Double Reed 75.qxd - British Double Reed Society

Transcription

The magazine of the British Double Reed Society
www.bdrs.org.uk
Endangered
species unite
I SUMMER 2013
Bassoonists adopting Orangutans
No.103
Double Reed News
“
Words from
our Chairman
Robert Codd
In this Issue...
”
When DRN No.103 lands on your doormat with a drumroll (well Haydn’s
Symphony No.103 had a drumroll!), it will be Mid-May and the BDRS will be
in Post-Convention (un-conventional?) mode. This could be anything from
exhilaration and euphoria at one extreme to complete exhaustion at the other.
I should not be affected either way, because paternal-nuptial duties prevented
my being there; nevertheless, I look forward very much to reading all about it
in this issue, resplendent in colour throughout.
Preparations for the Convention were far from being stress-free, however.
I found myself having to write these Chairman’s Notes, a Welcome for the
Convention 2013 brochure and a wedding speech, concurrently. Great care
had to be taken to ensure no cross-contamination, since any references to
bores, crooks and butts might be misconstrued at the Wedding Breakfast.
Perhaps any talk about knives should be avoided as well!
As I have mentioned before, it is also very important not to repeat oneself, but
I must restate my thanks to the Events’ Sub-Committee, and to Sarah Francis in
particular, for their unstinting work in making the Convention happen at all.
Sarah stands down this Summer after 12 years as Events’ Coordinator – an
exceptional feat – representing an enormous amount of work in all areas, such
as arranging travel for recitalists, booking practice rooms, checking that pianos
are in tune and even, in one venue, if there were enough beef sandwiches.
(This was long before the ‘Shergar’ jokes, but horse-radish was on offer!)
Sarah intends staying on the Committee in a quieter role. We shall see!
The Double Reed World has recently lost two highly distinguished figures –
Dominic Weir and Guntram Wolf. Dominic, the eminent contrabassoon
player, used to come down to Cardiff quite frequently in the 1970s, full of
enthusiasm, bursting with ideas and interested in everything, even to the point
of requiring us to parse, in detail, the Welsh signs in the building. (Since this
was the BBC, they were naturally grammatically correct and syntactically
exact!) If not involved in a piece, he would disappear to the Engineering
Department and return with low-A extensions, mutes and technical gadgets.
Otherwise, during his bars’ rest, a stream of reeds would be passed along the
line for approval or, if rejected, for further adjustment; sometimes to within
five minutes of a red light, giving a new intensity to ‘cutting-edge technology’
and ‘close scrapes’!
The acclaimed instrument maker, Guntram Wolf, was probably best known for
his mini-bassoons, many of which
appeared pink, purple or camouflaged as
tigers. At the other end of the compass,
visitors to the Convention in
Northampton will remember the Wolf
contraforte on display there, a seriously
powerful instrument which is now
winning many friends on the other side
of the Atlantic. (That’s some range!)
There is no drum roll to end these notes
I am afraid, just a quick rim-shot.
Hope you enjoyed the Convention.
Let us know what you thought about it.
See you in May 2014.
1
Chairman’s Comments
Robert Codd
2
Editorial
Clive Fairbairn
4 Reports & News
Felicity Cowell, Liz Fyfe
Annie Green, Frances Jones
Martin Ludlow
7
Obituaries:
Dominic Weir and Guntram Wolf
8
The Bassoforte
Timo Grothe
(translated by Michael Johnson)
14
Dominic Weir
Robert Bourton
David Chatterton
17 Jimmy Brown’s Travels II
James Brown
(selected by Roger Birnstingl)
20
A Brief History of the Oboe
Ann Fronckowiak
26
Guntram Wolf
Martin Bliggenstorfer, Antje Lotz
Stefan Pantzier, Christoph Peter
Christopher Redgate, William Ring
Henry Skolnick
30
The Bassonicus Interview:
Robin O’Neill
Jefferey Cox
32 Reviews
Jenny Agutter, Meyrick Alexander
Clive Fairbairn, Nicola Fairbairn
Edwin Roxburgh
36
Noticeboard
38
Classified
39
Advertising, Membership, etc
Double Reed News 103 l Summer 2013
1
The Editor’s Comment
Clive Fairbairn
British Double Reed Society
www.bdrs.org.uk
[email protected]
Joint Presidents
Roger Birnstingl, Karl Jenkins
Chairman
Robert Codd
[email protected]
Secretary
Sarah McClure
Wycombe Abbey School
High Wycombe HP11 1PE
[email protected]
Treasurer
Geoffrey Bridge
House of Cardean
Meigle, Perthshire PH12 8RB
[email protected]
Committee
Ian Crowther, Ian Finn
Sarah Francis, Christine Griggs
Barbara Lake, Robert Tilley
Membership
[email protected]
Education
[email protected]
Legal Services Co-ordinator
Nigel Salmon
4 Portelet Place, Hedge End
Southampton, Hants SO30 0LZ
BDRS Web Manager
[email protected]
Double Reed News
Clive Fairbairn, Editor
Editorial enquiries only:
01494 520359
[email protected]
Advertising, Membership and other
BDRS/DRN details – see back page
ISSN 1460-5686
2
Avoiding Extinction
Revisiting in recent issues the subject of the ‘endangered species’ of
musical instruments has reminded us of how the downward trends
have been reversed since the start of the millennium when we ran an
article with the snappy title: Bassoons Extinct by 2020? There were
fears then too for oboe, horn, trombone and double bass.
In terms of education, one of these success stories has been the
introduction of the ‘wider opportunities’ schemes for children;
another is greater provision of published solo and ensemble music.
But perhaps most significantly for double reeds has been the
development of smaller instruments for smaller hands. In this issue
we pay tribute to Guntram Wolf, not only a major pioneer in this
field, but also a forward-thinking innovator for double-reed
instruments generally.
If the world of music can demonstrate, through education and
innovation that it can stave off extinction of certain instrumental
species, what about the environment? Anyone who saw the BBC4
documentary in March by Sir Terry Pratchet can hardly fail to have
been moved as he – himself facing extinction from a rare form of
Alzheimer’s – revisited Borneo to see for the last time the orangutans
he first encountered there in 1994.
Could music help the orangutans? Martin Ludlow thinks that it can.
His company is sponsoring orangutans like Violet who adorns the
front cover of this issue. See Reports & News to find out how he is
doing it.
Yet another British celebrity becomes a guest reviewer in this issue;
actor Jenny Agutter, a long-time admirer of the oboe, reviews Oboe
Classics’ 2-CD set, The World of the Oboe, to be found in a full
Reviews section.
The Bassonicus column has been a regular feature of this magazine
for over 40 issues – in itself a remarkable achievement – and now it
is embarking on a journey in a new direction. From time to time
Jefferey Cox will interview key figures in the double reed world.
For this first foray he interviews leading bassoonist – and these days
also conductor – Robin O’Neill, revealing amongst other things
how Robin came to be directing Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale at
the Old Vic with a company including Iraqi artists, Jeremy Irons
and members of the Philharmonia Orchestra.
You will be receiving this only about a week after the Convention
2013 at the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester,
so please do write in soon ([email protected]) with your comments
about the day which we can include in the pages of the next
issue of Double Reed News.
3
Reports and News
The South West Double Reed Day 2013
A report from organiser Liz Fyfe with commentary by participants Felicity Cowell,
Annie Green and others.
This was the second such day that
Pete Harrison and I have run,
and we were delighted that
the Royal Welsh College of
Music and Drama were
prepared to be partners
with us. Our first
SWDRD, in 2010, was
held in partnership with
the Guildhall, and this
formula had proved
very successful.
The partnership allows oboe and bassoon
students from conservatoire level to gain
teaching and performing experience
(supported by their professors, Pete and
myself), whilst at the same time all
those attending from the whole of the
South West benefit from experiencing
contact with music students and their
world-class teachers.
The short concert at the end of the day is
an opportunity for those attending to hear
the work of the music college students
and their teachers. In both years that we
have run the SWDRD this music has
included a great balance of new and old,
and challenges for the players and
listeners alike.
All those applying to take part in the day
were offered the possibilities of reed
making, playing in small ensembles and
performing in master classes. We hope
that the result was a day of inspiration,
aspiration and the experience of
excellence.
‘The day was greatly enjoyed by all,
and everyone left knowing a little bit
more about various techniques
and skills for their playing.
John and Meyrick provided
wise, encouraging words
to the performers in the
masterclasses, as well as
beautiful, inspiring playing
in the concert.’
‘A massive thank you
goes to everyone who helped make
the double reed day such a success,
particularly Liz Fyfe and Pete Harrison for
organising and publicising the event; to
John, Meyrick and the students at the
RWCMD (including Fiona, Sam, Natalie
and Gareth) for their time and knowledge;
and also to Howarth of London, Gillian
Greig Music and Wonderful Winds for
providing trade stands where we could
try new instruments, reeds, repair
instruments and buy music. Thank you
too to the Wells Academy for helping to
stage the event and the British Double
Reed Society for its support.’
‘The day was a great chance to explore
new aspects of oboe playing. I played in
John Anderson’s masterclass, and he
helped me with practice strategies.
He plays his long notes against the clock
in his sitting room! I can now actually
play on reeds that I have made! I am
hoping to get a really good oboe – it was
fantastic to try the oboes that Howarth
had brought from London for us.’
kit, some useful contacts, great ensemble
experiences and such inspiration from
those fantastic performances in the
concert!’
Howarth’s stand
John Anderson dispensing advice on reeds
John Anderson and student
‘The concert was amazing – we heard
contemporary solo pieces for oboe and
bassoon using multiphonics, and John
and Meyrick played a Villa-Lobos piece
that took up 4 music stands! The concert
ended with a beautiful Mozart trio for
oboe, bassoon and piano, and then a
brilliant encore from the bassoon quartet
called “Bassoonist’s Holiday”!’
We are very grateful for all the
positive feedback we received from
those that attended. Here are some of
their comments:
4
‘Thank You – we had an absolutely
wonderful day. It was an amazing
experience for my 15-year old daughter.
We have come home with a reed-making
Neil Clark in a repair session
Buy a Bassoon – Adopt an Orangutan!
from Martin Ludlow, a Director of Double Reed Ltd.
A bassoon purchaser receives
a certificate with the name
of the adopted orangutan,
together with an update on
its progress after six months,
with the cost paid by Double
Reed Ltd; also an orangutan
soft toy!
From 1st February 2013,
Double Reed Ltd has pledged
to support the preservation
and conservation of
orangutans in Sumatra and
Borneo.
For each of our bassoons sold,
the company will pay for the
adoption of an orangutan on
behalf of the bassoon
purchaser for 12 months.
The orangutan is one of the
great apes, along with the
gorilla and chimpanzee, and
shares nearly 97% of its
genetic material with humans. It is an
endangered species with numbers
declining by between 30% and 50% in
the last decade alone, through the
destruction of their rainforest habitat
and poaching.
The adopt-an-orangutan
scheme is being managed by
Care for the Wild on behalf
of the Orangutan Foundation.
More information may be
found at:
Through this scheme we hope to do our
bit to publicise and support orangutan
conservation. A key aim of the scheme
is to support the rescue and care of
orangutans so that they can be released
into safe areas of the rainforest to help
build up wild populations.
Orangutan Foundation:
www.orangutan.org.uk
Care for the Wild:
www.careforthewild.com
Double Reed Ltd:
www.doublereed.co.uk
Musical instruments as hand luggage on flights
from Frances Jones.
overhead lockers and strictly at the
Captain’s discretion.
Did you know that even if our
instrument’s case is a bit bigger than the
size normally allowed as hand luggage,
we are probably alright under the present
arrangements? The size of ‘carry on’ is
usually defined as that which will fit in
the hand baggage cages provided at
check-in. However, in most airlines’
small print is a section which says that
carriers have agreed more generous
dimensions in respect of some
musical instruments.
You will need to check the carrier
regulations or terms and conditions of the
particular airline with which you are
flying, but by way of example, the
relevant webpage for EasyJet on
www.easyjet.com/en/music-instruments
currently states the following:
‘When it is not practical to combine the
instrument with another item of hand
baggage…you can carry one small
additional piece (e.g. lady’s handbag,
or laptop).’
‘Musical instruments are permitted for
carriage as hand baggage provided that
the instrument, including its case, does
not exceed 30cm x 120cm x 38cm.
Violins, violas, piccolos, flutes, clarinets,
bugles and trumpets all fall within these
dimensions. Carriage as hand baggage
is subject to available space in the
Clearly these are significantly more
helpful dimensions for a lot of mid-sized
instrument cases: for example, most
detached-bell horn cases and compact
bassoon cases too. It is possible that the
check-in staff will not be aware of these
more generous allowances, so it could be
useful to have a print-out of the relevant
part of the carrier regulations with you so
that you can show it to the check-in staff
if necessary.
5
essed by the
I have been very impr
rvice I have
friendly and efficient se
sitate to
received and won't he
ice.
recommend your serv
Thank you so m
uch for your exce
llent
service and friend
ly assistance, it is
very much apprec
iated.
For those who haven’t yet bought
from Double Reed Ltd, we thought
we’d let our customers introduce us*
Many thanks
for all your
advice and fa
ntastic servic
e
.
for helping me
Thanks so much
my
hase, and send
through the purc
for guiding me
thanks to the team
le process.
through the who
I must say ho
w impressed
I a m by
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definitely reco
mmend you to
others.
erfect
today in p
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The bass
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condition.
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I am absolutely delighted to have
utiful
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ism
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Double Reed Ltd.
and guidance.
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them to everyone
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Thanks guys.
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experience so easy. To
tally recommended.
Double Reed Ltd. sells bassoons and bassoon accessories:
bassoons - new and secondhand
crooks - new and secondhand
bassoon cases and accessories
with all the services you’d expect: approval loans, www.doublereed.co.uk
warranty, free postage, repair service, buy back
[email protected]
scheme and expert advice.
Tel.: 01633 677729
* All comments were unsolicited and written entirely by our customers.
Obituaries
Dominic Weir: 25th January 1933 to 15th January 2013
Bassoonist, Contrabassoonist, Reed Maker, Repairer, Engineer.
Dominic
Weir died
just short of
his 80th
birthday. He
was born in
the county of
Durham,
then as a
child his
family moved
to Coventry.
Aged 14, he
became an apprentice painter and
decorator, but he was passionate about
music and was already a talented
violinist. For his National Service he
signed up in the Royal Engineers where
he discovered the bassoon.
After his National Service he went on to
study at the Guildhall School of Music
and Drama where fellow students
included James Galway and Guy
Wolfenden. This was followed by a period
working at the theatre in Stratford upon
Avon before he moved to London and
joined the orchestra of the Sadler’s Wells
Opera Company. There he met and
married Principal Soprano, Wendy
Baldwin.
Orchestra, initially as second bassoonist
and then as contrabassoonist. At about
the same time he began making reeds
and particularly the machines involved in
reed-making. In 1968 he moved to
London to join the Royal Philharmonic
Orchestra and later the London
Philharmonic. He taught contrabassoon
and reed-making at both GSMD and the
Royal Northern College of Music.
He is survived by wife Wendy, daughter
Polly and son Dominic Junior. A full
tribute to Dominic Weir can be found
on page 14.
From 1963 to 1968 he was a member
of the City of Birmingham Symphony
Guntram Wolf: 23rd March 1935 to 4th February 2013
Wind Instrument Maker, Designer and Innovator.
Guntram
Wolf was
born in
Kronach to a
family with
roots in
southern
Bavaria, and
distant links
to the
Augsburg
Mozart
family. He
received piano and violin lessons as a
child, and played oboe and bassoon in
the school orchestra. After high school he
enlisted as a regular soldier and served in
the Air Force as a pilot, a career that he
gave up in favour of the study of
archaeology at Munich University.
