[Dixielandjazz] Oboes, real and sampled

[Bill Gunter]

Listmates,

Need oboes? Can't find an oboe player? No problem . . . just midi 'em up 
from a keyboard. Sampled sounds are getting more and more lifelike and to my 
ears the oboe is one of the cleanest midi sounds around.

I know, I know -- this is heresy, and totally beside the point, but when the 
score calls for an oboe and there isn't one around . . .

There is no question that the oboe is one of the most important instruments 
in a symphony orchestra. As a matter of fact, symphonies usually tune up at 
the start of a concert by listening to a solo A (without vibrato) played by 
the oboe . . . that's how "clean" a tone the oboe produces.

You know, in the classical piece "Pines of Rome" (Respighi) there is a 
section that calls for bird calls. Birds are notorious at not being able to 
read music and the score actually lists the recording to be played during 
the performce. There are instruments that can emulate bird calls but 
Respighi chose to go with the "sampled" sound.  Why not a "sampled" oboe if 
a real oboist isn't available?

Imagine a symphonic performance - 75 musicians on the stage - all the reeds 
grouped over there in a little clump (but no oboe player). An oboe passage 
comes up and a keyboard player over in the percussion sections plays the 
bit. I guarantee you that the audience will NOT suspect the substitution. 
You could even get a clarinet player to hold an oboe to complete the 
illusion. You can even make the sound actually emanate from the woodwind 
section of the orchestra. Trust me, no one would know. Hell, you could 
probably even fool the conductor if he wasn't in on the gag.

The piano player in our band has a spiffy keyboard that produces more sounds 
than simply the piano. The vibes sound is particularly lifelike from his 
keyboard. You can even hear the "knock" when the mallet strikes the note.  
Now he doesn't play any instruments that use mallets but that doesn't stop 
him from sounding like one!

