IDRS OFFICERS. AT LARGE MEMBERS Alan Goodman PO Box 4374 Bedford, WY Bus: (805)

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1 Vol. 27 No. 3

2 IDRS OFFICERS PRESIDENT Terry Ewell Chair-Department of Music Towson University 8000 York Road Towson, MD Bus: (410) FAX: (410) ST VICE PRESIDENT Nancy Ambrose King 3019 School of Music University of Michigan Ann Arbor, MI Bus: (734) ND VICE PRESIDENT Stéphane Lévesque 127 Second Avenue #3 Ottawa, Ontario K1S 2H4 CANADA Fax: SECRETARY Martin Schuring Arizona State University School of Music-0405 Tempe, AZ Bus: Fax: PAST PRESIDENT Marc Fink School of Music University of Wisconsin-Madison 455 North Park Street Madison, WI Bus: (608) FAX: (608) AT LARGE MEMBERS Alan Goodman PO Box 4374 Bedford, WY Bus: (805) Carolyn Hove 1193 East Menlo Drive Altadena CA Bus: EXECUTIVE SECRETARY/TREASURER EXHIBIT COORDINATOR Norma R. Hooks 2423 Lawndale Road Finksburg, MD Office: (410) FAX: (410) MUSIC INDUSTRY LIAISON Larry Festa Fox Products Corporation PO Box 347 South Whitley, IN Bus: (260) Fax: (260) BASSOON EDITOR Ronald James Klimko 1458 Divot Lane P.O. Box 986 McCall, ID Bus: (208) OBOE EDITOR Daniel J. Stolper 7 Hermosillo Lane Palm Desert CA Bus: (760) Fax: (760) stolper@dc.rr.com IDRS ONLINE PUBLICATIONS EDITOR Yoshiyuki (Yoshi) Ishikawa University of Colorado at Boulder College of Music 301 UBC Boulder, CO Bus: (303) ishikawa@colorado.edu ARCHIVIST Michael J. Burns School of Music P.O. Box University of NC at Greensboro Greensboro, NC Bus: (336) FAX: (336) mjburns@uncg.edu FERNAND GILLET-HUGO FOX COM- PETITION BASSOON CHAIR Douglas E. Spaniol Jordan College of Fine Arts Butler University 4600 Sunset Avenue Indianapolis, IN Bus: (317) Fax: (317) dspaniol@butler.edu OBOE CHAIR Nancy Ambrose King 3019 School of Music University of Michigan Ann Arbor, MI Bus: (734) Fax: (603) nak@umich.edu LEGAL COUNSEL Jacob Schlosser 4937 West Broad Street Columbus, OH Bus: (614) FAX: (614)

3 THE DOUBLE REED Quarterly Journal of the INTERNATIONAL DOUBLE REED SOCIETY VOL. 27 NO. 3 Ronald Klimko and Daniel Stolper, Editors 2004 International Double Reed Society ISSN Designed by Edward Craig Baltimore, MD U.S.A. Printed by Falls Printing Company Idaho Falls, ID U.S.A.

4 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS ON THE COVER: IDRS Honorary Member Norman Herzberg and machinist Gary Carnan stand proudly in front of the Herzberg Profiler/ Shaper system. A full review of this new profiler is featured in this issue of The Double Reed. Table of Contents IDRS Honorary Members List th Annual International Double Reed Society Conference, University Of Texas, Austin, Texas, June 4-8, The 2005 Fernand Gillet - Hugo Fox Oboe Competition Application IDRS- 14 Message from the President Terry Ewell Report of the Executive Secretary/Treasurer Norma Hooks IDRS Sponsor-a-Member Program Nancy Ambrose King IDRS Associate Members CURRENT EVENTS Melbourne: IDRS Conference 2004: Daily Reports Harold Emert The 2004 Fernand Gillet - Hugo Fox Competition Doug Spaniol Memories from IDRS 2004, Melbourne, Australia Photos by Paul Blackman Oboists in the News Daniel Stolper Bassoonists News of Interest Ronald Klimko The Eighth Annual Lucarelli Oboe Master Class: A Participant s Perspective Christian M. Carillo A Bassoon Course in Chile Christopher Weait The 10th Annual Northwest Oboe Seminar Victoria Racz Obituaries: Philip West, James R. Mitchell, Perry Bauman

5 THE DOUBLE REED Innovations of the Herzberg Profiler/Shaper, the Symmetrical Machine Yoshiyuki (Yoshi) Ishikawa Reminiscences of Leonard Sharrow (August 5, August 9, 2004) Richard Schaul-Yoder, Ronald Klimko The Vade-Mecum of the Oboist: Albert Andraud s Great Anthology; Content and Historical Perspective, Part II Charles-David Lehrer Tributes to Maurice Allard Charles Holdeman, Ronald Klimko, Marc Vallon An Internet Interview with Dennis Michel Ronald Klimko In Memoriam of Jiří Tancibudek Miroslav Hošek An Interview with Yoshiyuki Ishikawa, Webmaster of 93 Terry Ewell An Interview with Alex Klein Michele Fiala A New Shape for the Bassoon s Bocal Developed by Using Fluid Dynamics Roger Grundmann, translation by Laszlo Szeucs Henri Brod: Oboist, Maker, Inventor, Composer (13th June th April 1839), Part I of II Andre Lardot, translation by Geoffrey Burgess A Bassoon Lite, Please.War is Swell Alan Goodman High Pains for Bassoon Bernard Garfi eld REVIEWS Book Review: Frans Vester: W.A. Mozart: On the Performance of the Works for Wind Instruments (Concertos, Divertimentos, Serenades, Chamber Music) Michael Finkelman New Bassoon Compact Discs: A Review Ronald Klimko Guest Bassoon Music Reviews Shelley Unger Contributing Members Advertisers Index

6 4 HONORARY MEMBERS Günter Angerhöfer (1926) Lady Evelyn Barbirolli (1911) Gwydion Brooke (1912) Lewis Hugh Cooper (1920) Bernard Garfield (1924) Bert Gassman (1911) Harold Goltzer (1915) Ralph Gomberg (1921) Honorary Members George F. Goslee (1916) E. Earnest Harrison (1918) Norman H. Herzberg (1916) John Mack (1927) John Minsker (1912) Ivan Pushechnikov (1918) Wayne Rapier (1930) Mordechai Rechtman (1926) Lowry Riggins (1930) Roland Rigoutat (1930) Ray Still (1920) Laila Storch (1921) K. David van Hoesen (1926) William Waterhouse (1931) President s Award: Peter Klatt (Industry Liason), Jim Prodan (Archivist) Deceased Honorary Members Maurice Allard ( ) Philip Bate ( ) Robert Bloom ( ) Victor Bruns ( ) Donald Christlieb ( ) John de Lancie ( ) Robert De Gourdon ( ) Ferdinand Del Negro ( ) Willard S. Elliot ( ) Fernand Gillet ( ) Leon Goossens, CBE ( ) Cecil James ( ) Benjamin Kohon ( ) Simon Kovar ( ) Dr. Paul Henry Lang ( ) Lyndesay Langwill ( ) Alfred Laubin ( ) Stephen Maxym ( ) Robert M. Mayer ( ) W. Hans Moennig ( ) Frederick Moritz ( ) Karl Öhlberger ( ) Fernand Oubradous ( ) Frank Ruggieri ( ) Sol Schoenbach ( ) Leonard Sharrow ( ) Jerry Sirucek ( ) Louis Skinner ( ) Robert Sprenkle ( )

7 The Double Reed, Vol. 27 No. 3 THE DOUBLE REED <--Return to Table of Contents5

8 The Double Reed, Vol. 27 No. 3 6 IDRS 2005, THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS, AUSTIN TEXAS, USA <--Return to Table of Contents

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10 8 IDRS 2005, THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS, AUSTIN TEXAS, USA

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12 10 FERNAND GILLET - HUGO FOX 2005 OBOE COMPETITION, AUSTIN, TEXAS, USA

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14 12 FERNAND GILLET - HUGO FOX 2005 OBOE COMPETITION, AUSTIN, TEXAS, USA

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16 14 IDRS WWW IDRS WWW Home page upgrade

17 THE DOUBLE REED 15 Message from the President Terry B. Ewell Towson, Maryland MELBOURNE CONFERENCE What a wonderful treat it was for me to attend the 33rd annual International Double Reed Society conference in Melbourne, Australia. I was tremendously blessed by the opportunity. First, it was great to hear some of Australia s best double reed musicians perform. Certainly Australia has fine musicians who would be respected anywhere in the world. Second, I treasure the new Australian friends I made during my brief stay. Although the winter winds blew violently, it could not extinguish the warmth of our fellowship. Third, I managed to drive the Melbourne roads without an accident. I did have several interesting learning experiences, however such as discovering which side the turn indicator is on, figuring how to go through the traffic circles, and learning that the number in the red circle is the speed limit not the street or route number. Needless to say my driving experiences just added to the adventure! We are all saddened with the news of Jiří Tancibudek s passing. The legacy of this artist and outstanding oboe teacher was in evidence through his students and colleagues at the conference. In many ways the conference was a celebration of his remarkable life through fine performances, master classes, and many other activities. The Melbourne conference did not come about without the hard work and dedication of many people. I want to thank hosts Anne Gilby and Peter Handsworth for their many hours organizing the conference. I also recognize the Australian Artistic Committee with Anne Gilby and Peter Handsworth, Paul Blackman, Gerrit Bon, Antony Chesterman, Wendy Cooper, Jeffrey Crellin, and Nick Deutsch; and the North American Artistic Committee with Nancy Ambrose King and Yoshi Ishikawa. Many others deserve our heartfelt thanks as well: Stephen Moschner, Linda Rohrs, Norma Hooks, Andrew Berrington, Belinda Edwards, Jenny Lowe, and Doug Spaniol. The conference was splendidly organized. Congratulations to all! LEONARD SHARROW It is with great regret that I learned of the loss of one of our Honorary Members and a great colleague to the International Double Reed Society. Like many in the Society, some of my favorite recordings featured the performances of Leonard Sharrow. His consummate musicality and beautiful tone were an inspiration to many others and me. I will always treasure the time I spent with him at the Aspen Music Festival in 1977 and later during the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra tour in Hong Kong in the early 1980s. We shall miss this prince of a person and king among bassoonists. Terry Ewell and Leonard Sharrow at the IDRS 2001 conference in West Virginia. Mark your calendars for these upcoming IDRS Conferences: University of Texas, Austin, Texas, June 4-8, Hosts Rebecca Henderson and Kristin Wolfe Jensen. Ball State University, Indiana, dates forthcoming, Host Keith Sweger.

18 16 REPORT FROM THE EXECUTIVE SECRETARY/TREASURER Report from the Executive Secretary/Treasurer Norma R. Hooks Finksburg, Maryland HOWDY PARDNERS! I just returned from a trip to Austin, Texas and I m already really excited about our upcoming conference in June. Our hosts, Rebecca Henderson and Kristin Wolf Jensen, are two of the most competent, gracious ladies you could ever meet. The conference is shaping up to be a real winner! You can check out the latest news at their website, Be sure to mark your calendars! This conference has a different starting time than any we ve had before. It will begin on Saturday morning, June 4. This will give us an entire weekend, as well as three week days, for music making and partying! Speaking of partying, you won t want to miss the G-E-N-U-I-N-E TEXAS BAR-B-QUE on Sunday night at The Salt Lick. There s an extra charge for transportation and the party, but it s something real Texas you ll want to experience. I got a preview trip while I was there. The setting is spectacular; in the shade of huge live oaks, by the side of a crick (that s creek to some of you) with plenty of room for eating, playing and dancing. The food is melt-in-your-mouth delicious and tastes like MORE! Our hosts are planning a really fun evening!!!! Don t miss it! One of the most unique features of this upcoming conference is an avocational series. They are planning to feature musicians who earn their living in other pursuits. In additions to concerts by these people, they are planning round table discussions on the experiences of the avocational musician. Don t forget that this is the 25th anniversary of our prestigious Fernand Gillet performance competition (now the Fernand Gillet-Hugo Fox Competition). A special series of concerts is planned that will feature past winners of the competition, including our President, Terry Ewell, who was the first competition winner. MELBOURNE 2004, NOW JUST A MEMORY Congratulations to Anne Gilby, Peter Handsworth, Stephan Moshner and the entire committee and staff at Monash University for a memorable conference! Their hospitality and good cheer added to the wonderful performances, master classes and exhibits, and made the conference an outstanding experience. It was so good to attend performances by many Aussie artists which made this conference uniquely their own. We were also treated to performances by artists from all over the world that rounded out the week, making it another unique conference of the International Double Reed Society. It s always a treat to travel the world for our conferences and experience the special qualities of different countries around the globe. ANOTHER GOODBYE TO A SPECIAL PERFORMER, TEACHER, AND FRIEND August 9th marked the passing of one of the giants in the bassoon world, Leonard Sharrow. He had just passed his 89th birthday on August 4. He was one of a handful of bassoonists that many of us grew up listening to, idolizing and trying to imitate. His extensive career spanned 50 years, from being one of the founding members of the NBC Symphony in 1937, to his career as a teacher at Indiana University and his return to playing in the Pittsburgh Symphony in 1977 for another 10 years. Leonard was a strong supporter of the International Double Reed Society and participated in several conferences, sharing his expertise and memories of his long, illustrious career. We will miss his warm smile and accessability to all those who were interested in learning about music and the bassoon. THANK YOUS AND KUDOS TO YOSHI ISHIKAWA & SAXTON ROSE Yoshi and Saxton have spent much time improving our IDRS website. They have also fulfilled one of my greatest wishes for our website. They have created a news section where members can post advanced notice of concerts, recitals and master classes. Won t it be great to be able to actually attend some of these events? Now it s up to all of us to take advantage of this improvement and get the information posted as soon as possible DUES You ll find your 2005 dues notice in your mail box soon. They ll be mailed in early November. Please try your best to pick up the notice and pay it immediately. (I m still getting payment for 2004, and tomorrow is October 1!) Don t forget, our dues have been raised this year. See below. DUES STRUCTURE Regular/Institution... $50 Student... $35 Sustaining... $75 Donor... $150 Patron... $300 Benefactor... $400+