In 1966, on completion of his studies,
Guntram became a secondary school
teacher in History, English and Biology,
later lecturing in woodwind acoustics
and the study of instruments at the
Musikhochschule in Düsseldorf. In the
mid-1970s he started a hobby workshop
for the reproduction of historical
woodwinds. He began a systematic
exploration of old woodwinds, chiefly
by studying examples in the major
collections of Munich, Vienna and
Nuremberg. His early efforts as a maker
were undertaken from the standpoint of
an enthusiastic amateur, but by 1992 he
had gained sufficient expertise to pass the
Meisterprüfung in woodwind making.
His present workshop in Kronach dates
from that year, as does the firm that bears
his name.
Due to a life-threatening illness in 1990,
Guntram Wolf retired after more than
25 years as a teacher and was able to
devote himself full-time as a woodwind
instrument maker, building a workshop
right next to his house. This developed
into a highly professional operation in
the next few years, and Wolf earned an
international reputation with his replicas
of historical woodwind instruments
and subsequently with several new
developments.
In the 1980s Guntram began developing
the first instruments for younger children.
With his background as a teacher he was
able to approach this from the point of
view of a young child’s capability, which
led to designs oriented specifically
towards that age group. His company
now offers a range of ‘Junior’ oboes,
clarinets and mini-bassoons.
In 2001 Guntram Wolf branched out into
the design of a completely new range of
modern instruments. Together with
Benedikt Eppelsheim of Munich,
he developed the contraforte, a radical
redesign of the Heckel-system
contrabassoon. Touted for its stable
tuning, simplified fingerings and,
above all, its ability to be heard in
orchestral tuttis, the contraforte is slowly
gaining a foothold in major orchestras,
particularly in Europe. Another innovation
is the Lupophone, a new bass oboe
designed as a replacement for the
Heckelphone.
He is survived by wife Karin, daughter
Claudia and son Peter, who now continue
to run the firm. A full tribute to Guntram
Wolf can be found on page 26 and
an article on the bassoforte appears on
page 8.
7
The Bassoforte
– A Bassoon for wind bands
by Timo Grothe, translated specially for Double Reed News by Michael Johnson.
This article first appeared in ‘rhorblatt and is reprinted here by kind permission.
Woodwind instruments in wind band
music
The eighteenth and nineteenth century
wind band evolved during the course of
the nineteenth century into large military
wind orchestras and into the numerous
town and village wind groups, consisting
predominantly of amateur musicians,
that still exist today.
In the twentieth century the range of
instruments became more limited;
the woodwind were sidelined because
they could not compete with the brass
in strength. In particular the double
reeds, which had long dominated wind
band tone colour, all but disappeared
except for a token residue of one
oboe and one bassoon – retained
possibly as a gesture of piety towards
tradition. The key instruments became
the brass and the saxophone, which
returned victorious to Europe on a
tide of American influence. The standard
repertoire of wind orchestras is now
big-band style arrangements.
Only lately has ‘symphonic wind music’
begun to be played – a first step
indicating re-awakened awareness of
the European tonal tradition. However,
we still lack instruments suitable for
reviving the European wind band sound,
as opposed to the arrangements that are
standard today, and which would create
a naturally attractive musical variety
and colour.
The firms of Guntram Wolf (Kronach) and
Benedikt Eppelsheim (Munich) have
collaborated with the Technische
Universität Dresden to develop the
concept of a new woodwind instrument
which will give bassoonists wider
expressive possibilities. This project was
supported by the German Federal
Ministry of Economics and Technology
(BMWi) Central Innovation Programme
for medium-sized firms (ZIM).
Acoustics of the bassoon
As the starting point for development of
the new instrument, the construction of
the present day bassoon was analysed,
together with the acoustic characteristics
to which this gives rise, and which create
its individual quality.
Construction of the modern German
bassoon
The body of the instrument consists of
four parts: the tenor or wing; the butt or
boot; the long joint; and the bell. It
generally has a conical bore with a
gradient of approximately 1/70. At the
foot of the butt joint this bore is turned
through 180 degrees by means of a
U-bend in order to make an instrument
with an acoustic length of more than
2.5 metres easier to handle. A narrow
curved metal tube, the so-called crook,
connects the body of the instrument with
the double reed held between the lips of
the player. Depending on construction,
the body of the instrument has about
30 tone holes. The chromatically playable
range covers the notes between Bb1
(fo=58 Hz) and e’ (fo=622 Hz).
It is a historical hangover that the first five
tone holes in the wing and butt joints
are stopped by the fingers. Acoustics,
however, demand greater distances
between the holes than fingers can
stretch. For that reason these holes are
bored at an angle to the axis of the
instrument. Their length in turn
necessitates greater thickness of the
instrument wall, giving rise to the
characteristic form of the wing joint and
hence to its name. These long, narrow
tone holes are an important reason for
the bassoon’s acoustic unevenness,1
with far-reaching consequences as regards
the location of the remaining tone holes,
how they are operated by means of the
keywork, the special fingering system,
and lastly also for the player’s fingering
and breath techniques.
1
C J Nederveen, Acoustical Aspects of Woodwind Instruments 2nd Edition, Northern
Illinois University Press, DeKalb 1998
8
2
Physics of tone production
In order to understand how the acoustic
individuality of the bassoon conditions
the technicalities of performance,
it is helpful to be clear about how the
instrument works physically. When it is
blown, the two blades of the double
reed mouthpiece close up. Inertia
arising from the complete interruption
of the air current causes an impulse of
low pressure to travel through the air
column of the instrument. This is
reflected back at the open end and
returns to the reed as a positive pressure
impulse which re-opens the reed,
and the cycle begins all over again.
Thus the periodic vibration of reed
and air column resonating together,
combined with the rapid opening and
closing of the reed, becomes audible
as a note.
If a tone hole is open, this shortens
the effective acoustic length of the
instrument, and the pressure impulse
is reflected back sooner. A fresh
vibration with a shorter periodicity is
created, so that a higher note sounds.
If a tone hole is closed, this means
firstly that the pressure impulse has to
travel further to the next opening.
But in addition, the air column is
increased by way of greater volume
in the closed section of the bore.
This effective enlargement damps the
pressure impulse, increases its distance of
travel and the pitch that is played drops.
Thus it becomes clear that each
individual tone hole not only generates
a single note, but also influences
lower notes.
Further, a number of tone holes must
act simultaneously in the case of
overblown notes, in which the reed
vibrates in sympathy and resonance
with an over-vibration in the air
column, so that all these tone holes
join in a complex interaction with the
main bore.2
D H Keefe: Woodwind design algorithms to achieve desired tunings, in Journal of
the Catgut Acoustical Society, 1989, 26(1), 14-22
Acoustic compromises
In the light of these considerations, the
reform of bassoon construction which the
bassoonist Carl Almenraeder initiated in
1825, and which came to fruition in the
late nineteenth century in the workshop
of Wilhelm Heckel,3 cannot be valued
highly enough. These two master
instrument makers developed a system of
tone holes which retains the historic
construction of the body of the bassoon
and, taking account of its ergonomic
limitations, makes it relatively easy to
play chromatically. Inspired by the
discoveries of Gottfried Weber,4 a
compromise was worked out which rests
extensively on empirical experience and
works equally well for all notes.
The compromise consists of localised
adjustments to the conical form of the
main bore, and of a multiplicity of large
and small, long and short, vertical and
diagonal tone holes, which are operated
through a complex keywork system.
This construction requires the use of
auxiliary fingerings for many notes in the
upper register meaning that, at a distance
from the ‘active’ open tone hole, other
holes at the bottom end of the instrument
must be opened or closed. This
intentionally sets off a higher resonance
in the air column which stabilises the
vibration of the reed on the correct
frequency. This is the only way in which
the note can be played in tune.5
In order to spare the player the use of
supplementary keys, instrument makers
have incorporated couplings in the
keywork so that certain combinations of
fingering can open ‘help holes’. Even if it
is difficult to take in at first, there is
nevertheless an acoustic logic6 underlying
this special bassoon fingering system,
which requires intensive practice and a
high degree of finger dexterity.
Musical consequences
The fingering of the modern bassoon
is a result of its complicated and
acoustically irregular construction.
Each fingering is characterised by a
more or less marked distortion of the
resonance in the air column. That has
clear consequences for musical practice.
The closer the air column resonance is to
the sounded frequency (or a direct
multiple of it), the more strongly it
supports the vibration of the reed.
As a result such so-called harmonic
resonances stabilise the sounded note.7
The fact that many notes on the bassoon
manifest enormous flexibility of
intonation is a clear indication that they
lack higher resonances to stabilise them.
This is especially clear in the case of
the top notes of the lowest register
(C, D, E flat, E, F) which through air
pressure alone can easily be shifted up
or down by a quarter-tone.
For overblown notes there is a large
repertoire of helpful fingerings8 with
which every bassoonist should
experiment, in order to be able to get
the best out of his individual instrument
by means of different methods of
articulation. Analogous to the standard
open fingerings mentioned above,
individual resonances are deliberately
displaced in order to achieve variety of
intonation or tone quality. This is a further
indication of the acoustic unevenness of
the modern German bassoon and,
at the same time, of the instability of the
basic concept.
3
W H Heckel: Der Fagott – kurzgefasste Abhandlung über seine historische Entwicklung
seinen Bau and seine Splielweise (The bassoon – a brief study of its historical
development, construction and playing), Verlag Carl Merseburger, Leipzig, 1931
4
G Weber, Wesentliche Verbesserungen des Fagottes (Fundamental improvements to
the bassoon), in Caecilia, 1825, 2, 123-140
5
R H Cronin and D H Keefe: Understanding the operation of auxiliary fingerings on
conical double-reed instruments, in Program of the 131st Meeting of the Acoustical
Society of America, ASA, 1996, 99, 2456-2457
6
J Kopp: The not quite harmonic overblowing of the bassoon, in The Double Reed,
Vol. 29(2), pp. 61-75, 2006
As an immediate consequence, intonation
has to be corrected during performance.
The player must use his ‘attack’, through
air and lip pressure on the reed, to adjust
the pitch of each note individually. This
form of attack is characteristic of the
bassoon. Each note needs to be corrected
in its own way, also dependent upon the
volume of sound desired.9
Uneven resonances in the air column
also determine the sound of the
instrument. The characteristic qualities
of bassoon tone derive from the fact that
the overtone structure varies at higher
pitches. Only in this way are firm
frequency bands established in the
sound spectrum, independently of pitch.
The main constituent of bassoon tone
at 500 Hz. is the same as the spoken
vowel O, and is responsible for the
instrument’s warm, dark and rounded
tone colour.10
Thus acoustic nature and characteristics
of performance and tone are indissolubly
linked. Each individual bassoon demands
of its player a high level of familiarity
and skill in blowing and fingering
techniques, so that he can compensate
through artistry for the acoustic
compromises.
A mature instrument?
Developments since 1900 have refined
details of the existing system, and the key
mechanism was further developed and
improved. Only a few more attempts have
been made to introduce different bores
and fingering systems and these were not
carried through.11 Thus the form of the
modern German bassoon is still
essentially rooted in the acoustic
concepts of the late-nineteenth century.
7
A Benade: Fundamentals of Musical Acoustics, Dover Publications, Inc.,
New York, 1990
8
T Ewell and L Hoyt: The bassoon-family fingering companion,
www.idrs.org/resources/BSNFING/BsnFingerings.pdf, 1999
9
T Grothe: Investigation of bassoon embouchures with an artificial mouth, Programme
of the 11th Congrès Français d’Acoustique and 2012 IOA annual meeting (Acoustics
2012), Nantes, 2012
10
J Meyer: Akustische Untersuchungen über den Klang und neuer Fagotte (Acoustic
Investigations of the sound of old and new bassoons), in Das Musikinstrument und
Phono, 1968, 11, 1259-1266
11
S Werr: Geschichte des Fagotts History of the bassoon, Wißner Verlag, Augsburg, 2011
9
Bassoforte
B1
C
D
E
F
G
A
B
c
d
e
f
8
10
7
10
6
10
acoustic impedance |Z| [Pa*s/m3]
acoustic impedance |Z| [Pa*s/m3]
modern German Bassoon
8
10
7
10
6
10
80
160
frequency f [Hz]
80
160
frequency f [Hz]
A1
B1
C
D
E
F
G
A
B
c
d
e
f
Figure 1: Position of air column resonances in the lowest register of the bassoon (left) and of the new bassoforte (right)
[The legend up the left axis reads ‘Acoustic impedance’]
The fact that no significant alterations
have been made to the bassoon for so
long leads to the conclusion that it is a
finely honed and proven system.
All the same, the present-day
construction of their instrument does
limit what bassoonists can do. This is
incontrovertibly so as regards dynamic
possibilities and it is particularly evident,
for example, in ensembles with brass
instruments. As regards volume, the
bassoon compared with the brass is about
10 dB quieter, and at the same time
audibly weaker, with a dynamic range
which by a similar comparison is 22 dB.
(By contrast the range of the horn is
36 dB and that of the clarinet 58 dB.)12
‘wind band bassoon’ which in volume
and tone colour would be able to
compete with the brass in symphonic
wind bands. Embarking on such a new
design also meant that acoustic
limitations could be addressed from the
outset, in order to reduce or even
eliminate the bassoon’s familiar
weaknesses of intonation. Therefore they
revived a principle of design which
Theobald Böhm had also worked on
adapting for the bassoon. This had
inspired some quite promising designs
by other instrument makers in the latenineteenth century13 but these were
seen as being in competition with the
bassoon, and had plainly not been
found convincing in terms of sound.14
The Technische Universität Dresden,
where, for some years, bassoon acoustics
had been the subject of theoretical and
experimental research,15 16 17 18 provided
scientific support for the task of
development. Additionally the firm of
12
E Detzner, Frank Schultz, M Pollow and S Weinzerl, Zur Schalllestung von
modernen und historischen Orchesterinstrumenten II: Holz- und
Blechblasinstrumente (On the sound production of modern and historic orchestral
instruments II: woodwind and brass instruments), in Fortschritte der Akustik, 36,
Jahrestagung für Akustik (DAGA2010), Berlin, 2010
13
R Klimko: The Boehm system Bassoon and the Wilhelm Heckel Firm, in The Journal
of the International Double Reed Society, 11, 1983
14
J Kopp: The Bassoon, Yale University Press, New Haven 2012
15
R Grundmann: Eine neue Kontur für den S-bogen des Fagotts – entwickelt mit Hilfe
der Strömungstechnik (A new contour for the bassoon crook), in ‘rohrblatt 2003,
18(4), 180-183
10
• be capable of being played at a
higher volume
• have even and stable intonation
and be as similar as possible to the
modern German bassoon in
• handling
• tone quality.
The bassoforte
The idea of a ‘wind band bassoon’
In order to widen the expressive
possibilities available to bassoonists, and
to open up new performance avenues,
the instrument makers Guntram and Peter
Wolf hit on the idea of developing a
Wolf was able to draw on many years of
fruitful collaboration with the Munich
instrument maker Benedikt Eppelsheim.
The aforementioned reflections on the
bassoon gave rise to the following profile
of requirements which a new double reed
instrument suitable for wind bands must
fulfil. Compared with the modern
bassoon it must
In order to meet these demanding
requirements, the project partners had to
devise a completely new instrument.
