The magazine of the British Double Reed Society

Transcription

The magazine of the British Double Reed Society
“
Words from
our Chairman
Robert Codd
In this Issue...
3 Chairman’s Comments
”
‘So, what is BDRS? What is it for?’ Questions I have been asked several times over
the last five years. (I have had similar queries, especially about bassoon playing,
over the last fifty years!) A glance at the Constitution will tell us that the Society’s
objects are ‘To encourage, promote and foster interest, education, study,
development and participation in the art of music and music making in all its
aspects, involving double reed instruments’.
I very much hope that we meet many of these aspirations but the ‘art of music’ is of
course much more than recitals, masterclasses and lessons; music is a great
communicator, crossing national and linguistic borders and a true bringer-together
of people. Anyone who has experienced a Convention ‘Mass Play-in’ will know
what I mean; ages ranging from 7 to 77 – those bracing themselves for grade 1
sitting next to those who can dimly remember grade 8 – and a staggering array of
abilities and talents: MI6, dentists, police officers – this band could tackle any
emergency, and frequently does! Playing is also a great leveller. Everyone is equal
when wrestling with two blades of Mediterranean marsh weed, or when confronted
by that sobering four-letter word ’solo’.
BDRS does truly represent a cross section (very cross at times). I used to know a
music librarian – quiet, scholarly and solemn – who admitted sotto voce that he got
his kicks from free-climbing in Snowdonia or hurtling around mountain roads in the
middle of the night on a massively powerful motorbike. If, every day you are
hanging on to the walls of a recording studio or being thrust along by a huge
machine seemingly out of control, then you might long for the excitement of
cataloguing the baryton trios of Haydn or copying out all six harp parts of The Ring.
Robert Codd
4 Editorial
Clive Fairbairn
6 Reports & News
7 Obituaries:
Mary Mobbs
Ronald Klimko
9 Dresden and its Forgotten
Oboe and Bassoon Concertos
David Sogg
18 A Little Light Music
Tom Lambert and Emma Palmer
20 Bassonicus:
Cracking the Dress Code
Jefferey Cox
22 Composers’ Forum
Gonçalo Gato
24 Made in England:
the Soulsby Bassoons
Graham Sheen
27 Debussy for Oboe!
Edwin Roxburgh
29 In Conversation: John Schroder
The fascinating symbiotic relationship between ‘professional’ and ‘non-professional’
musicians has been brought home to me very forcibly by the recent loss of two
close friends who did much to forge such links. Both will be sorely missed. The
first was Mary Mobbs, a fine pianist and singer who excelled at many things,
including painting harpsichords and playing the bassoon. I remember the first time
I met her at Jackdaws; arriving on a Friday evening, after a gruelling week of
contemporary music, the impact was immediate. It was not just the beautiful
location and the excellent food – though they helped – but the interest, enthusiasm,
humour and shared knowledge that Mary and her colleagues brought to the event
that was so inspiring. I learned a lot from that course, and even did some practice!
The second was Dr. Eric Roseberry, former BBC producer, musicologist and
organist who passed away at the end of February. He had created an extraordinary
event, ‘Bach at Marshfield’ where, every year just before Christmas, the entire
population for miles around, would pack the
parish church to sing, listen, or warm up
mulled wine and mince pies. The
performances were excellent and the
atmosphere quite intoxicating – truly a
‘melting pot’ of musicians. The scene could
have come straight from Thomas Hardy.
Karen O’Connor
33 Reviews
Geoffrey Burgess, Nicola Fairbairn
Helena Gaunt, Jenny Hopkins
Sarah McClure
39 Noticeboard
40 Classified
41 Advertising, Membership, etc
Insert: Três Formas
Gonçalo Gato
‘But, what does all this have to do with the
BDRS?’ Double-reeders are totally involved
in events such as these and the BDRS fully
supports, promotes and encourages all
participants in ‘the art of music’ – hardened
professionals, absolute beginners, harpsichord
painters, kamakaze motorcyclists, and even
traffic police.
Double Reed News 99 l Summer 2012
3
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]
SHOCK, HORROR!
Did I get your attention? I certainly intended to: this is a serious matter.
You have known for a long time that both the oboe and bassoon
are on the ‘endangered list’ (along with double bass, French horn,
tuba/euphonium and, perhaps surprisingly, trombone): there are not
enough young people taking up these instruments, not enough
applying to colleges, not enough taking part in musical life at all levels.
The reasons? Most would say they are many and complex yet well
understood. But what would you feel if you discovered that ‘out there’,
ie in the readily available public domain (books, internet, etc) there is
advice which actively discourages the idea of taking up the oboe?
Advice which is even targeted at parents, most of whom would be
unlikely to have special knowledge; advice which purports to come
from recognised authorities – advice even from a professional music
educator!
And the source of this advice? A book called ‘The Right Instrument for
Your Child’. But this is not a new book: it has been ‘out there’ for many
years. And it’s principal author is Atarah Ben-Tovim, a highly respected
teacher and flautist.
Committee
Ian Crowther, Sarah Francis
Christine Griggs, Barbara Lake
Robert Tilley, (Ian Finn ex officio)
Membership
Let us quote a little from the book: ‘In the hands of an outstanding
professional musician… the oboe can sound exquisite. Played by most
children who are learning, the sound is unpleasant and rasping… If
your child is thinking about playing the oboe… there is only one word
of advice: Don't!’
[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
4
On physical suitability: ‘The aperture between the two pieces of reed is
so tight that the player has to force the breath through. Children may
experience headaches from the back pressure which this causes, even
in a healthy teenager.’
On mentality: ‘The oboe is not for generous extroverts: determined,
tight-lipped, stubborn children do best.’
We will be approaching the authors to give them the opportunity to
respond. Meanwhile we would like to hear the views of members who
have had experience of parental resistance that could have resulted
from such advice; also from those who are working hard as teachers to
lift oboe and bassoon out of the ‘endangered’ category, eg on the many
‘Wider Opportunities’ programmes. Watch this space!
Apology
Apologies to Erin Gilson, Miami University art student:
Erin was responsible for the intricate drawings that accompanied the
article ‘On the Road to a Rapid Staccato’ in the last issue of DRN
written by Andrea Ridilla; but it was not acknowledged.
Thanks are therefore overdue to Erin for this invaluable contribution.
'l11»W.
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Double Reed News 99 I Summer 2012
si
Reports and News
Nicholas Daniel Awarded Queen’s Medal
for Music 2012
Photo: Hanya Chlala
major influence on the musical life of the
nation. Nicholas Daniel will be presented
with the award by The Queen at an
audience later this year. An informal
announcement was made by Sir Peter
Maxwell Davies on 29th January at
a performance at King’s College
Cambridge in which Mr Daniel was
taking part. He is the seventh winner of
this award.
Nicholas Daniel
Oboist Nicholas Daniel – one of the
founding members of the Cambridgebased Britten Sinfonia chamber orchestra
– is to follow in the footsteps of Bryn
Terfel, Sir Colin Davis and Dame Emma
Kirkby and be presented with the medal
by Her Majesty the Queen.
The prize, established in 2005, is
awarded to an outstanding individual or
group of musicians who have had a
Nicholas Daniel said, ‘I feel deeply
honoured and truly delighted to receive
The Queen’s Medal for Music in this
exciting year for Great Britain. As a
performer, my job is to serve the
composers I perform as best I can, so to
have my vocation acknowledged in this
way is really wonderful. As a solo oboist,
chamber musician, conductor and
teacher I have been extremely privileged
to have worked, and to continue to work,
with so many great musicians.’
Sir Peter Maxwell Davies said, ‘I am
delighted to announce Nicholas Daniel as
the recipient of this year’s Award. I can’t
think of a more deserving person, given
his reputation not only as one of our most
highly regarded oboists but also a leading
ambassador for the musical life of the
nation. Many people know Nicholas
as a passionate advocate of baroque and
nineteenth-century music but he has
also proved a driving force behind new
repertoire for his instrument. Long may
he continue to spread his passion and
knowledge for music throughout Great
Britain and beyond.’
Nicholas Daniel, who has just turned 50,
said he was ‘absolutely shocked’ to
receive a call from Sir Peter, who told
him that this year it was his turn to win
the sought-after prize only established
in 2005.
‘Hundreds of composers have written
especially for me which has given the
oboe and British composers a whole new
repertoire, and we (Britten Sinfonia)
always take British music with us
wherever we go.’
Close friend, solo percussionist Evelyn
Glennie said she was thrilled for him to
receive such a well-deserved honour:
‘For several decades Nicholas has been at
the cutting edge of contemporary music
on a worldwide scale through his tireless
dedication to the commissioning and
promotion of new music.’
BDRS Confers Honorary Membership on Jeremy Soulsby
Jeremy Soulsby, the renowned maker of
British bassoons for two decades, has
been awarded Honorary Membership of
the British Double Reed Society. He joins
conductor Mark Elder (bassoon) in a
select and distinguished group which also
included, until his death last year, the
conductor Charles Mackerras (oboe).
Jeremy Soulsby recently retired from
bassoon making. For an account of his
contribution to double reed instrument
making, see the article – Made in
England: the Soulsby Bassoons,
written by Graham Sheen – on page 24.
Double Reed Teen Camp:
Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, USA
In collaboration with its 2012 Conference
(July 6-9), the IDRS is organising a
Double Reed Teen Camp. ‘Participants
will be able to work one-on-one with the
6
best oboe/bassoon performers/teachers in
the world at the 41st Annual Double
Reed Society Conference and will have
access to all sessions/exhibits within the
conference. Special opportunities
for the camp will include workshops,
masterclasses and ensembles.’ Check out
www.idrs2012.com for more information.
Obituaries
Mary Jeanette Mobbs (née Randall):
3rd September 1925 to 4th February 2012
contributed by Kenneth Mobbs.
Mary Mobbs was born into a
music-loving family in Bournville,
Birmingham. Her father was
employed by the firm of Cadbury
and he was also a good amateur
cellist. Some definite artistic talent
showed itself on her mother's side
of the family.
and an enthusiastic member of a
local piano group. She even wrote
an article for DRN about her
unique and ingeniously
constructed bassoon support,
which still makes entertaining
and fascinating reading
(DRN11, page 14).
Mary became a multi-talented
musician and artist. Having
trained initially as a teacher, she
graduated from the University of
Birmingham in 1945 with a BA
degree. In 1956 she qualified as a
piano teacher with an LRAM
diploma.
Having built up, with her husband
Kenneth, a nationally-known
collection of early keyboard
instruments, she retired from
Bristol University in 1983. Almost
immediately she then embarked
on a new career as a harpsichord
soundboard painter. Within a year
she found her work exhibited at
the International Early Keyboard
Exhibition in Bruges. This led to
further commissions from
harpsichord builders, and she
became an expert on the trends in
soundboard-painting design in the
baroque period.
Having taught music in various
schools in the late 1940s and
early 1950s, she came to the
University of Bristol, initially
working in the Physics
Department making high-altitude
balloons for Professor Powell's
cosmic ray research for which he
was later awarded the Nobel
Prize. She then moved to the Office of
the Registrar, where she became Head of
the Enquiry Office and, eventually,
Administrative Assistant to the Registrar.
Portrait of Mary Randall by Kenneth Mobbs, 1979
This new career continued until
the early 2000s, resulting in twenty-six
soundboard paintings, before Mary was
diagnosed as suffering from Multi-Systems
Dystrophy, a form of Parkinson's Disease,
which unfortunately immediately affected
her hand-control. Consequently, she
found it more and more difficult to play
the bassoon, so she started to learn the
oboe, but unfortunately the illness soon
prevented her from continuing with this.
Always passionate about Nature, she
supported numerous animal charities and
enjoyed bird watching by recording in
detail what was happening in her garden
and by taking part in RSPB events.
Most of her spare time was taken up with
her beloved music. She sang and acted
for Bristol Opera, a progressive amateur
company specialising in lesser-known
works well worth reviving. She started
learning the bassoon in her mid-thirties
and was soon playing in university
orchestras, at Bristol Music Club, in
private wind trios and later, when she
retired from singing, Principal Bassoon in
the Bristol Opera Orchestra itself. She
was a regular participant in the wind
courses organised by Sarah Francis and
Robert Codd at Jackdaws in Somerset,
After enduring several years of complete
incapacity she died peacefully in her
sleep. The many tributes received all
spoke of her friendliness, humanity and
warmth. She will be greatly missed and
fondly remembered. She is survived by
her husband, Kenneth, nephew Robert
and three step daughters.
Mary Mobbs painting the harpsichord
soundboard of the Goble 1991
harpsichord after Fleischer, 1716,
now in the University of Bristol's
Music Department
A Celebration Charity Concert in
remembrance of Mary will take place
at 3pm on June 17th at Bristol Music
Club: 76, St. Paul's Road, Clifton,
Bristol BS8 1LP.
7
Ronald Klimko: died 18th March 2012
contributed by Dan Stolper.
It is with much sadness that we announce
the death of Ron Klimko, the Bassoon
Editor of the Journal and Double Reed
magazines of the International Double
Reed Society for more than 30 years.
He died suddenly on 18th March aged 75
in McCall, Idaho USA. A bassoonist,
teacher and composer, Ron was an
instrumental part of the International
Double Reed Society family and will be
sorely missed. He was Professor of Music
(bassoon) at the University of Idaho from
1967 to 1999. He and his wife retired to
McCall in 2003.