19 THE DOUBLE REED 17 IDRS Sponsor-a-Member Program Nancy Ambrose King Ann Arbor, Michigan The IDRS established a Sponsor-a-Member program in 1995 for the purpose of enabling double reed players from around the world to participate and enjoy the opportunities of membership in our organization through the sponsorship of current members. The primary purpose of the Sponsor-a-Member program is to attract to our society double reed players who because of economic circumstances would not otherwise be able to join the IDRS. This is an important outreach mission of our society. Since the program s inception, sponsored members from the Peoples Republic of China, Vietnam, Lithuania, Ecuador, El Salvador, Romania, Poland, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Ukraine, Tartartstan, Russia, and South Africa have become IDRS members through the generosity of sponsors. An additional aspect of the program has been the exchange of letters and communications between sponsors and new members. In coordination with Norma Hooks, Executive Secretary, I will be pairing sponsors with potential adopted members. IDRS will honor sponsors requests for specific adopted members as well. Anyone may become a sponsor by requesting an adopted member and paying one year s dues for that individual. Sponsors may elect to pay an additional fee for firstclass postage so that publications arrive more promptly. IDRS is thankful to all sponsors who have participated in this worthwhile project in the past, and looks forward to new sponsors becoming active in the program. If you are interested in sponsoring a member, or know of a potential member who needs assistance, please contact me for more information at: Nancy Ambrose King University of Michigan School of Music 1100 Baits Dr. Ann Arbor, MI nak@umich.edu Sheryl Babcock - Romania James Brody - Poland Bill Chinworth - Kazakhstan Heidi DeWally - Argentina Susan Eischeid - Russia Terry Ewell - Poland Marc Fink - Russia Fox Products - Romania, Ukraine Glen Harman - Argentina Norma Hooks - China Yoshi Ishikawa - China Eugene Izotov & Tom Stacy - Russia SPONSORS Carlberg Jones - Mexico Richard Killmer - Russia Nancy Ambrose King - Argentina Ronald Klimko - Czech Republic Edward Knob - Argentina Laurel Kuxhaus - Argentina Stéphane Lévesque - Ukraine Susan Lundberg - Argentina Rebecca Nagel - Argentina Susan Nigro - Italy Isabelle Plaster - Russia Shirley Robertson - Argentina Donna Ronco - Russia David Ross - Argentina Michel Rossart - Argentina Kevin Shackell - Brazil Larry Singer - Russia David Sogg - Argentina Dan Stolper - England Ellen Sudia-Courdron - Russia John Towle - Argentina Chris Weait - Lithuania David Wheeler - Czech Republic Kristina Wright-Peterson - Argentina Associate Members Australasian Double Reed Society (ADRS) British Double Reed Society(BDRS) Finnish Double Reed Society(FDRS) IDRS-Deutschland Netherlands Double Reed Society (NDRG) Japan Bassoon Society Japan Oboe Association Mägyar Fàgottos tarsasag (MAFAT) of Hungary Viennese Oboe Society (Gesellschaft der Freunde der Wiener Oboe) L Association Francaise du Hautbois (French Oboe Society) L Association bassons (French Bassoon Society) FagotClub Nederland

20 18 THE DOUBLE REED Current Events

21 THE DOUBLE REED 19 Melbourne: IDRS Conference 2004: Daily Reports Harold Emert Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - Is it a month or a century since I returned from Down Under and another wonderful and educative IDRS conference? The world being what it is, everyone, or most everyone, thinks about those far away places in cliches as if nothing of importance occurs outside of one s doorstep. On the contrary: Melbourne, AUSTRALIA is a vibrant metropolis displaying the positive signs of this new century - an innocence in the good sense which this observer believes many other places in the world have lost forever. Here s my online diary dispatched by internet during the IDRS 2004 Conference: Day 1: Warning to friends in double reed cyberspace heading to Melbourne: it is cold here so bring your ear muffs, woolen stockings, sweaters, heavy underwear etc. The last time I visited this lovely city was in February or March in 1983 and 1986 and it was hot! Bush fires were breaking out simultaneously in Sydney (1983). Now I need a fireplace to keep me warm. The Conference is being held on a lovely Englishstyle campus which reminds me in some ways of Greensboro, North Carolina. The music department has courses in a fascinating curriculum including an Asian music section, which is a luxury for a visitor coming from where I reside, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. From first looks, it occurs to this observer that many young persons seeking to study music somewhere outside of their home towns might look into Australia as a possible site. Especially my colleagues in Latin America. In fact one observer Ian Mansell (it could only be a contrabassoonist who currently deals with Angels and traumas in people s past lives) believes the new age is coming to this part of the world leaving Uncle Bush and company behind. Who knows? As I landed at Melbourne s international airport an Australian chamber orchestra of the highest quality was playing Mozart on the headset and prior Purcell s Music for the Coronation of Louis 13th (where do you get the music?) for oboe band and others greeted me out of 12 hours plus of darkness on a trip which spread from Rio-Buenos Aires-Auckland to Down Under. I decided to depart Rio via Buenos Aires to Auckland after consulting IDRS Listers, including expert world traveller Delmar Williams (currently returned from Morocco). The airstrip resembled the olden days of travelling by air. No one asked me to remove my shoes, no armed passport control people to greet me, we were even allowed to form line- queues to go to the toilet (I hear it s prohibited on US carriers). No search of my oboes etc. No one treated me as if I was someone who is highly dangerous, at least until the end of my trip. The only interesting moment occurred when this traveller departed the airport (don t bring food --it will Be confiscated). As I told customs people how wonderful it was to return to Australia, some polite young guard called me back for a complete search of everything in both my bags. Fortunately his suspicions that I was a drug carrier were/are totally untrue except for the fact that homeopathic medicines line my pockets. Oh well. It s a long, long ride to the Monash University campus, so take an airport bus. And if you say you are a student you may even pay 20 AUS dollars rather than the higher fee. I am in room 165, a monk s quarters if anyone is looking for me. See you soon? Best wishes, Harold Emert reporting from Down Under Day 2: Dear List, If this brief, brief, brief report tortures you who wanted to attend the Conference, please delete it immediately! The IDRS 2004 is off to a wonderful start in on a university campus in Melbourne which outshines many so-called first world academic institutions. Lots of wonderful performers, good humour but colder ill winds which make me use gloves, a long coat and woolen cap. Reeds are impossible and the instruments fill with water. In any case, we heard last night the most astonishing work for an oboist Diana Doherty, first oboe in the Sydney Symphony, who danced and played--and boy or girl does she play! Like a bird with the Melbourne Symphony composed by an Australian creative genius Ross Edwards. In an interview with the ADRS magazine, the composer confessed to being an ex-oboist who played the oboe for a while but my heart wasn t in it. He says this masterpiece was composed because My wife Helen and I heard some excellent double-reed sounds emanating from a house two doors up our street. Soon afterwards we made the acquaintance of the house s occupants, Diana Doherty and her husband (Swiss) Alexandre Oguey, both of whom had joined the Sydney Symphony as principal oboe and principal cor anglais. So much for the need of grants and commissions to produce new works! This is the best work I ve heard for oboe since the Strauss and Martinu. Also a double concerto for two bassoons and Gordon Hunt s faultless Strauss Concerto for Oboe. I also heard the Canberra Wind Soloists (ww quintet) with arrangements of the Mother Goose Suite, also by a local arranger Richard McIntyre. Much more to report but have to rush out into the CURRENT EVENTS

22 20 MELBOURNE: IDRS CONFERENCE 2004: DAILY REPORTS CURRENT EVENTS cold of sunny Australia. Best wishes, Harold Emert in Melbourne Dear Harold and all, Yes it was a magical experience last night! It put a performance experience on a whole new level where the soloist responded literally to each sections of the orchestra by moving amongst them. For me, time stood still as the work unfolded. Sorry about the weather, Harold - hopefully the warmth of the music more than makes up for it. Cheers, Anne Elizabeth Dear Anne Elizabeth, Even though you could be in the next room or dorm, thanks for your e mail. If you see a bespectacled oboist wearing gloves, a heavy coat and a mask which makes him look like a mugger, that s me enjoying sunny Australia. Tonight s tribute to Heinz Holliger astonished me with my former teacher s works for oboe and bassoon, and the Schumann, Zelenka and Dorati works he so loves. Holligers influence here in Australia seems more widespread than the US, with his students and Thomas Indermuhle and Diana Doherty starring in major orchestras. I also experienced a stunning tribute to Percy Grainger-- with colleagues out of the weird world of alternative music in which I seem to fit in. Aussie Joanne Canon, who looks like an Egyptian Queen, plays a hot Serpentine leather bassoon. Leather bassoon? She told the ADRS magazine that she was inspired by a leather saxophone used locally. Grainger was not only a conservative well-known and beloved Australian composer but an experimenter who anticipated Lutoslawski and the electronic musical workers. I was thrilled the other day by a marching band of under-age bassoonists on campus. I guess the rain drove them away. A personal note: Tonight at the last rehearsal of my Concertino for Violin, Oboe and Orchestra (which is due to be performed at 13:30hs tomorrow, Thursday) someone asked me if the composer was still alive. I think so! Best wishes from Down Under Harold in Melbourne Dear Harold, You wrote: If you see a bespectacled oboist wearing gloves, a heavy coat and a mask which makes him look like a mugger, that s me enjoying sunny Australia. This actually describes many many persons I have met, passed or sat next to at recitals so far! Melbourne is my home town so I am used to the conditions here. It can be quite nice weather-wise at times (trust me). For we here in the Southern Hemisphere though, it is a fabulous experience to have this conference here. By the way, if you get the time or opportunity while you are here, the Percy Grainger Museum attached to Melbourne University which houses all of Percy s weird and wonderful musical inventions is worth a visit. Cheers. Anne Elizabeth Dear Anne Elizabeth, Where are you and what do you look like? Were you at the second concert today by Diana Doherty - this wonderful Australian oboist -playing Bach s G minor Sonata and Paul Stanhope s Äir for oboe and cor anglais as well as Anton Wranitzky s Trio for two oboes and cor anglais? Please identify yourself. Best wishes, Harold in Melbourne Dear List and Anne (my secret er at the IDRS Melbourne conference), As there seems to be at least three persons reading these reports from Down Under IDRS 2004, here s another attempt. Please pardon any inaccuracies as I have to run off to another day at the bassoon and oboes in a few minutes. Thursday evening turned out to be a bassoonists treat with a duel of IDRS Presidents - yes they know how to play not only administer! - Terry Ewell and Yoshi Ishakawa performing the Vanhall Double Concerto. This lovely work was heard two evenings after the Dietter Concerto for 2 bassoons, which was also gloriously performed by John Miller and Gareth Newman. Britain s Nick Daniel, now an active conductor as well as one of the world s outstanding oboists, always brings treats - or special sweets as they say in the Queen s English - to IDRS Conferences. This time it was a concerto composed for him in the UK by a good friend Bedford. Very pastoral, popularesque - almost American gospel like - with the audience asked to hum along at one point and Sir Daniel hitting a high B - yes above the high C! The Quintet by Sir Arthur Bliss is not programmed as much as it should be and Brit oboist Jonathan Small displayed this jewel in all its loveliness. Finally a Latin work on an Anglo-saxon program! Energetically and impeccably performed by Bulgarian bassoonist based in Peru Toma Mihaylov playing a Concerto by A. Nunen Allauca. The conductor was Maestro Steve Ellery, an English musician residing in Japan, who worked in such fine details in my own Concertino on Thursday so aptly. There was an Indian crafted talisman onstage which the bassoonist turned around between movements. Supposedly someone will explain this