At the heart of this development is a new
body constructed according to acoustic
16
R Grundmann and H Krüger: Der Einfluß unterschiedlicher Formen des S-bogens
beim Fagott auf die Klangfarber (The influence of different shapes of the crook on the
bassoon tone), in ‘rohrblatt, 2005 20(1), 18-20
17
T Grothe, J.Baumgart and R Grundmann: Klangfarbenuntersuchungen an
hostorischen Fagotten, Vergleich von Dulzian, Barockfagot, klassischem und
modernem Fagott (Research into the tone colour of historic bassoons, Comparison of
dulcian, baroque bassoon, classical and modern bassoon), in ‘rohrblatt 2006, 21(4),
199-203
18
A Richter and R Grundmann: Töne im Flügel historiche Fagotte (Tones in the wing
of historic bassoons), in ‘rohrblatt 2007, 22(1), 44-48
Figure 2: Front and back view of the new
bassoforte
rules. Greater dynamic range and volume
were achieved by widening the conical
bore (gradient 1/56). Additionally the
range of the instrument was extended in
the bass by a semitone down to A1
(fo=55Hz). This necessitated a completely
new arrangement of tone holes.
Acoustic conception
Abandoning the Almenraeder/Heckel
system offered the opportunity of
replacing it with a new and coherent
approach. To that end a pitch calculation
programme was developed, to analyse
the standing wave patterns in the conical
resonator in relation to the tone holes
Figure 3: Details of keywork: above, left hand; below, right hand
(left: thumb; right: fingers)Figure 2
and their profile. This permitted regular
intervals to be worked out in which the
first two resonance frequencies in the
lowest register are in tune. Figure 1
compares the acoustic characteristics of
the bassoon and bassoforte. The frequency
of the first overtone is shown by broken
lines and for the lowest notes down to
F (black symbols). With the bassoforte,
due to its regular diapason, these lines
coincide with the basic frequency of
octave notes up to f (white symbols).
A resonator so constructed basically
achieves stable and even intonation. In
order to realise this in practical terms,
the long tone holes were replaced with
short, wide holes. This creates a certain
measured instability which permits
the flexibility of intonation that is
indispensable in a musical performance
and which makes artistic expression
possible.
Test
With the aid of functional models in the
proportion 1:1, shaped from squared
wood, it was possible to test the
theoretical concepts concerning
intonation, dynamics and tone colour by
means of an ‘artificial mouth’ created at
the Technische Universität Dresden.
11
power spectral density [dB/Hz]
A regularised
acoustic
80
construction
simplifies the
fingering
60
technique for
overblown notes.
Here two octave
40
keys are
introduced,
replacing the
whisper keys.
20
Bassoon
Additionally a
flageolet key is
Bassoforte
added
to the
0
2
3
4
crook. Since all
10
10
10
the tone holes
frequency f [Hz]
can now be
Figure 4: Comparison of the tone characteristics in the lowest register
operated by
(Notes as appropriate A1, B1 to f) of the bassoon and bassoforte on the
means
of keys,
basis of the averaged power spectral density (PSD)Figure 3
there was no
The chosen variant, developed by
need for the ergonomic construction to
Benedikt Eppelsheim, was constructed
take account of peripheral acoustic
as a round body and fitted with a
concerns (see Figure 3). Repositioning the
simple mechanism which made
U-bend relative to the tone holes means
possible a test that was quite realistic
that the body of the instrument is only
and musical. In parallel with further
slightly longer than that of a bassoon, so
development of the body, special crooks
that the instrument can be played in the
and reeds were designed, manufactured
familiar bassoon posture.
and tested.
Sound
Construction
What gives the bassoforte its name is its
The construction challenge was how to
convincingly stronger and richer bass.
build the instrument and keywork without
The wider bore makes possible a
its being significantly bigger and heavier
perceptibly greater range of dynamic
than the bassoon, and with a comfortable
expression. A fortissimo sounds up to
ergonomic finger position. Manufacturing
7 dB louder than on the modern bassoon.
strategies for all components had to be
At the same time, thanks to the acoustic
devised and implemented. Special boring
regularity of the bore, intonation is secure
tools with variable measurements were
and stable.
made for the conical bores. And so a
completely new instrument was born:
Widening the cone gives the sound more
the bassoforte.
overtones: the second formant frequency
lies at 1200Hz, and is therefore higher
Its body is made entirely of wood and
than on the normal bassoon.
consists of only two separable parts,
which are locked together with special
Figure 4 shows the averaged power
catches (see Figure 2). Because of the
spectral density for the lowest notes, in
short-bored tone holes the wing joint
which the formant frequencies appear as
loses its classic form. Instead of finger
elevations. The range up to 1.5kHz in
holes, keys are employed in the same
which the main formants lie is largely
positions to operate the corresponding
similar in both cases. The greater strength
tone holes.
of the bassoforte in overtones in the
12
upper register is important for its ability to
make itself heard in brass ensembles.
The unchanged position of the strong
principal frequency around 500Hz
means that the bassoforte has the typical
double reed sonority, although it has its
own individual character and, compared
to the bassoon, is brighter and more
open-sounding.
The first prototype bassoforte was
exhibited at the 2012 Frankfurt Music Fair
and further work will now be done on it.
During the coming months and years, and
with the collaboration of professional
musicians, the tonal possibilities as
well as details of technical performance
will be constantly subject to further
refinement. In the case of a musical
instrument – even in the age of computer
simulations, artificial blowing machines
and acoustic laboratories – this maturing
process needs one ingredient above all
others: time.
Acknowledgements
The bassoforte was created in
co-operation between Guntram Wolf
Holzblasinstrumente GmbH, Kronach,
Benedikt Eppelsheim Blasinstrumente,
and the Institute of Aerospace Engineering
of Technische Universität Dresden.
It was here that the author, who is
preparing his dissertation on Experimental
Investigations of the Acoustics of the
Bassoon, under the supervision of
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Roger Grundmann,
initiated and worked on the project.
The practical realisation and construction
of the bassoforte was co-ordinated by
Peter Wolf.
Thanks are due, for their tireless
contribution to the success of the
project, to Dr.-Ing. Johannes Baumgart,
Benedikt Eppelsheim, Monika Frätzer,
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Roger Grundmann,
Wataru Ahno M.Sc and Stefan Pantzier.
The project was supported by the
German Federal Ministry of Economics
and Technology (BMWi).
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13
Dominic Weir
Bassoonist, Contrabassoonist, Reed Maker,
Repairer, Engineer and Friend
Two contributions from close friends and colleagues: the first from Robert Bourton.
Dominic Weir was a bassoonist,
contrabassoonist, reed maker, pioneer of
teaching the art of reed-making in music
schools; he was a husband, father and
very proud grandfather, someone who
had a very full life. And he was rather like
the big brother I never had.
We first worked together in Birmingham.
It is difficult to believe now, but
appointments back then were handled
very differently. The City of Birmingham
Symphony Orchestra had a vacancy for a
principal bassoon. Martin Gatt, who was
my teacher at college, recommended me
to the then Principal Conductor, Hugo
Rignold who phoned to ask if I was
interested in the position. I went to his
house in Hampstead, played, and he
offered me the job; my first meeting with
the woodwind section was the day I
started! Can you imagine that happening
today? A vacancy later came up for a
second bassoon and Dominic was
appointed; no consultation with me or
anyone else in the section and, like my
arrival in the orchestra, Dominic and I
met as professionals the day he started
(although we had met a couple of times
as students).
Whilst I was in the CBSO, Nonie and I
planned to get married. Dominic was the
obvious and only choice for Best Man.
He tried to lead me astray when, arriving
early at the church, he suggested we had
time for a couple of pints before the bride
arrived. I declined.
14
Until the time I got married, I was sharing
a flat with a viola player (someone has
to), but Dominic mentioned that the flat
next door to him was becoming vacant
and seemed ideal for Nonie and me: he
was right and we moved in. The flat was
one of four in a large Victorian house.
We were on the ground floor, John
Georgiadis, the leader of the CBSO,
and his family lived in the flat above,
and next door were three more
members of the orchestra: John Chambers,
viola, David Measham, violin, and
Dominic. A great deal of youthful
nonsense went on but one thing has
always stuck in my mind: we all had
doorstep deliveries of milk. But the trio
next door never put their empties out;
they just lined them up in the hallway.
One day they asked the milkman to take
the empties away. He reluctantly
collected 243 bottles!
Shortly after his arrival a vacancy
occurred for a contrabassoon and
Dominic jumped at the opportunity.
At the same time he developed an
interest in reed-making. Actually,
not just reed-making but the machines
used in reed-making. He started buying,
designing and making these machines
with an almost fanatical fervour.
I recall when, late one evening, he
knocked on our door (we lived next door
to each other) to show us his latest
purchase. It was a micrometre for
measuring the thickness of cane and
he spent some time gleefully measuring
the thickness of bits of paper. His reeds
and machines continue to be sold around
the world.
Although, after our move to London
Dominic and I didn’t work together often,
he did come into the London Symphony
Orchestra from time to time and on one
occasion he joined us for a recording of
The Rite of Spring in the Fairfield Halls.
The orchestra layout was very poor as our
section was placed directly in front of the
trumpets, and this was in the days before
personal screens. He was not a person to
keep quiet when something bothered him
but his constant complaints got us
nowhere. After a while he quietened
down and I looked along the line to
see if he was OK. Dominic was sitting
there, looking like Bugs Bunny, with
about 3 inches of cotton wool sticking
out of each ear. Players soon started
giggling, and continuing the recording
became impossible until the seating
was rearranged.
As well as his full-time commitments as
an orchestral player and teacher, he found
time to continue his quest for the perfect
reed from a workshop in Clerkenwell.
He even wrote an article, which has
been published, with the title
‘Information on the Growth and
Characteristics of Cane’. How about
that for dedication? Personally I just
put a reed on and blow!
Dominic touched the lives of many
people and many people have cause
to be grateful that they knew him.
He was very self-effacing; I don’t think he
was aware what he meant – not just to
my wife Nonie and me – but to so many
others. Since his death I have had many
phone calls from bassoonists:
‘Dominic made some reeds for me
but wouldn’t take any money…’
‘Dominic loaned me his contra but
wouldn’t charge me for it…’
‘Dominic spent hours fixing my
bassoon…’
‘My reed profiler was useless until
Dominic sorted it out.’
The list goes on.
In Dominic I found a lifetime of
friendship and support, both
professionally and personally.
He had a long association and agency
with the German firm of Mollenhauer and
their contrabassoon, including initiating
modifications to the low F# hole and
moving it to the bottom bow of the
instrument to improve intonation.
William Waterhouse was a long-term
colleague, and Dominic had many
friends and acquaintances in the USA
including Don Christlieb whose reed
shape he much admired and regarded as
the best of them all.
and from David Chatterton
I knew Dominic Weir since 1976 and
we shared several things in common,
including the same first teacher (Frank
Rendell). I also took over his job as
Principal Contrabassoon in the Royal
Philharmonic Orchestra in 1989 when
Dominic joined the London
Philharmonic, and I bought up half of
his workshop in 2008 (together with
Richard Moore).
He was always a most helpful
colleague and his reed-making
knowledge was second to none. In 1971
he wrote an article on this for the IDRS
magazine, The Double Reed. Many
professional and amateur bassoonists
used his reeds to great effect.
He also gave reed-making classes at
BDRS events.
On the engineering side he was
self-taught but his gouging and profiling
machines were a great success with
well-researched components and really
good cutting blades. He told me that
his tip cutter was copied by a certain
other maker. His angled bassoon spike,
soldered to the butt cap of the bassoon,
was employed successfully by many
players who used the straighter form of
bassoon crook.
On the lighter side, it is reported by
Richard Skinner that whilst on tour he
would open his reed workshop on the
bus, with Tupperware containers of cane
which he would work on, wiring up and
so on. Much to the amusement of those
seated near him, the bus would be filled
with the noise of filing and sanding,
followed by the plop of another reed
masterpiece joining dozens of others in a
large plastic box. After retiring from
playing he still made reeds for Howarths
and private customers.
Dominic will be sadly missed by bassoon
players around the world.
15
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Woodwind Instrument Repair Specialist
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16
Jimmy Brown’s Travels
This is the second of a four-part series being published in DRN throughout 2013 as the Society’s own affectionate
tribute to one of the double reed world’s much loved personalities. These four stories – chosen from 36 in the full
collection – have been selected by Roger Birnstingl.
be patient to visit some of the most
popular pavilions, sometimes waiting for
hours in the long queues that formed, in
order to gain access.
We played a number of concerts and the
orchestra was invited en masse to several
receptions after them. I was touring with
my fishing friends, oboist Michael Dobson
and violinist Raymond Keenlyside (father
of the famous baritone, Simon). There were
several free days for the orchestra in the
two weeks that we were to be there so, at
the next reception, we split up in search
of someone who might have a stretch of
water somewhere, so that we could fish.
EXPO 67
Yehudi Menuhin and his orchestra made
some really fascinating tours, particularly
on the other side of the Atlantic. In the
summer of 1967 we went to play in
Montreal as part of the British cultural
contribution to Expo 67. These Expos,
which occurred regularly at one time,
were a wonderful opportunity for many
different countries to show off, not only
their industrial expertise, but also their
cultural and artistic achievements.
We were accommodated in a huge tower
block in rooms for two people, with the
extra bonus of a kitchen attached to each
apartment, so that we could cater for
ourselves should we wish. The rooms were
relatively spacious and rumour had it that
the owners of the block were of Sicilian
origin and that all the previous tenants
had been evicted. The flats had then been
upgraded whilst they were empty. They
were then leased to the Expo authorities
for the duration of the exhibition, for a
greatly inflated sum of money.
The Pavilions of many of the exhibiting
countries were truly amazing and there
were tens of thousands of people who
came to see them daily. The artistes were
in a lucky situation, as they had a sort of
season ticket that gave them preferential
visiting times. The general public had to
I found a very keen angler who had a
stretch of river at his disposal. This
sounded ideal until I discovered that
although he could bring guests to fish,
he would have to be there with us.
Alas, we could not find a mutually
acceptable date; so that was that. Michael
found a lady who was already well in her
cups, swaying slightly as she said that she
would love to fly us up to her private lake
in her seaplane. Dodgy, dodgy!
Fortunately for us, Michael was able to
make his excuses in the politest way.
Raymond, on the other hand, had been in
Canada with the Aeolian String Quartet
only a few months previously and luckily
had the telephone number of the couple
who had entertained him on that
occasion. A brief phone-call resulted in
the most satisfactory result. He was given
all directions towards their lake which
had two boats, a wooden cabin and
enough fishing tackle for at least four
people. The fridge was well stocked and
we were invited to help ourselves to
anything that we wished to eat or drink.
So after a weekend of music, we set off
early in our rented car and headed
northwards towards the hills for some
sixty miles, near a place called St Agathe.
We had it all pinpointed on the map and
arrived there mid-morning. We could not
believe our eyes at the sight before us.
The ‘cabin’ stood about fifty feet above
the level of the lake, which stretched for
about a mile and was in fact a
five-bedroomed house made of wood.
We found the key and also the daughter
of the family who was staying there with
her boyfriend. No problem. We had a
brief snack and then collected the fishing
tackle that we needed. The path down to
the boats at the jetty was flanked on
either side with wild strawberry plants; a
glorious sight and smothered with the
most delicious fruit.
So it was ‘heave-ho’ and we rowed out
from the bank towards the centre of the
lake. There were two predominant
varieties of fish there, namely brown trout
and wide-mouthed bass and we just
couldn’t stop catching them! Obviously,
we had to make some sort of a plan
about keeping some of them to take back
to our colleagues and their kitchens.
We decided to keep some trout, as this
was a tried and tested favourite.
The weather was gorgeous and so I
thought I would have a little walk across
a promontory that stuck out into the lake.