There will be a musical celebration of his
life on 14th July, at the Haddock Concert
Hall on the UI campus. The family
requests donations in lieu of flowers to
the Ronald J. Klimko Memorial
Scholarship Fund, University of Idaho
Foundation, P O Box 444015, Moscow,
ID 83844-4015 USA. Condolences to
C. Klimko, P O Box 441, McCall,
ID 83638 USA.
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8
Dresden and its Forgotten
by David Sogg, co-Principal Bassoon of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. This article, written as a result of his
sabbatical from the Orchestra which was spent in Dresden, first appeared in a recent edition of The Double Reed,
the journal of the IDRS, and is reprinted here by kind permission.
Musicians and music lovers today are
likely to associate Dresden with the
Romantic era: it brought Clara and Robert
Schumann together, Wagner went there to
produce his early successes, and it was
the site of so many Richard Strauss
premieres. But some three centuries ago,
the city was also the centre of a wheel
whose spokes brought music, musical
styles, and musicians from all over
Europe. The Hofkapelle, or Court
Orchestra, at the court of Augustus the
Strong, Elector of Saxony and King of
Poland, was made up of musiciancomposers from throughout the continent
who wrote, collected, and played the
music of their homelands. This
confluence of talent led to a synthesis
of styles that we now refer to as late
Baroque. The Court employed the
musicians and their head, the
Kapellmeister, and expected new music
for concerts, festivities, church services,
and the opera house.
had gathered an enormous collection of
scores of instrumental music during his
wide travels. This collection, along with
other music, was eventually placed in a
library in the Katholische Hofkirche
(Catholic Court Church) that came to be
known as Schranck No.II, or Cabinet 2.
The collection survives today largely
intact in the successor library, the Saxony
State and University Library. Among the
nearly 1600 scores are a number of
concertos for oboe and bassoon, either as
solo or in small solo groups. I have been
spending my sabbatical from the
Pittsburgh Symphony examining many of
these concertos, working on a project to
edit and publish them, and preparing to
perform some of them.
Music at court in the
Augustian Age
The so-called Augustinian Age was a
glorious time for Saxony. Frederick
Augustus I, also known (confusingly) as
Augustus II ‘The Strong’ (1670-1733),
One key figure in the orchestra,
spent part of his youth in Paris and
concertmaster Johann Georg Pisendel,
Versailles, and returned
to the capital of Saxony,
Dresden determined to
build a court to rival
those of France. His
palaces and other
baroque edifices became
the jewels of one of the
most beautiful cities in
the world. (Many have
been – and continue to
be – re-built since their
destruction during the
bombing of Dresden
during World War II.)
In a period sometimes
known as the ‘SaxonPolish Union,’ Augustus
was both Prince-Elector
of Saxony (a leader with
official power to
participate in the
election of the Holy
August II ‘The Strong’ and August III, from the Procession of Roman Emperor) and
Princes, a 100-metre-long porcelain tile mural in Dresden King of Poland.
Katholische Hofkirche, first home of
Schrank II, and a major landmark of the
Dresden skyline
In addition to commissioning magnificent
architecture, he was a collector of other
visual art and a great patron of music.
He was also known for hosting lavish
and lengthy celebrations of weddings,
birthdays and the like. His amazing art
collections are on view in the Dresden
museums in his former palaces. However,
a large portion of the music written for
the Augustinian Court – spanning the
reign of Augustus II and his son who died
in 1763 – remains unheard.
The musical manuscripts collected by
the Court musicians were meticulously
catalogued in the 1760s and placed in
a large cabinet that no longer exists.
Schrank II (to use the modern spelling)
was housed in the Hofkirche, and later in
the Königliche Öffentliche Bibliothek or
Royal Public Library.
With the demise of the monarchy in
1918, things royal became things state:
the Royal Library became known as the
Saxony State Library and, in recent years,
it merged with the University Library at
the Technical University of Dresden.
9
Japanisches Palais in Dresden, which housed the Royal Public Library for many years
The manuscripts are now in the modern
Sächsische Landesbibliothek Staats und
Universitätsbibliothek (SLUB).
The collection is being organised and
catalogued on an ongoing basis as part of
a research project funded by the German
Research Foundation (DFG). Another
group, the Institut zur Erforschung und
Erschließung der Alten Musik in
Dresden (the Institute for Research and
Dissemination of Early Music in Dresden),
affiliated with the Technical University
of Dresden and led by musicologists
Dr. Reiner Zimmermann and Professor
Hans-Günter Ottenberg, is preparing
critical editions of selected pieces from the
collection. These editions are intended to
meet the highest musicological standards,
as well as to be of ready practical use for
the performer. They will be published
online and will be free of charge (insofar
as the convoluted German copyright law
allows) for musicians to play. This project,
which I am assisting, is supported
financially in part by the family of
Margret and Dr. Claus-Dieter Heinze.
Schrank II contains manuscripts that were
used at the Court as performance
material, and others that were collected
by Pisendel and his colleagues but not
necessarily performed. A good indication
of whether a piece was performed is
whether there is a set of parts. It was not
until well after the Baroque that music
was routinely published, with printed
scores and parts. Many individual works
in the Cabinet are found there in two
forms: a handwritten full score, either by
the composer (an autograph) or by a staff
copyist, and a set of handwritten parts by
a copyist. Sometimes there is a set of
parts and no score (which leads one to
wonder what original the copyist was
working from). Sometimes one finds two
scores of the same work: an autograph
and one by a copyist. But the bulk of the
works in the collection are full scores
with no parts, and were thus probably not
performed.
The music of Schrank II has not exactly
languished unknown and undiscovered
through the centuries, but it attracted
relatively little interest. Now and then,
someone would look through it, copy
out a piece and perform it. This even
occurred on rare occasions in the
nineteenth century, an age not known for
baroque revivals. For a variety of reasons,
the music of Schrank II is now gaining a
lot of attention: we are in the midst of a
long-term resurgence of interest in
baroque music; those of us who play
instruments with relatively limited
repertoire are always on the lookout
for new things to play; and modern
technology makes neglected music of the
past more readily available. In addition,
musicologists, proud of their local
heritage, hope to disseminate the works
to a broader audience in a scholarly,
responsible way.
Musical influences on
and from Dresden
Sächsische Landesbibliothek Staats und Universitätsbibliothek (SLUB), with its sea of
skylights over the lower level reading room and current home of the Schrank II scores
10
The Staatskapelle Dresden is the world’s
oldest continuing orchestra. It was
founded by Maurice, Elector of Saxony in
1548. By the time of Augustus the Strong,
it was renowned as one of the finest, and
best paid, orchestras in existence.
Augustus made a point of bringing in
musicians from all over Europe, and also
sending them outward to spread the glory
of Dresden’s music throughout the
continent. The concertmaster was the
French-trained Flemish Jean-Baptiste
Woulmyer. He was succeeded by
Pisendel, who had studied with both
Torelli and Vivaldi, and who is credited
with the introduction of uniform bowings
for string players. The Hofkapelle was
one of the earliest orchestras to include
a full complement of wind players,
including flautists and horn players.
A dozen different bassoonists are known
to have served for various lengths of time
in the first half of the eighteenth century.
Bassoonists and oboists from both
Germany and France were engaged.
Perhaps the most important foreign
influence on music in Dresden came
from Italy, primarily from Vivaldi. In fact,
well over 100 of the Venetian master's
works are found in Schrank II, mostly
copies made by Pisendel himself during
his travels. From its earliest days, Italian
musicians formed a large part of the
Hofkapelle, a tradition which can be
traced through the centuries to current
times when Fabio Luisi recently finished
his tenure as Chief Conductor. During the
late Baroque, Italian opera was all the
rage at the court of Augustus. His son,
Crown Prince Frederick Augustus (the
future Elector Frederick Augustus II of
Saxony and King Augustus III of Poland),
had spent time in Italy and was a great
fan of the art form. Under his influence,
Antonio Lotti was brought to Dresden
from Venice to run the opera. German
composers, most notably Kapellmeister
Johann Adolph Hasse, wrote many operas
in the Italian style. Through connections
such as Pisendel, Johann Sebastian Bach,
who often travelled to Dresden, got to
know the music of Vivaldi and even
made transcriptions of a number of the
Italian’s works. The influence of Vivaldi’s
style, particularly in the concerto form,
was thus both profound and widely
disseminated throughout Europe.
The first page of Reichenauer’s autograph score of his Bassoon Concerto in F, from the SLUB
In addition to French and Italian
musicians, Bohemian musicians were
also prominent in Dresden. When the
court orchestra of Count Morzin in
Prague was dissolved upon the Count’s
death in 1737, several of his musicians
migrated to Dresden. Among them were
v
Frantisek Jiránek, who composed several
bassoon concertos. Jan Dismas Zelenka
spent the second half of his life there as a
leading figure in the musical scene.
Through these prominent individuals, it is
possible that the music of Jan Antonin
Reichenauer made it to Dresden, though
it is not known whether he himself ever
travelled there. Though an organist,
Reichenauer nonetheless wrote quite a
few works for oboe and bassoon now
housed in Schrank II.
As King of Poland, Augustus II
understandably spent considerable time
in Warsaw, some 600 kilometres from
Dresden, where he also established a
court orchestra. Upon his death, that
orchestra was dissolved and some of the
Warsaw musicians came to Dresden,
including not only composer Giovanni
Alberto Ristori, but also a bassoonist and
a violinist. The following year, Augustus
III started his own small orchestra and a
few musicians then in Dresden returned
to Warsaw. This Polish Hofkapelle
regularly supplemented itself with extra
musicians from the Dresden court,
including concertmaster Pisendel, and
from other orchestras. When it was
dissolved for one last time on the death
in 1763 of Augustus III (the final ruler of
the Saxon-Polish Union) many of its
musicians once again found employment
in the Dresden Hofkapelle. Music in the
Polish style made its way all over the
continent through such routes. To
mention only a couple of small examples:
both Augustus II and III danced to
polonaises at their balls, and Bach, who
included a Polacca in his Brandenburg
Concerto No.1, may well trace his
knowledge of the style through the
Dresden hub.
Musical influence extended outward from
the Dresden hub as well. The two Graun
brothers, born in a small Saxon town
outside of Dresden, both studied and
worked there early in their lives. Johann
Gottlieb studied violin and composition
under Pisendel and eventually became
the concertmaster at the Prussian
Hofkapelle of Frederick the Great in
Berlin. Carl Heinrich, a tenor, wrote
especially much vocal music including
oratorios, cantatas and operas, and his
music is closely aligned with the Venetian
tradition that he learned in Dresden
11
before also moving to the Prussian court.
Johann Joachim Quantz studied and
played flute in Dresden for a number of
years before also moving to Berlin.
Dresden Kapellmeister Johann David
Heinichen maintained considerable
personal contact with musical life in
Prague. In an age in which travel meant
enduring uncomfortable, unreliable stage
coaches and terrible roads, this high
degree of cross-fertilisation of musical
ideas was all the more astounding.
he chose five concertos by two German
composers and one Bohemian. The next
volume to be released will contain
several oboe concertos.
Presented below is a brief introduction to
several composers and their works. These
composers are representative of the many
whose work comprises Schrank II, and
whose oboe and bassoon concertos are to
be published by the Institute.
Graun
Of course, this intra-continental musical
exchange would not have been so
welcome, nor had such lasting impact, if
the music itself had not been of such
generally high quality.
from Schrank II
When the Institute conceived the project
to prepare editions of manuscripts for
modern use, it set its goals very high.
Planned are fifty-two volumes of music
dating from approximately 1700 to 1830,
and covering genres from instrumental
chamber music through concertos to
vocal music including opera. The very
first volume of five bassoon concertos is
currently coming to fruition. American
conductor Michael Hurshell, who has
lived in Dresden for many years,
consulted on the choice of the five
specific concertos. Hurshell conducts a
number of orchestras in Germany and
Eastern Europe, and teaches at the
Hochschule für Musik in Dresden. Basing
his selection on quality and practicality,
Many bassoonists know the name of
Johann Gottlieb Graun primarily from a
single publication from the year 1954:
the first printed edition of his Bassoon
Concerto in B flat, edited by Hermann
Töttcher and published by Edition
Sikorski. Töttcher found the manuscript in
the Amalien-Bibliothek in Berlin, which
houses the papers that Graun left upon
his death in Berlin in 1771. In many
respects, this is a work more of the early
Classical period than the late Baroque.
Its opening movement, Allegro moderato,
has a much more extended orchestral
introduction than concertos in the
Vivaldi-influenced style, though it does
not yet have the classical-type exposition
with its associated harmonic structure.
The movement concludes with a 6/4
chord, announcing a cadenza, followed
by a brief orchestral coda. The second
movement, Grazioso, concludes similarly.
The scale of the piece is much broader
than a typical Vivaldi bassoon concerto –
roughly twice as long. The tempo
markings alone show a change from the
near uniform Allegro-Adagio-Allegro
structure of baroque concertos. Johann
Gottlieb was indeed known to
be somewhat of a maverick, and this
concerto seems to point the way forward
rather than to imitate Vivaldi.
There are manuscripts for an Oboe
Concerto in G minor and a Bassoon
Concerto in C in Schrank II, which are
headed with the words ‘del sigr. Graun’
with no indication as to which of the two
Graun brothers wrote them. It is assumed,
and listed in catalogues of Schrank II, that
the composer is Johann Gottlieb.