23 THE DOUBLE REED 21 ritual to me? It looked threatening but I didn t hear it utter a sound. Energy and other duties--like performing my own Concertino on Thursday with a dedicated and hard-working young orchestra the Monash Sinfonia, with Aussie violinist Eleanor Cameron as my cosoloist, did not allow me to attend many concerts. I had the pleasure on Thursday afternoon to witness an all Russian oboe-piano program performed by a leading oboist in Australia David Nuttall and pianistcomposer-arranger Larry Sitsky, a Russian emigrate many, many years ago to Down Under. Very strenuous affair for an oboist was this project with works from Glinka to Mussorgsky in the one hour plus program, but quite a refreshing change from the usual oboe recitals we hear. Best wishes to all, Harold Emert in Melbourne Dear Anne. Where are you and what do you look like? Harold Emert Dear Harold, Thank you for your lovely s. We have sort of met already. On registration day I was standing next to you when you came in to register at the desk and I recognised your name from reading posts to this list but I was too shy to say hello then. Unfortunately due to work constraints, I was only able to attend the first day of the conference and so haven t been there since Tuesday. However, in that short time I witnessed the most memorable performance of my life at the first night concert and shook hands with the young bassoonist Lyndon Watts after experiencing bassooning I didn t even know was possible, and am now converted to bassoonism. I discovered that the way I bind my reeds might be contributing to the flying F problems I have on my oboe at times, and other exciting and wonderful things, not to mention, joyously, having my oboe serviced by long lost (to Melbourne) repair genius John Armstrong whom I discovered exhibiting in the exhibition hall. Since then I have been in the depths of depression and despair at not being able to be there and knowing what I must be missing. Please keep writing your quickie updates, short or long, and I am deeply regretful at having to have missed the recital of your own work on Thursday. I trust it was a wonderful moment. I wish you all the best. Anne Elizabeth Dear Anne and the List, Can t give you my attempt at a full report tonight/ today because I only had time to attend a brief concert and then adventured aboard the local bus leaving the campus and a train into Melbourne to search for kangaroos. Prior to my city tour, I heard for the first time live a solo work by Gilles Silvestrini(b.1961) a French oboist-composer. He has written the next masterwork for solo oboe after Britten s Metamorphoses of our time. It s entitled Six Etudes and based on the paintings of the French Impressionists. I have already received and admire very much James Ryon s recital recording at Louisiana University where the American oboist is now teaching. Ryon also repeated performing this most difficult work the other day at the IDRS 2004 but unfortunately as I was preparing for my own fifteen minutes of fame, I couldn t attend. On Friday, we heard another IDRS past president Marc Fink, who teaches in Madison, Wisconsin, perform this extraordinary work. I was amazed how cool and collected Mr. Fink performs a work(which ranks in a class with Pasculli s virtuoso works - the Paganini of the oboe). Fink s performance in any case, to my ears, was impeccable, each note in its proper place and the audience didn t sweat it out because Fink gives the assuring air that very note will be there. No sweat--at least for him! Please one day Mark, tell us the secret to performing cool and collected? The remainder of the program included Beethoven s Trio Op. 87 for two oboes and English horn played by Fink, Rebecca Henderson (our hostess next year in Texas) and Martin Schuring of Arizona, on his lovely English horn. Again an extraordinary performance with surprising cadenzas based on Waltzing Matilda (Australia s popular national anthem) and the oboe solo from Beethoven s 5th Symphony. Why not? The cadenzas were written by Mr. Fink I am told, and hopefully they will be printed in a future IDRS edition. I can t say much more about the music on Friday because I decided to escape the IDRS cloister for an afternoon and take the bus and train, which resembles the Long island (New York) railroad, to my eyes to one of the loveliest cities in the world, Melbourne. As we approached the metropolis, I was conversing with a stranger who identified himself as an ageing philosophy student, even though he was dressed as a truck driver. As a native of New York City I held on to my wallet but really all he wanted was company to speak about the world situation. A river which resembles the Seine runs through the centre of town, which has been over-hauled in a futuristic sense (in the good sense) since my last visit here over two decades ago. On my last visit to Melbourne I accompanied a number of recently sacked Aussie journalists on a boat and booze trip, during which I whipped out my oboe to perform Waltzing Mathilde. Met up with these former unemployed scribes, some of whom work today at the Sunday Sun Herald and they still remember my serenade after all these years. CURRENT EVENTS

24 22 MELBOURNE: IDRS CONFERENCE 2004: DAILY REPORTS CURRENT EVENTS Melbourne reminds me of a lovely European city with plenty of fine restaurants, boutiques, shops, cafes as and all walking distance. The surprising new feature to this observer is the increase of Oriental and Asian visitors in the city. I met at least two ex-new Yorkers residing here and we all agreed that something about Melbourne reminded us of the innocent New York City in which we all grew up. Tomorrow the IDRS 2004 Conference closes and we depart with many fine memories of a great Conference. Best wishes, Harold Emert in Melbourne Dear List: This, sigh, is my final report as another IDRS conference ends. The morning began with a tasty rendition of an usual work called Pigs by Ridout, ably performed by an international contraforte quartet: Belinda Edwards (Australia), Stefan Pantzier (Germany) Noriko Shumada (Australia) and Henry Skolnick (USA), among other contra stars. (Contraforte is a new contrabassoon-like instrument created by innovative bassoon maker Guntram Wolf. Ed.) A shame that it s so difficult in most places of the world to find one, let alone four contras because the exotic sound of a contra quartet is something not even a computer programmer would imagine. Other works on the program included Mozart, Profofiev, Hummel, Graham Waterhouse and Schulhoff s Bassnachtigal for solo contra, performed by Skolnick. This is my day for attending the maximum possible of concerts and at 1:30pm I was at the Religious Centre (a cone-like temple) to hear our gracious hostess Anne Gilby perform with bassoonist Kiyoshi Koyama (Japan) and Mitchell Leigh (piano, Australia) an inspiring rendition of the Poulenc Trio. How Anne had time to perform--between all her organizing activities of IDRS is an example for all of us too busy with non-performing activities to follow. Afterwards we heard one of the most extraordinary recitals by Christian Schmitt, oboe (Switzerland)- who is Prof. Thomas Indermuhle s assistant at the Music Hochschule in Karlsruhe accompanied by Kenji Fujimura, piano) Australia. The superb quality of the sonatas by Saint-Saens and Dutilleux and Schmitt s extraordinary arrangement of Ravel s Tombeau de Couperin, set a new qualitative high for this listener. Christian says his arrangement of the Ravel will only be published and released by Durand (France) in a shame it can t be earlier! At 6:30pm, I entered the grande Robert Blackwood Hall for what was described as a Massed Double Reed Performance and to my surprise out of about 200 oboists and bassoonists, despite my attempt to hide in the back, I was chosen to be the concertmaster - lead stand! At other IDRS conventions which I have attended I always try to participate in this extraordinary gathering of double reeds and this experience was truly one of the best with Richard McIntyre (Australia) ably conducting with wit and clarity the humorous and often difficult arrangements by Paul Blackman, contrabassoon of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. We performed Handel to Turkey in the Straw -- these arrangements should be made available to other double wind bands in the world. At the final, final concert to conclude another unforgettable IDRS conference, what impressed these ears most was the extraordinary Vivaldi in e minor Concerto for bassoon performed by the Gillet competition winner--whose name is Vaclav Vonasek, a young Czech. With such gifted talents, we are assured that the future beholds fine music makers on double reed instruments. Was disappointed that due to travel problems, Canadian oboist Joseph Salvalaggio - who astonished the Greensboro conference in 2003 with his wizardly Pasculli l Api - couldn t appear. In his place Diana Doherty came to the rescue performing a most difficult concerto for oboe by Ross with Nick Daniel conducting. Bassoonist Henry Skolnick, on contraforte performed a rare aural experience, a concerto for contra by the late IDRS Honorary Member Victor Bruns and Meyrick Alexander starred in the Guy Woolfenden Concerto. The evening and Conference elegantly concluded with French oboist David Walter performing Reinhart s Concerto for Oboe in Bf. What more can one say? A musical dream for many of us has ended. It was wonderful to meet up again with some of the musicians I will never forget from my own past like Gerrit Bon, former first oboe in the South African Broadcasting Corporation, who now resides and works in Queensland, or John Cran, retired first bassoonist of the Sydney Sympony or Liviu Varcol, solo oboist of the Frankfurt Radio orchestra and the inimitable Gordon Solie, bassoonist and music publisher from Portland, Oregon, etc. etc. Sorry I and others didn t have time or energy to attend all the concerts /lectures we would have liked to attend. Next year in Austin! Harold Emert is a native of New York City where he graduated from the Aaron Copland School of Music and the Manhattan School of Music. He studied oboe with Albert Goltzer, Ronald Roseman, Lois Wann, Harold Gomberg and Bill Arrowsmith. Harold also earned an Artist s Diploma from the Hochschule für Musik in Freiburg, Germany, where he studied with Heinz Holliger. He is currently a member of the National Orchestra of Brazil. Harold has participated in fi ve IDRS Conferences while performing at Buenos Aires, West Virginia, Greensboro and Melbourne.

25 THE DOUBLE REED 23 The 2004 Fernand Gillet Hugo Fox Bassoon Competition Doug Spaniol Indianapolis, Indiana The final round of the 2004 Fernand Gillet - Hugo Fox Bassoon Competition was held on Friday, July 2, 2004 in the Robert Blackwood Hall of Monash University at the IDRS Conference in Melbourne, Australia. It seems that each year the level of performance among competitors grows ever higher; this year certainly fit that pattern. There are many people who contributed to the success of this year s competition. I would like to start by thanking Wendy Cooper of Australia and Stephane Levesque of Canada who served on the Advisory Committee and helped in selecting repertoire and securing judges. The repertoire for the competition was: Vivaldi Concerto in E Minor, RV484; Marcel Bitsch, Concertino; Gordon Kerry, On the Summer Map of Stars; and Ferdinand David, Concertino, op. 12. Thirty-five young bassoonists from eleven countries entered this year s competition. I was very grateful to have a distinguished panel of Preliminary Round judges, who gave very generously of their time to evaluate these 35 recordings. These judges were Michael Burns (NZ/USA), Linda Harwell (USA), Kristen Wolfe Jensen (USA), Laurent Lefévre (France) and Peter Moore (UK/Australia). This esteemed panel selected Terry Ewell (R) awarding first prize in the 2004 Gillet-Fox Competition to Vaclav Vonasek. Gillet-Fox fi nalists from left: Terry Ewell (IDRS president), Adrian Morejon, Rian Craypo, Jian Huang, Elisabeth Kissel, Vaclav Vonasek, Doug Spaniol (Gillet-Fox Bassoon Chair) as finalists Rian Craypo (USA), Jian Huang (China), Elisabeth Kissel (France), Adrian Morejon (USA), and Vaclav Vonasek (Czech Republic). There was also a very distinguished panel of judges for the final round made up of John Cran (Australia), Heiko Dechert (Germany), Yoshi Ishikawa (USA), Kim Walker (USA/Australia), and William Waterhouse (UK). For the final round repertoire, these judges selected 25 minutes of music from the preliminary round. They settled upon the complete works of Kerry and Vivaldi (with some cuts of the orchestral/piano introductions), the Andante section of the David, and a large portion of the Bitsch (from one measure before rehearsal C to the end). All of the finalists played this repertoire brilliantly. In the end, Vaclav Vonasek was declared the first prize winner. He was awarded USD8000 and gave a stunning and beautiful performance of the Vivaldi Concerto at the conference s closing concert Saturday night. Adrian Morejon was named runner-up and awarded USD3000. Rian Craypo, Jian Huang, and Elisabeth Kissel were each awarded USD1000. I would be remiss if I did not also extend my gratitude to Conference Host Anne Gilby, organizer Stephen Moschner, and the others in Melbourne who helped make the competition and conference work smoothly. I would also like to thank IDRS President Terry Ewell and Gillet-Fox Oboe Chair Nancy Ambrose King for their help and guidance along the way. The 2005 competition will be for oboe with the final round held at the IDRS conference in Austin, Texas. This will be the 25th anniversary of the competition, and the conference will feature many past winners. Details may be found in this and other issues of The Double Reed and on the IDRS website. Bassoonists may look forward to the 2006 competition with the final round being held at that year s IDRS conference in Muncie, Indiana. CURRENT EVENTS

26 24 MEMORIES FROM IDRS 2004, MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA Memories from IDRS 2004 Melbourne, Australia Photos by Paul Blackman Adelaide, Australia CURRENT EVENTS Bill Waterhouse and Paul Blackman talk about the contrabassophon. Gerald Püchner They play a demonstration piece. Tamara Smolyar, Gordon Hunt and Roger Birnstingl. And meet the composer of the piece William Davis who just happens to be at the conference. Peter Musson, Mitchell Leigh and Gerrit Bon.

27 THE DOUBLE REED 25 Beautiful Bloomington Bassoon Quartet and ensemble from Sydney. CURRENT EVENTS Anne Gilby, Mitchell Leigh and Kiyoshi Koyama. Ron Klimko getting used to Melbourne s winter. Heide Pantzier, Felix Greenlees, Belinda Edwards, Amanda Lee and Judy Nolan. Massed band conducted by Richard McIntyre.

28 26 MEMORIES FROM IDRS 2004, MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA CURRENT EVENTS Performers from the Tianjin Conservatory. John Cran Bill Waterhouse lectures on J. Weissenborn Greg Blackman, Leigh Harrold and Paul Blackman. Beautiful Bloomington Bassoon Quartet. Henry Skolnick reads verses from Bass Nightingale.