We found a suitable spot and Raymond
and Michael put me ashore. I walked
through the woods to the other side and it
was good to have a bit of shade for ten
minutes or so, though I was quite glad
when they came round the corner to pick
me up.
The time came when we decided that we
ought to get back with our haul. As we
approached the jetty we saw that there
was a man standing on it, and when we
were ashore and got talking with him it
turned out that he came from Staines in
England, of all places, and he was as
surprised as we were to meet a compatriot.
‘Did you see the bears?’ he said. No,
where were they? ‘Oh, they live in the
woods on that promontory over there.’ I
had to sit down and think about that one…
It was just about that precise moment that
the perennial scourge of the black flies
descended, so we scampered back to the
cabin via a few more strawberries.
17
We returned thankfully to Montreal
without further incident and with a load
of trout in our air-conditioned car,
destined for our friends.
Thus I went away with some rather
unusual memories of our visit to Rome.
BOSTON, LINCOLNSHIRE
Thanks to the circumstances of our
accommodation we were able to enjoy
the spoils of the day, but for me it might
have been a rather different story!
SAINT PETER’S, ROME
There is a really excellent concert hall
within the confines of the Vatican City. It
is the regular home of one of the Roman
orchestras and the ECO once had a
concert there in the week before
Christmas. Now you would think that the
mixture of Christmas and the heart of
Catholicism would probably result in a
tremendous show. Think of all the visual
trappings that we have learnt to endure
at that time of year in other parts of
Europe. But no! Many of the shops
elsewhere in Rome gave no inkling that
they were about to celebrate the
significance of December 25th and,
indeed, there was only one Crib to be
seen in Saint Peter’s Square itself,
sheltering under cover. It was all
surprisingly subdued.
In the Basilica, however, it was
‘business as usual’, particularly in the
large semi-circle where all the
Confessionals were lined up, each
displaying a discreet sign in a different
language: Deutsch, English, Italiano,
Nederlands, etc. On the left of one box
could just be seen the knees and legs of a
suppliant and, on the right, the identity of
the Priest was masked by a wooden door
below and a curtain above.
I do not remember the language of this
particular lady sinner, but she evidently
had much to relate. As we were passing
his curtained door, the Priest’s arm
suddenly appeared from behind the
curtain. With a deft twist of his wrist,
you could see his watch being briefly
consulted before it was withdrawn.
18
A time there was when a Londonbased orchestra with an out-of-town
engagement would have transported all
its members to the concert venue by bus.
The difficulty of this arrangement was that
the members’ homes could be scattered
anywhere over the Home Counties.
This meant that on the return journey,
arrival at the original pick-up place might
easily be too late to catch the last
Underground or bus services. One way
out of this dilemma would be for a few of
the members who lived roughly in the
same area to drive in one of their cars,
collecting ‘petrol money’ from the
passengers. But then there would always
be someone who lived rather remotely,
compelling him to drive alone and for
whom this ‘petrol money’ would not
reimburse his actual expenses.
At one time, the Menuhin Orchestra had
a whole series of out-of-town concerts,
some of which involved staying overnight.
I seem to remember that there was a
statutory sum that we received, regardless
of whether we undertook a return to
London or not. This gave us the option
of several hours of driving, or finding
some local bed-and-breakfast place or
a pub to stay in. Such was the situation
when we went to give a concert in
Boston, Lincolnshire, which was probably
about a hundred miles from home. As
there was another concert even further
away on the following day, we all opted
to stay in or near Boston for that night.
Now, had it all been in the hands of the
management, this following situation
could not have occurred.
After the rehearsal had taken place
we went our own ways to have a meal
or a snack, or to clock-in at the
accommodation that we had all found
individually. I don’t know how it
happened, as foreigners were not
generally allowed to play with English
orchestras in those days, but for that
particular concert our principal
bassoonist was an Israeli player. He was a
member of a Swiss chamber orchestra –
Assaf Bar Lev was his name – and he was
a good bassoonist.
The concert was due to start at 7.30pm
and we were all ready to go on to the
platform at about 7.28pm. It was only at
the last minute, prior to walking on, that
Assaf’s absence was noted. What’s more,
there was nobody in the whole outfit who
had the faintest idea where in Boston he
might be. Of course, there was some
concern about this, principally from the
Leader and Manager, husband and wife.
An announcement was made to the
audience that there would be a slight
delay in starting the concert, and the
tension was rising by the minute.
At about 7.45pm the Manager said, with
some agitation, ‘What are we going to do,
what are we going to do?’ One of the
viola players then said, ‘Why doesn’t
Yehudi go on and give a demonstration of
walking on the waters?’
But Assaf suddenly appeared at that
moment, having fallen asleep at his
lodgings. We were all rather disappointed
at being deprived of what would certainly
have been Yehudi’s most miraculous
performance.
THE GASTRONOMIC TOUR
This particular Tour de France took
place only a year or so after the
Academy of St Martin in the Fields
was founded; but it was a tour with a
difference as the orchestra played
incognito. Neville Marriner was still
playing the violin in those days,
so he led the orchestra and the French
pianist Phillipe Entremont directed
and conducted it, as well as playing the
piano solos.
Even while we were on the boat in
mid-Channel, we knew that it was going
to be a special trip when one of the horn
players won a sizeable jackpot on a fruit
machine in the bar. He generously bought
a very large round of drinks.
We had about a dozen concerts in the
two weeks that we were away, travelling
by bus between the different venues.
Just before we moved off each morning
there would be a quick consultation
with the bus driver and a rapid scanning
of both the map and of oboist Michael
Dobson’s Michelin Guide. This meant
that on most days we were able to have
lunch en route at a restaurant that
boasted at least one rosette. Largely for
this reason alone, the trip very soon
became known as The Gastronomic Tour.
One of the concert venues was Nantes,
where we played as part of a series of
concerts for a long-established and
much respected Music Society. After the
concert, we were all invited to a meal in
a splendid salon.
I do not recollect whether or not there
were any speeches, but very charmingly
we were all invited to leave our
signatures in their very special Visitors’
Book. I was about the tenth person from
the orchestra to sign it. Just before I did so
I was amazed to notice that, amongst the
signatures of those present, the names of
Jascha Heifetz and Adrian Boult were
very prominent! It seemed therefore
entirely appropriate that I should add to
this list of celebrities.
In deference to our hosts – and the
French do like their language to be
used correctly – I even remembered to
put the acute accent on the é, as I signed
– Léon Goossens.
Jonathan Small
U. K. Representative for
Püchner Oboes, Oboes d’amore
and English horns
Phone 0151-652 2763
[email protected]
Simmonds Music
U. K. Agent for Püchner Bassoons
Phone 01476-570 700
[email protected]
www.simmondsmusic.com
Howarth of London Ltd
U. K. Agent for
Püchner Bassoons and Oboes
Phone 0207-935 2407
[email protected]
www.howarth.uk.com
Püchner Bassoons and
Contrabassoons, Püchner
Oboes, Oboes d’amore and
Cor Anglais
Expressive, resonant
and rich in colours
Expand the nuances of
your musical voice
Graham Salvage
U. K. Representative for
Püchner Bassoons
Phone 0161-439 8251
[email protected]
J. Püchner Spezial-Holzblasinstrumentebau GmbH
Beethovenstraße 18
64569 Nauheim, Germany
Phone + 49 61 52 67 25
Fax + 49 61 52 6 28 08
puchner @puchner.com
www.puchner.com
19
The Oboe:
A Brief History from Ancient Greece to the Time of J S Bach
Dr. Ann Fronckowiak explains that double-reed instruments are among the oldest in existence.
This article is reprinted with permission from The Double Reed, the journal of the IDRS.
Iconographic evidence depicts oboe
predecessors in use before 3000 BC, and
the earliest physical remains date from
2800 BC, excavated by Sir Leonard
Woolley at the Royal Cemetery of Ur.
The instruments of the ancient Greeks
and Romans eventually spread to Europe
as a result of the Crusades (Goossens and
Roxburgh 5). These various instruments
(some of which are still in use today) have
undergone a wide variety of complex
changes and improvements to become
one of the most widely utilised of the
French Courts, and eventually the
Western oboe used in the time of
J S Bach. Understanding the evolution of
the instrument will give great insight into
some of the idiomatic performance
practices and characteristics of the
present day oboe.
Aulos player
Ancient Oboes: the Aulos
Predecessors of the modern oboe begin
with the ancient Greek aulos (plural
auloi) and the Roman equivalent, the tibia
(plural tibiae). The origins of the aulos are
unclear as the Greeks never maintained
that they were the inventors. Most
historians believe it was invented in
Phrygia or Libya. Mesopotamian,
Egyptian, Cypriot, and Anatolian records
show that they existed as far back as
2200 BC.
Aulos is a generic term encompassing
many wind instruments. It usually refers
to a wind instrument that consists of two
pipes and most likely two double reeds.
The term, however, was applied to any
hollow, elongated tube and can mean any
wind instrument of a single pipe whether
it contains a reed or not. The pipes of
ancient Greece were always cylindrical.
The Etruscans and the Romans first used
20
conical-bore instruments, which flared
slightly at the bell. However, the
Hellenic aulos, with two straight pipes
of equal length, was distinctly separate
from the Phrygian aulos, in which the
pipes were joined at the end.
(Sadie and Tyrrell 2: 178-179)
The aulos played an integral part in Greek
civilisation. Multiple references to it are
found throughout Greek literature, such
as in Homer’s Iliad. Iconographic records
exist from the Cycladic and Minoan
periods to the fourth and fifth centuries
AD such as mosaics, reliefs and wall
paintings (Sadie and Tyrrell 2: 178).
A fresco of the Tomb of the Leopards
contains one of the best depictions of an
aulos player. Two pipes are in the man’s
mouth and are blown simultaneously,
each being played by a separate hand.
These Etruscan double pipes were the
most common, although there were
others in existence, such as pairs of
parallel pipes, and a single pipe
called the monaulos (Goossens and
Roxburgh 8). Several hundred auloi and
fragments of auloi have been discovered
during archaeological excavations in
Egypt, Sudan, Israel, the Low Countries,
Turkey and Tajikistan, as early as the
sixth century BC.
Auloi were made from ivory, bone, wood
or metal in a wide variety of sizes.
The average internal diameter was about
10 millimetres, which is much narrower
than the bore of the modern flute. About
four or five holes were made with a drill
on the upper surface, although some
contained holes on the back to be
stopped with the thumb. The lowest hole
on the front was often kept open as the
little finger supported the instrument from
beneath (Goossens and Roxburgh 9).
Most of the holes were perfectly circular
with a diameter of six to seven
millimetres, able to be stopped with the
fingertips alone. The tuning was
pentatonic, although some holes were
found to be oval in shape and were most
likely partially stopped to produce
intervals smaller than a semitone. Some
tibiae from Pompei contain holes that
look like a cat’s eye that were probably
designed to correct tuning. Mechanisms
were developed after the second century
BC that allowed the plugging of certain
holes to produce chromatic pitches.
One such device was the kerata, a hornshaped lever that would cause a sliding
ring to open and close certain holes.
Auloi players took great care when
making reeds and harvesting cane.
Split straws were used for extremely
rustic instruments, whereas a certain type
of reed called a zeugites was used for
most auloi and tibiae. The reed was
placed in the mouthpiece so that the
bottom of the player’s mouth was level
with the swelling of the bulb of the end
of the reed that fits into the upper joint of
the aulos. (Sadie and Tyrrell 2: 180-181)
The two double reeds were placed in the
player’s lips. The embouchure was often
contained and sealed by a phorbeia (also
called a torba), which is a leather
bandage tightly stretched around the
player’s mouth containing holes for the
reed. The reason for the phorbeia is
inconclusive. Some historians have said
that it was used to block the inflation of
the cheeks or to prevent lip-tearing.
Plutarch said that the phorbeia ‘...gave the
face a decent expression’. However, the
phorbeia could also have been used to
aid in or cause circular breathing, a
technique thought to have been
employed by aulets, by preventing
inhalation through the mouth
(Kachmarchik 93-94).
The aulete (male player) profession was
not highly esteemed. Most men were of
low rank and led a frugal and humble
life. Some were slaves and some played
their instruments on Athenian war fleets
to encourage the rowers and set the rate
of stroke. Nonetheless, the most virtuosic
auletes had very lucrative and famous
careers (Sadie and Tyrrell 2: 182-183).
By contrast, women players (auletrides) in
ancient Greece were not allowed to
perform in public competitions or recitals.
hand. The sound is indefinitely sustained
by circular breathing. Berlioz heard
a group of Calcutta musicians playing
these instruments while visiting the
Great Exhibition in Paris and commented:
‘There was a wind instrument
something like our oboes, with a
double reed and a tube without holes
which produces only one note. This
primitive oboe was used by the leader
of the musicians who accompanied
the Calcutta dancing-girls in Paris a
few years ago. He made an A drone
for hours on end, and those who like
this note certainly got their money’s
worth.’ (Goossens and Roxburgh 5-6)
Otou player
However, ‘The auletrides and the
Roman tibicinae might sometimes be
both excellent musicians and women
of very easy virtue, hired to enliven
banquets and all-male parties’.
(Sadie and Tyrrell 2: 184)
Otou
During the Brahmin epoch in India
(twelfth to the seventh century BC), an
instrument called the otou, or ottu, was
played. This instrument, which is still used
today in ceremonial dances, is conical
with no finger-holes. The reed is in the
shape of an equilateral triangle of about
3/8th inches. The otou is held in the left
hand while the player hits a drum
strapped to his or her belt with the right
Otou
Oboes were developed for ceremonial
purposes throughout the ancient world,
some of which are still used today.
Burmese and Mongolian instruments are
like long, straight trumpets that have
flared bells and stiff reeds. The ancient
Chinese oboes are similar to the
aforementioned Indian oboes. Chinese
Emperor Kang-Hi wrote about a koan,
which is an ancient oboe played with a
single reed, that sounds like a child
crying. Large koans have eight holes,
seven in the front and one for the right
hand thumb as the right hand is held
above the left. These can still be found in
Mexico. (Goossens and Roxburgh 6)
Surnay
Another double-reed instrument, the
surnay, became popular with the spread
of the Arab Empire around the end of the
first millennium AD and is still used in
West and Central Asia, south-eastern
Europe and sections of North Africa
today. This aerophone most likely
developed as a synthesis of similar forms
from Iran, Mesopotamia, Syria and Asia
Minor. It emerged at the time of the fifth
crusade (1217–21) as it was used in
military bands and spread into
conquered lands. It eventually reached
even further into Europe and Asia,
where local preferences caused the
instrument to evolve.
The body is made from a single, conical
wood piece, most often apricot wood. It
widens at the end, flaring to form a bell,
and has six or seven finger-holes and
one thumb-hole. (Sadie and Tyrrell 18:
257-258) The instrument may be
ornamented with various forms of metal
and enamel. The reed is constructed of
two blades of the same cane used by
Western oboe players today (Arundo
donax), of about two centimetres long.
It fits over a brass staple, which is inserted
into the top of the body, and the entire
reed is taken into the mouth of the player.
The lips press firmly on the pirouette,
which is a lip disc made up of wood,
mother- of-pearl, ivory or a similar
material. The pirouette may be a part of
the staple or a part of the top of the
sunray. In the Ottoman region, musicians
place a fork, called a nazik, inside the
body of the instrument to cause the overblowing to be at the octave instead of the
twelfth. This type of double-reed
instrument has about a one and a half to
two octave range. Circular breathing is
often employed in performance.