However, these two works are stylistically
so different from the above-described
B flat major concerto that it is hard to
imagine them being by the same
composer. That is not to imply that they
are by Carl Heinrich Graun. Carl
Heinrich wrote primarily vocal music,
and is represented in Schrank II by many
opera overtures, a very few works of
chamber music and no concertos. Johann
Gottlieb, a violin virtuoso, has dozens of
violin concertos there, as well as other
concertos and sonatas. Graun's oboe and
bassoon concertos in Schrank II are far
shorter than the previously published
bassoon concerto, and in a variety of
other ways are more closely related to the
baroque models. The C major Bassoon
Concerto, for example, is characterised
throughout its outer movements by the
jaunty alternating wide leaps so typical of
Vivaldi's bassoon concertos, whereas the
Bb is lyrical and more scalic throughout.
The C major is indeed more motivically
and less melodically based, primarily in
Figure 1
12
the fast movements. The piece opens w ith
a five-bar near-fanfare in unison (Fig.1 ),
based on octave jumps, before moving on
to anything that could definitely be called
a melody.
cadential 6/4 chord with a fermata near
the end of the movement, providing a
place for an interpolated cadenza by the
soloist. Imported from vocal arias, this
compositional technique suggests that the
soloist should improvise a cadenza only
long enough to be played in one breath,
as a singer would do. The use of
cadenzas was new to instrumental music
in the Baroque, but became the standard
for most concertos of the Classical period
through to Brahms.
Astonishingly, the slow movement of the
concerto opens with a theme (Fig.2)
identical to Mozart's K.191 Bassoon
Concerto, down a half step - the very
theme that Mozart re-used much later as
' Porgi amor' in Le Nozze di Figaro.
light and not profound. The outer
movements are in binary form, both
halves repeated, w ith the harmony
moving to the dominant by the end of the
first half, and back to the tonic in the
second. The music is in a vigorous
'hunting' style, with the oboes playing
like two horns in staccato thirds, fifths
and sixths, though the oboe writing is
probably too high to be played on oboi
da caccia (Fig.4).
The violins act at t imes like timpani,
Some scholars date the C major concerto
w ith a group of works he wrote around
1730, two years before he moved to the
court of Frederick the Great. After this
move, he became the colleague of Carl
Philipp Emanuel Bach, and together they
looked toward a new musical era of
which the B flat major work is an
excellent example.
Figure 2
The parallel, however, is too short to be
anything but a coincidence. This middle
movement is in an unusual key: the
mediant minor (E minor). And like a
number of slow movements in the
Schrank 11 collection, its orchestration is
limited to the soloist with basso continuo.
The finale's main theme echoes the first
movement' s octave outbursts (Fig.3):
Heinichen
Johann David Heinichen (1683- 1729)
served the Court in Dresden as
Kapellmeister for many years. His
Concerto for Two Oboes in F is sparkly,
bouncing between tonic and dominant,
accompanying the oboes in unison and
w ith no bass. In much of the concerto
writing at this time, the solo instrument(s)
double(s) their orchestral counterpart
during tuttis. Here the two oboes double
violins I and 11, even in passages of
semiquaver measured tremolos - not so
effective on the oboe. In the second
movement (Adagio), however, the oboes
are totally independent from violins and
are silent in tuttis. The strings have a
simple melody in crotchets with the
oboes interjecting softly repeated quavers,
and then the roles reverse. The third
movement (Allegro assai) has an
Allegro
etc.
Figure 3
The Oboe Concerto in G
minor is similarly in an
overall choppy, more leaporiented style than the more
forward-looking B flat
concerto; however, as a
piece in a minor key, this
aspect is a bit more
tempered than the nearly
brash style of the C major.
Though barely longer
than the average Vivaldi
concerto, the C major
shows such innovations as a
(AJlegro)
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etc.
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Figure 4
Double R eed News 99 I Sununet· 2012
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Figure 5
especially long opening tutti, and the
hunting-style music is, if anything, more
vigorous than in the first movement. The
finale's theme is a little reminiscent of
Three Blind Mice albeit in the wrong
order (Fig.S).
(Allegro)
bar 16
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H orneck
Figure 6
There is little information about Franz
Horneck, who was born in Frankfurt
sometime between 1690 and 1695, and
who died after 1724 when all traces of
him disappear. He did spend a number
of years studying in Italy, including in
Venice, and he is known to have made
copies of a number of Vivaldi concertos.
He is represented in Schrank 11 by
one bassoon concerto and one violin
concerto. Beyond these, only four other
works by him apparently exist, and they
are spread out in several northern
European libraries.
From what little is known about Horneck,
one can date his E flat Bassoon Concerto
to between 1710 and 1720. In it,
Horneck, nearly a generation younger
than Vivaldi, clearly shows what he
learned from the master, while also
making his own original stylistic
contributions. The overall form is directly
from the tradition, with its fast-slow-fast
movements and alternation of ritornello
and solo sections; however it is half as
long again as a typical Vivaldi bassoon
concerto. The use of sequences is
somewhat less; when they are used the
units are often quite long. Melodic
material, while based on motivic
repetition, has a more expansive, lyrical
breadth that feels organic and unified
throughout a given movement. Most
unusual for the age, there is thematic
unity between the outer movements:
(Vivace)
bar31
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etc.
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Figure 7
Figure 8
the third movement's main theme (Fig.7)
is a rhythmically transformed version of
that in the fi rst (Fig.6).
The bassoon plays a flashy role in the
fast movements, in which Horneck does
not shy away from a profusion of demisemiquaver figurations. Finally, the slow
movement is not an Adagio, but rather a
beautifully melodic C minor Siciliano
(Fig.8).
Reichenauer
Jan Antonin Reichenauer (1694-1730) is
somewhat less of a mystery today than
Horneck, as he left much more music
than his German contemporary. He was
primarily known as a church musician:
Double Reed News 99 I Swruner 2012
the bulk of his oeuvre is sacred music,
though there is a sizable body of
instrumental works. Most of his music
now resides in libraries in Prague and
Dresden. The volume of bassoon music
about to be released by the Institute
contains his concertos in C major,
F major and G minor. Several of his oboe
concertos and two double concertos for
oboe and bassoon are being edited for
possible inclusion in the oboe volume.
Most of these exist in Schrank 11 as
autograph manuscripts.
Of all the music considered here,
Reichenauer's is perhaps the closest in style
to Vivaldi's. The overall scale is the same
for each composer. There is little variation
from a three-movement form of Allegro-
Adagio-Allegro. The overall structure
within a movement is determined by
several alternations of ritornello and solo
sections. The music is made up of simple,
motivic melodies and is characterised by
frequent use of short sequences. Moreover,
he does not stray from the typical tonal
structure where outer movements are in the
same key, while the middle one is in a
related key (quite often in the opposite
major/minor mode).
A more detailed illustration of the
similarities and differences between
Reichenauer’s and Vivaldi’s concertos
might be in order here. To represent
Reichenauer’s works from the collection,
I choose the finale of his C major
Bassoon Concerto. In 136 bars in 3/4
time, there are four ritornelli alternating
with three solo sections. The bassoon
doubles the bass in all ritornelli. In the
first bar and a half, a motive is presented
from which the whole 22-bar opening
ritornello is derived (Fig.9).
The solo bassoon comes in at bar 23
(Fig.11 over) with a new triplet rhythm
(incidentally, just as in the finale of
Mozart's K.191). It plays repeated
staccato, widely-spaced arpeggios –
straight from Vivaldi.
Only after several bars of this does the
soloist play material derived from the
opening motive, but then quickly returns
to the triplet figurations. The virtuosic
material grows in complexity with little
relation to the main theme, until the
second ritornello begins in bar 46. This
is a somewhat truncated repeat in the
dominant of the opening ritornello. In
the second solo, the bassoon continues
in G major with music based on the
opening motive, and quickly breaks down
as before into virtuosic Fortspinnung
(‘spinning forth’) until the third ritornello
(bar 79), only seven measures long, and
now in the relative minor. Solo 3 contains
more flashy material, much of it in
sequences. The movement concludes
Though it appears unlikely that
Reichenauer, in his short life, ever went
to Venice to study with Vivaldi, he
obviously learned the master's style
thoroughly through the pathways
described earlier in this article. And he
chose an excellent master to imitate.
Ristori
Giovanni Alberto Ristori (1692–1753)
worked in both the Polish and Saxon court
orchestras, playing keyboard instruments
and composing a great number of works:
much liturgical music, many operas
(including some of the first opera buffa),
and a smaller amount of instrumental
music. One oboe concerto is known, in
E-flat major. Its four movements, AndanteAllegro Cantabile/Grave-Allegro, ally it to
church sonata structure (slow-fast-slowfast) rather than to the Italian concerto.
The accompaniment for the solo oboe is
an unusually large orchestra, containing
two oboes (which only play in tutti
Figure 9
By bar 12 (Fig.10 below), the theme has
broken down into a simple scale that is
repeated sequentially, once per bar, for
the next five bars.
with ritornello 4 (bar 114); an exact
repeat of ritornello 1. At crotchet = 108,
the movement should take about five
minutes to play.
sections, doubling the violins), a bassoon
(doubling the bass line in tutti passages),
and separate parts for bass and for organ
continuo.
Figure 10
15
etc.
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Figure 11
The fi rst movement is stately and
melodic. Ending as it does with a fermata
on a dominant chord, it serves as an
introduction to the Allegro second
movement. Unusually for a fast
movement, a cantabile melody dominates
in a lilting 2/4. The C minor third
movement is a poignantly beautiful
meandering oboe melody worthy of the
best of Bach's oboe writing (Fig. 12):
Peformances from Schrank 11
No single article can even briefly survey
all of the composers represented in
Schrank 11 who wrote concertos featuri ng
double reed instruments. lt would have to
include discussions of works by Cattaneo,
Dieupart, Elmi, Fasch, Friese, Hoffmann,
Platti, Poste!, Sammartini, Schiassi,
Seyffert, Stolzel, Telemann, and Valentini.
lt is a fitting tribute to the artistic legacy
of the Dresden Court that performers
continue to find 'new' old music among
the treasures of Augustus the Strong and
his son. The quality and variety of this
music- from reflections of Vivaldi to
intimations of the Classical stylejustify the attention paid not only by
performers eager for repertoire, but also
by musicologists and historians labouring
Figure 12
The fi nale's oboe line is jaunty, full of
two-octave arpeggios and the big
alternating leaps that one typically sees
in a Vivaldi bassoon concerto (Fig.13):
The Schrank 11 collection is already
attracting contemporary attention. In
addition to the works of Horneck and
Reichenauer that I performed at the 2011
to preserve and promulgate this legacy.
I am pleased to make a small contribution
in both capacities. When today's
Staatskapelle Dresden eventually performs
Figure 13
One can hear echoes of the raucous oboe
accompaniment to the horns in the last
movement of Bach's First Brandenburg
Concerto.
IDRS Conference, selections from the
collection can be heard in some new
record ings, for example, by oboist Xenia
Loffier and bassoonist Sergio Azzolini.
Double Reed News 99 I Swruner 2012
works rediscovered from Schrank 11, a
fond hope of all involved will be realised:
baroque music from the hub that is
Dresden will have come full circle.
Da Vinci Oboes
These ve ry extraordinary oboes recently came to light from a new maker in the far east.
T he price is just £1,455- that's what you might expect to pay for a student oboe, yet Da Vinci
oboes play, sound, and look just like a professional oboe.
The wood used is some of the best I've ever seen. The key work is very well made and not at
all soft or bendy. Every oboe is tested, tuned and adjusted by me. Lwon't supply one that I
wouldn't want to play myself. To hear a recording of one, just go to www .messiter.com. If
you a re interested in trying one, please contact one of the following profession al oboe
playe rs:
Christopher O'Neal [email protected] 07900 55J 186
Stephen Forbcs [email protected] 07917 097860 FORT AY REEDS
Christopher Hooker chrishoboe@ g,mail.com 07973 182922
Malcolm Messiter oboe! @messiter.com 07979 64783 1
A Little Light Music
by Tom Lambert assisted by his daughter, Emma Palmer. Tom, who was an early committee member of BDRS, tells
the story of Gordon Langford’s ‘double concerto’ Reflections, in the context of his own oboe playing experiences.
To celebrate my 30 years with our local
symphony orchestra (and the flautist's
40), I commissioned Gordon Langford to
write a two-movement piece for flute, cor
anglais and strings. Reflections was first
performed in 2007 by us with many of
our friends from the orchestra. After that
first performance, and following many
favourable comments by the audience,
Gordon was inspired to add a third
movement, and it is in this form that it is
now published by Nymet Music of
Crediton, Devon.
My love affair with the oboe started at
school in 1952 when, aged 13, I was
given the opportunity to start learning; I
was already an accomplished recorder
player, so many of the basic musical
elements were already in place. When
my time came for National Service many
of the army bands were advertising for
players. In the 1950s some countries’
orchestras still had a unique sound in
their woodwind and, from the radio, I
found I particularly loved the Berlin oboe
sound.
For that reason I applied to join the
Border Regiment Band (Cumbria), which
was based in Berlin and offering tuition
from well known local players. I was
taught by a player from the Berlin Opera
and my standard of playing soon reflected
this. I also developed a love of both the
cor anglais and the oboe d’amore,
listening to them on the radio or
recordings, stimulating a passion for both
opera and the music of J S Bach.