29 THE DOUBLE REED 27 Oboists in the News Dan Stolper Palm Desert, California Judith Zunamon Lewis has recently been appointed second oboe of the Lyric Opera Orchestra of Chicago, by Sir Andrew Davis. Prior to joining the orchestra, she has appeared frequently as soloist, chamber music performer, and orchestral musician in the Chicago area for Judith Zunamon Lewis the past 22 years. Judith has performed with the Chicago, Boston, Honolulu, and Milwaukee Symphony Orchestras, as well as the Music of the Baroque, Chicago Philharmonic, American Ballet Theatre, Joffrey, Kirov, and Bolshoi ballet orchestras. Judith has performed with many festival orchestras in the US, including the Ravinia Festival Orchestra, Grant Park Music Festival, Bach Week Festival of Evanston, Midsummer and Peninsula Festivals of Door County, Bach Aria and Bay Chamber Music Festivals. As a featured guest artist, Judith has been invited on several occasions to join the Chicago Chamber Musicians, the Vermeer Quartet, and Storioni Ensemble. Having earned her B.M. and M.A. degrees with honors from Northwestern University, Judith was named a Tanglewood Fellow in Her woodwind quintet won first prize in the 1982 Coleman Chamber Music Competition. Judith was a finalist in the 1990 Chicago Symphony s Rose Fay Thomas Competition, and a semifinalist in the 1995 Lucarelli International Oboe Competition. In 1999, she presented a recital at the IDRS Convention in Madison, Wisconsin. When she is not performing, Judith enjoys time with her husband of 18 years, renowned horn maker Steven Lewis, their daughter Marion, and their cat, Tootsie. Jack Cozen Harel recently won top honors in the prestigious Yamaha Young Performing Artist Competition. Jack was one of ten musicians and the only oboist recognized by the Yamaha program. His audition program included Mozart s Quartet, K. 370 and the virtuosic showpiece Le Api (The Bees) by Antonino Pasculli. He performed the Pasculli work at the awards ceremony concert held on Monday evening, June 21, 2004 at Braden Auditorium on the campus of Illinois State University in Normal, Illinois. Jack Cozen Harel is the co-principal oboist of the San Francisco Sinfonietta. At the age of nineteen, he is the youngest member of the Sinfonietta; he is perhaps one of the youngest professional oboists working in America today. He is a student of James Moore at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where he has been principal oboist of the conservatory orchestra and the baroque ensemble. Jack is pursuing a bachelor of music degree at the conservatory, where he is the William Banovetz Memorial Scholar. He spent the summer of 2004 studying at the Bowdoin International Music Festival s Music School in Maine. Oboist Bethany Slater, a 2004 graduate of the Eastman School of Music, has won a nationally acclaimed Fulbright Study Grant which covers tuition and expenses for a full year of academic study including a stipend for travel in Paris. Her award is the Lusk Memorial Fellowship. It is the search for common ground between two distinctly different schools of oboe playing that will bring Ms. Slater to Paris for private study with David Walter, a faculty member at the Paris Conservatory. According to Bethany these two camps of playing the European style and the American style have polarized the oboe community for years. The European style features, for example, a completely different method of using the air and the vibrato. David Walter has been very active in trying to bridge the gap between these divergent schools of playing, and Bethany hopes to come away from her experience with a way of combining the best of both worlds. Although trained in the American style, Bethany grew up listening to many recordings of European oboists. Eastman professor of oboe, Richard Killmer, strongly supports her desire to be an oboe peacemaker. Congratulations to both of these young musicians! Four members of Zephyros Winds James Roe, oboe; Marianne Gythfeldt, clarinet; Patrick Pridemore, horn; and Douglas Quint, bassoon - were soloists with the Mostly Mozart Orchestra, Louis Langree conducting, at a special preview performance opening the 2004 season on Thursday, July 29, at Lincoln Center s Avery Fisher Hall in New York. They performed Mozart s Sinfonia Concertante in Ef Major, K. 297b. The Zephyros Winds CURRENT EVENTS

30 28 OBOISTS IN THE NEWS CURRENT EVENTS based in Manhattan comprises graduates of the Curtis Institute, Yale School of Music, Eastman, and The Juilliard School. All of its members are energetic contributors to New York s musical life. Individually they have performed at the Marlboro, Tanglewood and Caramoor Music Festivals, and with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Houston Grand Opera, Speculum Musicae, the Metropolitan Opera, and the Orchestra of St. Luke s. The quintet has appeared all across the country in major concert venues, including Carnegie s Weill Recital Hall, the Library of Congress, Wolf Trap and on the Great Performers Series at Lincoln Center. At the invitation of the French Embassy in Washington, Zephyros performed a concert celebrating the centenary of Francis Poulenc s birth. Maine and has lived in New York since He has performed with many of the finest ensembles in the area, including the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestra of St. Luke s, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, and the New York City Opera and Ballet Orchestras. He has also recorded and performed with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the American Composer s Orchestra, the New Jersey Symphony, and he has toured with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra under Yuri Temirkanov. He has also performed under the batons of Kurt Masur, Bernard Haitink, Seiji Ozawa, Christoph Eschenbach, James DePriest, and Robert Spano. He holds degrees from the Manhattan School of Music and Juilliard; he studied the bassoon with Frank Morelli and Judith LeClair. In addition to his work with the bassoon, Mr. Quint is director of orchestral activities at the Juilliard School, a position in which he oversees the symphonic training of Juilliard s 280-odd students of orchestral instruments. He is also a member of the Gotham Knights rugby team. (Double reed players in the Mostly Mozart Orchestra include oboists Randall Ellis and Jane Cochran, and bassoonists Frank Morelli and Mark Popkin.) Jim Roe of Zephyros Winds and Randy Ellis of the Mostly Mozart Orchestra. Oboist James Roe has appeared with many of New York s orchestras, including those of the Metropolitan Opera, the New York City Opera, New York City Ballet, and with the orchestra of St. Luke s and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. During the season he was assistant principal oboist of the New Jersey Symphony. This fall he will be acting principal oboist of the Houston Grand Opera. A native of northern Michigan, Mr. Roe moved to New York to attend the Juilliard School as a student of Elaine Douvas. He also holds a degree from Michigan State University, where he was a student of Daniel Stolper; he was also a Presser Scholar. He also studied chamber music and performance practice with the renowned harpsichordist, Albert Fuller. In 1993, Mr. Roe was appointed executive director of the Helicon Foundation, and has produced and presented numerous concerts, recordings, and educational events featuring chamber music performed on period instruments. Douglas Quint, bassoonist, is a native of Pittsfield, Celeste Johnson has been recently appointed visiting assistant professor of oboe at Oklahoma State University at Stillwater. Ms. Johnson holds a Master of Music degree in Performance and Literature from the Eastman School of Music and a Bachelor of Music degree in Oboe Celeste Johnson Performance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Before moving to Oklahoma, Ms. Johnson held a position with the Sarasota Opera Orchestra in Sarasota, Florida. Other previous orchestral engagements include the Binghamton Philharmonic Orchestra, the Champaign-Urbana Symphony, the Quad Cities Symphony and Sinfonia da Camera. She has also performed as guest principal oboist with the Russian String Orchestra and served as principal for the New York String Orchestra with performances in Carnegie Hall. Ms. Johnson regularly plays solo recitals, and has been a finalist for numerous national and international competitions. She has twice been named a finalist in the Fernand Gillet/Hugo Fox International Oboe Competition, competing at International Double Reed Society conferences in both North Carolina (2003) and West Virginia (2001). In 2004, she performed as one of three finalists for the Barnett Family Foundation Oboe Competition in Chicago, Illinois. Additionally,

31 THE DOUBLE REED 29 Ms. Johnson won the University of Illinois Concerto Competition, performing the Mozart Oboe Concerto with the University Orchestra. Additional solo concerto performances include J.S. Bach s Double Concerto for Oboe and Violin in C Minor as well as the Vivaldi Oboe Concerto in A Minor. In the summer of 2003, Ms. Johnson attended the Tanglewood Music Festival as the recipient of the Augustus Thorndike/Abe and Irene Pollin fellowship. In previous summers, she attended the Sarasota, Pine Mountain and Kent/Blossom summer music festivals. Celeste has performed in masterclasses for oboists of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra and Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra among others. Ms. Johnson s primary teachers have included Richard Killmer, Nancy Ambrose King, Dan Stolper, John Mack and Phil Koch. Prior to acquiring her position at Oklahoma State University, Ms. Johnson taught at Music Horizons, the Eastman School of Music high school preparatory program. She also served on the faculty at Roberts Wesleyan College in addition to maintaining a studio of private students. She has also given speeches and performances at various public school functions, promoting advocacy for the arts in public schools. Elaine Douvas gave two performances of the Concerto for Oboe and Small Orchestra (1945) by Richard Strauss in April and May of 2004 on opposite coasts! On Saturday, April 3 she gave a suave and exhilarating performance of this wonderful work (which I was fortunate enough to be able to hear) with the Pro Art Symphony Orchestra at the Lafayette-Orinda Presbyterian Church (in Lafayette, California) conducted by James Gardner. Then on Friday, May 21 she performed the Strauss again, this time with her own MET Orchestra in New York s Carnegie Hall, James Levine conducting. Other works on the Pro Art Orchestra s program included Debussy s Children s Corner Suite (which featured some beautifully-played solo passages by principal oboist Bennie Cottone) and Beethoven s Symphony No. 7. The MET Orchestra s program also included the Beethoven 7th. Baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky shared soloist honors with Ms. Douvas. He performed Ravel s cycle Don Quichotte a Dulcinee and Gustav Mahler s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen. Elaine Douvas has been principal oboist of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra since A native of Port Huron, Michigan, it was her childhood dream to go to music camp at Interlochen (Michigan) where five summers and three years of high school at the Interlochen John Mack and Elaine Douvas. Arts Academy gave her an amazing amount of experience at an early age. She subsequently attended the Cleveland Institute of Music where she studied with John Mack, the legendary principal oboist of the Cleveland Orchestra. At the age of 21, she was appointed principal oboist of the Atlanta Symphony. Her summer activities have included principal oboe work with the New York Philharmonic and the Grand Teton Festival and chamber music with the Marlboro, Angel Fire and Bravo! Colorado festivals. Ms. Douvas has been an oboe instructor at the Juilliard School for more than twenty years, and she was appointed chairman of the woodwind department in Since 1997 she has also served on the faculty of the Aspen Music Festival and she teaches a yearly class at Le Domaine Forget Academy in Quebec. She has given masterclasses at Curtis, the Cleveland Institute, Interlochen, the Manhattan and Eastman Schools of Music, and for the New World Symphony. She makes her home in Ridgewood, New Jersey with her husband, Robert Sirinek (orchestra manager and former trumpet player of the MET Orchestra); their two daughters, Portia and Margot; and Rusty, their Jack Russell terrier. James Gardner has been a life-long James Gardner friend of Ms. Douvas (as well as an early oboe mentor) since their youngest days in Port Huron. He has been a creative force in Bay Area music-making since founding the Pro Art Symphony Orchestra some eleven years ago. He was a finalist in the National Orchestral Association s CURRENT EVENTS

32 30 OBOISTS IN THE NEWS CURRENT EVENTS conducting competition in Carnegie Hall. Subsequently he became conductor of the Detroit Chamber Orchestra and the Wind Symphony of Detroit before moving to the San Francisco area. As an oboist, he performed with the Juilliard Orchestra, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, and the New York City Ballet Orchestra. His earliest musical training began at Interlochen s National Music Camp where he appeared as piano soloist at the age of 11. Soon after he began to study the oboe seriously and he won many scholarships on his way to the Juilliard School, where he studied with Harold Gomberg. He has also studied with Daniel Stolper. Other teachers of piano and conducting included Lillian Bauer Cox, Anthony Newman, Karl Schnabel, Dennis Davies, Jean Morel, and William D. Revelli. Devotees of the Strauss Oboe Concerto will have the chance to hear it played at least twice more this season by two distinguished soloists. John Ferrillo will be soloist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, James Levine conducting, on November 4, 5, and 6, 2004 in Symphony Hall, Boston. Then Richard Woodhams will appear with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Christoph Eschenbach conducting, on January 20, 21, 22, and 24, 2005 in Verizon Hall in the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia. Here are some photos from the reception following Elaine Douvas s New York performance. The guest list included many luminaries from the oboe world Photos from left to right: 1. Eugene Izotov, Susan Spector, Elaine Douvas, Robert Walters; 2. John Mack, Robert Walters; 3. Jeannette Bittar, Don Jaeger. 4. Elaine Douvas, Emily Pailthorpe; 5. James Gardner, John Mack; 6. Emily Pailthorpe, Kelly Peterson-Peral; 7. Susan Spector, Sharon Meekins; 8. James Button, Ben Hausmann, Stefan Farkas; 9. Humbert Lucarelli, Elaine Douvas; 10. Robert Howe, John Mack; 11. Rebecca Taylor Swan, Nick Swan, Ariana Ghez, Stefan Farkas, Chris Gaudi.