The bell of the surnay is called the ka’ba,
which is the name of the most holy place
of Muslim worship in Mekka, and is a
prominent part of Islamic culture. Due to
its loud, bright tone, it is played outside
and used for military purposes, funerals
and religious ceremonies. In most
regions, members of the lowest social
classes play the sunray. The North Indian
shehnai is a double-reed instrument that
is very similar to the surnay except for the
fact that it does not have a lip disc.
Surnay, Calcutta, India, with reeds;
courtesy of the Bate Collection, Oxford
21
Nagasvaram
The nagasvaram is a large South Indian
instrument of the surnay type that began
to appear in the middle of the first
millennium AD and is still currently in
use. Scholars, however, remain divided
as to whether this is a precursor of the
modern oboe or not.
The instrument has a conical wooden
tube containing seven equally spaced
finger-holes, but no thumb-hole.
The body of the nagasvaram has five
additional holes that are drilled near the
bottom. These holes assist in tuning, as
they may be completely or partially filled
with wax. The nagasvaram ends in a
widely flared wooden bell and is made
in long and short models. The longer,
which can reach up to 95 centimetres,
is currently more popular. The shorter
instrument sometimes ends in a metal
bell. The large double reed fits on a
short, conical staple that is inserted
into the body of the instrument.
The nagasvaram has a two-octave
range and, like the surnay, possesses a
vibrant, penetrating tone that is used
outdoors and at religious festivals.
Nagasvaram
Oboes of the Renaissance:
European Shawms
The shawm, which was extremely
important in European music from the
thirteenth to the late-seventeenth
centuries, was a direct descendant of the
surnay, Turkish zurna and Egyptian zamr.
Shawms were brought back to Europe
from returning crusaders during the
eleventh to thirteenth centuries.
The shawm is considered the first true
ancestor of the modern oboe.
(Bate 29-30)
22
Shawms were pitched at a perfect 5th
from each other as is the case in other
wind families. This sometimes led to
intonation difficulties when performed in
an ensemble. Usually only two or three
shawms were played together however,
and not the entire family. The treble
shawm (schalmeye) was the main
descant instrument. With all holes
covered, the instrument sounded a D.
Fingering was similar to that of a recorder
although there was no thumb-hole
because the octave break was controlled
with the lips, air pressure and reed. The
best key for the treble shawm was
G major. (Sadie and Tyrrell 23: 230-231)
Instruments of the shawm group are very
easy to recognise and categorise due to
the one-piece wooden body, with little or
no outside ornamental decoration. The
outside tube was cylindrical or slightly
curved. The inside bore was conical for
4/5ths of its length and then flared into a
trumpet-like bell. The bore was wider in
proportion to its length than the modern
oboe with the cone expanding very
rapidly. The shawm contained six fingerholes, two groups of three in the upper
half of the body, and no thumb-hole.
A seventh hole was drilled near the
bottom of the instrument. This extra hole
helped to increase the range from about
one octave to another whole tone.
(Bate 34) In the smaller instruments,
the seventh hole could be stopped with
the little finger. This hole was duplicated;
there was one on each side, out of line
with the other six, so that the musicians
could choose which hand they wanted to
place on top while playing. The unused
hole on the opposite side was plugged
with wax.
In the tenor pommer and those larger, the
seventh hole was a single one controlled
by an open-standing, fishtailed key to
accommodate right or left handed
players. The basset, bass, and gross bass
pommers had three more holes with
fishtailed keys to extend their range. Two
holes were drilled on the back of these
Alto shawm by John Hanchett, dated 1976;
courtesy of the Bate Collection, Oxford
bass instruments where the thumb of
either hand could reach them. (Bate 35)
The keys were protected from damage by
a fontanelle (perforated wooden barrel),
which also maintains the beauty and
simplicity of the instrument. (Goossens
and Roxburgh 13) In the smaller shawms,
the finger-holes were evenly spaced and
became more uneven as the instruments
increased in size, due to the practicality
of hand spread while playing. This
uneven layout caused intonation
problems. (Bate 34) It is interesting to
note the extreme length of the body of the
shawm beyond what is necessary to
produce the lowest note. Half of the total
length seems useless but was employed
as a resonating chamber to produce the
desired tone. (Bate 36)
Another characteristic indicative of this
family of instruments is its unique
‘mouthpiece’ made up of a staple and a
removable pirouette. The double reed fits
on the staple, a conical brass tube of
about three centimetres, which fits into
the opening of the pirouette, ‘…a turned
wooden piece bored down the middle
and shaped like an inverted bell. A small
hollow was cut in the face of the
pirouette so as to leave the tip of the
staple clear...’ (Bate 36) The lowest part of
the staple was wound with thread and
then inserted into the neck of the shawm.
The lips of the instrumentalist could rest
against the top of the pirouette, thus
allowing the reed to vibrate freely in
the mouth. This would support the
embouchure and help to lessen
fatigue in loud and long playing.
However, the bottom of the reed was
placed deeply enough in the wood so
that the blades of the reed could also be
held and controlled in the lips of the
player. This allowed variable sound
production and extension of the range
beyond the first octave. By 1618, the bass
and gross bass pommers were constructed
without pirouettes. (Bate 36, 38)
Shawm reeds were most likely shorter,
wider and more open than those of the
modern oboe. (Sadie and Tyrrell 23: 229)
Sixteenth-century European shawm
players were probably making reeds from
the same cane used by oboists today.
(Bate 37)
The sound of the shawm was extremely
powerful and penetrating. In 1691,
Praetorius suggested that the treble
instrument should be called ‘gingrina’ (lit.
‘cackling’), because he thought it
sounded like a goose. Mersenne, in 1636,
wrote ‘…they make the loudest and the
fiercest sound of all the instruments, with
the exception of the trumpet.’
Shawms were used in various whole and
broken consorts, with trumpet or violin,
lute and harp to accompany major
ceremonies, lead processions and play for
dances. These musicians played an
integral part in court music as well as the
music of the medieval town.
Shawms are still played today because of
historical interest and musical tradition.
Rainer Weber is an important player who
made his first instrument in Hamburg in
1947. (Sadie and Tyrrell 23: 230-232,
234) In northern Catalonia, musicians
play the tiple and tenora, which have
modern key-work but contain the body,
bell, bore proportions and the pirouette of
the Praetorian shawm. (Bate 38)
Deutsche Schalmey
The Deutsche schalmey was a distinct
type of shawm that flourished in Germany
and the Netherlands from the late 1600s
until about 1725. It was extremely
popular in German military bands
beginning in the 1640s. The instrument
was more slender and elegant than the
earlier shawms, with more external
ornamentation. It was constructed in two
pieces with a tenon and socket joint near
the middle, and it was only built in two
sizes, tenor and treble. The trebles were
tuned a major third lower than the older
treble shawms, and the tenors were
pitched a fifth below the new instruments.
(Bate 36) The trebles had smaller fingerholes, no keys and a purely decorative
fontanelle which, on the tenor instrument,
covered a key. The range of the treble was
one octave, but chromatic tones could be
used depending on the reed and the way
of playing. The instruments could have a
pirouette or, like the shawm at this time,
be played without one. They were mostly
intended for outdoor and military use and
were considered to have a sweeter tone
than that of the shawm.
The schalmey continued to thrive as the
new French oboe was invented. The term
‘hautboy’ will be used (to avoid confusion
with later types) to designate this ‘new’
French oboe form that developed from
the shawm in the first half of the
seventeenth century, and was popular
until the first part of the nineteenth
century when it was replaced by the
keyed oboe. The schalmey and the
hautboy seem to have co-existed without
competition. Some scholars believe that
the schalmey was ‘a German attempt at a
quick answer to the new French oboe’,
(Sadie and Tyrrell 23: 235) while others
feel that it could have been a surviving
form of the earliest prototypical hautboy.
Instrument makers in Amsterdam and
Basel made both types. The embouchure
utilised for the schalmey was less specific
than that of the hautboy. The instrument
began to disappear at the beginning of
the eighteenth century as some felt it
was difficult to play and had an
unpleasing tone in the high register; it
was eventually replaced by the hautboy.
During the sixteenth century there was a
movement toward blended ensembles
consisting of strings, cornetts, trombones
and organs. Shawms continued to remain
popular, but became restricted to town
bands and ceremonial court music.
A French court band instituted under
Louis XIII employed two treble shawms,
two cornetts, four alto shawms, two
trombones and two bass shawms. James I
in London and his successors had a
similar court band of at least six players.
During the seventeenth century there was
a disintegration of the consort as the
higher instruments were being developed
into different types and the lower ones
were being used in ensembles of various
other instruments. As the pirouette fell out
of use in the treble shawm, the new oboe
(hautboy) of the French court began to be
played. (Sadie and Tyrrell 23: 233)
First Oboes: Hautboys of the
French Courts
Musical organisation in the French
courts reached its highest form at the
Court of Louis XIV. The Grande Ecurie
was a large court band that employed
35 woodwind players. (Bate 39) In 1651,
Michel Philidor (virtuoso on multiple
woodwind instruments) was appointed to
the Grande Ecurie. Lully, court composer
at the time, consulted both Philidor and
the instrument maker Jean Hotteterre
while writing oboe marches for
Louis XIV’s musketeers.
Hotteterre is credited with designing
the first ‘true’ oboe (hautboy) by adapting
the shawm. This new hautboy may have
been used one or two years before 1660
in Lully’s ballets. The French court
23
instrument makers made practical
improvements to the instrument over the
next ten years, and Cambert’s opera
Pomone, premiered in 1671, was the first
work to specify the hautboy in its
instrumentation. This date marks the
beginning of the orchestral woodwind.
(Goossens and Roxburgh 13)
century with little change. After 1750, the
two-keyed model was exclusively used,
which required the left over right hand
position. (Goossens and Roxburgh 14)
The hautboy evolved from the shawm as
the bore was lengthened and the tone
holes were drilled smaller and placed
further down the length of the instrument.
The body was made into three joints with
tenons and sockets. ‘These changes also
caused the new treble instrument to
sound a fourth lower than the treble
shawm and a major second above the
alto.’ (Sadie and Tyrrell 18: 262)
The treble, which was the normal size,
sounded a C with the use of seven
fingers. Its body was normally 58 or
59 centimetres long. The instrument had a
conical bore with steps at the joints and
mouldings usually surrounded the outer
joints. The hautboy had six finger-holes,
a key for E that was sometimes doubled,
and a key for the lowest note, middle C.
The third and fourth holes were usually
twinned (two small holes bored beside
each other). Two vent holes were drilled
opposite each other on the bell, and the
bell had a large contraction rim at the
bottom, which was called a lip. The large
tone holes were undercut. Notes outside
the basic scale were obtained through
cross, forked or half-hole fingerings. The
hautboy was overblown at the octave and
had a range of about two octaves.
Hautboy
The hautboy became very prominent in
France after this opera, and the players of
the Grande Ecurie were expected to learn
it. The instrument’s popularity soon spread
to many countries. The first public
appearance of the hautboy in England
occurred in 1674 in Calisto, a masque
written by John Crowne and Nicholas
Staggins. From 1690 onwards Purcell
composed for it in most of his large
works. The Sprightly Companion, which
contained the first known printed tutor for
the new instrument, was published in
London in 1695. (Bate 41) This two- or
three-keyed hautboy was used in most
parts of Europe during the eighteenth
24
Most of the hautboys were made out of
boxwood, although other materials such
as ebony, ivory and fruitwoods were
sometimes used. About half of the
surviving hautboys possess ivory tips,
while some are tipped with bone.
It was common for amateurs, and even
some professionals, to buy reeds from
instrument makers. Except for the
dimensions, reeds were made very
similarly to the way they are made today;
a staple connected the two blades of cane
to the bore, and the reed was either
separate or permanently attached to the
staple. For at least half of the reed’s length
the cane was shaped with parallel sides.
Reed-making varied considerably from
place to place and person to person just
as it does today. However, reeds had a
tendency to become shorter and narrower
as the eighteenth century progressed, as a
result of the bore becoming smaller and
the pitch and tessitura moving higher.
Certain historical playing techniques were
shared between the hautboy and other
woodwind instruments. An elaborate
system of paired tonguing patterns was
employed as well as ‘flattement’ or finger
vibrato. (Sadie and Tyrrell 18: 260-261)
The tone was darker than the shawm and
blended better in ensembles. Each scale
on the instrument had a very specific
and individual sound and certain
fingering combinations were extremely
difficult. Choice of key was therefore
extremely important. The hautboy was
sometimes muted by cloth, paper, wool,
wood or a damp sponge. The hautboy
was a unique instrument as it was the
only type in the early eighteenth century
to be used in just about every genre of
music. It was played in churches, social
gatherings, operas and even on the
battlefield. (Sadie and Tyrrell 18: 263-265)
By the 1730s, the Italians developed
a straight-top hautboy model.
The French adapted another type that
appeared to have been stretched
lengthwise. These instruments are the
longest that survive. Music between 1730
and 1770 was mostly performed on these
evolved models. These hautboys had
considerably narrower bores (about
5 millimetres) than the earlier types
(about 5.96 millimetres or larger). The
new classical oboe was in use by the
1770s. (Sadie and Tyrrell 18: 265-267)
Conclusion
The aulos of Ancient Greece has evolved
considerably into many different musical
instruments that are still played in parts of
the world today. The primitive cylindrical
pipes, so prominent in Greek culture,
developed through a variety of local
changes into the surnay.
Various forms of the surnay evolved and
spread throughout the Near East, Turkey,
south-east Europe, North Africa and many
parts of Asia. It eventually reached India
and Europe, (Sadie and Tyrrell 18: 258)
and became a direct ancestor of the
European shawm, so prevalent in
European art music from the twelfth to
the seventeenth centuries. Through
complex improvement by instrument
makers and virtuoso performers, the
shawm became the sophisticated
European hautboy featured in many
solos of J S Bach.
Some of the most significant
developments were the change from the
cylindrical bore of the aulos to the
conical bore of the sunray, and the
gradual narrowing of bores from the
surnay to the hautboy, which caused
the pitch and tessitura to become higher.
Also of great importance was the
gradual abolition of the shawm’s
pirouette, thus giving the performer
more control over the reed and paving
the way for the invention of the hautboy.
Making the left over right hand position
uniform and mandatory eliminated
the need for fishtailed keys and led to
more similarities of pedagogy and
playing technique.
Perhaps even more striking than the
number of gradual changes however, are
the number of similarities found in all the
different instrument varieties of the past,
such as reeds and relative shapes and
sizes of the body, which directly influence
the modern oboe. The oboe of the present
day has more control over tone, pitch and
dynamics, but it still has a somewhat
penetrating sound that is easily heard.
Although vibrato production and
articulation style have changed
throughout the years, these first began to
develop with the French hautboy. The
long phrases that are possible for the
modern oboist to play are a direct result
of the construction of the ancient oboes,
which allowed for frequent circular
breathing.
Bibliography
Bate, Philip: The Oboe, an Outline of its
History, Development and Construction.
London, Ernest Benn Limited, 1975.
Goossens, Léon and Roxburgh, Edwin:
Oboe. London, Kahn and Averill, 1993.
An interesting comparison:
Left – reproduction of a late renaissance
Schalmei (treble shawm)
Otto Steinkopf, Berlin, c.1950;
Right – ‘The Galpin Oboe’ (anon, c.1690,
probably English) the oldest oboe in Britain;
both courtesy of the Bate Collection, Oxford
Sadie, Stanley and Tyrrell, John, editors:
The New Grove Dictionary of Music and
Musicians. London, Macmillan Publishers
Limited, 2001. Vols. 2, 17, 18, 23 and 24.
Kachmarchik, Vladimir: Some Mysteries
of Ancient Greek Aulets. International
Double Reed Society 22 (1994): 93-95.