(Incidentally, it was during my time in the
Army, while based at Barnard Castle, that
I played with the Darlington Orchestra,
and met my wife, Barbara, another
oboist; we celebrated our Golden
Wedding Anniversary last year.)
symphony orchestra. I also began to make
my own reeds.
oboist grandsons, to that enjoyable IDRS
Conference in Birmingham in 2009.
After a few years, when having small
daughters prevented me from playing, I
got back into it when our eldest daughter
was involved with a school musical. After
that, I never looked back. I played in a
wind band, took part in early music
weekends and joined a very good local
The next big boost was membership of
the IDRS, and later, when the BDRS was
formed, I got great pleasure and fulfilment
from the many events that I managed to
attend, and was also on the committee in
the early days. Much, much later, I had
the joy of going, with bassoonist and
I have lived in East Devon for many years
and some time ago Gordon Langford also
moved to the area. From that time he has
supported a number of local musical
groups and events. He is well known to
many of my generation for his composing
and arranging, and as a pianist. He has
18
worked in many genres, including BBC
programmes such as Radio 2’s Friday
Night is Music Night. His arrangements
for brass band are still regularly
performed and he has judged at some of
their competitions. Gordon’s ability to
understand the performers, for whom he
writes, is superb.
Shortly after that first performance in
2007 I suffered a massive stroke; while I
do still play a little, including several
Bach cantatas with Exeter Bach Society
and also with a rehearsal orchestra, I am
unable to play regularly.
It was an absolute joy, therefore, to be
present at Plymouth Pavilions in June
2011 when, as part of BBC Radio 3's
celebration of light music, the wonderful
BBC Concert Orchestra, conducted by
Gavin Sutherland, gave the first
professional performance of the complete
Reflections by Gordon Langford.
To give a flavour of Gordon Langford’s
Reflections, featured are a few extracts
from the score selected by the composer:
1. The opening of the first movement.
2. Bars 32/3 to 47.
3. Part of the second movement.
19
Bassonicus:
Cracking the Dress Code
by Jefferey Cox.
And the Viennese are nothing if not
concerned with appearance!
The Vienna Philharmonic’s annual New
Year’s Day concert is a very special event
in the music calendar. It started as a oneoff in 1939, when it was billed simply
as an ‘ausserordentliches Konzert’
(Extraordinary Concert) and took place
on December 31st. Its purpose was to
remind people – at least in cultural terms
– of the national identity of Austria
following its annexation by Nazi
Germany. It did so by making its focus
the music of the Strauss family (although
this first concert was entirely given over
to music by Johann Strauss II) thus
drawing on a cultural phenomenon seen
as uniquely Austrian, democratic and
accessible to all. This was music as
far removed as it could be from the
militaristic and hegemonistic cults
of the Third Reich.
Such is now the exclusivity of the event
that, to have any hope of obtaining a
ticket to the concert, you must own a
season’s ‘abonnement’ (a reserved seat to
a series of concerts); and those which
include the New Year’s Day concert are
pearls of such price that they are kept in
the family and passed from one
generation to another! There are a small
number of tickets available each year, but
do not bother to apply unless your name
is in the Almanac de Gotha, you’re
royalty, a senior Ambassador, or someone
who is of clear on-going usefulness to the
Austrian State and needs flattering!
That, at least, was the stated purpose. But
it has not turned out quite that way. Like
many things which have had their origins
in Vienna, the innate conservatism of the
capital, its self-consciously aristocratic
past and (not to mince words) its
snobbery, have gradually transformed a
manifestation of democracy into one of
the most exclusive social events in the
year. And the music it features has
become treated with the lapidary
reverence associated with high art.
Come New Year’s Day you would expect
a glittering turn-out, and you would be
right. Were the audience to be taken
hostage and robbed, the takings might
eclipse even the national debt of Greece.
The unspoken dress code would exclude
the wearing of paste by women and
battery-driven wristwatches by the men!
After all, if you’re going to appear on the
television screens of 73 countries
watched by an audience exceeding 50
million, you want to look your best!
20
“
But what about the orchestra? Even
though the concert is a morning affair, the
formality of the occasion would seem to
require white tie and tails, and I would
guess that most of the concerts have
taken place with the performers wearing
white or black tie (just as early BBC radio
presenters were required to put on a
dinner suit before reading the news!).
So you can imagine my surprise when I
switched on the television this January 1st
to find members of the Vienna
Philharmonic wearing single-breasted
blue-grey suits, and the conductor, Maris
Janssons, in similar garb. I had a sudden
and disturbing vision of members of the
orchestra progressing hand in hand, in a
crocodile, towards their local equivalent
of Burton’s and being kitted out with short
trousers and a school cap! I also felt
straightaway that this did not bode well
for the concert. There was an unsettling
sartorial imbalance between performers
and audience and, as the concert
progressed, I began to feel that the
selection of pieces seemed perversely
angled to out-of-the-way versions of
much-loved favourites. Intellectually
recherché and a bit too clever-clever.
But it was that sight of the Vienna Phil in
ill-judged apparel which upset me the
”
... gradually transformed a manifestation of
democracy into one of the most
exclusive social events in the year
most and prompted thoughts about
orchestral dress codes.
Without being able to be specific, I
believe that the adoption of the dinner
suit as the uniform of the male orchestral
musician in this country must have
occurred around the mid-nineteenth
century. It was then (1858) that the first
fully professional British orchestra – the
Hallé – was formed. By that time most
musicians had ceased to be in the service
of a court (where they were often
required to wear the livery of their
employer) and ‘dressing for dinner’ was
increasingly prevalent in the middle class
society which was providing musicians
with most of their work. It was their way
of signalling adherence to a successful
social caste and it was a badge of
respectability. The dinner suit bestowed
on its wearers a certain glamour and
distinction. Some form of musical
entertainment was often a feature of
evenings both out and in, and frequently
provided by the guests themselves. The
line between entertainers and entertained
was often a narrow one, with evening
dress common to both. Perhaps this
explains how it has come about that
performing musicians mostly do so
wearing a suit which is relatively heavy
and constricting, expensive to buy, and a
pain to carry about when not actually
being worn on-stage!
There are probably other reasons, too –
particularly to do with wearing what
amounts to a uniform.
The word ‘uniform’ has somewhat negative
associations – after all it contains the idea
of uniformity, which in turn implies a
boring sameness – the antithesis of artistic
creativity and individual expression. But it
can be taken in another and more positive
way: consider the ‘uniforms’ of a monk, a
barrister, a member of the armed forces, or
a policeman. They all carry connotations
of training, professionalism, discipline,
responsibility, service and dedication –
attributes where the individual is in some
sense submerged in a wider cause
whether it be faith, justice, peace or
social order. Performing musicians inhabit
terrain which is somewhere in the middle
of all this. They could be considered as
initiates or a priestly caste in the sense
that they provide the way to realms
which are otherwise inaccessible to
ordinary mortals; but they do so in a
way which requires them to give up a
measure of individuality and form part
of a team which dresses uniformly and
moves together.
The uniform serves another function:
it signals a sense of occasion and
encourages you to feel that what you are
about to hear is out of the ordinary. The
Vienna Phil in formal dress is (I feel)
somehow quite different from the same
orchestra in Burton suits!
Does this suggest elitism or snobbery?
I do not feel that when I don my DJ to
play in a concert I become a music snob.
I do, however, find that it enhances my
sense of occasion, stimulates the
adrenalin, and often makes me ask myself
why I did not devote more time to
practising some of those tricky passages
dotted through the programme! Putting
on a DJ sometimes reminds me of my
responsibility to my fellow players: I owe
it to them to get things right!
So much for the male performers. The
dress code for women performers is far
more complex, and individual orchestras
and choirs can be very picky, with
directives every bit as binding as Central
Committee edicts! Woe betide the errant
lady who has not read (or misread) the
instructions and turned out in a dress of
the wrong length or wrong sleeve length,
excessive décolleté, inappropriate hair
style, or excessive jewellery! This can be
a minefield, although I would have
thought it sufficient to stipulate that
women should dress so as not to distract
attention from the music they are playing.
Just where you draw that line could make
you as many enemies as friends! It is an
issue which the Vienna Phil has simply
side-stepped by refusing to have women
players amongst its members!
Conductors have, for the most part, been
surprisingly conservative in their dress. I
think I have seen André Previn in a white
Mao-style jacket, and Karajan wearing a
white polo-necked pullover under his
dinner jacket. Zubin Mehta has also
conducted in an adaptation of the Indian
long jacket. But most have stayed with
DJ or tails. Apart from Janssons in his
Burton suit!
So should we stick with the DJ in spite of
its inconveniences and uniformity? I would
say ‘Yes’, both because it works for me
and because I have yet to see any other
combination which serves its purpose
better. And I still savour the moment when
James Bond emerges from the sea in
flippers, mask and wet suit and peels them
off to reveal an immaculate DJ – his entry
ticket to another evening of amorous
high-jinks and fantastical derring-do!
21
Composers’ Forum:
The forum for student composers writing for double reeds in all possible combinations.
In this issue we feature the first pages of
another piece which incorporates oboe
and bassoon, this time with clarinet,
forming the reed wind trio. Several
composers have found this a really
inspiring comdination – works by Darius
Milhaud and Malcolm Arnold quickly
spring to mind. Gonçalo Gato introduces
his work Três Formas (Three Forms), and
as usual members may obtain complete
copies (parts and score) from the
composer should they wish to play
the piece themselves:
contact Gonçalo Gato through his
website – www.goncalogato.com
Gonçalo Gato was born in 1979 in
Lisbon, Portugal. Having gained a Masters
degree in composition (supervised by
professors Christopher Bochmann and
Carlos Caires) from the Universidade de
Évora in 2010, he is now pursuing
doctoral studies at Guildhall School of
Music and Drama in London under the
supervision of Prof. Julian Anderson.
He currently holds a scholarship from
the City of London Corporation and a
doctoral scholarship from Fundação para
a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT, Portugal).
Gonçalo graduated in Chemistry before
devoting himself to music.
He is now active as one of the directors
of the recently formed Nova Orquestra de
Lisboa. Other activities include playing
guitar in a contemporary jazz project.
Gonçalo has been developing an activity
as a teacher of music in various
portuguese institutions including the New
University of Lisbon.
Works include a short Opera called
Mudos (libretto by Vasco Gato) premiered
in the São Luiz Theatre in Lisbon,
Derivação for solo piano, (Wandering) for
alto saxophone and two laptops, and the
orchestral piece Vectorial-modular (2011).
Programme Note
Três Formas for reed trio was born out of
my desire to compose three movements
with different forms and explore
spatialisation. The notion of form in the
piece is united to the idea of musical
discourse. I believe that one could
not exist without the other. The first
movement explores ‘nesting’
as a formal device: within a
certain musical idea, another
musical idea is seeded. That
seed will grow and give
origin to the new section.
In the second movement I
explored formal recurrence:
new sections are introduced
abruptly, then they are
contrasted, recurring
afterwards with variation.
The last movement explores
continuous variation as a
formal device.
Spatialisation is achieved
both statically (when players
stand in particular positions)
and dynamically (when
players move while playing).
My concern was to conceive
changing sound forms in
space, taking the notion
of shape a step further.
Common to all movements
is also a concern with
musical memory. Music
gains coherence when it
is able to create internal
relationships between ideas.
These ideas can be thought
of as signs in what we could
call ‘music semiotics’.
22
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for Piichner 0~, Oboes d'amore
and English horns
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oboes d' amore and
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for Piichner Bassoons and
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[ ________________________________________________________
D_o_u_h_le__R_e_e_d_N_e_,_vs__
99__I_S_u_m_I_n_e_r_2_0_1_
2 ___________2_3~1
Made in England:
the Soulsby Bassoons
Acknowledging the conferring by BDRS of
Honorary Membership on Jeremy Soulsby
In 1990 Graham Sheen wrote an article for DRN about Jeremy Soulsby and his renowned bassoons,
highly favoured amongst many British players. In recent times Jeremy has retired and so, to mark this and his
Honorary Membership, Graham’s article (newly re-edited) is reprinted here. (Photos from the original article.)
First a true story; Mozartwoche 1989.
I was backstage at the Mozarteum in
Salzburg recovering from a performance
of Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante. It was
one of those comparatively rare occasions
on which you feel that things have not
gone too badly, so I was not unduly
perturbed when a distinguished resident
professor of bassoon (a solo recording
artist moreover) entered with a small
roomful of his students. I am pleased to
say that he was complimentary, not I
hasten to add about my playing, but
about my instrument (Soulsby No.26).
Naturally, he wanted to know what it was
and expected me to reply, no doubt, with
a customary serial number, not a maker’s
name. I pointed to the silver lettering on
the bell and then ‘Made in England’. ‘In
England?’ he enquired, and the look he
gave me said, ‘But that is not possible!’
Jeremy Soulsby celebrated a decade of
bassoon making in 1990. With 48
instruments completed and many of them
heard regularly in the country’s leading
orchestras, he could certainly regard
himself as successful. However, Soulsby
bassoons have hitherto remained a
deliberately British phenomenon since
Jeremy wanted to keep a close eye on
their development.
I first met Jeremy at his home in Hereford.
I had at the time no idea how a bassoon
was made and consequently little
knowledge of exactly how it worked.
It is no exaggeration to say that this was
the start of a new phase in my career.