33 THE DOUBLE REED 31 Bassoonists News of Interest Ronald Klimko McCall, Idaho NEW APPOINTMENTS The University of Kansas has appointed Eric Stomberg to assistant professor of bassoon, beginning with the fall semester of In addition to his new appointment, Eric will continue his positions as instructor of bassoon at the Interlochen Arts Academy and bassoonist in the ProMusica Chamber Orchestra of Columbus. During the Eric Stomberg summer, he is on the bassoon faculty at the Interlochen Arts Camp. Eric studied at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music with William Winstead, and at the University of Kansas with Alan Hawkins. Eric comes to Kansas from Ohio University. University of Northern Iowa bassoonist David Rachor is spending the academic year on leave teaching in France at Marc Vallon s positions. (Marc has accepted an appointment at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.) David will be teaching baroque bassoon at the Conservatories in both Paris and Lyon, as well as modern bassoon at the Ecoles de Musique at Aulnay sous Bois and Verron. He will also be assisting Marc Trenel at the Paris Conservatory on the modern (German) bassoon. Replacing him at the University of Northern Iowa for the year is bassoonist Karen Paradis. Spokane, Washington, bassoonist Glen West, who has also been working for Jones Double Reed Products, has been appointed to the West Point Band of the United States Army. Replacing him at Jones is Ken Wagner, from the Vancouver Symphony. Good luck to everyone in your new positions. RECENT PERFORMANCES In a concert devoted to the chamber music of Erwin Schulhoff, New York Philharmonic contrabassoonist Arlen Fast performed Schulhoff s Bassnachtigal for solo contrabassoon in New York City on May 2, On the same program the audience also heard Schulhoff s rarely performed Divertissement for Oboe, Clarinet and Bassoon played by Sherry Sylar, oboe; Mark Nuccio, clarinet; and Judith LeClair, bassoon. Contrabassoonist Susan Nigro from Chicago is scheduled to premiere new works on her fall and winter concert series. She will perform Night Shadows by Joel Bjorling (USA) and Potato Polka by Giorgio Koukl (Switzerland), both new works written for her. On February 25th and 26th, 2005, Susan will premiere the Theme and Variations in G minor for Contrabassoon and Orchestra by David Stybr (USA) with the New Philharmonic Orchestra on the campus of the College of DuPage (Illinois). On July 29, 2004, the wind quartet Zéphyros Winds (James Roe, oboe; Marianne Gythfeldt, clarinet; Partick Pridemore, horn; and Douglas Quint, bassoon), performed the Mozart Sinfonia Concertante with the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra in New York City. The group were the First and Grand Prize winners of the Fischoff Competition and finalists for the Naumberg Award. They have become one of the country s leading chamber music ensembles. You can find out more about them at their website: An all Vivaldi Concert of the Baltimore (Maryland) Symphony Orchestra s Favorites Series on April 23, 24, and 25, 2004, featured principal bassoonist Phillip Kolker performing the Vivaldi Bassoon Concerto in e minor (RV 484, F.VIII, No. 6) and principal oboist Katherine Needleman performing the Vivaldi Oboe Concerto in C major, RV 447, No. 6. The Georgia State University faculty wind quartet (Sarah Kruser Ambrose, flute; Mandy Wickham, oboe; Leslie Nicholas, clarinet and Eric Stone Miller, bassoon) gave a concert on February 9, 2004, at Georgia State University campus. Works by Rameau, LaMontaine and Francaix were performed. With guest artist Sam Skelton, saxophone, the group also played the quartet version of Tcherepnine s Sonatine Sportive. The ensemble performed the Trio in F, op. 32 for flute, clarinet and bassoon by Kummer as well. United States Coast Guard Band bassoonist Judith Buttery is retiring from the ensemble in October, To celebrate her distinguished career in the Band, Judith joined fellow band bassoonist Rebecca Noreen in performing an arrangement of the last movement of the Vanhal Concerto for Two Bassoons while the group was on tour in cities in Michigan as CURRENT EVENTS

34 32 BASSOONISTS NEWS OF INTEREST CURRENT EVENTS well as Washington, D.C., from August 4-11, Congratulations to Judith on the completion of her tour of duty! The bassoon quartet Uncle Roy s Bassoons (Richard Ramey, Jesse Schartz, Hong Le, and Lia Margarita Uribe) performed as guest soloists with the United States Air Force Band of Mid-America on Friday, July 30, 2004, at Fort Smith, Arkansas. The programmed work, entitled...who Needs Enemies, was composed for bassoon quartet and wind ensemble by Russell Peterson. The piece is in jazz fusion style and featured improvised solo sections by members of the quartet. SUMMER BASSOON CAMPS and performed at Lake McDonald in Quebec s beautiful Laurentides region, an excellent venue for music making. In addition to coaching chamber music, Mathieu offered his innovative active listening course and performed on a recital, playing the Saint-Saëns Sonata with pianist Louise Lessard. Mathieu also joined oboist Normand Forget and flutist Danièle Bourget as a member of the Ensemble Pentaèdre playing works by Haydn, Vivaldi, Fauré and Nielsen. The 8th annual MasterWorks Festival was held at Winona Lake, Indiana, at Grace College during the summer of The following is a picture of the participants, both students and faculty: A mixture of university students and bassoon professionals attended the Judith LeClair Bassoon Master Class at the Hidden Valley Music Seminars, in August, 2004, in Carmel Valley, on the Central Coast of California. The four-day session began with a recital by Judith LeClair accompanied by her husband, pianist Jonathan Feldman. The sessions consisted of instruction from Judith as the students played concertos and orchestral excerpts. Both the level of instruction and the level of camaraderie were very high. The Judith LeClair Bassoon Master Class: L to R. Melissa Frey, Judith LeClair, Jennifer Rapada, Patricia Fagan, Lisa Chisholm, Jane Orzel, Jorge Cruz. Not pictured was participant Jamie Sinatra Front Row, L to R: Sara Bates (oboe); Amanda Hardy (oboe); Doris DeLoach (oboe faculty); Emily Ahrens (bassoon); Carl Wilder (bassoon). Back Row, L to R: Titus Underwood (oboe); Terry Ewell (bassoon faculty); Charles Hughes (bassoon). For its third season, the annual Summer Bassoon Extravaganza (June 27-July 3, 2004), grew to 28 campers and moved to Emory University. Much to the campers delight and fascination Juan De Gomar, contrabassoonist of the Atlanta Symphony, Georgia, joined the group midweek, regaling the audience with his playing and telling them a bit about choosing the contrabassoon Judith LeClair (left) preparing to coach Patricia Fagan (right) For the second year in a row, Mathieu Lussier, Canadian bassoonist/composer from Montreal, coached Juan de Gomar playing a movement of a Bach cello suite on contra

35 THE DOUBLE REED 33 GENERAL ITEMS OF INTEREST Juan assists Megan McBrayer (foreground) and Casey Elliott (background) as they try their hand at contra and pursuing an orchestral career. Many were already familiar with his playing from The Bassoon Brothers CDs Wanted and Captured. The master class opened with Anna Ranger s edition of the Mozart K. 292 Sonata. (This piece WAS for two contras wasn t it?) as rendered by Juan and camp director Shelly Unger. By far the most popular feature was the time set aside for each and every bassoonist to try playing the contra with a few moments of individualized attention from Juan. Carl Nitchie, longtime principal bassoonist with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, also presented a master class. SBE full-time faculty include Michael Dicker (professor of bassoon at Illinois State University), SBE founding director Shelly Unger (visiting professor of bassoon at the University of Missouri-Columbia) and Christopher Weait (professor of bassoon at the Ohio State University). Dr. Scott A. Stewart, director of instrumental music at Emory University, assisted with SBE as a chamber ensemble coach and shared the podium with Professor Weait, conducting the SBE Bassoon Choir on several numbers. The Summer Bassoon Extravaganza Bassoon Choir and other small ensembles. Clad in patches and pirates garb, playing What do you do with a Drunken Sailor?, directed by Scott A. Stewart. There are two new neat bassoonists websites you can check out. Robert Roennes of Norway has a new site at: and New York bassoonist Frank Morelli has another new one at: Check them out! From bassoonist Diane Bishop of Orlando, Florida, comes, via the internet, the following information: I recently bid on and won a mystery novel on Ebay called The Case of the Orphaned Bassoonists by Barbara Wilson. Great literature it isn t, but there is a description of the bassoon that I just love: Nicky, when asked, always said she chose to play the bassoon because it was so large. Nobody messed her about after school when she was carrying an instrument whose hard case doubled as a weapon. But to me, the bassoon seemed to suit her because it was more a speaking instrument than a singing one. It didn t trill or soar like the flute or clarinet; it ruminated, low-pitched and sometimes argumentative; it bubbled with ideas, it sighed and laughed. Other instruments might cry; the bassoon wept quietly, even glumly. More often it just discussed the whole question thoroughly. The story takes place in Venice and involves the disappearance of a priceless Baroque bassoon. I ve seen it on Amazon.com if anyone is interested in getting it. New York Philharmonic contrabassoonist Arlen Fast reports that he has been playing on his Fast- System contrabassoon (made by Fox Products) for the past three years with great success. He says that he is very pleased with what it allows me to do as a soloist too. There s no turning back. In the month of August, the late IDRS Honorary Member Victor Bruns would have celebrated his 100th birthday. In commemoration of his Centenary, Hofmiester Publications, Leipzig ( is publishing four new bassoon and contrabassoon compositions by him; the Sonatina op. 96 for bassoon and piano (FH 2920, 10, 50 Euros); the Concerto #4 op. 83 for bassoon and orchestra (material for hire) (Edition for bassoon and piano: FH 2921, 15,80 Euros; the Concerto op. 66 for oboe bassoon and string orchestra (material for hire) (Edition for oboe, bassoon and string quintet music also for hire) (Edition for oboe, bassoon and piano: First Edition FH 2922, 18,80 Euros); and the Concerto op. 98 for contrabassoon and orchestra (material for hire) (Edition for contrabassoon and piano: First Edition FH 2923/ in preparation). The Meg Quigley Vivaldi Competition has announced that their first competition will take place on June 3, 2005, at Austin, Texas, just prior to the IDRS Conference there at the University of Texas. The CURRENT EVENTS

36 34 BASSOONISTS NEWS OF INTEREST CURRENT EVENTS Competition is open to women bassoonists who are citizens of the Americas (North, South and Central) who have not reached their 24th birthday by June 3, The prizes are: first prize: $9,000 USD; second prize: $6,000 USD; and third prize $3,000 USD. Deadline for entry is February 1, The preliminary round will be through tapes or CDs. For more information, write to: The Meg Quigley Vivaldi Competition, Wichita State University, School of Music, DFAC 53, 1845 Fairmount, Wichita, KS , USA or consult the website at: The 7th Army Symphony Orchestra, an ensemble of elite United States Army musicians that was based in Stuttgart, Germany, as a public relations group for a number of years following the 2nd World War, recently had a reunion in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on the weekend of July 16, According to David Seeley: Out of 700 original members of the Stuttgart based orchestra about 50 showed up with body and mind intact for a mostly non-playing reunion. Only three double reeds were there: myself and Helmut Nestler (of the Milwaukee area), oboe; and Don Draganski, bassoon, of the Chicago area. Other top wind players included flutists Sheridan Stokes and Felix Skowronek, clarinetists Joe Longo and Bill McCall, trumpets Bill Scarlett and Richard Hurwitz, and trombones Stuart Dempster and Richard Kimball. Plans are for another (reunion) in 2006 in Columbus, Ohio. THIS COULD HAPPEN TO YOU! From Carol Mason, via Sara Schreiber, Marlan Carlson, and finally bassoonist Mike Curtis of Oregon State University, Corvallis, comes the following horror story: - it was, incredibly, the insistent yet melodic tones of someone s CELL PHONE!! And not just ANYone s cell phone, but one belonging to the bassoonist who until that moment had been sitting equally rapt and it took her a long split second to realize what those horrible-yet-familiar belltones announced so intrusively - that it was HER cellphone, stowed away in the zippered satchel beneath and to the right of her chair which caused her to double over and start fumbling around with one hand (while still holding her bassoon in the other), only to discover that - NO! - it wasn t in that satchel after all, the dreaded sound was emanating from her purse, over on the left side beneath her chair. She proceeded to switch the bassoon to her right hand, and leaned down to her left, whacking her music stand with the bassoon in the process (almost knocking it over), finally managing to locate the loathsome electronic beast and cause it to be still. By now, of course, some six thousand eyes were either fixed on her every move or were diverting from her agony in an attempt to discern the expression on the conductor s face who had been standing the whole time at the podium (arms poised in the air in preparation for the downbeat that was shortly to bring the violins in), now looking very pale and very angry indeed. To his credit, the pianist didn t miss a note or betray any awareness whatsoever of the catastrophe occuring in the second-to-last row of musicians. The concert continued, the bassoonist held her head up admirably for the rest of the concert (while we all silently cringed on her behalf), and life somehow went on. Fortunately, the pianist was fabulous, played four stunningly dexterous encores, and we tried not to think about the post-concert conversation that was sure to take place between the conductor, the symphony Exec Dir., and the bassoonist... Yikes! Well, there we were yesterday - Stacey, me and our girls - in the San Jose Civic Auditorium enjoying a benefit concert for the El Camino Youth Symphony (the one Erica is a junior member of). Before a crowd of several thousand appreciative fans, the piece being played was a Tchaikovsky piano concerto; the pianist was someone named Jon Nakamatsu, whose dexterity and grace at the keyboard were something to behold!! He was about halfway through the piece, he had come to a very soft, emotional part, the audience was enraptured, and then, the horror of it all: the unmistakable sound...no, not a baby crying; no, not some old codger with a coughing fit; no, no, nothing so prosaic AND FINALLY From Lani Spahr comes the following internet link. In his own words: I was recently sent this link which I recommend to you all. This performer must have practiced long and hard to do what he does. I ve watched this many times and have marveled each time. BTW, the link is completely safe, has no viruses or spyware. Enjoy! id=51208&f_id=681