25
Guntram Wolf
A tribute to a remarkable instrument maker
exploring the classical era bassoons,
clarinets and oboes. What a fantastic
opportunity for so many players over
the years!
It could be said that all makers of
instruments – whether bowed, blown or
struck – must be rather special people:
they devote their time to a complex
mixture of artistry, science, engineering,
innovation and of course music.
As in most spheres, some excel beyond
‘merely’ special. One such is Guntram
Wolf. This collection of individual
contributions tries to explain why.
William Ring is to be thanked for his help
in assembling the texts and photos for this
article.
A lifelong mission: Henry Skolnick,
contrabassoonist and baroque bassoonist
Guntram Wolf playing the Eichentopf
baroque contrabassoon
Guntram Wolf’s beginnings as an
instrument maker grew out of his
fascination with historic reed instruments.
By the early 1980s he had become so
adept at building modern replicas of old
woodwinds that many of Germany’s great
museums allowed him to borrow their
finest examples to use as models. But his
interest was not in making new versions
of museum displays. Guntram was a
‘people person’, and he delighted in the
joy that musicians showed when they
played his instruments. He did not just
aim to make instruments that measured
the same as the originals. He wanted
to give players the very best instruments
to perform on, and to help them bring the
music of the past alive. The great success
of his instruments with leading performers
on historic woodwinds is the result.
That first meeting planted a seed in me.
Although busy playing the modern
bassoon, I longed to learn to play the
baroque bassoon from that time on.
At each subsequent IDRS conference I
would head to the Guntram Wolf display
to see what marvellous things were there.
I first met Guntram at the 1984 IDRS
conference in Graz, Austria. He was
there with a display table overflowing
with his early oboes and bassoons.
I was a student in Berlin at the time and
had never seen such a variety of
marvellous shapes and sizes of double
reed instruments. As a budding
contrabassoonist, I was particularly
taken with Guntram’s replica of the
Eichentopf baroque contrabassoon.
It stood from floor to ceiling and was
breath-taking to be near. But the most
Some years later I had the opportunity to
visit Guntram’s workshop in Kronach,
Germany. The workshop is in a building
next to the family home. The ground floor
houses the main workshop but, true to
Guntram’s love of people, the attic space
was made into multiple small guest
rooms. Guntram would host weekend
gatherings of players around various
themes. So, for instance, he might have
an event for classical era ‘Harmonie
Musik’ players, who would gather to play
together and enjoy the pleasures of
26
memorable thing about that first meeting
was how warm and encouraging Guntram
was. I felt I was just another young
student standing in the wings, but
Guntram drew me out and nudged me to
give his instruments a try. He was so
patient and positive. I thought my first
low bleatings from the baroque
contrabassoon were awful. But Guntram
smiled broadly in a way that said to me:
‘Keep trying; you’ll get it!’
When the iron curtain was falling
Guntram saw an opportunity. Kronach is
close to what had been the border
between East and West Germany, rather
near the city of Markneukirchen. It was in
Markneukirchen where the East German
woodwind makers were centred, and
Guntram knew there were many fine
craftsmen in the area. He developed his
modern bassoon production at that time,
and was able to provide work to some of
those East German instrument makers at a
moment when they suddenly needed
work. From that point on, Guntram
offered a line of both historic woodwinds
and modern bassoons.
One of the most exciting things to grow
out of the addition of modern instruments
to his production was the development of
a new contrabassoon design. Guntram
had become very familiar with historic
contrabassoons and had made many
replicas of classical contras in particular.
These Beethoven era contras had been in
wide use in the Austro-Hungarian Empire
and were very musically successful. So
Guntram’s first modern design descended
from these early contras. This first modern
instrument looked similar to the familiar
‘Opera’ model contrabassoon. It was,
however, a little smaller, very comfortable
in the hands and possessed a warm,
sweet tone. Many players loved this
model and a number of fine professionals
still perform on these contrabassoons.
However, several players told Guntram
that what they needed was not a
smaller contra, but a bigger one.
The contrabassoons of the twentieth
century were too small and had many
acoustical shortcomings due to the bore
being too narrow.
In response, Guntram, together with his
son and master woodwind maker Peter
Wolf, and the master maker Benedikt
Eppelsheim, developed a completely new
contrabassoon design. This new
contrabassoon is widely known as the
contraforte. It has many innovative
features, the most significant of which is a
bore size that is correct for the bottom
octave of the contrabassoon’s range.
This instrument is a huge leap forward
for the contrabassoon and has been
widely embraced around the globe. It is
now played in the world’s top musical
centres; Berlin, Vienna, Paris, Sydney,
Washington DC and many others.
The Contraforte in rehearsal
on the Bruns Concerto
More recently, Guntram and Peter applied
what was learned on the contrabassoon
development to a new design of bass
oboe, the lupophon. Again, this
instrument is a tremendous advance for
the bass oboe, and is a great
improvement over both the French
bass oboes and the heckelphones
used in the German-speaking world.
Guntram Wolf’s work as a master
instrument maker has enriched the lives
of countless players who love their Wolf
instruments every time they play them.
But perhaps more meaningful for many
people – when they play, see or hear
his beautiful instruments – will be the
memory of this gentle, exuberant and
loving man.
The forward-thinking instrument maker:
William Ring, Howarth of London
Guntram Wolf liked to preserve an air
of alchemy surrounding his developments
but, at a personal level – and given that I
worked for one of his competitors – I
found him one of the most generous
people I have encountered in the music
industry.
I first met him about 20 years ago,
but got to know him much better once
Howarth started sourcing mini-bassoons
from him in 1999. In 2001 he invited me
back to his workshop for a few days after
the Frankfurt Music Fair, and I was made
to feel very much at home by his whole
family. Our strong mutual interest in the
development of double reed playing for
the young, led him to share his
experience since he started developing
these designs in the mid-1980s. It was an
indicator of his forward-thinking
approach that much of what he shared
with me then, about the wider benefits of
enabling younger children to play such
instruments, has since been ‘discovered’
with reference to instrumental education
in the UK in the last ten years.
On that first visit he was also keen to
show me his latest project, the
contraforte, which at that point was no
more than a 3D computer-design. Again,
his forward-thinking approach was even
then embracing this very advantageous
new technology for the instrument maker.
Over subsequent visits, on the back of the
‘Fagottino-Fests’ and ‘Wind Music for
Young People’ weekends (hosted in the
castle on the hill overlooking his home
town of Kronach in Bavaria), the
workshop became a place to share as
equals, not rivals, comparing notes about
making instruments. Even to the point
when, in 2007, we showed each other
our latest secrets; we discovered that,
without knowledge of what the other
was up to, we had developed exactly
the same design for a Junior oboe!
How we laughed!
His has been a unique contribution in our
time to the development of the doublereed family of instruments; his legacy will
live on through both the instruments
themselves, and the children who now
have the opportunity to discover this
treasure at a much younger age.
Historical visions: Stefan Pantzier,
Bassoonist and Reedmaker, Leipzig
On several occasions I had the good
fortune to accompany Guntram on one
of his many long journeys to instrument
exhibitions. Since these journeys were
usually by car – because of the great
variety of instruments that he needed to
take – there was plenty of time for
relaxed and very fruitful discussion.
It only took the mention of a few key
words and we were into the most
wonderful conversation, as he slipped
into chatting about all the things that
he had discovered or was working on,
and found so exciting.
His wealth of knowledge was impressive
and so our conversations would travel
through historical observations of ancient
ways of life in ancient Mesopotamia
(where Guntram was involved in
excavations for his archaeology studies),
to the Viennese cultural scene at the time
of Joseph Haydn, and on to cultural and
political visions of our time.
Indeed, Guntram was not just a very
precise student of history, aware of both
the detail and historical context, but also
a passionate visionary; perhaps this was
the source of so many of the new ideas
that were a part of his work. Once an
idea had taken hold there was no turning
back, as he set off in a certain singleminded manner. His gift for getting the
‘feel’ of the way a double-reed bore
responds was the source of many
innovative instrument projects which he
and his pioneering spirit launched.
I remember well the conversation on a
return journey from Vienna – including
27
the mandatory detour through the best
Lower Austrian vineyards – and the vision
that grew of a wide-bore double-reed
instrument family, starting from the
contraforte, that had just been received
with great interest in Vienna (other
members becoming the lupophon and
bassoforte). Despite initially articulating
his massive concerns about the costs of
such a project, he would return to the
subject again and again, and I guessed
rather excitedly that he had ‘got the scent’
and was already working on it!
For bass oboe, read lupophon:
Christopher Redgate, oboist,
Research Fellow RAM
The first time I met Guntram Wolf was in
2009 at the International Double Reed
Society Conference in Birmingham. I was looking for a bass oboe and it
was suggested that I should try the newly
invented lupophon. I was so impressed
with this instrument, even though at
that time it was still a prototype, that I
ordered one on the spot. Though I only
met Guntram a few times after that
I found him to be a man of great charm,
extensive knowledge and immense
enthusiasm. He had incredible passion for
his work which I found him to be a
terrific inspiration.
endearing, almost schoolboy-like pride in
these creations.
Our mutual interest in the instruments,
and especially in exploring and
developing new ideas, gave as a
particular bond. His energy and
enthusiasm was that of a much younger
man. Not many people can claim at the
age of retirement to have worked so
creatively and in such imaginative and
original ways as Guntram. I suspect that
his influence on the music world will,
despite his death, continue to grow
through his remarkable work with these
instruments. In Guntram we have lost a
significant figure in the woodwind world
and he will be sadly missed.
Thank you, Guntram:
Antje Lotz, oboe teacher It is nearly 15 years since I first met
Guntram Wolf. A spring snapped on my
oboe and of course I had a concert
coming up. A colleague advised me to go
to Kronach.
I was new to the area of Oberfranken, so
first I had to find out where this little
town actually was, and I had never heard
of the company Wolf before. Well, the
spring was quickly replaced but I stayed
much longer than planned! Guntram told
A visit to the factory with my wife in
2010 sums up these points. I was visiting
in order to look at the latest version of the
lupophon. Guntram picked us up from
the railway station himself and showed
us Kronach before taking us to the
factory. He then delighted us by giving a
guided tour of his museum. He spent
considerable time talking to my flautist
wife about his flutes and showing her
some of his exhibits. He then relished
showing me some of his unusual oboes.
All the while he ‘oozed’ knowledge of the
subject; not boasting, it was simply a part
of him. Eventually we got down to
discussing the lupophon but even then he
could not resist showing us his Tigerstriped oboes for children. There was an
28
me with bright eyes and great enthusiasm
about his idea to encourage more young
people to play the oboe and bassoon by
developing instruments suitable for
younger children. I was allowed to play
a mini-bassoon and the prototype of the
K1-Oboe. I was hooked by his stories, his
profound knowledge and his ideas.
At the time I only had a few oboe
students aged around 15. The rest of my
students were learning the recorder
but I hoped that some of them would
move onto the oboe later.
My daughter started on a Tiger-striped
mini-bassoon and I convinced the
music school to buy some Junior oboes.
I trialled the new Wolf models and gave
feedback to Guntram, his son and their
employees, which was gratefully
received. My 5 oboe students became
30 and more than half of them were
aged under 10. I have no recorder
students now but lots of young and happy
oboe students, and a thriving relationship
with Guntram’s company.
And now my car can find its own way to
Kronach! My work as an instrumental
educationalist has been transformed, and
my students and I are most grateful.
When the company was making a video
about their work, we took part with music
in the workshop and the garden next to it.
We were inspired by the lively guided
Guntram and Karin Wolf with another family member
immediately with the lessons?’ But this
way of teaching was just a compromise
which I did not want to live with forever.
Children should be able to start with a
little bassoon, a ‘Fagottino’.
tours through the workshop by the
company founder, who was by then also
a generous supporter and sponsor of our
symposia for young instrumentalists in
2007 and 2009, at Castle Rosenberg on
the hill above Kronach. The relationship
was mutually beneficial.
I found the perfect solution thanks
to a chance comment from a pupil:
he told me enthusiastically about an
instrument maker with a lot of historical
instruments who had a stand at the
Musikmesse in Frankfurt. Being the
supervisor of the Conservatory’s
instrument collection, I was anyway
looking for a baroque bassoon for it,
so after this comment about the
Musikmesse Frankfurt I contacted this
instrument maker.
We will miss Guntram; but the great thing
is that his ideas will carry on living while
his instruments are being played all over
the world, and his work is continued by
his own children. A special moment: Martin Bliggenstorfer,
Ensemble Proton, Switzerland
Ever since the bassoonist Lucas Rössner
first raved to me about the contraforte,
and remarked that the ‘Wolfs’ now had a
new bass oboe – the lupophon – I could
not get rid of the desire to play this low
instrument.
During my first phone conversation with
Guntram, I could barely express my
concern that the instrument would soon
be a reality, as Guntram was already by
this time getting excited by his new
project, the bassoforte!
A year later I was finally able to get hold
of the long awaited lupophon in Kronach.
But how should I play it? Which reed did
I need for the instrument to work
properly? Together with Stefan Pantzier
we set out to develop a suitable lupophon
reed. After a few attempts, we finally had
a decent result and drove to Kronach to
see how it worked on the lupophon.
And then with Guntram I had one of
those moments in life that you never
forget – which you can see in this
(sadly silent!) photo. Surrounded by
Guntram’s impressive collection of
instruments we both played – Guntram
on a prototype version of his visionary
Duo of Lupophon and prototype Bassoforte,
with a Contraforte in the foreground
bassoforte and myself on the lupophon –
finding out how the new Pantzier reeds
worked if you did this or that to them;
and, suddenly, we were playing as if we
were in a sort of trance in a quasiimprovisational duo. The instruments
began to harmonise together, we
responded to each other and an old
melody grew in harmonious sound.
Something drove us and made us
continue playing, forgetting the time,
wondering what this new sound
texture was that we had discovered
so spontaneously.
The ‘children’s bassoon’:
Christoph Peter, bassoonist, Switzerland
In 1983 I was asked whether I would like
to give bassoon lessons to a young boy at
the Jugendmusikschule. But this boy was
so little that it was impossible to work
with a normal bassoon. That was when
I started experimenting. I thought,
‘Why don’t I just start with an
alto-dulcian so that we could begin
That is how I met Guntram Wolf.
He guided me through his workshop
and explained that he was then
developing a ‘children’s bassoon’.
A year later there was a Swiss music
school event called New Instruments for
Small Hands in Winterthur. I was invited
to introduce my new method of teaching
with a dulcian. I immediately called
Guntram to ask whether a prototype of
the ‘children’s bassoon’ was yet available.
Guntram was so excited that he came to
this event with his two prototypes.
So we presented those in Winterthur first,
even before the Musikmesse Frankfurt.
One of these prototypes was subsequently
bought by the Conservatory. These chance
meetings resulted in a close and happy
collaboration as well as in a deep and
lasting friendship. The circle closed itself
unexpectedly: my last personal encounter
on 4th April 2012 was also about buying
a baroque bassoon!
The wonderful work done by Guntram
Wolf has laid such solid tracks for me and
many others that we can drive on
confidently. For this I am extremely
thankful, Guntram.
29
Bassonicus:
talks to … Robin O’Neill
by Jefferey Cox.
‘I had met Robin in February when I sat
in on a masterclass he gave at the Royal
Academy of Music (these classes are
open to the public)’ says Bassonicus, alias
Jefferey Cox. ‘As I listened to him
coaching, I began to think that what I was
hearing could be of interest to a much
wider audience than was present in his
class – especially as I knew from having
‘Googled’ him that his interests ranged
much more widely than was likely to
become evident in the classroom. So I
stuck my neck out and asked him if he
would consent to be interviewed for
DRN. He kindly agreed. What follows is a
synopsis of our conversation.’