I remember playing the instruments for
some time and then telling him that
I wanted to place an order. With
characteristic modesty he looked puzzled
and I thought he was about to say, ‘But
why?’ As we sat in his workshop at the
back of his house we talked about the
past ten years and examined numbers 49
24
and 50 which had
reached their final stages
of preparation. These
were hand-built
instruments, each one
thoroughly tested and
played for some weeks
before going to its new
owner. But to start at the
beginning I asked what
gave him the idea of
making bassoons.
‘I had been interested
in the making of
instruments since my
schooldays. In fact, I
made some copies of
renaissance instruments
in a very schoolboy
fashion, but it was after I
had begun learning the
bassoon that I realised
that this would be the
most rewarding wind
instrument to make.
At first it seemed like
an impossible ambition
since there was no
tradition in this country
and no-one with whom
I could enter an
apprenticeship. My main
chance I thought would
come through proper
study of the bassoon, and
so I entered the Royal College of Music
in 1967. One would often hear players
regretting the lack of British bassoon
makers, and certainly German-system
instruments had only rarely been made
here. About that time I heard of a dealer
in old instruments who was looking for
someone to do restoration. I obtained the
post and got my first real experience of
instrument making. I worked mainly on
flutes, oboes and clarinets with only the
Jeremy Soulsby ‘drawing’ a crook
occasional bassoon, but I was able to
evolve my own methods based on the
techniques used at the time of their
manufacture. I equipped myself with
a contemporary lathe and read
historic accounts of instrument-making.
Having studied so many examples,
I felt some sympathy with the old
methods, and these later became the
basis of my technique for making
modern bassoons.’
How does the maker begin? A design is
the obvious place, so I asked Jeremy how
he came to his own after the many that
had gone before him. Did he consider
copying other instruments or try for
something entirely original?
‘By the time I had started thinking
seriously about bassoon design I had seen
sufficient numbers to get the idea of the
sort of instrument at which I was aiming,
both as a player and a maker. The maker
is always restricted by factors like holespacing and the position and layout of the
keywork. Also, you cannot depart from
necessities like getting the octaves in
tune. Such things are essential in any
design. After finishing my first instrument
I had gained sufficient experience of the
internal layout (the bore) to make many
improvements to number 2. The second
was considerably better and I felt
able to go to the players in the City of
Birmingham Symphony, our nearest
orchestra, for their opinions. With their
encouragement I then showed it to other
leading players and thus arrived at a
definitive bore for my early instruments.’
The quality of wood is an obvious
difficulty. It affects not only the quality
of sound and response, but also the
instrument’s durability, so I wondered
how Jeremy began building his stocks of
wood.
‘There is, of course, a problem for any
beginner in this field. The wood has
to be old and therefore dry enough to
withstand any shrinking or warping. In
theory the new maker would have to lay
in a supply of wood ten years before
commencing the first instrument. In
practice this is impossible and it is
necessary to seek other sources. I was
fortunate in being able to purchase a
supply from a maker of reproduction
instruments and this wood became my
first 20 bassoons. At the same time I laid
down my own supply which is now ready
for use.’
Hand in hand with design of the
instrument and quality of
wood goes the design of
the crook.
‘Good crooks are
essential if the instrument
is to give of its best. I
have always made my
crooks in the old way
from a flat sheet, which is
seamed and drawn on a
mandrel. I learnt this
technique from having to
make replacement crooks
for old bassoons and I
considered that there is
none comparable for
producing quality
crooks.’
Jeremy Soulsby selecting wood
All this sounds quite a lengthy and
complicated process and I was wondering
how long it takes to make a bassoon.
‘This is very difficult to put in terms of
months or years. The boring begins very
early in an instrument’s history, ideally a
year or two after the wood is bought in.
The joints are then left for several years
during which time the bore hole is
continually enlarged until it passes on to
the later processes. It is consequently
necessary to have instruments at differing
stages in order to ensure a steady supply.’
Although under pressure of orders,
Jeremy’s personal attention to each
instrument is beyond question. I asked
him about the organisation of the
business and the workshop, and about
how he felt that his operation differed
from those of his larger contemporaries.
‘At present I have one assistant but feel
the need for more help to allow me to
concentrate on the most difficult part of
the operation, the finishing. There are
only two processes which I do not carry
out in my workshop – foundry work and
silver plating. As I suggested earlier, my
approach to manufacture was formed
from my experience working with old
instruments. I evolved the boring and
shaping techniques around equipment
which left the man in charge of the
process and not the machine. Naturally,
though, I installed some modern
equipment to take the worst of the heavy
labour out of the job, and also to assist
continuity and repetition of results. Since
I started working alone, each instrument
was entirely made by one man. In this
way I have been able to oversee the
development of each individual
instrument, the result being a truly handbuilt bassoon. I am able even to make
quite small evolutionary changes without
any difficulty, giving me scope for gradual
improvement to the design.’
Feedback from players must be an
essential part of development. I asked
whether there had been help from
professionals in particular.
‘Yes, indeed; this has been of invaluable
assistance. Each step in the development
of my instrument has involved consultation
with some of the country’s leading
professional players. After all, every maker
needs to know if he is making the best
possible instrument for the market at that
time. However, there are sometimes
difficulties in interpreting the wishes of
players. For instance, it is often hard to
describe in words what we want or are
25
Jeremy perhaps find that we were hoping
that design itself might resolve some of
the instrument's traditional weaknesses
like, for instance, low D?
getting back from an instrument. Just try,
for instance, framing a definition for a
concept like "resistance". Also one
receives confliding views from seemingly
equally competent players, leaving me the
problem of deciding whose advice to
follow. But it is possible by selecting the
views of those you most respect to arrive
at some sort of consensus, and this is the
way in which I have progressed.'
'Certainly the German-system bassoon
has come a long way in its history, and
improvements are still possible. Some
problems are inherent and attempts to
solve these (low 0 included) have tended
to produce even greater fau lts elsewhere.
There is a limit to the amount of radical
alteration that can be made as regards
hole size and spacing. Despite the
gradual addition of keywork, the angled
drillings of the tone holes have remained
unchanged, and it is this that gives the
characteristic sound which composers
have found admi rable for blending in
Looking back over the time I have known
Jeremy, I now realise how remote
bassoon makers used to seem. With a
bassoon maker so readily available for
consultation I suspect that we players
might be placing a little too much
reliance on mechanical solutions to our
technical problems. In other words, did
orchestras. When attempts have been
made to produce a bass wind instrument
which has a strong sound, it has proved
so d ifficult to blend into a wind section
that it has been completely unacceptable
in an orchestra. We all have to learn to
live to some degree with what is actually
an updated dulcian!'
Make no mistake, this is no excuse for
inadion. I never remember meeting
Jeremy without hearing about some new
avenue of inquiry, whether in tuning one
note or reconsidering a major part of the
operation. Nothing is undertaken hastily
and everything is seen through to its
conclusion. Yet the instruments need no
eulogy from me since they speak
eloquently enough for themselves.
3 Abbey Point. Corfersfleld Rood.
Wollhom Abbey, Essex EN9 1Ff
T; 01?92 703110
~;
01?92 767662
E: inf~ump.co.uk W: www.ump.co.uk
@luniledmu•lcpubl
Claude Debussy: 5 Pieces
ooorged tor oboe & piano by fdwln Roxburgh
Conope; A(oo~qvc tJoJ!;
to Fill? aux Cheveux cle lm; The 11/lle Shep~erd:
l'relv·:ie (lfom$ulle Bergamasque)
Cane
Happy 75th Birthday to Edwin Roxburgh in 2012
Selected titles by Edwin Roxburgh
Antores oboe & piano
A t th e still Point of the turning World obnE- & elecTronics
Aulodle Poe-~n: rtermes (oboe &pono):
Arlodne's Thread (oboe d arnore & pane)
Con tilena oooe & p.ano
Conslellol ions descontreccrde· 8. oboe
Eclissl oooe, violin. viola & cr;.lto
Elegy solo oboe (with tool-pedal controlled elet?llonu:s) ftl.lle
cloffnel. vialn. cello & perc<.•ssTon
Images oboe &. piano
lament... for the V/cfims of Con(Tic·t oboe /or/lute} & plan)
(also ovolloblo In o v~r>lon for ob a<> & slnng orcheolro)
Nebula 11 1/Uie. oboe. CJorinet. bassoon & horn
Semifinished and tubes for all wind instrwuents
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Study 1 solo oboe
Shadow-Play 2 oiJoe• a cor ot+g/ol>
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M•tlirs.l,
P.O. !lox 108
Debussy for Oboe!
Five Pieces for oboe and piano arranged by
Edwin Roxburgh
well in the composer’s setting for string
quartet in F major. In spite of this
encouraging precedent I was doubtful at
first of accepting an LPO commission to
arrange Beethoven’s Grosse Fuge String
Quartet for symphonic wind orchestra.
Fifteen minutes of a concentrated fourpart fugue re-arranged for twenty-five
different instruments seemed impossible.
But after two days experimenting with
inner and outer octave couplings and
episodic solos I began to wonder why
Beethoven had not chosen this medium
himself for such a powerful work. A string
player in the audience confessed that he
preferred the wind version to the strings.
Claude Debussy
Robert Codd’s interesting article on
Martin Gatt’s bassoon and piano
adaptation of Brahms’ E flat Clarinet
Sonata (Spring edition, Double Reed
News) opens up the broad question of
why such arrangements are an important
element in the repertoire of all
instruments. The historical roots
of the practice are evident in Bach’s
transcriptions of Vivaldi concertos.
There is even an arrangement of his
own D minor Harpsichord Concerto
for violin. Handel’s oboe sonatas are
equally effective on flute or violin.
(I have even heard a very effective and
stylish performance of one played on a
soprano saxophone.)
Such interchanging was common practice
in the baroque era because the linear
characteristics of so much of the music
were mostly vocal in character, and
suitable for treble register instruments
of any family. For an oboist, being able
to play Bach’s glorious B minor Flute
Sonata in the G minor version is an
incomparable gift.
In Beethoven’s time we find composers
themselves adapting their works for
alternative ensembles or instruments. The
E major Piano Sonata (Op.14 No.1) works
As the nineteenth century progressed we
find adaptations becoming more and
more decorative, with elaborate
embellishments distorting the original
compositions, but effective in their
virtuosic display. Liszt’s transcriptions of
some of Bach’s organ works for piano
made Bach sound more like Liszt! In the
second half of the nineteenth century the
freedom with which composers invaded
and adapted the works of other
composers found Wagner re-orchestrating
Beethoven and Mahler doing the same to
Schumann. Even Schoenberg is found
translating Bach’s St. Anne Prelude and
Fugue onto a vast symphony orchestra –
and we all know what happened to the
D minor Toccata and Fugue in the hands
of Henry Wood and others! Both
Stravinsky and Holst also had
performance versions for piano duet of
their greatest orchestral works.
“
If Liszt can
adapt Bach for the
piano, why cannot
Debussy be adapted
for the oboe?
”
So there is quite a history of adaptation
providing sufficient excuse for any of us
to apply our imaginations to such a
venture. History also demonstrates what
is viable and effective and what is not.
My own caveat is simply that any
arrangement or adaptation should sound
as if it was originally conceived for the
new medium. Without such an alternative
concept of a given work there seems little
justification in trying to cast it in a new
light. The Swingle Singers did it
successfully for Bach, as did Webern.
But before we enter the territory it is wise
to keep in mind that this is where angels
fear to tread. Waking up one morning
with the sound of my oboe in my head
playing the opening phrase of Debussy’s
Little Shepherd created an irresistible
need to explore the viability of bringing
the composer’s piano music into a
woodwind perspective.
In spite of the angels’ fears (and my own)
I decided to press on, choosing to be
cautious. The result is a set of five pieces
for oboe and piano, adapted from the
piano music. Like all of the oboists I
know I wonder why Brahms composed
such wonderful solos for the instrument
in his orchestral music (the Violin
Concerto and the symphonies) but never
got round to presenting it in his
instrumental music, as he did so
favourably for the clarinet; likewise,
Debussy. In my arrangements I have
chosen works which have excellent
potential for realisation on the oboe,
giving oboists a greater degree of direct
involvement with this remarkable
composer. If Liszt can adapt Bach for the
piano, why cannot Debussy be adapted
for the oboe? The result is a selection of
works which can be played in entirety as
a suite, or as separate items.
1. Prélude (from Suite bergamasque) This
is full of florid lines and expressive
figurations which are natural to the
character of the oboe. The contrasts of
musical rhetoric and lyrical tenderness
are focussed in both oboe and piano
parts.
2. The Little Shepherd (from Children’s
Corner) The gentle pan pipes
suggested in the music, again, fall
naturally into an important aspect of
27
the oboe’s nature. After all, Pan did
play on a reed!
3. La Fille aux Cheveux de Lin (from
Préludes, Vol.1) Saint-Saëns might
have had this hidden in his mind when
he composed the second movement of
his Oboe Sonata in 1921, four years
after Debussy’s death. If so, it would
be a beautiful tribute to this calm and
delicate piece, which embraces the
warmth of tone we enjoy creating in
our playing.
4. Arabesque No.2 The persistent
motivic repetitions of the piano piece
are divided between the oboe and
piano in the arrangement, creating a
playful dialogue between the two
instruments.
28
5. Canope (from Préludes, Vol.2) The
plaintive chanting of the oboe is set
against the bell-like chords of the
piano. The quiet sadness of the oboe
melodies calls for an exquisite beauty
of tone, which Debeussy would have
heard on those early twentieth-century
rosewood Lorée oboes which
sustained Goossens throughout
his life.