37 THE DOUBLE REED 35 The Eighth Annual Lucarelli Oboe Master Class: A Participant s Perspective Christian M. Carrillo Helmetta, New Jersey Sunday evening, August 8, 2004, marked the beginning of the 8th annual Lucarelli Oboe Master Class in Duxbury, Massachusetts. The five and a half day class drew fifteen participants from all over the United States - students came from as far as Oregon, Missouri, Iowa, and Canada as well as the New York tri-state area. Oboists ranging in age from sixteen to their early thirties gathered at the Bertram Conference and Retreat Center in Duxbury to study with renowned oboe soloist and America s leading oboe recitalist (The New York Times) Humbert J. Lucarelli. All participants came from diverse musical backgrounds as well. While some students were just going to begin their junior year of high school, other students had Master s degrees in oboe performance and were now working on Artist Diplomas at distinguished conservatories. Even though some participants were beginning their professional careers while others were still amateurs and intermediate players, the master class always had an atmosphere of support and camaraderie. Everyone offered their suggestions and motivated others when frustration was present. Regardless of one s background and experience, everyone came to the master class with the same goal - to learn how to be a better oboist under the guidance of Mr. Lucarelli. The master class, partially sponsored by Lorée and organized by Tong Cui, top prizewinner of the IDRS s 1997 Fernand Gillet Competition and developer of the Innoledy oboe and English horn gouger, began with a seminar on oboe maintenance and adjustment presented by a Lorée representative and Philadelphia s master repairman John Symer. He explained how to properly adjust the oboe and how to evaluate whether or not one s instrument is playing at its full potential. He also presented a few different Lorée oboes he had for purchase. A main topic of discussion during Symer s workshop was the differences between the standard AK and Royal AK bores of Lorée oboes. He also described different criteria an oboist should use when purchasing a quality instrument. Each day was packed from nine to five with Mr. Bert Lucarelli s coaching at the South Shore Conservatory - the largest community music school in Massachusetts - and a short walk from the Bertram Conference and Retreat Center. The accommodations of the Glencora Davies receives coaching from Bert Lucarelli. conservatory were outstanding. The auditorium had wonderful acoustics for the sessions. There was never a shortage of private practice rooms and a reed making room was also set up. The first morning session began with a musical introduction; each participant played a piece of their choosing for about five minutes in order for Bert to diagnose immediate weakness and strengths. One of the amazing things of the master class was that he made sure to address each of these weaknesses in his coaching sessions. Every student received multiple half-hour coaching sessions that were observed by the other participants. Regardless of whether you were receiving direct CURRENT EVENTS

38 36 THE EIGHTH ANNUAL LUCARELLI OBOE MASTER CLASS: A PARTICIPANT S PERSPECTIVE CURRENT EVENTS Bert Lucarelli and Jonathan Knox. coaching or not, Bert Lucarelli provided so many wonderful suggestions and strategies that benefited anyone in the room. His fifty years of experience was willingly shared with everyone. His friendly, nurturing and down-to-earth personality made everyone feel comfortable. He always guided and never criticized. One of his main goals was to teach all the participants how to diagnose and solve their own weaknesses; he really wanted to empower us and make us realize that, as oboists, we each need to be more responsible in pinpointing and solving our shortcomings. Mr. Lucarelli described specific improvements for various pieces participants were working on by demonstrating strategies that could be applied to any piece of music. For example, he presented various ways to learn technically challenging passages by practicing rhythm patterns. Another example is how he showed one participant how to play a passage with wide intervals by practicing methods of developing a flexible embouchure with the reed. He never failed to give credit to his teachers, Robert Bloom and Ray Still, and he gladly shared their strategies. Anything that he taught to a participant that was not his original strategy was always credited to either of these two historic performers. Some other examples of topics covered in his coaching sessions also included strategies for developing double tonguing, circular breathing, the high register, tone/color production and phrasing. Another component of the master class was orchestral excerpts. During the first day each participant was assigned an excerpt to practice for a coaching session. The assigned excerpts were Stravinsky s Pulcinella, Ravel s Tombeau de Couperin (Prelude & Minuet), Brahms Violin Concerto and First Symphony, Beethoven s Third and Sixth Symphonies, Schubert s Great Symphony, Strauss Don Juan, Rossini s Silken Ladder, Bizet s Symphony in C, Bartok s Concerto for Orchestra, Shostakovich s Fifth Symphony, Tchaikovsky s Fourth Symphony, and Rimsky-Korsakov s Scheherazade. Bert Lucarelli also spent a considerable amount of time discussing how to win an orchestral audition. He described his strategies for success and those of his former students. Jonathan Knox, a Boston-area oboist and master repairman, also gave an evening workshop on oboe repair. Using some of the participants oboes, he shared many of his secrets on how to clean oboe octave vents as well as how to repair and replace pads. He provided a list of necessary tools and supplies all oboist should have on hand as well as information where they can be purchased. Jon finished his workshop by reviewing what to do in emergency situations. On one evening, both Tong Cui and Bert Lucarelli facilitated a reed making workshop. Tong demonstrated his newly developed Innoledy oboe gouger. The participants were able to compare the results of his gouging machine and other brands of popular machines that participants brought with them. We were all amazed at the consistency of the gouged results his machine produced, not to mention the smoothness of the cane. And to top it off, cane can be gouged completely dry. Bert Lucarelli then presented his measurements and dimensions for tying blanks. He constantly said that if you don t have a great blank, you will never have a great reed. It all starts with the blank. He urged us to be obsessed with the measurements and tying of our blanks saying that the majority of reed problems can be traced back to the blank. He then described the measurements of his tip, heart and window area and drew diagrams on a dry-erase board for the participants to copy. As everyone made their reeds, he checked each blank before anyone cut the tip. He also added and explained any fine-tuning that was needed on individual reeds. One of the highlights of this session was that Mr. Lucarelli told everyone what kind of tools and supplies he uses for reed making and allowed anyone to use his tools - including his custom shaper tip. Jill Geiger, an experienced teacher of the Alexander Technique, certified by STAT (UK) and AmSAT(US), also presented an evening workshop. Using hands-on techniques, she presented the basics of the Alexander Technique and helped everyone realize that playing the

39 THE DOUBLE REED 37 oboe should be done with ease by improving posture, balance and coordination to reduce tension, pain and stage fright. She helped all the participants understand that the human body has been conditioned to interfere and hinder oboe playing. Her activities made us understand that we need to remove our bodies from the physical act of playing the oboe so that we can reach our optimal potential when playing and performing. The master class ended on Friday, August 13th, with a recital that was attended by family and the conservatory s community. For three days before the recital students were able to rehearse with the pianist Hiu-Min Wang, an accomplished performer and teacher. Participants were able to demonstrate what they learned during the master class through pieces like the Vaughan Williams, Telemann, Haydn, Albinoni, and Strauss oboe concertos, Poulenc s Sonata, etudes by Piazzola and Barret, the Mozart Quartet and the Schumann Romances. After the recital, last minute exchanges of addresses, phone numbers, s, and good luck wishes were made during a celebration luncheon at a local Chinese restaurant attended by each participant, their family members, Bert Lucarelli, Tong Cui and Hiu-Min Wang. Personally, with the hopes of developing a professional career as an oboist, I left the master class unable to forget a piece of wisdom Mr. Lucarelli told everyone during one of this orchestral excerpt coaching sessions. He said that anyone with determination, commitment and professional training can become a good oboist but so few are able to reach greatness. Yet, everyone has the ability to become a great oboist, everyone has the ability, it s inborn in all of you. The hard part is looking inside yourself to find and develop this specialness that will make you great. This is something that only the rarest of performers have accomplished. Can you be one of the next greats? About the Author: Christian Carrillo is currently the principal oboist of the Park Avenue Chamber Symphony, NYC and is working on his Master s in oboe performance with Marsha Heller at the Montclair Conservatory in Montclair, NJ. During the day he teaches at John P. Stevens High School in Edison, New Jersey. CURRENT EVENTS Top Row: (left to right): Grace Mehm, Kristin Leitterman, Glencora Davies, Linda Brest, Katy Kammeyer, Ling-Fei Kang, Nick Abel, Tiffany Yoon. Bottom Row (left to right): Christian Carrillo, Lee Braun, Humbert Lucarelli, Tim Barnes, Leigh Dollard, Madeline Warner, Johanna Rodda.

40 38 A BASSOON COURSE IN CHILE A Bassoon Course in Chile Christopher Weait Columbus, Ohio CURRENT EVENTS Between July 27th and 30th, 2004, I was invited by the Chilean Youth Orchestras Foundation to go to Santiago, Chile to present a bassoon course in reed-making and performing. I also performed in a concert for and with students and teachers. The Foundation is a national organization supervising the establishment of youth orchestras in all thirteen regions of Chile. Founded in 2001 it works to improve musical, social and educational development in the country by means of designated support aimed at children, youth and teachers through youth orchestras. The Foundation organizes a wide range of activities to support its mission including seminars and master classes for teachers and young musicians. Nine orchestras existed in 1991, now about 140 exist between Arica on the northern border near Peru and Punta Arenas on the Strait of Magellan in the south. The class consisted of 12 students and four teachers. The teachers were very interested in knowing how to improve their bassoon teaching. All of the participants were eager to begin tackling reed finishing. Very few bassoonists in Chile make their own reeds. I was assisted in my reed teaching by the loan of a giant reed from Justin Miller of Miller Marketing Inc. It was a great help in demonstrating the various parts of the reed. I was invited to teach reed-making because the third edition of my book, (Bassoon Reed-Making: A Basic Technique. New York: McGinnis and Marx Music Publishers, 2000) has now been translated into Spanish. I believe it is the first bassoon reed-making manual to appear in Spanish. It was a wonderful debut for the book. I was grateful that Felipe Destafano, a bassoonist of the Santiago Philharmonic, and Alevi Peña Jiménez, All of the participants in the bassoon courses at the Chilean Youth Orchestras Foundation, July Paulina Gonzàlez Maldonado (teacher), Jorge Espinoza, Carolina Gonzàles Zebullos, Coordinator of Performance, Chris Weait and Felipe Destefano, member of Santiago Philharmonic. a bassoonist of the Chilean National Youth Orchestra provided concurrent translations as I taught. The students were on their winter holidays from school. Their experience ranged from only a few weeks to many years of playing. They were a really delightful group - enthusiastic and brimming with vigor and curiosity. Their instruments were in fairly good condition. Many of them were newish Lark bassoons from China, but there were also a Moennig, a Moosmann and several Püchners. We made a big improvement when we cleaned all of the bocals! On the last day our concert included: Zipoli/ Hawkins, Festival Prelude (played by the teachers), Weissenborn, Two duets from the Method (Diego Llanos and Miguel Cortes from Rancagua), Bach, Chorale: Now Thank We All Our God (all players). Interspersed were my solo offerings assisted by Pablo Morales, an outstanding pianist: Besozzi, Sonata in Bf, Vivaldi, Concerto in A Minor (F. VIII/7) and Bartok, Six Rumanian Folk Dances. We also performed When the Saints Go Marching In on reeds! I was very pleased that the distinguished Chilean bassoonist and teacher Jorge Espinoza attended the concert. The courses were organized by Carolina Gonzales Zebullos, Coordinator of Performance Activities for the Foundation. Fortunately, she is an excellent bassoonist, so there were no loose ends. My activities in Chile were supported through The Ohio State University College of the Arts and School of Music Travel Grant and a grant from the Ohio Arts Council.

41 THE DOUBLE REED 39 The 10th Annual Northwest Oboe Seminar Victoria Racz Vancouver, Washington 2003 marked a milestone for the Northwest Oboe Seminar - it was our 10th Anniversary! In order to celebrate this event correctly, a very special Seminar guest would be needed. When 1 thought about the reasons why I created this day in the first place - to inspire, teach and bring Northwest oboists together in a non-competitive and supportive environment - one person stood out in my mind as having the qualities to best personify the mission statement of the Northwest Oboe Seminar. This individual is one all Double Reed readers are familiar with, Dan Stolper. I first met Dan when I was attending Gail Warnaar s Double Reed Camp in Michigan. I spent at least four wonderful summers at that week-long camp, and that is also where I met Kathy Stockwell-Riemann, one of my Seminar Assistants. In a way, my Seminar has paid homage to Gail all of these years, usually with me reflecting on her energy and enthusiasm several times during Seminar day and reminding myself that her camps were for an entire week, so really, I should be able to tackle just one simple day! Dan s performances and classes at Gail s camps were always exceptional, and I made a point to travel to Michigan State University for lessons with him whenever I could. Dan has been the editor of the Double Reed magazine for the International Double Reed Society for many years, and if oboists don t know his name from that source, they may have met him at a double reed convention, or at one of the many master classes he gives throughout the country, or even as one of his many students from Interlochen. In fact, many oboists working today name Dan as one of their teachers, and his influence can definitely Special Seminar Guest Dan Stolper with former student and Seminar Assistant Kathy Stockwell- Riemann at Seminar registration. Dan Stolper working with Seminar participant Paul Wallace as Dan demonstrates and discusses his topic Artistry Through Eludes. be tracked throughout the oboe world! Other highlights from his bio include that Dan was a graduate of the Eastman School of Music where he studied the oboe with Robert Sprenkle. He has done further study with Robert Bloom, Heinz Holliger and John Mack. He has been first oboist with the San Antonio Symphony, the New Orleans Philharmonic and the Greater Lansing (MI) Symphony. He is a professor emeritus of oboe at Michigan State University (East Lansing). He is also a member of the faculty of the Interlochen Center for the Arts. He was visiting professor at University of Illinois (Champaign/Urbana) in , and he held a similar position at Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge. Having Dan as the guest for my 10th Annual Northwest Oboe Seminar brought the entire history of the Seminar full circle. The date was Saturday, August 16, 2003 and the Seminar focus was Artistry Through Etudes. It was held at All Saints Episcopal Church in Portland, and our full Seminar sponsor was Jones Double Reed Products out of Spokane, Washington. As always, we started off the day with the master class where everyone performed their prepared selection. Then Jerry Porter, our Seminar repair person (for 10 years now!) did a short oboe adjustment/maintenance presentation and made any needed instrument repairs for participants. We then all went for our afternoon focus session with Dan. He beautifully performed an etude for us and discussed the goals of working on such studies, as well as teaching them. Then Seminar participants played some of their favorite etudes, everything from Barret to Prestini, and we all learned something new - either about a new book of etudes waiting to be discovered, or a new CURRENT EVENTS

42 40 THE 10TH ANNUAL NORTHWEST OBOE SEMINAR CURRENT EVENTS Dan coaches one of the small ensembles in preparation for the evening recital. This trio is comprised of Paul Wallace, Seminar Assistant Laura Kramer, and Laura Mulholland. teaching and/or musical approach from Dan. We went a little overtime as none of us wanted this special session to end, but then all the participants went to their rooms for their assigned small ensemble groups, with coaching from Dan and myself. After small ensembles we went into the sanctuary for large ensemble rehearsal - then dinner, a break, and the concert! Soloists for the evening recital were selected from the day s master class, with goals of varied age levels and programming diversity. Laura Mulholland, 9th grader at Columbia River High in Washington performed the 1st movement of the Albinoni Concerto in D minor, Op. 9, #2 Chris Sigman, a senior at the University of Washington performed the 1st movement of the Poulenc Sonata. Jessica Croysdale of Portland, Dan and Victoria at the reception Victoria says Have some cake!

