is the leading tone of the scale, it has to sound flatter than usual to sound right! This is worst on a badly adjusted oboe and i have experienced that. Slowly on one gets used to some bad notes on the oboe and one understands which notes are more resisant than others. (The same exercise on D major for instance, starting on middle B-C# is a killer!)
Do try it out and let me know whether it works for you.
Regards,
Howard
Post Edited (2007-06-13 01:49)
|
|
The Oboe BBoard
.jpg){kind=small}