The pieces were chosen, not only for
their adaptability to the oboe, but for the
less complex piano writing which I was
able to design for the accompaniments.
None of the pieces requires a technical
capability beyond grades 7/8 for the
oboist, but they have the substance
which can display mature artistry in
performance. Debussy provided a
metronome mark for only one of the
pieces: La Fille aux Cheveux de Lin;
I have included suggestions for
the others, which can be treated with
flexibility.
There is elegance and refinement in
Debussy’s sound world which I have
tried to capture in these arrangements.
His presence in any concert or recital
enhances a programme. My aim has been
to provide a further platform for the music
of this wonderful composer, together with
the sheer joy for the oboist of playing
Debussy.
[5 Pieces for oboe and piano – Debussy
is published by United Music Publishers
Ltd in the UMP Classics Series.]
In Conversation
John Schroder, bassoon, is interviewed by Karen O’Connor as he retires from the City of Birmingham Symphony
Orchestra after 45 years distinguished service. Karen played oboe in the same orchestra from 1985 to 2011 and
now runs her own coaching consultancy.
a French system, and this can be used for
trills and shakes on the German system.’
John Schroder
In October 2011, John Schroder retired
from the CBSO after 45 distinguished
years as Second Bassoon. I was fortunate
to have been his colleague for 26 of them
and now I am delighted to share with you
something of this modest, ingenious
musician. Naturally, our conversation was
punctuated by references to the many
pieces of music which have filled John’s
life, so I shall let them tell his story.
Chopin: Grande Valse Brillante, Op.18
John was born in Ealing just after World
War II. His father worked for a travel
agent and he remembers his mother
listening to Chopin on the Third
Programme and tinkling on the piano.
She had suffered a horrible childhood
disease, which had significantly damaged
her hearing, one reason John has always
been zealous about protecting his
hearing, particularly sitting on the back
row of the woodwind. When he was five,
he followed his older sister Carole into
piano lessons, although his pianistic
endeavours came to an abrupt end one
year later. ‘Our piano teacher had
organised a concert for her pupils at the
local church hall and when my turn
came, I walked out and was confronted
by a gigantic black monster. Not only was
the concert grand piano bigger than
anything I’d ever seen but also it didn’t
have a lock which was a crucial
navigational aid for me to locate middle
C. In panic I began my two-minute ditty
an octave too high, was humiliatingly
corrected by my teacher in front of the
whole audience and, on reaching the
final notes, I promptly ran off the stage!’
Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring
At Ealing Grammar School for Boys, John
met John Railton, the charismatic Head of
Music, who had a supreme gift for playing
huge orchestral works like The Rite of
Spring on the piano, often from a miniature
score. Mr Railton also conducted the
school’s legendary choir and John has no
doubt his lifelong love of music dates back
to those days. When John was 11, the
bassoon was introduced to the class, an
instrument he recognised because his sister
already played one. Once again, and
doubtless to the great alarm of his parents,
John announced he was going to copy
Carole and take up the bassoon. His first
instrument was French system and he
recalls there were many of these on the
second-hand market because professional
bassoonists were changing to German
system instruments. John believes his
flexible approach to fingerings is entirely
due to his early experience of the French
and German systems. ‘C# has a key on a
German bassoon but a forked fingering on
Holst: The Planets Suite
John had just about learned to assemble
the bassoon when he was invited to play
in the school orchestra. Having safely
negotiated the first page of Mars, and
brimming with confidence, he turned to
the second page, only to be greeted by a
foreign landscape of notes with unknown
fingerings, and hieroglyphics which he
later discovered were double sharps! Not
long after this salutary experience, his
school arranged for him to have lessons
with Vernon Elliot, contrabassoonist with
the Philharmonia Orchestra. John
changed to a Schreiber and made
considerable progress. ‘Vernon was an
excellent teacher who watched my eyes
to see my thought processes as well as
listening to what I was playing. He also
taught me invaluable techniques like
double and flutter tonguing.’
Beethoven: Symphony No.4
In 1965 John again copied his sister, this
time going to the Royal Academy of
Music (three years after her) and, working
his way through the teaching talent of the
Philharmonia’s bassoon section, studied
with its Principal Bassoon, Gwydion
Brooke. ‘Gwyd was famous for modifying
instruments which taught me it was okay
to experiment as long as I understood
what I was doing. One day I asked him
what an extra, unrecognisable key was
for. ‘I don’t remember’ was his considered
response! For Gwyd, the music always
came first and he would often play to his
students by way of demonstrating how a
particular passage should sound. His
playing of the second movement of
Beethoven 4 in one of my lessons was the
moment when I realised that I wasn't
listening carefully enough.’ John’s
progress through the ranks of the RAM’s
orchestras was swift. In his first week he
was listed to play second bassoon with
Third Orchestra – except Third Orchestra
never met! So in his second week he was
on a different list as second bassoon in
Second Orchestra, which did meet.
29
Then halfway through his first year he
moved up to the rarefied atmosphere of
First Orchestra, again as second bassoon.
The second bassoon die was cast.
John had by now invested in an excellent
Heckel CDV1 crook, which did valiant
service until the 1980s when the seam
started coming open, generally regarded as
a terminal event; but not for John. He had
an interest in glass fibre so, first covering
the seam in Araldite adhesive to seal it, he
bound the seam with glass fibre tape and
played on that crook for another 20 years.
Gilbert Vinter: The Playful Pachyderm
In summer 1966, at the end of John’s first
year at the RAM, Gwyd telephoned to say
that there was a second bassoon vacancy
in the CBSO and suggested that John
should apply – for experience. Lacking an
extensive solo repertoire, John decided to
perform the piece he was working on at
the time and so, in the conductor’s room
of Birmingham Town Hall, he entertained
the solemnly assembled audition panel to
a rendition of The Playful Pachyderm. Not
a well-known composition it must be said,
but John was confident that the frequent
visits the piece made to the bassoon’s low
register would convince the panel of his
second bassoon attributes.
Tchaikovsky: Manfred Symphony
John’s main recollection about his first
appearance with the CBSO is of not being
able to play the third movement scherzo
fast enough! On the happier side, he
purchased a new Püchner bassoon for
£400 from George Howarth (father of
Tom) and stayed with Dominic Weir (the
CBSO’s contrabassoon player and a reed
maker of distinction) until he found a
bedsit. Up to this point, John had played
on reeds supplied by Hermann Windeler
but he quickly switched to Dominic’s
reeds and has played on them ever since.
Dominic also stimulated John’s interest in
the reed-making process and particularly
the usefulness of heat-shrink plastic for
creating an airtight seal. Under his
colleague’s guidance, John learnt how to
adjust reeds – something he believes a
player needs to understand before
attempting to make reeds from scratch.
Hindemith: Kleine Kammermusik, Op.24
‘In summer 1968 when deputising in a
wind quintet, I spotted a flute player
called Julie Greenwood. We married in
1970 and have two children: Peter, who
is Head of Systems Engineering for the
McLaren Formula One Team and Hazel,
The piece also has a top Db, which he
spectacularly missed at his first attempt
and, when asked to repeat the passage,
obliged by doing exactly the same again.
By now the adrenalin was pumping
which meant his tonguing in the last
movement of Beethoven’s Fourth
Symphony was magnificent! He
obviously impressed his audience as a
few days later, he received a phone call
asking him if he could start in two weeks.
‘There was no such thing as a trial in
those days so on 4th October 1966, after
only one year at the RAM, I took up my
post with the CBSO sitting next to Nick
Hunka who’d joined the orchestra just
one week before me. Nick’s successor
was Andrew Barnell who joined the
CBSO in 1970 and with whom I played
for the next 37 years.’
30
Reeds in vodka
an environmental consultant.’
Sibelius: Symphony No.7
Anyone who knows John will also be
familiar with the liquid-filled jar which
contains his reeds. ‘Playing this piece
with the CBSO in Los Angeles in 1987
was the confirmation I needed that my
method of reed storage was effective,
particularly as I watched my double reed
colleagues struggling in those exacting
climatic conditions. I’d been pondering
for years how to get my reeds to last
longer and I turned my scientific enquiry
to food preservation. Salt? No, I wouldn’t
be able to stomach that taste. Same with
vinegar, and formaldehyde definitely
didn’t appeal. Alcohol however definitely
did appeal and moreover, vodka looks
like water so I reckoned my colleagues
wouldn’t be suspicious! I filled a
Coleman's mustard jar with vodka, put in
my reeds and I’ve used this method ever
since. One of the reeds currently in the
jar has been submerged for 10 years. I
know it’s time to change the liquid when
I shake the jar and it resembles a
snowstorm but at least it means the food
particles are in the vodka not in the
reeds. The more waterlogged the reeds
John Schroder with bassoon crane
become, the flatter their pitch so then
I chop off the tip which works well for
me; my reeds are notoriously short a finished blade length of between
22 and 24mm.'
John's appetite for innovation also led
him to design and bui ld his own bassoon
crane, a piece of equipment which is
approximately the length of a bassoon
case and includes a sling, rotational
movement in every plane, and a flexible
base which fits arou nd any type of
chair leg.
Other original accessories he has
designed include bassoon and oboe
mutes which have become priceless
tools-of-trade for many of his double
reed colleagues.
Rachmaninov: Symphonic Dances
This was one of the first pieces Simon
Rattle conducted and recorded with the
CBSO and John has fond memories of
these early days o f the celebrated
CBSO/Rattle relationship. 'The orchestra
had been through turbulent times in the
1970s. Many players had left, morale was
low and in one memorable week in
1978, the orchestra parted company with
both its General Manager and Principal
Conductor. With Simon's arrival in 1980
however, the CBSO was transformed into
a musical magnet. The new managerial
team had shrewdly left the choice of
Principal Conductor to the players a CBSO procedure which continues to
this day, and we chose the relatively
unknown Simon Rattle from the shortlist
of three.'
Brahms: Symphony No.2
John played this in his final concert with
the CBSO and their current Music
Director Andris Nelsons, in Madrid in
October 2011. In his new life, John is
enjoying spending more time with his
expanding fami ly, which now includes
four grandchi ldren, and helping Julie edit
the Black Country Geological Society's
newsletter. However, he has not
completely hung up his bassoon. 'I've
recently had to fish my reeds out of the
vodka pot to practise for an education
concert of wind trios. Exhausting but fun !'
Thank you John, for sharing your memories
with us. Your double reed colleagues wish
you a long and happy retirement.
www.johnschroder.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk
www.performingartsconsultancy.co.uk
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Reviews
CD REVIEWS
across more than thirty years (1968–2002). In tonal terms,
his playing was perhaps most beautifully poised in the ‘70s
and, while he remains in full command in the most recent
recordings (Breuker Oboe Concerto No.2, 2000, Pavel
Haas and Stockhausen, 2001, Kox’s Lieder ohne Worte,
2002), his tone is perhaps a little less rich towards the end
of his career. Some may find his vibrato intense, but this
signature of de Vries’ playing never obstructs its charm. As
the recordings are drawn from diverse sources and variable
in recording quality, the way the oboe tone comes across
shifts subtly from one track to another. Given the diversity
of the recordings’ sources, variations in sonic quality are
minimal (the most noticeable occurring on discs 6 and 9).
Still, there is far more than tone quality to recommend
these performances. There is always an assurance and
suavity to de Vries’ playing that takes the listener well
below the surface of tone production to musical
interpretation and communication.
Photo: Jeremy Polmear
Han de Vries: The Radio Recordings Oboe Classics
CC2024
From favourites to the fantastic, rarities to the remarkable,
Han de Vries: The Radio Recordings provides a spectacular
showcase of the career of one of the most important
oboists of the twentieth century. While perhaps not so well
known outside his own country, in Holland de Vries
(1941–) is a national celebrity. His technical prowess and
musical dynamism is only equalled by the combined
artistry of Goossens and Holliger; but whereas neither of
these oboists is represented with a comparable anthology,
this box of nine CDs and two DVDs is a major document
of oboe playing in the late twentieth century. But even
almost eleven hours of music cannot hope to cover all
aspects of de Vries’ prolific career.
His work as principal oboist of the Concertgebouw Orkest
(1964–71) is not represented, nor was it possible to include
recordings he made with the Netherlands Wind Ensemble
(1960–70, though readily available from EMI). Likewise, a
short review cannot hope to do justice to this remarkable
issue, so I will have to restrict myself to highlights, but not
before making the general comment that not one track is
short of compelling.
The anthology provides an overview of de Vries’ playing
In addition to classics, like concertos by Strauss, Ibert and
Bach, Mozart chamber music, and rarities by Malcolm
Arnold, Peter Maxwell Davies and Richard Rodney
Bennett, there are numerous works with strong ties to the
player that will not be found anywhere else. Significant
works written for de Vries by Bruno Maderna, Morton
Feldman, Louis Andriessen, Schat and Janssen; and the two
concertos by Willem Breuker are represented (Maderna’s
Oboe Concerto No.3, here available in a radio recording
as well as a bonus film of the composer conducting a
rehearsal).