43 THE DOUBLE REED 41 Oregon performed the 2nd movement of the Saint- Saens Sonata, and Mitch Imori from Beaverton, Oregon performed Persichetti s Parable. During the recital we marked a Seminar first - one of our small ensembles performed the premier of an oboe trio written by long-time Seminar participant Seann Branchfield, sophomore at Linfield College, Oregon! Our small ensemble groups played in between the soloists, and then I joined Dan in a performance of one of the Handel trio sonatas (with the help of seminar assistant Laura Kramer, bassoon) after Dan s performance of a beautiful etude (with piano accompaniment) by Fritz Flemming. Our 10th annual event wrapped up with both Dan and I each conducting a large ensemble selection, Jessica Croysdale and Paul Wallace standing in front of the reception table - ready to serve! and then it was time to head for the reception to peruse all of the goodies provided by sponsors - Jones Double Reed Products. To sum up this anniversary, here is a list of all the focus sessions that have been presented so far: Seminar 1994 featured an extended repair and oboe maintenance session with Jerry Porter of Beacock Music, Washington, and the basics of oboe reed-making and adjusting. Seminar 1995 introduced participants to the standard oboe quartet with string players from the Oregon Chamber Players. Seminar 1996 was Mock Auditions with guest adjudicators from the Oregon Chamber Players and Portland Opera. Seminar 1997 was Contemporary Oboe Techniques with oboist Dr. Stephen Caplan from the University of CURRENT EVENTS A buying frenzy at the product tables of Jones Double Reed Products.

44 42 THE 10TH ANNUAL NORTHWEST OBOE SEMINAR CURRENT EVENTS Group picture: (Standing in front - left to right) Mitch Imori, Jessica Croysdale, Marisa Fisher, Bridie Goodwin, Laura Mulholland (in back - left to right) Seminar Director Victoria Racz, Paul Wallace, Seann Branchfield, Chris Sigman, Dan Stolper, and Seminar Assistant Laura Kramer (missing from picture is Seminar Assistant Kathy Stockwell-Riemann) Nevada, Las Vegas. Seminar 1998 was The Oboist s Role Within the Wind Quintet featuring the Con Grazia Wind Quintet. Seminar 1999 was Orchestral Excerpts with Oregon Symphony oboist Fred Korman. Seminar 2000 was Secrets of Oboe Making with long time Seminar sponsor (8 years!) Mark Chudnow of MCW Woodwinds. Seminar 2001 was The Amoris Consort Presents the Instruments of the Oboe Family with consort founder and oboe d amore specialist Jennifer Paull. Seminar 2002 was The History of the Oboe with performers, recording artists and instrument makers Gayle and Philip Neuman of the Oregon Renaissance Band and De Organographia. The eleventh annual Northwest Oboe Seminar will be held Saturday, August 21, 2004 and the special focus will be What Every Oboist Needs to Know about the Body with Barbara Conable. Barbara is worldrenowned for her work with the Alexander Technique, Body Mapping, and as the founder ofandover Education. She has authored books and manuals including What Every Musician Needs to Know about the Body and How to Leam the Alexander Technique. No matter what your playing level is, don t you want to play freely to the best of your potential, and without tension and/or pain? If the answer is YES - don t miss this Seminar! Check out her web site at Application information can be obtained by calling Seminar Director, Victoria Racz, at , ext. 3 or by at info@oregonchamberplayers.org. Another notable event during this 10th annual year of the Northwest Oboe Seminar was the hosting of a master class and CD release recital for renowned oboist Humbert Lucarelli. This took place on Saturday, March 6, Bert s latest release by Crystal Records, Bach by Bert, was unveiled that day, and master class participants arrived from all over the Northwest to meet and even possibly play for him in the afternoon master class, and then hear him in a recital at Music Millennium in Portland, Oregon performing selections from the CD. The owner of Classical Millennium, Michael Parsons, made a special trip to the master class so attendees could purchase an advance copy and have it signed by Mr Lucarelli. It was a great day all around, and I have MY signed Bert CDs as mementos! Thanks to the two wonderful gentlemen, Dan Stolper and Humbert Lucarelli, plus all my other guests for the Seminar and Seminar-hosted master classes over the vears, for bringing music and inspiration to the Northwest.

45 THE DOUBLE REED 43 Obituaries PHILIP WEST ( ) Philip West, a passionate and versatile musician, teacher, and music arranger, died Saturday. June 26, in New York City after a long battle with leukemia. He was Professor Emeritus of Chamber Music at the Eastman School of Music, where he was Director of the Eastman InterMusic Ensemble, and was a member of the Artist/Faculty of the Aspen Music Festival and School since He created significant vocal chamber music editions of large orchestral works, including those for the final recording of his late wife, Jan DeGaetani, featuring songs of Mahler and Berlioz. As an oboist and English horn player, Mr. West appeared throughout the United States and in Britain performing the standard literature for oboe, less frequently-performed repertoire, and premieres of solo and chamber works by composers such as Warren Benson, Alvin Brehm, Benjamin Britten, Kenneth Frazelle, John Harbison, Sydney Hodkinson, and Richard Wernick. Earlier in his career, he was a leading freelance performer in New York City and a member of the Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, the Boehm Quintet, the Festival Winds, and the New York Pro Musica under Noah Greenberg, where he played the treble and alto shawm. In the mid-1950 s, he served in the United States Army as a member of the Seventh Army Symphony, with whom he toured much of Europe. He performed often on tours with conductor Robert Shaw, and with the New York Philharmonic, Symphony of the Air, the Mostly Mozart Festival, and orchestras of the New York City Ballet and Opera. In 2001, Mr. West and his wife, Carole Cowan, concertmaster of the Hudson Valley Philharmonic, founded Newburgh Chamber Music in Newburgh, New York, where they lived. The series featured colleagues from the Aspen Music Festival, New York City, and the Hudson Valley in concerts showcasing historically significant venues throughout the Newburgh area, including St. George s Church, founded in 1747, and the 1856 landmark Calvary Presbyterian Church designed by Frederick Clark Withers. Mr. West s editions and arrangements have been published by such houses as Theodore Presser and International Music Company, and he was the author of the article on the oboe in Collier s Encyclopaedia. He recorded for RCA Victor, Columbia, Nonesuch, Vanguard, CRI, and the BBC. Mr. West was a native of Johnson City, Tennessee, and held a Bachelor of Music degree from the Cincinnati College of Music and a Master of Music degree from the Manhattan School in New York City. In addition to his wife, he is survived by daughter and son-in-law, Francesca and Nicholas Watson; son, C. Mark DeGaetani; and granddaughter, Danica Watson, all of Waldorf, Maryland. A memorial service will be planned for the fall. Contributions may be made to the Aspen Music Festival, Philip West Scholarship Fund, 2 Music School Rd., Aspen, CO JAMES R. MITCHELL ( ) Oboist and longtime IDRS member James Mitchell died suddenly in Columbus, Ohio on August 5, Jim was born in Bellaire, Ohio. He graduated from Ohio State University with top honors in After graduation he moved to Findlay, Ohio where he taught instrumental music in the city schools for 32 years. He was a gifted teacher who genuinely cared for his students. He was also the longtime principal oboist of the Springfield (Ohio) Symphony, and he performed with many other orchestras in Ohio and in the Chicago area. He was preceded in death by his parents and he is survived by his sister, Sue, aunts Georgianna Starr, Bessie Bunting, Marylou Broomhall, June Hanson, and his life partner Robert Butler. Donations in his memory may be sent to the Ohio State University School of Music s scholarship fund. Members of the IDRS mourn his passing. PERRY BAUMAN ( ) Perry Bauman, principal oboist of the Toronto Symphony from 1940 through 1956, died on August 16, He was born in Erie, Pennsylvania on July 22, 1918, and grew up in Dorset, Ohio. He studied with Marcel Tabuteau at Philadelphia s Curtis Institute of Music from 1937 through He also served as first oboist of the CBC Symphony Orchestra ( ) and played and recorded with the Toronto Woodwind Quintet from 1955 thought He taught the oboe at the Royal Conservatory of Music of Toronto from 1944 through 1971; among his many outstanding students there were Lawrence Cherney, Roy Cox, Harry Freedman, and Stanley Wood. Perry Bauman joined the Edmonton Symphony in 1971 and served as its principal oboist from 1974 through In addition he taught at the Banff Festivals, and from 1979 through 1984 at the Faculty of Music of the University of Western Ontario. Members of the IDRS mourn the passing of this distinguished artist. CURRENT EVENTS

46 44 THE DOUBLE REED Articles

47 THE DOUBLE REED 45 Innovations of Herzberg Profiler/Shaper, the Symmetrical Machine Yoshiyuki (Yoshi) Ishikawa Boulder, Colorado Norman Herzberg Profi ler/shaper (2002 model). INTRODUCTION Herzberg, an Honorary Member of IDRS, is one of the most significant and Norman influential figures in the history of American bassoon playing. He is known as both a teacher and player, and having taught at the University of Southern California for 35 years, he is credited to have produced an enormous number of excellent performers and teachers of the bassoon. Moreover, his bassoon playing in hundreds of movies, television shows, and cartoons has helped raise the standard of bassoon performance in this country to always greater levels of excellence. From principal bassoon of the St. Louis Symphony in the 1930 s, to recordings with Bruno Walter and the Columbia Symphony, to principal bassoon in the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, to Los Angeles studio musician, his career has spanned nearly six decades and his contributions, to both bassoon performance and pedagogy, have been enormous. (Double Reed 21/2, 1998). One other significant contribution, which Norman Herzberg has made to the bassoon world, is the development of his profiling system, the Herzberg Profiler/ Shaper. Herzberg initially introduced his Profiler/ Shaper in 1981, however, he made only a limited number of machines at that time. His Profiler/Shaper was virtually impossible to obtain. In 2002, Herzberg announced that he had begun once again to produce his machine. Four selected undergraduate students from the bassoon studio of the University of Colorado, College of Music, (Kate Fagan, Jaime Hutchinson, Taylor Buchanon, and Connie Dewlin), lead by professor Yoshiyuki Ishikawa and assisted by his graduate student, Kirsten Boldt, acquired the first of the second generation Herzberg Profiler/Shaper, with grants from

48 46 INNOVATIONS OF HERZBERG PROFILER/SHAPER, THE SYMMETRICAL MACHINE the University of Colorado (Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program and Graduate Council on Arts and Humanities). The above members of the bassoon studio have used and have studied the Herzberg Profiler/Shaper for the past two years to understand comprehensively its capabilities and applications. The following article addresses the background of the development of the Herzberg Profiler/Shaper, revealed during a three-day interview with Norman Herzberg in 2002, as well as a detailed description of the machine and its capabilities based on the studio s experience with the profiler during the past two years. BACKGROUND For the first thirty years (since 1933) my reed making was done by hand. The tools that I used were common. I had a foldover shaper, placque, knives, files, mandrels, reamers, and a chopping block. During the years that I was making reeds completely with hand tools, I learned that the riddles of good cane could not be solved or predicted and that hand trimming reeds in a symmetrical pattern could not be done consistently. Herzberg Norman Herzberg learned in the early stages of his bassoon studies that symmetry is paramount for the construction of bassoon reeds, and that a symmetrical reed is very difficult to produce by hand trimming. In 1952, he was presented with a double barrel profiler made by Fred Pfeifer, and he began to work on the development of functional cam patterns for bassoon profilers. Herzberg soon realized that he could not produce reeds consistently on the Pfeifer system because of its design shortcomings. In the late 1970 s, he began to engineer and construct his own reed profiler to create a system for producing consistent profiles in the making of satisfactory bassoon reeds. In 1981, Herzberg produced six prototypes of his new machine and received a patent on the design. The profiling system that Herzberg developed is a Profiler/Shaper combination that is capable of cutting a perfectly symmetrical pattern on cane. A symmetrical pattern is defined as a scrape that has an absolute and exact mirror of patterns in the four fundamental regions of a reed. Each region represents one longitudinal half of one side of the blade. The profiler is capable of scraping cane in increments of.001 of an inch anywhere on the cane blade. The profiler is also flexible and can produce any style of reed and any functional length. The Herzberg Profiler/Shaper can produce profiled cane that can be assembled, cut and played without further trimming. Moreover, it is able to produce an exact duplicate of a profile time after time. Profi led and shaped cane, whether purchased or made on one s own equipment, is fi nished to a certain point. Whereas the maker of a successful hand made reed lacks the ability to reproduce it in order to repeat his success, the precision of the Herzberg Shaper/Profi ler enables the reed maker to repeat all of the measurements of a successful reed. When the cane is made into a reed blank and the tip is clipped, the early trials of the reed reveal for the fi rst time the quality of cane and the subsequent fi nal trimming the player requires. The level playing fi eld that each reed maker can produce with this equipment facilitates the reed maker s decision whether to continue with a reed blank, change the adjustment(s), or go on to another blank The designs of this profi ler and the shaper are such that an infi nite number of variables in trimming patterns can be accomplished with no loss of precision, symmetry, or consistency over long periods of time. Herzberg Herzberg initially produced only a limited number of his Profiler/Shaper machines, since absolute accuracy, precision, and the expert skill of a dedicated machinist are needed to manufacture his machine. During conversations with Herzberg in the 1980s, Herzberg revealed and expressed his frustration with machinists who could not meet his needs. To insure the accuracy and integrity of his machine, Herzberg himself measured and tested each part with precision measuring tools. He rejected more parts than accepted. Most machinists could not understand and often questioned the need for the level of precision that Herzberg required. Herzberg s demands were so high that he was literally thrown out of machine shops for rejecting parts that they produced. Depending on the part, all of the parts are within.002 of an inch or less. Three thousandths of an inch is the equivalent of the thickness of a human hair. Many parts have a required tolerance that is in tenthousandths of an inch. Ten thousandth of an inch is one-tenth the thickness of the cellophane wrapping on a pack of cigarettes I have also rechecked parts with the measuring equipment I have assembled. For example, although it is not required, I am able to measure in millionths of an inch. Herzberg For the first production, Herzberg made only twenty-five profilers. His machine was virtually impossible to obtain. In 2002, Herzberg announced that he had begun once again to produce his machine. The primary obstacle, which Herzberg had in the initial production of the machine, was the difficulty in contracting a qualified machinist who was willing to produce parts with Herzberg s specifications. Herzberg recently overcame this obstacle by obtaining the cooperation of master