Respectfully submitted,

Bill "This is only partly tongue in cheek" Gunter
jazzboard at hotmaillcom

Bill
>From: Steve barbone <barbonestreet at earthlink.net>
>To: DJML <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
>Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Oboe - King of Reeds.
>Date: Sat, 12 Feb 2005 10:14:46 -0500
>
>OFF TOPOIC - NOT OKOM - DELETE NOW IF MUSICALLY LIMITED TO OKOM
>
>However, a fascinating read about the king of reeds. Wish I was younger
>cause I'd polish up my Oboe skills and apply for one of those 8 vacant
>principal oboe chairs at various US Symphonies. What the hell, they pay in
>excess of $200,000 a year for an ill wind that nobody blows good. ;-) VBG
>
>Randy Fendrick, do you double on Oboe? L.A. and San Diego Symphonies are in
>need out you way.
>
>BTW, if you read the article, it will open your eyes to some of the current
>classical music scene, as well as to the difficulties involved in blowing
>Oboe. It is IMO, the most difficult instrument to play well.
>
>Cheers,
>Steve Barbone
>
>
>February 12, 2005 - NY TIMES - By DANIEL J. WAKIN
>
>Suddenly, 'Oboist Wanted' Signs Are Everywhere
>
>Where have all the oboes gone?
>
>More precisely, where have the principal oboists in the nation's leading
>symphony orchestras gone?
>
>The job - a critical one in any orchestra - is open, or about to be, at the
>Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Los Angeles
>Philharmonic, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and the San Diego Symphony.
>
>In the latest departure, Joseph Robinson said this week that he will retire
>as principal oboist of the New York Philharmonic, one of the most visible
>orchestra jobs in the country, after 28 years.
>
>"This is a conservatory oboist's dream, to see so many openings at the same
>time, with all the trickle-down effects of that," Mr. Robinson said.
>
>But it can be an orchestra executive's nightmare. As John Mack, the dean of
>American oboists, put it, "People are running around like headless chickens
>saying, 'Where are we going to find people?' "
>
>The lack of a permanent, full-time principal may not be readily obvious to
>the concertgoer, accustomed to hearing the orchestra tune to the oboist's
>pitch, a plaintive A. But the instrument has some of the most prominent 
>solo
>material in symphonic music.
>
>Observers of the oboe world - which would mean just about no one but 
>oboists
>- say the sudden raft of openings appears on the surface to be a confluence
>of health problems and retirements.
>
>But there is also a generational change under way, as the recent musical
>descendants of the father of American oboe playing, Marcel Tabuteau, who
>died in 1966, leave the scene.
>
>Tabuteau played in the Philadelphia Orchestra from 1915 to 1954. Through 
>his
>teaching, he is universally credited with having created the American sound
>and style of playing the oboe, a notoriously difficult woodwind instrument,
>with its incessant hunger for carefully whittled double reeds, their two
>faces lashed together, and its tricky fingering mechanism. As Tabuteau's
>legacy recedes, the latest generation of players lacks distinction, some
>suggest, slowing the process of filling all the openings.
>
>Nevertheless, the prospects have up-and-coming oboe stars salivating.
>
>"It's like a gift from heaven," said John Snow, an acting co-principal
>oboist of the Minnesota Orchestra and a highly regarded player considered
>ripe for a bigger job. "It's not going to happen again like this." Mr. Snow
>said he might shoot for the Cleveland and New York openings.
>
>The chair, obviously, will never go empty. Associate oboists, substitutes
>and acting principals fill in, and they are generally superlative 
>musicians.
>A number of the orchestras involved have finalists for the job or are in 
>the
>middle of auditions. But some auditions have been dragging on for years. 
>The
>Cleveland Orchestra, for example, has been without a tenured principal
>oboist since Mr. Mack retired in 2001.
>
>Over the long term, musicians say, the void can affect an orchestra's 
>sound,
>internal culture and morale.
>
>Changing any principal position can be subtly disruptive in an organism
>whose artistic expression depends on years of playing together.
>Personalities and musical profiles must mesh. The oboist is particularly
>important, and is often seen as the pre-eminent woodwind voice (though
>clarinetists and flutists may dispute that judgment).
>
>"They are the principal fiddle of the wind section," said Paavo Jarvi, the
>music director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. "There is a musical 
>and
>moral authority that comes with the position." The principal oboist is 
>often
>seen as "the second concertmaster of the orchestra," he said.
>
>The prominence of the oboe, one of the earliest winds to join the 
>orchestra,
>stems from tradition, the role of the principal player and the vividness 
>and
>intensity of the instrument's sound.
>
>Mr. Mack recalled that when he joined the Cleveland Orchestra in 1965, its
>conductor, the autocratic George Szell, leaned over his music stand one day
>and said, "Mr. Mack, you are the leader of the woodwinds."
>
>Delaying the appointment of principal oboists also delays the learning
>curve.
>
>"Being a solo oboe player, you are basically playing a concerto every
>night," Mr. Jarvi said. "A new person will have an incredibly difficult 10
>years in front of them, because everything is new, everything is exposed.
>You have to have nerves of steel."
>
>Given the pressure, it is remarkable that many principal oboists stay 
>around
>for several decades.
>
>Mr. Robinson of the New York Philharmonic said that at 64, he "didn't want
>to get into a position where people were whispering I should leave 
>already."
>He said he did not have the virtuosic reflexes he once had, adding, "Some
>things were easier 20 years ago."
>
>Elsewhere, the principal oboist in Los Angeles, David Weiss, retired in
>September 2003. Richard Johnson, the Cincinnati Symphony's principal for 30
>years, has been out most of this season with health problems, and he plans
>to take over the vacant second oboist job and its relatively lower level of
>pressure next season, Mr. Jarvi said.
>
>In Chicago, Alex Klein, perhaps the most brilliant player of the younger
>generation, developed focal dystonia in his left hand, a condition that
>involves a loss of motor control, and had to leave in December 2003. 
>William
>Bennett, in San Francisco, contracted cancer of the tonsils, but he is
>expected to return next season, said Rebecca Edelson, the orchestra's
>personnel manager. San Diego is asking its acting principal oboist to take
>part in new auditions, the music director, Jahja Ling, said.
>
>In orchestras where there are long delays in filling the job, officials say
>it is a matter of finding exactly the right fit - not just personality, not
>just technical proficiency, but a match of the orchestra's sound and
>tradition. Since Mr. Mack retired from the Cleveland Orchestra, one
>potential successor departed after a two-year probationary periods, and
>another is about to.
>
>There is worry that despite legions of technically proficient players -
>scores of them apply for openings - the pool of oboists with the right 
>stuff
>to be principals has shrunk. Professionals agree that the sheer number of
>solid players has never been higher, although conservatories tend to turn
>out relatively few oboists, given the instrument's difficulty. The
>International Double Reed Society said its membership includes about 1,600
>to 1,800 American oboists, both amateur and professional, and the College
>Music Society Directory lists more than 350 oboe teachers and faculty
>members at universities and conservatories.
>
>"In any generation there are only a certain number of people who have all
>the requisites for this type of position," Mr. Robinson said. "They must be
>imaginative, persuasive, artistic personalities."
>
>But some oboists see a darker motive, suggesting that orchestras try to 
>save
>money by keeping permanent chairs open and saving the benefits and the huge
>sums that can come with a principal position. Principal oboists, precisely
>because of their centrality in the mix, are among the highest-paid members
>of the nation's major orchestras, where they can earn around $200,000,
>roughly twice the orchestras' base pay.
>
>"I think it's kind of morally wrong to ask people to train for the Olympics
>again and again and then not fill it," said Elaine Douvas, one of two
>principal oboists in the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and a veteran 
>teacher.
>"There are definitely enough intelligent, well-trained, technically
>accomplished players out there who can fill the openings."
>
>
>
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