BASSONICUS: I understand that your
masterclass is split between general
coaching in the morning (general in the
sense of picking up on points emerging
from individual students’ performances of
pieces of their choice), and a close look
at major orchestral bassoon parts in the
afternoon. What are the issues which you
anticipate will need covering?
R O’N: It’s all about listening. First of all,
listening to yourself as you practise;
listening to sound quality, listening to
resonance, intonation, different qualities
of articulation and legato. Then, when in
the orchestra, listening to everything
around you. Acoustics play a big part in
how any group of musicians play. I am a
great believer in the fact that you can
30
focus your ears in the same way that you
focus your eyes. Of course experience
helps and you have to know what you’re
listening out for, just as it is easy to miss
seeing something unless you know where
to look!
There are very famous concert halls, with
rich and generous acoustics, in which
some music works perfectly, but where
performing other music – maybe very
detailed and with huge forces – can be
seriously challenging until you are used
to it. Put simply, different halls require
different types of listening. Very resonant
halls may be perfect for the breadth of a
Bruckner symphony, but obscure the vivid
rhythmic detail of a Miraculous Mandarin
or Rite of Spring. These will require extra
focus from the ears. Watching the beat
only gets you so far.
Now, as a conductor, I naturally expect
an orchestra to follow me, but a good
orchestra plays with its ears as much as its
eyes, all the players constantly responding
to those sounds around them for
ensemble, balance, sound quality and
intonation, thus contributing to the
overall aural landscape. The conductor
gives important information through
gesture – the most important being
the upbeat before the players make a
sound – but thereafter it is a combined
collaborative effort.
In this respect orchestral playing is simply
an extension of chamber music – and it’s
all about listening – but it equally applies
to the conductor! In my conducting
teaching I’m constantly encouraging
students to listen deep into the sound of
the orchestra. The conductor’s job is to set
the tempo, encourage the flow, keep the
energy, guide the orchestra through any
awkward transitions and make sure that
the approach to the climactic moments is
well judged and the high point itself is
beautifully crowned. For a great
performance you need fine, sensitive,
beautifully judged orchestral playing
helped by a conductor with good tempo.
In my opinion the conductor doesn’t
‘interpret’, he ‘serves the composer’.
BASSONICUS: The musician’s world is a
tough place. Competition is intense, and
not only within national boundaries.
Auditions are nowadays likely to involve
aspirants from all over the world. How
can you help a music student to get that
first foot in the door?
R O’N: Good question. I want to inspire
students to relish challenge and love
pressure. The successful ones are going to
be those who have the desire to get out
there and show people what they can do.
Above all they must develop a positive
approach. The time to make mistakes is
when you are a student: I’m a great
believer in maxims and one of the best is
‘endeavour never to make the same
mistake twice’. This is hard to do and it
sets the bar very high, but it’s an
important mind-set.
Obviously it’s important to remember
what it is like to be a student (musicians
are sensitive people and early days at
music college, whilst exciting, can also
be a bit overwhelming). Having said that,
I like students to be well prepared for
classes. I ask for a fair amount of
memorising, particularly the solo and
difficult passages. When something is
memorised it is truly ‘learned’. In our
profession preparation is everything,
and learning that lesson early on
stands you in good stead. Also, when it
comes to both ensemble and orchestral
playing everything has a context: it is no
good simply reproducing something
you have learnt by rote; it is important
always to be flexible and responsive
because every performance has its
own dynamic.
BASSONICUS: Although hardly
contemporary any longer, Stravinsky’s
Rite of Spring remains a huge landmark in
music, and I notice from your website
that another of his seminal works,
The Soldier’s Tale, has played an
important part in your approach to
music-making.
R O’N: Yes; talking of context, I
conducted a one-off performance of
The Soldier’s Tale with Philharmonia
players and a cast led by Jeremy Irons at
the Old Vic. The news back then was all
about the invasion of Iraq and the hunt
for Saddam Hussein. During the rehearsal
process we discussed the universal nature
of the story and the idea of the tale being
about a modern soldier, maybe a British
or Iraqi soldier. This sowed the seed, and
I and the stage director, Andrew Steggall,
agreed that we would mount a
production which brought together Iraqi
and European artists. The show would
include both Stravinsky’s music and Iraqi
folk and dance music.
Clearly we needed to visit Baghdad to
show solidarity with our Iraqi actors and
musicians and encourage them to come
to London, their worry being that even an
artistic enterprise could very well be
interpreted as a form of collaboration.
We even had thoughts of taking the
production to Iraq – and had gained the
support of the Foreign Office – but there
were just too many complications to
make it possible with the security issues
and within the time and resources at our
disposal. In the end we ran it at the Old
Vic for a month, with a stunning set
which used the full depth of the theatre’s
stage. I conducted and, by the way, my
former student Adam MacKenzie played
bassoon. The whole ensemble played
most of the score from memory whilst
being involved in the action on stage.
It was extraordinarily effective!
What were we hoping to achieve by
mounting this performance? Absolutely
not a political point – I am not a political
person. I believe in the power of music to
communicate, and hence my treatment of
The Soldier’s Tale was about bringing
people together who might otherwise
never cross barriers. Barenboim’s WestEast Divan orchestra is one such example,
and the Lindenbaum project (which is
trying to bring together musicians from
North and South Korea) is another,
and one with which I am associated
personally. The ultimate objective is
to create a concert venue in the
Demilitarised Zone between the two
Koreas, and it’s worth it because Koreans
are some of the most naturally gifted
musicians in the world; but progress is
very slow and incidents such as the
recent North Korean missile test put all
progress on hold.
BASSONICUS: Your website seems to
indicate that you are devoting as much
time to conducting as bassooning with
the Philharmonia and other groups.
R O’N: I spend more than half my time
conducting in various different parts of
the world. I am Professor of Conducting
at the Royal College of Music, which
involves individual teaching and
conducting various orchestras and
ensembles, and Visiting Professor of
Bassoon at the Royal Academy of Music.
I’m enjoying teaching very much and I
seem to be practising more than ever;
I’ve become obsessed by how much I can
achieve in a short amount of time
because I’m always busy.
I am off to Italy tomorrow [16th March]
with the Philharmonia playing The Rite of
Spring in Rome, then Yerevan in Armenia
to listen to some auditions, then a couple
of days RCM teaching, and to Bogota at
the end of the month for a week to
conduct Walton’s Symphony No.1 with
their Philharmonic Orchestra.
BASSONICUS: Amazing! Thank you so
much for finding time to fit in this
interview!
31
Reviews
Tutor Chart Etude
A Critical Bibliography
by William Waterhouse
Edited by James B Kopp
pub. Whitehall Press (£10)
James Kopp is a senior editor for the forthcoming second
edition of the Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments
(due out in 2014), a bassoonist and expert maker of reeds for
modern, contra and early bassoons.
When, at William Waterhouse’s request, Dr Kopp took over
the responsibility of completing The Bassoon for Yale
University Press just before Waterhouse’s untimely death in
2007, he was being given the keys to a vast archive, the
results of long and detailed research into every aspect of the
instrument. (See the review by Andrew Watts in DRN 101,
Winter 2012.)
Compared to The Bassoon – a substantial tome – Tutor Chart
Etude is a slim booklet, standing unusually tall next to
anything else on the shelf. Yet it is packed with invaluable
information that justifies its separate publication. It began life
as a lecture hand-out at the IDRS Conference in Towson,
Maryland, USA in 1991, subsequently in a more formal
manner in Fagott Forever in Germany in 1992. William
Waterhouse continued thereafter to add and update this
bibliography as a computer file until just before his death.
Unlike Lynne Truss’ admirable Eats, Shoots and Leaves,
Dr Kopp – probably wisely – avoids any attempt at
punctuation of Tutor Chart Etude. That is because, in this
posthumous edition, he has reverted to the way the material
was organised and presented in 1992, namely in those
three distinct categories. The entries are presented
chronologically and, in the principal section of the book
(‘Works inspected or verified by Waterhouse’), begin as far
back as c.1650 ending in 1990. Each entry therefore
receives firstly its classification, followed by brief comments
by William Waterhouse.
Important names spring out of the pages such as Ozi,
Almenraeder, Jancourt, Heckel, Langey, Weissenborn and
Milde, but also countless fascinating references to persons
clearly significant in their time but largely unknown today.
There are, not surprisingly, several by ‘Anonymous’ including
interesting entries such as ‘c.1770 [Chart] – The earliest
known monograph dedicated to the bassoon.’
32
It is a handsome and compact volume impressively clear in
layout. Pages of listings are beautifully interspersed with
illustrations reproduced from some of the sources
referenced: bassoons by such as Savary, Neukirchner,
Gautrot and Almenraeder-Heckel adorn the pages.
James Kopp and the publication’s designer, Tim Milner, are to
be congratulated on bringing out this excellent volume,
which will be indispensable to many and an essential part of
most bassoonists’ library. Through this publication, the
detailed research collected by William Waterhouse over a
very considerable time is placed at everyone’s disposal and
in an ideal and attractive format.
Clive Fairbairn
CD REVIEWS
The World of the Oboe
Various Oboists and Composers
Oboe Classics CC2026 (2-CD set)
www.oboeclassics.com
Photo: Andy Lamb, Northern Echo
BOOK REVIEW
Jenny Agutter takes a rehearsal break at the Richmond Theatre, Yorks
I have always had an affection for the oboe. Working with
Jeremy Polmear and his pianist partner Diana Ambache for a
number of years, I loved being on stage listening to the
sublime pieces that Jeremy found for their recitals of music
and words.
On one occasion my son, then aged nine and looking for a
second instrument to take up, came to a rehearsal; he
decided to learn to play the oboe. But it was not just the
beauty of the pieces, it was the way they were put together
with the readings that was important, to make a narrative
and to give the audience a balanced and varied programme.
Jeremy has once again put his encyclopaedic knowledge of
oboe music, and his understanding and enjoyment of
performance, to perfect use in creating this special
two-CD set.
The World of the Oboe illustrates perfectly the many
qualities of this wonderfully expressive instrument. These
two discs not only give you the opportunity to taste the
varied repertoire from the classical and romantic periods to
the abstract pieces of today, they also give you the chance to
hear some of the most exciting oboists and musicians ever
recorded.
I was surprised that there was so much variety of sound on
the discs. Not only was the oboe played by different people,
but it was also accompanied by a number of different
instruments; from harpsichord, piano and guitar to marimba,
whip and electronics!
It seems invidious to single out particular tracks – it is the
combination of all the music that makes these CDs special –
but I love the Schumann Romance; and in Ravel’s Pièce en
forme de Habañera one can feel the heat and see the sharp
light and deep shadows of a Spanish afternoon.
I also liked the chance to listen to some early recordings
and, although most of the tracks are by current players,
there are two from Léon Goossens; you can hear how, with
his melting phrasing, he was able to touch such a wide
musical public. There are a number of virtuoso pieces,
notably Pasculli’s Le Api. I have listened to this over and
over without being able to discern the slightest intake of
breath in the four hectic minutes in which Christopher
Redgate conjures up swarms of bees, humming and
buzzing busily about.
In the second CD there are a number of hauntingly
beautiful modern pieces, and one that particularly strikes
me is James MacMillan’s Intercession. It has three oboes,
sometimes playing together on one note, sometimes
moving away in ones and twos, creating an effect of stark,
mystical beauty.
And whilst enjoying listening to the music it is a pleasure to
read Jeremy Polmear’s notes which are full of interesting
facts and amusing observations. My only reservation is that a
compilation such as this is inevitably a taster – it leaves me
wanting more!
Jenny Agutter
Cuillin Sound
Various Composers
Lynda Coffin, flute, Sarah Watts, clarinet/bass clarinet,
Laurence Perkins, bassoon
CD Cuill1001
www.cuillinsoundmusic.co.uk
Banish all thoughts of the restrictions of an entire CD recorded
by just three players (on four instruments); here is constant
variety, imaginative programming topped off by very high
quality playing. This CD successfully achieves its twin aims
expressed on the first page of the enclosed booklet – a
performance of beautiful music…on a journey through
beautiful landscape.
The mood is set immediately by the first track, an
atmospheric piece of writing by Swedish composer, Stefan
Klaverdal, in which he evokes the concept of ‘static yet
interesting’ music. Called Liten Statymusik (Statue Music) this
spacious prelude leads swiftly on to a bustling Divertimento
No.1 by Italian-born flautist and composer Leonardo di
Lorenzo. This twists the dynamic from static to virtuosic,
showing the trio’s unquestionable ability to flourish in both.
Naturally enough there are several arrangements interspersed
amongst the original music, one such being the group’s own
version of Beethoven’s famous variations on Mozart’s Là ci
darem la mano. But this broadening of Beethoven’s sound
world of 2 oboes and cor anglais is sensitively explored,
employing a clarinet in C as the central voice.
Laurence Perkins not only has a busy career based in
Manchester but is also well known for the numerous courses
he runs; his bassoon playing provides both a warm and
expressive partnership and support to the expertise of Lynda
Coffin and Sarah Watts. Lynda Coffin makes an outstanding
contribution to this CD, and Sarah Watts compliments the
other two in every way, introducing the extra tonal spectrum
of bass clarinet. This is an instrument on which she is a
specialist and Laurence’s clever treatment of La Folia makes
great use of its full range and her talents.
Major twentieth-century names also appear amongst the
composers on this excellently recorded CD; Poulenc’s
classic duo Sonata for Clarinet and Bassoon and trios by
Bozza and Koechlin alternate with beautifully arranged
Hebridean and Shetland folk melodies. Very highly
recommended for both personal acquisition and to give
as a desirable present!
Clive Fairbairn
33
MUSIC REVIEWS
Georg Abraham Schneider
Eighteen Quartets for bassoon, violin, viola and cello
Pub. Hop Vine Music
Vol I (6 quartets) £17
www.hopvine-music.com
Recently I was fortunate enough to have an engagement in
Malvern where I met Hugh Field-Richards. He publishes
under the name of Hop Vine Music, a name bound to
appeal to bassoonists, the majority of whom, in my
experience, enjoy a decent pint. Mr Field-Richards presented
me with the first six of his urtext edition of quartets for
bassoon and string trio by Georg Abraham Schneider
(1770–1839). A further twelve are to follow, making this an
oeuvre to compete with Vivaldi as a body of work for our
instrument.
Schneider was an unfamiliar name to me then; but not now,
as I have been working my way through these pieces with
great pleasure. I am glad to say that the editor gives some
useful information in the introduction to each of the works,
which are published separately. In case DRN readers are
similarly unaware of this composer, this is part of FieldRichards’ foreword:
‘Georg Abraham Schneider was born in Darmstadt…and was
a horn virtuoso as well as an oboist and conductor...writing
a considerable number of works (well over 300 survive). His
prolific output includes many works for wind, including
ones for horn as well as flute, oboe and mixed ensemble
concerti. He wrote eighteen quartets for bassoon and strings;
each one lasts around twelve minutes.’
This edition is beautifully presented on high quality paper
and in an impressively clear and large font; the bars are
numbered on every line and phrase marks are dotted when
the editor has made an assumption of a slur, based on
similar passages. Page turns are all manageable and there is
a useful page of facsimiles when there is some doubt in the
original. Some of the quartets have more than one
contemporary edition and all variations are explained, again
with facsimiles.