De Vries is considered the primary living exponent of the
Dutch oboe school, claiming his status in performances
of showcases of oboe virtuosity written by Alexander
Voormolen for his teachers Jaap and Haakon Stotijn. The
distinctive style of oboe playing instigated by Stotijn is
characterised by short, wide reeds (you can see close-ups
of Han’s reed on the DVD of the Maderna concerto)
played with little cane in the mouth to produce a unique
lyrical tone – fuller in the middle range and even across
the entire range – coupled with clean articulation. This last
aspect is, perhaps more than any other, a main hallmark of
his style. As dazzling as it is delightful (notice the rambling
cadenza in the solo concerto), Voormolen’s music exhibits
diverse influences and its distinctly cinematic flavour made
it perfectly suited to theme music for a TV soap opera. In
the double concerto de Vries takes up the mantle with his
former student, Bart Schneemann, who has followed his
teacher’s career in the Netherlands Wind Ensemble as well
as in early and modern genres.
33
More than his activities as concerto and chamber
musician, and champion of new music, De Vries was also
a serious collector of antique oboes, some of which he
used in recordings. He never made radio or live
appearances on baroque oboe, so all the performances of
baroque works presented here are on modern oboe.
(Commercial recordings of de Vries playing baroque oboe
are available on the Virgin Veritas label and on an earlier
release from Oboe Classics, CC2004.) Recorded across a
period of sixteen years, the samplings in the new box set
show de Vries’ evolution as a baroque interpreter. The
performance in the earliest – of the Bach Double Concerto
with violinist Alberto Lysy (from 1975) – is well balanced
in tempo and tone but anachronistic in ornamentation;
whereas in the most recent of Bach’s Concerto in F, the
Combattimento Consort of Amsterdam accompanies with
more appropriate performance practices, the oboe stands
apart stylistically. Tempos in the eighteenth-century works
are on the whole lively with the exception of the
surprisingly staid Vivaldi sonata.
The Classical offerings will charm and surprise. In addition
to a version of Mozart’s C minor string quintet for oboe and
strings, and his Adagio and Rondo with glass harmonica
(presented here with harp), the four movements attributed to
Beethoven (here arranged for oboe, clarinet and bassoon)
are worthy of careful listening.
Americans will be eager to compare de Vries’ recordings
of Françaix’s L’horloge de Flore and Ibert’s Sinfonia
Concertante (1981 and 73 respectively) with John de
Lancie’s versions from 1967. The more transparent sound of
the Dutch oboist seems appropriate for Françaix’s frothy
bagatelle and, while his ‘Belle de Nuit’ lacks the dignified
repose that de Lancie brought to it, it is no less beautiful,
and provides a nice contrast to the Netherlands Chamber
Orchestra’s bawdy playing in the work’s ‘vaudeville’
moments. The Ibert shows de Vries at his best. De Lancie’s
version is elegant, but de Vries makes the work sound as
modern as it really is (written in 1959). The final allegro
brillante is just that: an exhilarating ride with all technical
passages played with utmost security and verve supported
by the orchestra under David Zinman’s brilliant direction.
Even if the Dutch oboist’s tempo is hardly faster than the
Philadelphian’s, the energy de Vries brings to the phrasing
and articulation makes for a compelling performance.
A more obvious comparison would be with Heinz Holliger
who, just a few months apart from de Vries in age, was not
only a pre-eminent champion of new music, but alongside
34
de Vries was equally responsible for bringing the oboe to
prominence on the international concert stage. Holliger’s
exclusive contract with the Dutch recording company
Philips doubtless impacted de Vries’ international exposure,
but the two offer complementary and equally valid
responses to shared repertoire like Penderecki’s Capriccio
and Holliger’s Mobile. In a supplementary interview, ‘Man of
the Heart’ (available on the Oboe Classics website), de Vries
makes the controversial comment that his Swiss colleague
‘never irritates the listener by imposing his personality. … he
touches my brain, I’m a man of the heart… What I admire
about his playing is that it’s so boring that it is never boring!’
Even after listening to the entire anthology, I never tire of
de Vries’ musicianship. The consummate performer, he is
seemingly undaunted by even the most demanding of
technical challenges and makes compelling cases for music
from a wide range of styles. His engaging musical
communication has a personable edge on Holliger’s steely
perfection. De Vries also boasts that he ‘gets’ the Avant
Gardists, and from the recordings it is clear that he indeed
lived their era and spoke their language, and is not afraid
to bring beauty to even the most abrasive works. Listen to
how, in his hands, Stockhausen reads like an open book,
Elliott Carter sounds romantic, or Stefan Wolpe’s sonata
becomes classic. De Vries does all this with wit: a
specifically Dutch wit that can shift – as seen in Breuker’s
Concerto No.2 – with beguiling nonchalance from heartfelt
lyricism to dazzling showmanship or rollicking hilarity.
The quality of the recordings is even more remarkable when
one realises that they are, for the most part, live. Not only
are they close to technically perfect but, being unedited,
they possess a high level of integrity as performances. A few
are studio recordings that, up to now, have only been
broadcast. An exception is Andriessen’s remarkable postmodern parodic fusion of neo-classicism and minimalism,
Anachronie II that, while already released on CD, is a
welcome addition here, if only because it contains some of
the most glorious melodies on the entire set.
The live performance videos are a definite plus. The video
recording of Bruno Maderna conducting his own Third
Oboe Concerto in 1973 provides a wonderful view of de
Vries as he embarked on his career as soloist (a lack of
synchronicity between audio and video is only occasionally
disturbing), and two concertos by Willem Breukers show de
Vries in different musical contexts. In the first de Vries is
pitted against a Jazz ensemble. He fits in surprisingly well,
and even though he does not improvise his riffs, he still
holds his ground against the genuine jazzers.
Two interviews with de Vries’ sweet-toned Dutch speech,
idiomatically subtitled in English, bring out the oboist’s
thoughtfulness as an interpreter. His comments on the
‘glassy emotion’ and lack of ‘real flesh and blood’ in the
Strauss Concerto (the one piece that he admits to his lack
of comprehension) may come as a surprise. But the
simplicity and slight emotional detachment of his reading
casts a different light on this familiar masterpiece, so often
played in a romanticised manner that glosses over the
work’s creation in the aftermath of World War II.
Vaughan Williams, Gurney, Davis, Hahn and Hopkins,
within a chronologically arranged programme.
The set has been expertly compiled, with notes on each of
the 51 recordings by Peter Bree, a former student and radio
producer, with a booklet including a complete discography
of commercial releases organised by recording company.
A chronological listing would have been more suited to the
retrospective nature of this publication.
The following two pieces are Bach's – the sinfonia from
Cantata No. 21 and the aria Mein Jesu will es tun – and
show Hazel Todd's expressive sensitivity and nimble
dexterity in the later obbligato passagework; also Louise
Turner's clear, fluently articulated and pleasing tone. In the
aria, taken from the Epiphany Cantata No.22, the soprano
‘trips a merry tune’ and a chasing accompaniment is heard
from the continuo.
In addition to being a tribute to a great musician, the set
provides a remarkable purview of oboe playing and trends
in composition for the oboe in the course of the last three
decades of the twentieth century. In short: a necessity
for the oboist’s studio and college library. Licensing
agreements provided for only a short print run, with no
possibility of reprints, so stocks are strictly limited.
Place your order direct with oboeclassics.com.
Geoffrey Burgess
[Ed. This review is being jointly published in the current
issues of The Double Reed – journal of the International
Double Reed Society – and DRN.]
THE TREE OF LIFE
Serenata:
Adrian Davis, harpsichord, organ and piano
Mary Harris, cello
Hazel Todd, oboe and cor anglais
Louise Turner, soprano
CD available from www.serenata-ensemble.org.uk
How inspiring and appropriate to be writing a review of
this delightful CD, 'The Tree of Life' in Springtime! The
featured ensemble, Serenata (formed in 2000), ‘has
discovered a wealth of beautiful and compelling music’ for
their instrumental combination, ‘most of which is little
known and rarely heard’. The fifteen tracks on this CD
draw together works inspired largely by nature and life; the
composers include Handel, Bach, Buxtehude, Boismortier,
The first three tracks are 'Singe Seele', 'Süsse Stille' and
'Flammende Rose'. The texts are taken from three of the
nine poems written by the poet, Barthold Heinrich
Brockes, all of which Handel set to music in the mid1720s. These arrangements were regarded as 'glittering
jewels' of Handel's supreme art. Here they are sensitively
sung and beautifully accompanied by the oboist.
The Boismortier cantata, Acteon supplies the listener
with a quasi-operatic experience in which the cor anglais,
harpsichord and cello accompany the soprano into the
woods for a hunting party; there are alternating arias and
recitatives conveying vivid pastoral scenes, amorous
excursions and moments of thoughtful reflection.
Throughout the CD, the varied and sensitively played
harpsichord, organ and piano accompaniments, provide
a variety of contrasting timbres.
Reminiscences of the Vaughan Williams Oboe Concerto
feature strongly in the second of the three RVW songs,
cleverly arranged by Adrian Davis. What a refreshing
contrast the English songs bring, including Gurney's
Under the Greenwood Tree. It is the title of RVW's first
song, The Tree of Life which gives the CD it's name; the
modal and 'folky' character of these songs is so distinctive.
In complete contrast, a moving performance of The Cellist
of Sarajevo for cello and soprano, composed by Adrian
Davis (1997), poignantly evokes the plight of citizens
involved in the Bosnian conflict. This provides such a stark
contrast to the bright, happier mood of the previous pieces
that it has great impact.
Two charming arrangements of Breton songs by Antony
Hopkins conclude this most enjoyable CD from Serenata;
it is one I thoroughly recommend.
Nicola Fairbairn
35
CONCERT REVIEW
The John Myatt Memorial Concert
Holy Trinity Church, Blythburgh – Saturday 4th February 2012
An extraordinary concert in memory of John Myatt took place
at Blythburgh Church in February. John was a fine clarinettist,
pianist, organist and teacher who inspired many young
people; but it was the business he started in the 1970s which
became John Myatt Woodwind and Brass and brought him
national and international recognition and success. John’s
career in music touched many thousands of musicians,
professional and amateur, expert and beginner, young and
old, and this concert could not have better demonstrated the
affection, admiration and loyalty he inspired.
John’s long-time partner, Janet, and a very old friend,
Colin Beak, gathered an orchestra of over 80 friends and
colleagues to perform some of John’s favourite works in his
favourite church, Blythburgh in perhaps his favourite
county, Suffolk. There were internationally renowned
professionals sitting alongside talented and enthusiastic
amateurs, all of whom needed no persuasion to be there in
John’s memory, many having been his pupils. With frost
and snow lying outside, there can surely never have been
an orchestra dressed in so many beanies, bobble hats,
fingerless gloves and several layers of coats.
Adrian Leaper, recently returned from a distinguished
period as Chief Conductor of orchestras in the Canary
Islands and Spain, had the monumental task of marshalling
this disparate group of freezing musicians. With quiet
control, clear direction and good-humoured
professionalism, what a wonderful job he did to mould fine
playing and ensemble in just a few hours of rehearsal. The
superb leadership of Jan Kaznowski was immediately in
evidence in J S Bach’s Orchestral Suite No.1, showing the
double reeds and strings to great advantage in the famous
acoustic of the church. On such an occasion, no-one
wanted to be left out so it was not a small ‘period’
orchestra performance, but had great vitality!
The early Richard Strauss Serenade for woodwind and
brass was delightful and highly appropriate. John’s love of
Mahler’s Fifth Symphony, especially the fabulous horn
solos (played with consummate skill and beauty by Mike
Thompson), provided a wonderful chance to show his
eclectic taste in music and was a tremendous performance
for this special occasion. The beautiful Adagietto was a
poignant opportunity for reflection but the glorious finale
36
could only end the concert with a reminder of the
enthusiastic love and knowledge of music that John had
brought into so many people’s lives.
John would have enjoyed the music and loved the
conviviality so much.
Jenny Hopkins
THESIS REVIEW
48 Studies for Oboe by Ferling
A Doctoral Thesis by Kostis Hassiotis
Available from City of London University Library,
British Library and LAP Lambert Academic Publishing
Kostis Hassiotis’ doctoral work has examined Ferling’s
48 Studies for Oboe, Op.31. It provides a new critical
edition of the pieces, with particular reference to the first
edition. It also offers insightful discussion about interpreting
these pieces, their role as teaching material, and their
merits as recital repertoire. There is something of interest
here for players at all levels.
The thesis is divided into an Introduction followed by four
chapters:
• a survey of Ferling’s compositions as a whole
• historical consideration of the concept of a ‘study’
and the evolution of pedagogical ‘method’ material
• a new critical edition of the studies
• analysis of relevant performance practice issues
The Introduction focuses on the historical evidence relating
to Ferling and his work as a performer and composer.
This includes discussion of most of Ferling’s surviving
compositions, and of citations in nineteenth-century journals
relating to Ferling himself as a performer and composer. The
Introduction also considers the importance of the 48 Studies
for Oboe Op.31 in terms of the number of different editions
that have appeared since the beginning of the twentieth
century; their presence in the syllabus of music educational
institutions and in the audition requirements for specific
professional positions; also modern bibliographic references
pertaining to their educational importance.
Chapter 1 turns to the historical evolution of pedagogical
material for instrumental learning, and concentrates on
didactic compositions for the oboe, particularly nineteenthcentury oboe methods, studies and similar compositions.
Hassiotis discusses the origins and evolution of the
meaning of the term ‘study’ itself, in relation to other
pedagogical musical forms, as well as ‘tutors’ and
‘methods’. An important conclusion in Chapter 1 is that by
Ferling’s time there was no universal consensus regarding
the precise meaning of the term ‘study’. The confusion
regarding usage of the term was such, even among
scholars, that it would be unjust to expect a uniform
approach from composers.
