Adventures of Cooper and his oboe, Barbara.

I worked in the Douglass Listening Room this summer, which is part of the University of Oregon Knight Library. One interesting recording I stumbled across, was John de Lancie playing the Bach B minor Mass with the Bach Chorale of Bethlehem under the Baton of Ifor Jones.

It is generally agreed that LPs sound better than CDs, and HERE is a good explanation why. But this was most plainly obvious listening to this recording. The aria Qui Sedes in the Gloria of the Mass with Contralto was GORGEOUS. In fact, his sound was so fat, round, and full, I couldn’t tell if he was actually playing an oboe d’amore (as it is written for) or if he was playing oboe! The only other example I have heard JdL sound so fat and thick is on the Philadelphia Woodwind Quintet CD on the Barber Summer Music. It took me three or four listens to confirm that I believe he was indeed playing oboe (the LP jacket says “John de Lancie – Oboe”). Using the Audio/Video editing room in the library, I converted this aria to CD using some very fine sound equipment, but those overtones were lost in the digitalization. The CD ended up with the same JdL tone that one hears on any other JdL CD (which is still more preferable to my ear than anything else I hear nowadays).

All of these listening experiences continuously make me wonder what JdL really sounded like. Listening to this recording, certainly turned on a lightbulb for me though.

I wonder how many oboists nowadays who classify JdL’s tone as “bright” and “buzzy” have listened to him on LP.

Well, I received the XL a month or so ago, and just as soon as I’ve finally begun to get comfortable with it, it appears I might be selling it. I’ve been offered to buy my friend’s 2 month old Hiniker oboe, complete with gold keys and a left hand C#, made of 70-year old grenadilla wood given to Wally Bhosys from the Loree company. How often do you get offered a brand new instrument made out of 70-year-old Grenadilla wood? Not to mention a fantastic oboe?

Actually, I’ve been coveting this instrument since the first time I tried it, and simply put, it’s the finest oboe I’ve ever played. Several of my other oboe friends agree; It’s the finest oboe THEY’VE ever played. So despite how much I love the XL, a once in a lifetime opportunity has landed in my lap!

I tried an oboe today that we were trying to find out the Loree serial number, and the person said “Oh, I think it’s a HQ Loree.”

Well, I took a really good look at it, and what I saw floored me. it said “IIΩ72″ (I can’t remember the number.) It wasn’t a Q, it was an OMEGA. II OMEGA number number.

Does anyone know what this means?

In searching for some information on reeds, I found this website again about reed reviews, and lo and behold, it rated my reeds! The good news is that I haven’t gotten something less than “Pretty good”, but I found one interesting comment interesting.

Dutchy of the oboe Bboard and a repeat customer made a comment of how my reeds have been somewhat different over 3 orders of reeds, and looking back, I’d certainly have to agree with that. In fact, I think my reeds have gotten better over time. I recent sent some off to Jillian Camwell, and am a bit curious as to what she might have to say of my most recent batch. Hopefully she’ll agree with me that they’re getting better.

One big difference is the change of oboe. I went from Barbara the Royal who was a very reed-friendly oboe and a bit flat in pitch thus requiring sharper reeds (but not as refined reeds), to a DM Bore Loree, to finally a CI Series Loree which needs REALLY refined, clean scraped reeds. Any flaw in the reed and the CI Loree magnifies the issue ten-fold. This made me become a better reedmaker, and a better oboist.

It did make me think, do professional reedmakers “evolve”, or do they just keep pumping out the same reeds? I recently received a bunch of reeds from Mr. Weber as a gift to help me prepare for some major work I was working on, and they were unlike anything I had ever seen from him. Totally different scrape; windows started way high, very short heart, and longer tips. We talked a long time about why he sent me the reeds (which is a different blog post), but the point was that he was experimenting and evolving his reeds, even after making commercial reeds for decades!

Anyways, I just thought it was an interesting thing to ponder.

I’m not sure why, but I went through my stockpile of good reeds for the school year, and they all felt they needed the same adjustment.

• Clearer definition in the bottom corners of the tip (along the integration between the tip and the lay) to focus vibrations inward toward the center of the reed.
• Dusting along the sides of the spine in the heart to create more vibrations through the center of the reed.

One adjustment kills vibrations (the definition of the bottom corners of the tip) while the other produces more vibrations. I’m not sure why, but one hypothesis is that as I’m getting in shape more, My mouth is playing closer to the tip of the reed, which is changing the way I want my reeds balanced. Another hypothesis is that the weather is changing.

I’ve been playing on my Howarth XL quite a bit, and finally decided to take some major plunges. I pulled out the fingernail polish and started painting some toneholes.

• Middle and high C is pitched very high, so I filled that baby in a lot.
• Middle E is screaming high.
• Half hole Db, D, and Eb are all very high, so I started filling in the half-hole tone hole.

Well, if it doesn’t work out, there’s always fingernail polish remover!

UPDATE: I fixed the middle high C by fitting a cork washer into the bowl where the tonehole ends. On howarths, there is a little crater at the top of the tonehole on C, which makes this possible. Vwa La!