Most readers will be familiar with the works for the same
ensemble by Danzi, Stamitz, Devienne and Vogel, and
Schneider belongs in this company; although without quite
the character or originality, as far as I can tell – I have not
been able to play them with strings yet. He takes the
bassoon surprisingly high with Bb being used regularly and
34
with a C in bar 116 of no.5 (in Eb major). The technical
demands are what one would expect from a composer of
this period; it seems that the first six were certainly written
before 1808. The key schedule of the complete eighteen
leans towards three flats, with seven of them written either in
Eb or C minor. There are three each in F and G, two in C
and one each in D minor, E minor and G minor. The editor
feels that the minor keys inspired Scheider to produce his
best work but I particularly enjoy no.5 in Eb major; and
while no.6 in C minor is dark and stormy, no.3 in G minor
is simple and sunny.
The technical standard of these pieces is around the same as
that required for Mozart’s Sonata for Bassoon and Cello
K.292, as long as you can reach top C occasionally. The
violin has some technical work too, and the viola a few
awkward moments, but the cellist is in for a peaceful
evening.
I recommend this collection without hesitation.
Meyrick Alexander
Keys to Success – Fun Duets
For oboe (or saxophone)
In all keys to grade 3
Written and published by Ann Wiggins and Paul Cozens
www.wigginspublishing.co.uk
I am always pleased to find and be able to utilise new
teaching material, especially if it serves as a refreshing
ingredient to revitalise woodwind lessons. Ann Wiggins and
Paul Cozens have provided such an ingredient in this series
of technically challenging books of duets.
Keys to Success is published for oboe/saxophone, flute and
clarinet. My oboe pupils and I have used not only the
oboe/saxophone book but also the flute book so I have
noticed that both these books share identical exercises at
times. This is, however, quite understandable as both oboe
and flute occupy similar territory in the early stages.
The duets are grouped into keys covering all majors and
minors up to two sharps and two flats and some chromatics;
the exercises are designed to help pupils remember the key
finger patterns that are so essential for playing an instrument
fluently. To quote the Introduction, ‘The duets can be used as
a back-up for scales, as sight-reading practice, or played
through just for fun. They can be played in lessons with a
teacher, at home with family and friends, and used for group
teaching.’ There is also a useful page of text – Helpful Hints
for Students – and blank manuscript pages for pupils to write
their own tunes/duets.
The musical text is clearly and pleasingly printed, some of
the tunes being repeated several times in different keys; this
might give rise to useful discussion about transposition.
There are lots of different articulation and expression marks
for the player to observe and the melodies are quite short
and – generally – ‘fun’. Having said that, I would suggest
that one or two exercises are a little beyond grade 3
standard (particularly the ones in the relative minors); but as
ever, the accuracy of performance is dependent on the
ability of the pupil. I have enjoyed playing them with some
of my own pupils; both parts of the duets are largely of
similar standards.
Teachers would be recommended to investigate Keys to
Success as a welcome addition to their teaching material.
Nicola Fairbairn
CONCERT REVIEW
Launching the Twenty-first Century Oboe
Recital and Exhibition
Christopher Redgate, oboe and lupophone
David Josefowitz Recital Hall
Royal Academy of Music
28th January 2013
Christopher Redgate is a name which is now appearing
regularly in the BDRS magazine – and for good reason.
He is revolutionising the oboe world with his newlydesigned instrument, manufactured by Howarth. The
Howarth/Redgate oboe’s greater technical resources
facilitate microtonal intervals, the production of the
extreme high register (a gift for the opening solo of
Daphnès et Chloé) and control of multiphonics,
especially when ultra-pianissimo and expressive in the
music of such composers as Holliger and Berio.
Chris’s wish to demonstrate the lineage of the new oboe’s
ancestry has led to an Exhibition at the RAM which features
instruments from all periods. We could contemplate
Gleditsch (Bach’s oboist) appearing at rehearsals to perform
those divine obbligati in the cantatas for the first time; then
ponder on the equally expressive warmth of the twenty-first
century oboe playing four new pieces which demonstrate
various facets of the instrument.
Fabrice Fitch’s Agricola ixc chose to demonstrate quarter-tone
control and glissandi in the lower register. Referencing
Ockeghem and Agricola as sources for the material seemed
a remote relationship, but did explain the very small range
of pitches involved. It would be good to hear this material in
the context of a more varied extension to the piece.
Dorothy Ker’s Clepsydra went back even further to the fifth
century BC Empedocles for inspiration, mainly because this
poet invented an apparatus (the clepsydra) related to
breathing and the vascular system. Beginning with the
quietest sound ever heard from an oboe, the piece broke
into a subdued rhapsody of grace-note flourishes and wild
leaps of two octaves and more. As momentum gathered, the
virtuosity required for the micro-tonal embellishments
showed Chris’s instrument in full flight.
The increased fluency with microtones was also
demonstrated in Richard Barrett’s Fold. Additionally,
Barrett explores the new facility in the upper range of the
Redgate/Howarth oboe. Circular breathing through minutes
of incredibly rapid streams of notes, Chris’s performance
was breathtaking. Whether or not Barrett intended it, the
virtuosity of the playing occupied attention at the expense
of the music. But it was a truly exciting experience thanks to
both performer and composer.
All of the works in the programme to this point were for solo
oboe. In Sam Hayden’s surface/tension the pianist, Stephen
Robbings joined Chris. As a duo these performers are a gift
to any composer. Structurally, this work constantly oscillates
between statements and episodes with intensely active
display contrasting with static gestures. While this creates a
sense of predictability, the material itself was secure in
its intention to relate the new multiphonic capabilities
of the instrument to spectral analysis of their intervallic
frequencies.
Each of the works had something distinctive to say about the
new oboe. However, one important feature was missing. In
responding to the need to demonstrate the instrument’s new
features the essential warmth of expression in the oboe’s
very nature was overlooked. The new instrument actually
extends this characteristic. Questions have come my way in
recent months regarding the suitability of the new instrument
for the more standard repertoire. Having heard Chris playing
Bach with beauty of tone and magically flowing phrasing
on the instrument I can answer in the strongest affirmative.
It is ideal for all oboe music.
Edwin Roxburgh
35
Notices
24th–26th May: Oboe Extravaganza with tutors:
Andrew Knights, Ian Clarke.
Andrew Knights helps participants with everything from reeds to practice routines
and warm-ups to new ideas for help with articulation. There will be ensemble
sessions and opportunities to work with pianist Ian Clarke on preparing solo
repertoire as well as helpful discussion sessions. Players of oboe d’amore and
cor anglais are just as welcome. Resident: £240 Non-resident: £195
Telephone: 01462 459446 www.benslowmusic.org
Monday 3rd June, 1.00pm Symphony Hall, Birmingham:
lunchtime oboe and organ concert.
In a special international partnership, Thomas Trotter is joined by Celia Craig,
Principal Oboe of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. Programme includes
Marcello’s Concerto in D minor and Britten’s Six Metamorphoses after Ovid.
Box Office: 0121 345 0600 www.thsh.co.uk
Thursday 6th June, 7.30pm: the final concert of
Bledington Music Festival.
St Leonard’s Church, Bledington, Oxfordshire OX7 6XD.
Artists and programme details as for 3rd June (above)
www.bledingtonmusicfestival.co.uk
14th–16th June: From Reed to Recital –
an intermediate to advanced level Bassoon Course
with tutors Robert Codd and Maria Mealey.
Jackdaws Music Education Trust: 01373 812383
www.jackdaws.org.uk
21st–23rd June: The Camden Wind Ensemble Course
with tutors, Simon de Souza and friends. Simon de
Souza spearheads another Camden Wind Ensemble
course, so named in honour of bassoonist Kerry
Camden who led it for many years. You should be an
experienced sight-reader. Please note that this course
is designed for individual applicants.
Resident: £240 Non-resident: £195
Telephone: 01462 459446 www.benslowmusic.org
Sunday 23rd June: Gloucestershire Double Reed Day
10.00am to 7.00pm
at Pates Grammar School, Cheltenham GL51 0HG.
The masterclasses will be taken by Meyrick Alexander
(bassoon) and Murray Johnston (oboe).
Full details from www.glosdrd.org.uk
36
27th July–3rd August: Aberystwyth Music Festival
and International Summer School;
structured chamber music opportunities and coaching.
The 2013 Festival will include a brand new bassoon course
tutored by Meyrick Alexander; the course is aimed at bassoon
players of all ages and who are at least Grade 6 but
preferably of college standard. Further details from
Amy Lockwood, email [email protected]
3rd–10th August 2013: ‘Malvern Winds’ chamber music course
in a lovely setting for players of (minimum) grade 6 to diploma
standard. Tutors: Lynda Coffin (flute), Roy Carter (oboe),
Sarah Watts (clarinet), Laurence Perkins (bassoon), Anneke Scott
(horn). Repertoire will include Mozart’s wind chamber music,
plus works by Danzi, Poulenc and Hindemith.
Information from: www.cuillinsoundmusic.co.uk
24th–31st August: ‘Cubertou’ Wind Chamber Music Course
for advanced amateur players in a delightful French rustic setting.
Promoted by Beauville Arts – information and booking details on their
website www.beauvillearts.com/wind-chamber-music-cubertou
1st–7th September: ‘Elementary Cubertou’ chamber music course
(grades 3-7) in the south of France, promoted by Cubertou SARL;
information and booking details on their website
www.cubertou.com/courses/elementary-wind-chamber-music
26th–27th October 2013: Wind Serenades – ‘The Birnam Experience!’
A two-day course at the Birnam Institute, Birnam, Perthshire. Course
tutors: Laurence Perkins (bassoon) and Lynda Coffin (flute). Now in its
12th year, this popular course offers small and large wind chamber
ensemble playing, leading to an informal free-admission concert on
Sunday afternoon, all in the excellent surroundings of the Birnam
Institute, in the heart of ‘Macbeth’ country in beautiful Perthshire.
Details and on-line application form at www.windserenades.co.uk
37
Classified
Bassoonists! Free your hands and neck and use a spike.
Tel: 01206 382567.
Bassoon and Contra Servicing and Repair.
Ian White. www.ianwhiteww.co.uk Tel: 01865 873709 (Oxford).
Profiler and Gouge Blades Re-sharpened.
Prompt service. Tony Spicer Tel: 01903 892098 Email: [email protected]
Buffet-Crampton, Artist Oboe good condition, £475.
Tel: 01805 603656 or [email protected]
Oboe Lessons and Consultations: every beginner can produce a Beautiful Tone!
Breathing, Embouchure, Tonguing, Stamina; Adjustment, Tuning; Reeds;
Phrasing, Ornamentation; Cor Anglais; Relaxation.
Widely experienced performer and teacher, Graham Salter (ex-ROH, RSNO, DRN).
Tel: 07976 830309 or Email: [email protected]
Billerbeck Oboe Reeds Quality bespoke oboe, cor anglais and oboe d'amore reeds.
Crafted by Marjorie Downward.
Tel: 01343 835430 www.billerbeckoboereeds.co.uk
For Sale lots of 2nd hand Oboe and Piano, chamber music, etc.
If you're looking for a piece of music - contact Marjorie Downward.
Tel: 01343 835430 or Email: [email protected]
Howarth S2 Oboe early 1980s. In very good condition.
Factory fitted with 3rd octave key, extra RH G sharp key and
covered RH first finger plate. Blows very well. £1,400 ono.
Contact: [email protected] or tel/text: 07973 744817.
Strasser Marigaux 801 for sale. Dual system with 3rd octave in original hard case.
Free blowing typical dark Marigaux sound. Excellent condition recently professionally
serviced. £1,895 ono. Contact: +44 (0)20 8459 5966 or [email protected]
Reviewed in this edition of Double Reed News ‘KEYS TO SUCCESS’
are new and fun books written for Oboe/Saxophone, Flute and Clarinet. They use
duets to encourage pupils to play fluently in all keys to Grade 3 standard and beyond.
More details at www.wigginspublishing.co.uk
Gloucestershire Double Reed Day 2013 will be held on 23rd June at Pates Grammar
School, Cheltenham. The Masters this year are Sandy Johnston and Meyrick Alexander
from RWCMD giving us a Welsh theme. Please visit www.glosdrd.org.uk for details
and an application form. Come and join us – everyone is welcome.
38
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TERMS AND CONDITIONS. The society reserves the right to refuse or withdraw any advertisement at its
discretion wihout stating a reason, nor does it accept responsibility for omissions, clerical errors, or the
statements made by advertisers, although every effort is made to check the bona fides of advertisers and
avoid mistakes. The Society welcomes articles, letters and other contributions for publication in this
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obtained before any part of the publication is stored in a retrieval system. The Society’s membership list
is held on a database. The policy adopted by the Society is that the list will not be disclosed to any
third party and is maintained solely for the purposes of administering the Society. The individual name
and address of any member who is on the Teachers’ Register may be given in answer to a query from
someone wishing to take up music lessons. Any organisation wishing to circulate the membership is
free to ask to place an advertisement in Double Reed News or make a leaflet insertion in the next issue
on payment of an appropriate fee.
Allianz Musical Insurance
6 Vale Avenue, Tunbridge Wells, Kent TN1 1EH
0870 240 0303
The Double Reed Store
22 Glynrhondda Street, Cathays, Cardiff CF24 4AN
02921 251251
www.doublereedstore.co.uk
The British Double Reed Society is a non
profit-making organisation established to
further the interests of all involved with the
oboe and bassoon.
The BDRS acts as a national forum for debate
and the exchange of ideas, information and
advice on all aspects of double reed
instruments.
It also fulfils an important role in encouraging
greater interest in the instruments, and
securing their place in the wider cultural
and educational environment.
Registered Charity No. 1080461
39
Index to Advertisers
Markus Bucher Profilers ............................................................................................................ 13
Paul Carrington ......................................................................................................................... 16
David Cowdy ............................................................................................................................ 16
Double Reed Ltd. ........................................................................................................................ 6
Forton Music ............................................................................................................................. 31
Pete Haseler/Gregson Knives ..................................................................................................... 16
Howarth London ................................................................................................ Inside front cover
K.Ge Reeds ................................................................................................................................. 3
F. Lorée .............................................................................................................. Inside back cover
Andrew May ............................................................................................................................. 31
Oboereedsdirect ........................................................................................................................ 16
Püchner/Jonathan Small/Simmonds Music/Howarth London/Graham Salvage ........................... 19
Jessica Rance ............................................................................................................................. 13
Simmonds Music ............................................................................................ Outside back cover
Torda Reeds .............................................................................................................................. 16
Ian White .................................................................................................................................. 16
Wonderful Winds ...................................................................................................................... 16
Woodwind & Co. ...................................................................................................................... 13
40
Reed on
When it comes to double reed instruments, especially
bassoons, take a good look at Simmonds Music.
You’ll be blown away.
It’s taken years of professional dedication to make Simmonds Music
into one of the leading names in the field of bassoon and other
double reed instruments. Here is a treasure trove of some of the
best known manufacturers of such instruments and their
accessories; well-known names such as Fox, Renard, Püchner
and Yamaha. In fact they offer one of the most comprehensive
ranges of double reed instrument products in the country.
When you add to that a vast store of expertise and
knowledge, you can see why this is somewhere very special
to visit on your musical journey.
There are also practice rooms and a recording studio to
polish and save your talent, which along with tuition
in a vast range of musical instruments only goes to
make Simmonds Music such a top performer.
If you like getting lost in your music, then this is
the place where you’ll never want to escape
from.
8 & 9 Westgate, Grantham, Lincs. NG31 6LT
Tel: 01476 57 07 00
Three floors of musical experiences
await the hungry musician.
E-Mail: [email protected]
Web Site: www.simmondsmusic.com

Double Reed 75.qxd - British Double Reed Society

Transcription

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