The Ferling Studies are compared with other contemporary
didactic works for the oboe, such as the sonatas and
studies that appear in the methods by Brod, Barret and
Salviani, and with pieces of the same genre for other
instruments, such as the material in Spohr’s Violinschule.
There are some interesting features of the Ferling Studies in
comparison with other similar works of the period. For
example pairs of studies (slow-fast) not only appear in the
same key, but also tend to behave similarly in terms of
modulation. There is also extensive use of diminished 7ths
and Neapolitan harmony, especially in the fast studies.
The length, complementary tempi of the paired studies,
and above all their sophisticated style make these works
particularly effective both musically and pedagogically.
Finally, there is an attempt to categorise the Studies as
simply didactic repertoire or as a piece that can potentially
form part of a recital. The author believes that the modern
scholar and interpreter should not be prevented from
viewing and scrutinising Op.31 as a set of potential
recital pieces, or at least approaching them, in terms of
interpretation, in the same manner as other pieces of the
repertoire, especially since their musicality is directly related
stylistically to period repertoire. In the final analysis, it is
perhaps not only important why the Studies were composed,
but also if they could be used as performance pieces.
The chapter concludes with a detailed table of all
nineteenth-century didactic compositions for the oboe,
arranged chronologically, according to publication date
(or, in cases of unpublished music, to estimated date of
composition). This Table is presented in the Appendix.
Subsequent reissues (especially translations) of titles are
listed separately, when there is sufficient information.
Some of the material here, ranging from tutors and treatises
to concert études, is little known and is systematically
presented here for the first time; this fills an important gap
in scholarship, as it seems that there is no such published
research exploring the voluminous oboe study material of
the nineteenth century.
Chapter 2 presents and analyses the most important editions
of the 48 Studies, both historical and modern. The first part of
this chapter deals with the discovery of the first edition and
the establishing of the date of first publication. Johann Peter
Spehr is identified as the first publisher and 1837 as the date
of their first edition. Two surviving copies of this edition have
been discovered, one of them at the British Library. The
analysis that follows aims to show that modern assumptions
concerning the date and publisher of the work’s first edition,
as well as the dates of almost all of the nineteenth-century
editions, need to be reconsidered. The argument is based
mainly on information found in nineteenth-century German
music journals and music catalogues and from a detailed
examination of the history of the different publishing houses
involved. The author then proceeds to trace the subsequent
editorial history of the work, presenting all editions that have
survived with a brief discussion of their history and function.
The discussion is completed by a comparison of the most
important editions in use today, with reference to reprints
and other editions of lesser importance. The results of this
comparison support the argument that no contemporary
edition is based on the original Spehr edition and that most of
the currently-used editions can be described as ‘performing’
or ‘interpretative’, lacking any information about their
sources; furthermore, that modern performance editions show
several differences with the sources they claim to be based
on – and even between them – thus revealing confusion in
their aims and treatment of their sources. Later editions
present discrepancies with their supposed sources that cannot
be justified simply in terms of interpretation or correction of
earlier misprints, but must be connected to the prevailing
editorial and performing fashions of the period. The result is
that users of these editions, whether students, teachers,
performers or scholars, are not informed about the relevant
sources and editorial policies. The absence up to now of the
original edition is responsible, according to the author’s
opinion, for most of the problems that have occurred.
Hassiotis presents a new edition of Ferling’s Studies
(Chapter 3), following the Spehr edition as closely as
possible. It is accompanied by a critical report listing all
the differences that occur between the major existing
sources, and providing advice on performing and
interpretational aspects. By combining a scholarly
editorial approach with a performer’s insight, he offers a
fascinating critical perspective on the Ferling Studies.
Chapter 4 focuses on several performance-practice issues
that critically-aware musicians will inevitably face when
37
playing them. The discussion follows modern scholarly
work in the discipline of performance practice and also
draws on material from well-known nineteenth-century
treatises and methods such as those by Czerny, Hummel
and Spohr, as well as from a significant number of lesserknown oboe methods from Germany, France, Italy and
England. General issues like style, tempo, articulation,
phrasing, vibrato and period instrument technical details are
investigated in the context of nineteenth-century musical
style. Performance issues are therefore closely related to the
new critical edition and connections are made between the
role of the performer and teacher and that of an editor.
Finally the thesis raises a number of questions; one of these
is how students, teachers and advanced performers should
now approach the 48 Studies. Should they be performed in
recitals? Should they be treated by a teacher or performer
in the same way as conventional repertoire? As musical
pieces from a specific historical context, we must be aware
of many of the period’s conventions regarding instrumental
playing, and must approach them as other performing
repertoire (particularly if they are to be prepared with the
prospect of being played in public). Does this, however,
mean that their use should be limited to students of more
advanced instrumental technique? This may be a dilemma,
and Hassiotis suggests that we ought perhaps to look for
other pedagogical pieces closer to modern performance
ideals for technical development, which are composed
specifically to address the demands of more modern music
and contemporary playing styles. Or, to put it another way
round, that we ought to use these studies as didactic
material that focuses more on the understanding and
development of musical and stylistic issues (for example,
choice of tempo and character of a piece) rather than
technical flexibility (such as finger speed and staccato).
The present edition is, to my knowledge, the first critical
edition and also the first modern one based on the original
1837 edition; it is also one of the few (if any) critical editions
of any pedagogical composition for oboe and, perhaps, one
of the few scholarly studies on pedagogical compositions for
woodwind instruments. It provides a valuable contribution to
the relatively few but growing number of critical editions of
historical oboe pieces (see for example the Urtext editions
of Schumann’s Romances Op.94 by Henle, Mozart’s
Oboe Quartet by Fuzeau as well as his Concerto in C by
Bärenreiter). The table of nineteenth-century pedagogical
repertoire for oboe from Europe and the USA, 1695–1900,
included in the appendix of the thesis, together with a copy
of the original 1837 edition of the Studies, is undoubtedly a
38
useful resource. Similarly there is an extended bibliography
that contains, inter alia, dictionaries and other reference
material, catalogues of compositions and music journals of
the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, books and articles on
performance and editorial practice, pedagogical musical
genres. The fact that the book also includes all available
information concerning the remainder of Ferling’s
compositional output, will be of assistance to further
research or performance of his other works.
Most intriguing are the questions this thesis poses about
whether studies from Op.31 (and indeed, whether didactic
material in general) might be performed and about the
tensions that may arise between an historically-informed
approach to performance practice and the value of the
studies as pedagogical material for oboists today.
Helena Gaunt
MUSIC REVIEW
Angelicus: Franck Douvin
United Music Publishers £12.99
Franck Douvin, born in the historic town of Troyes in
North-East France in 1964, first studied as a flautist, latterly
specialising in composition. Most of his compositional
output to date has focussed upon his own instrument,
Angelicus being his first composition for oboe.
Composed in October 2006, it is a concise work of just
31/2 minutes duration for solo oboe. It is a piece of great
contrasts with highly agitated sections, consisting of fast
rhythmic and angular flourishes, set next to passages of
tranquillity and stillness, with expressive conjunct melodies
of sustained rhythms. The melodic line throughout is
fragmented, broken up by frequent brief moments of
reflective silence; both these and the rhythms are precisely
calculated. Slight tempo changes, however, give a feeling
of flexibility and a sense of improvisation. It is interesting
to note that Douvin chooses not to utilise the higher
register of the instrument and only extends to G#
(11/2 octaves above middle C), with much of the florid
passages revolving around the lower tessitura. Performance
instructions are plentiful and well considered and
dynamics vividly contrasting. This is an evocative,
atmospheric and expressive piece making an interesting
addition to the unaccopmanied oboe repertoire.
Sarah McClure
Notices
Benslow Music Courses
25th - 27th May: Oboe Extravaganza
with Andrew Knights and lan Clarke (piano).
Andrew Knights, author of The Oboist's Practice
Companion, helps participants with everything from reeds
to practice routines and warm-ups. There will be ensemble
sessions and opportunities to work with pianist.
30th Jul y - 3rd August: International O boe Summe r School
with Gareth Hulse and Joe Sanders. Course for players of
an advanced standard.
28th - 30th September: Woodwind Ensembles
with Caroline Franklyn and Stephanie Reeve.
Intermediate standard and above.
All courses take place at Benslow Music, Hitchin,
Hertfordshire SG4 9RB [email protected]
01462 459446 www.benslowmusic.org
4th - 11 t h August 201 2 at Malvern College:
Malvern Winds Course for players of diploma standard, and advanced
and intermediate levels, with a minimum standard of grade 6. Players
will be organised into set-repertoire graded groups, and music sent
out in advance for personal practice. These pre-formed groups will
receive tuition throughout the week, and some of the music will feature
in an end-of-week concert.
27th - 28th October in Birnam:
A hugely popular weekend course in the dramatic 'Macbeth' countryside
of Perthshire.
Further details of both from
www.cuillinsoundmusic.co.uk/CuillinSound/Malvern_Summer_Course
New Players Welcome at Occasional Orchestras in Lincolnshire:
Amateur orchestral musicians are invited to join two 'occasional
orchestras' which have been formed . Rehearsals under conductor
Mary Michell take place on selected Saturday mornings in Grantham and
in Nettleham, near Li ncoln . All run from 9.30am to 12.30pm and the
attendance fee is £7 per session. Players interested in joining either group
should contact soundLI NCS - Lincolnshire Music Development Agency.
For details call 01522 510073, e-mail [email protected]
or visit www.soundlincs.org
Double Reed News 99 I Sununet· 2012
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).
Gouge and Profiler Blades Re-sharpened. Prompt Service.
New Oboe Reed Gougers available.
Tony Spicer Tel: 01903 892098 Email: [email protected]
Rigoutat Classic Oboe for sale (341AB).
Needs servicing hence price £1,800 (Howarth valued it at £3-3.5k).
Please contact Sonja Tel: 07899 087165 for photos or more details.
Howarth S3 Oboe, No 1709. Conservatoire open-holed model with semi-automatic
octaves, silver plated keywork, together with original case and cover.
Purchased new from Howarths in 1962 by the present owner and little used.
In good playable condition but would need servicing. £1,000.
Tel: 01487 841 631 or email [email protected] for photos.
Starter Bassoon for sale – good tone and condition. Reliable, used since 1984.
Hsinghai K117, hard case, crook, reed case, spike and neck strap. £650 ono.
Caroline Tel: 01386 438295.
You need some beautiful reeds? Learn to make your own!
Foolproof method, great cane plus world-class friendly help from Sien Vallis-Davies:
www.OpenAcademy.info
Howarth S20 Oboe. 4 years old. Recently serviced.
VGC £1,400. Tel: 01964 536427.
Billerbeck Oboe, Oboe d'amore, Cor Anglais and Bass Oboe Reeds
www.billerbeckoboereeds.co.uk Tel: 01343 835430.
Ward and Winterbourn covered hole TW1A Oboe. Good student model
in sound condition. Price by negotiation, including 2nd hand reed-making
equipment and sheet music if desired. Seller based in London.
Contact: [email protected] Tel: 07984 093004.
Howarth S5 Oboe for sale. Excellent condition, fully serviced £3,500.
Contact Joel Raymond Tel: 07866 404205.
40
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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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necessarily imply that such opinions are in agreement with the Society. Articles submitted for publication in
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The British Double Reed Society is a
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established to further the interests of all
involved with the oboe and bassoon.
The BDRS acts as a national forum
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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.
41
Index to Advertisers
Britannia Reeds ...........................................................................................................................23
Paul Carrington ...........................................................................................................................32
David Cowdy ..............................................................................................................................32
Da Vinci Oboes...........................................................................................................................17
Forton Music ...............................................................................................................................31
Fox UK .............................................................................................................Outside back cover
Gloucestershire Double Reed Day...............................................................................................31
Pete Haseler/Gregson Knives.......................................................................................................32
Howarth London..................................................................................................Inside front cover
K.Ge Reeds ...................................................................................................................................5
F. Lorée ................................................................................................................Inside back cover
Andrew May ...............................................................................................................................32
Medir SL......................................................................................................................................26
Oboereedsdirect..........................................................................................................................32
Püchner/Jonathan Small/Graham Salvage/T.W. Howarth .............................................................23
Jessica Rance...............................................................................................................................28
Regis Records ................................................................................................................................8
Torda Reeds.................................................................................................................................32
United Music Publishers..............................................................................................................26
Ian White ....................................................................................................................................31
Wonderful Winds ........................................................................................................................32
Woodford Reeds ..........................................................................................................................32
Woodwind & Co. ........................................................................................................................28
42
HAUTBOIS
OBOE
HAUTBOIS D'AMOUR • COR ANGLAIS • HAUTBOIS BARYTON • HAUTBOIS PICCOLO
DE GOURDON. 48 rue de Rome 75008 PARIS France
Tel. : +33 (0)1 44 70 79 55 Fax: +33 (0)1 44 70 00 40
E-mail : [email protected] www.loree-paris.com
For information on all Fox
products, the range of Double
Reed Accessories from other
manufacturers or to arrange an
appointment, please contact
Tom Simmonds at
Fox UK
Sole UK agent for
Fox Bassoons and Oboes
82 Westgate
Grantham
Lincolnshire NG31 6LE, UK
Tei/Fax +44 (0) 1476 570700
[email protected]
www.foxproducts.co. uk

The magazine of the British Double Reed Society

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