49 THE DOUBLE REED 47 machinist, Gary Carnan, owner of World Class Manufacturing. The bassoon studio of the University of Colorado College of Music, lead by professor Yoshiyuki Ishikawa, acquired the first of Herzberg s secondgeneration profilers in For the past two years, the studio has tested its features, capabilities and potentials. Herzberg s Profiler/Shaper is one of nine profilers in the collection available to the studio. The Herzberg Profiler/Shaper is without question the most accurate and sophisticated reedmaking tool in this collection. HERZBERG PROFILER/SHAPER REVEALED Herzberg s machine is a combination of a shaper and a profiler. The shaper is an integral part of Herzberg s system, and its design and construction are unique. Unlike ordinary straight shapers, Herzberg s shaper is a precise heavy-duty straight shaper. It has been cut with computer-controlled mill so that cane, which is formed by it is perfectly symmetrical, within.002 of an inch, and the two blades precisely match when folded, with absolutely no overlap. Out of 30 shapers in the collection, Herzberg s shaper is the only tool that is capable of cutting a symmetrical shape. Built into the shaper are two cutting screws, one at each tube end (see figure 1). These screws cut circular rings into the cane. These circular rings match the pins on the cane barrel (see figure 2) of the profiler and set the cane exactly in the absolute center of the cane barrel. This setting mechanism also permits the profiled cane to be removed and then placed back to the absolute original position on to the cane barrel. The precision of the curves on this flat shaper are within.002 of an inch of symmetry since the mill that produces the curve is computer controlled and the curves are programmed to produce precise symmetry within.002 of an inch. Herzberg Fig. 1) Herzberg shaper cutting screws. Fig. 2) Cane barrel pin. Fig. 3) Profi ler base - one-piece aluminum casting. The quality and the uniqueness of Herzberg s Profiler/Shaper will be apparent to any user. The tolerance and the fit of the machine are so tight that a user will immediately feel the excellence of the machine. Some of the design and structural details that have been engineered into Herzberg s profiler are: 1. All of the parts of the profiler are made of materials other than brass. Machinists favor brass in manufacturing profilers and gougers, since this alloy is easy to mill and is a natural lubricant. The disadvantage of brass is that it cannot be treated to attain the hardness of steel and to maintain its measurements with constant use. 2. The base of Herzberg s profiler is a onepiece aluminum casting. The casting is ground to precise flatness on the bottom surface and then hard anodized. Anodization is an electrolytic process that produces controlled aluminum oxide films on aluminum. The resultant coating is uniform, dense and equivalent to hardened steel (see Figure 3). This precise bottom surface serves as a reference plate from which all of the remaining parts of the profiler are produced. 3. The head containing the blade is adjustable so that the special tracing wheel that rides

50 48 INNOVATIONS OF HERZBERG PROFILER/SHAPER, THE SYMMETRICAL MACHINE Fig. 4) Cutting head, cane barrel and master cam. on the cam is precisely located to ride down the longitudinal center of the cam. The geometry of the adjustments ensure that the spine of each half of the cane matches when it is turned around during profiling (see Figure 4). 4. The three patterns on the cam are precision ground for exact symmetry (see Figure 5). Fig. 5) Master Cam pattern C shown. As mentioned above, The Herzberg Profiler/Shaper also produces profiled cane with an infinite number of design variations. There are three levels of adjustments built into the machine that allow for modifications. These adjustments are realized through the master cam, the cane barrelcutting angle, and by trimming by shimming. The master cam has three patterns. Each pattern may be used independently or in combination for a total of seven different cam patterns. Fig. 6) Shim washers. Cams are secured by a setscrew and are easily switched with a provided Allen Wrench. The cam may also be adjusted longitudinally in any increment within 10 mm. By means of repositioning the cam, the pattern may be cut into any part of the shaped cane. Placement of the cam closer to the tip of the reed results in a wider reed, and closer to the tube results in a narrower reed. The combination of cam patterns and positions results in a multiple variation of profiles. For example, by moving the cam longitudinally in increments of.5mm, the machine is capable of exactly duplicating the seven cam pattern variations on 20 different blade lengths, thereby producing 140 trim variations! Using a dial caliper, the cam may be moved at even smaller increments (see Figure 5). The cam barrel-cutting angle in the second-generation machine is achieved by placing specific shim washers between the base of the profiler and the setscrew. By following a specific formula developed by Chuck Ullery, the cutting angle may be adjusted by increments of.001 of an inch. Since the introduction of the second generation Herzberg Profiler/Shaper in 2002, Herzberg further improved and simplified the adjustment of the cane cutting barrel by installing a HeliCoil (precision formed screw thread coils of stainless steel Emhart Technologies) that lifts or lowers the barrel with a screw at each end. By adjusting the angle of the cane barrel, the thickness of the back and the tip of the profile may be adjusted in increments of.001 of an inch. The adjustment of the cutting angle of the cane barrel is difficult when using shim washers, since compression factors of shim material must be considered. The new HeliCoil feature will simplify the process, and the user will be able to easily experiment with various thicknesses at the back and front of the reed, as well as the degree of wedge taper (see Figure 6). Trimming by shimming (spot trimming) is an

51 THE DOUBLE REED 49 advanced adjustment technique achieved by attaching pressuresensitive shim tapes to the cane barrel. Spot trimming is equivalent to fine-tuning a reed through the incorporation of small dips and windows. Etched into the cane barrel is a superimposed laser outline of the shaper and a grid pattern in 1/4-inch increments. Through the application of shim tapes of any shape to specific spots on the cam, precise trimming may be done to correspond to selected sections of the cane. The shim tapes are available in various thicknesses from.0015 of an inch. The thickness of the scrape corresponds to the thickness of the tape. This final adjustment results in a profile that has every detail of a finished reed (see Figure 7A and 7B). Fig. 7A) Shim tapes and laser etched cane barrel with tape attached. sharpened blade edge which is made of cobalt steel is square to the sides of the blade within.003 of an inch. Herzberg Herzberg just recently announced that he is preparing a blade made of micro-grain carbide. A micro-grain carbide blade will last considerably longer. However, the blade maker must sharpen it. The few who have used Fig. 7B) Laser etched cane barrel with tape attached. This feature (trimming by shimming) makes a separate tip trimmer unnecessary. In addition, this setup can be changed unlike a tip-trimmer, which has only one plaque/template. Another important point is that while a tip trimmer operation is done separately from the reed pattern, this tip shimming feature is an integral part of the whole reed profile pattern Herzberg The machine is built to last for generations. Maintenance is minimal and consists of oiling moving parts, brushing shavings off the profiler, and sharpening the blade. The cutting blade is made from cobalt and will cut about one hundred pieces of cane before it needs to be sharpened. Herzberg provides a sharpening tool to maintain the blade. This tool is designed and constructed to equal the precision and quality of the profiler (see Figure 8). The necessity for the precision and hardness of the blade is critical since the edge of the blade translates the precision of the profiler to the cane blank. The Figure 8. Fig. 9) Spring plate guide. the micro-grain blades reported to Herzberg that micro-grain carbide blades had a year s use before they needed to be re-sharpened. The most vulnerable part of any profiler is the blade. Herzberg has engineered a system, which consists of a spring and a plate that facilitates the cutting process (see Figure 9). Care must be taken to prevent damage to the blade and cane barrel. In order to avoid the hardened blade from hitting the cane barrel when profiling, a.005 plastic piece of shim stock three inches long that is one half inch wide at one end and tapers to one eighth of an inch at the other end is furnished. When the blade is at the thinnest part of the reed blank on the cane barrel (the foldover point) the shim must pass through between the blade and the cane barrel. When it does, the blade is properly positioned (see Figure 10). With each height adjust-

52 50 INNOVATIONS OF HERZBERG PROFILER/SHAPER, THE SYMMETRICAL MACHINE ment of the cane barrel, the parallelism between the cane barrel and the cam is compromised. Built into the Herzberg profiler is a system of gauges that maintain a perfect parallelism. This system assures the parallelism after the cane barrel adjustment (see Figure 11). When the shimming screws that adjust the cane barrel cutting angle are set, the distance between the cane barrel and the cam shaft uprights must be Fig. 10) Blade adjustment using shim stock. maintained in perfect parallel. The parallelism of the cane barrel and the cam is assured with special fi xtures that are attached to a precision ground fl at area in the base. These special fi xtures determine the required parallelism. The adjustable link between the uprights then can be set and assure the parallel movement of the uprights. Herzberg To maintain, test, and prove the accuracy of the profiled cane, Herzberg also developed a gauge called the verifier (see Figure 12). Using this tool, reed makers may draw specific guidelines on the reed and test the thickness of corresponding spots (see Figure 13). This ingenious system assures the accuracy of the profile and is also used in the setup process of the machine. Fig 11) A. right angle, B. cane barrel, C. master cam, D. parallel, E. adjustment link. The procedure to adjust the parallelism of the cane barrel and the master cam: 1. Attach the right angle to the base and position the cane barrel fl ush with the right angle; 2. Insert the parallel between the cane barrel and master cam; 3. Move the parallel and position the master cam fl ush with the parallel; 4. Adjust and attach the link. In conjunction with the shimming process, I have developed an attachment to the cane barrel, called the Verifier/Locator, that helps locate and measure specific corresponding spots on the profiled cane while it is on the cane barrel. Thus, the symmetry of the profiling pattern can be proven. The Verifier/Locator also indicates the areas on the cane barrel where the operator desires to place shim material. Herzberg Fig. 12) Verifi er. Fig. 13) Verifi er with drawn guidelines. Herzberg s machine, when properly setup, can be used by any reed maker. The setup takes some reed making skills and experience. Herzberg offers oneon-one training sessions to all those who purchase his machine. The sessions are invaluable, and individuals who are fortunate enough to take advantage of this instruction will gain much knowledge about the machine and Herzberg s philosophy and techniques for reed making. The value of any profiler is measured by the ability of the

53 THE DOUBLE REED 51 Fig. 14) Herzberg Profi ler/shaper: 1) Cutting head, 2) Master cam, 3) Cane barrel, 4) Shaper, 5) Profi ler base, 6) Adjustable link between master cam and cane barrel, 7) Blade sharpening jig, 8) Parallel, 9) Right angle, 10-13) Verifi er components, 14) Dial indicator base and needle, 15) Dial indicator. machine to produce consistently reeds that require a minimum amount of time to hand trim. All profilers and tip finishers are designed to duplicate reeds created initially by manually scraping and shaping the cane. The degree to which most profilers are capable of coming close to the final scrape of the finished reed varies greatly. Some profilers are glorified planes with functions that are limited to removing bark. Herzberg s machine far exceeds the ability to duplicate a reed. It is capable of profiling cane in a manner that is impossible to realize by a manual process. The machine has the capacity of cutting minute scrapes anywhere on the blade in increments of.001 of an inch. No other machine in the collection or on the market is capable of such precise scraping. Among nine machines tested and used extensively by the studio, Herzberg s machine ranks as the best among all. There is nothing that comes close to Herzberg s profiler in its overall functionality, detail and accuracy of construction, and flexibility of design. CONCLUSION Despite its sophisticated design, Herzberg s Profiler/Shaper is still a hands-on machine. Every reed is shaped, profiled and assembled by hand. Each adjustment and placement of a shim is realized through the skill and experience of the reed maker. Incorporating the capacity to adapt to the needs of every player is the genius of Herzberg s design, since every advanced bassoonist has his or her own preference for reeds, and every player adjusts reeds to accommodate instruments, playing styles and needs. Reeds made by Herzberg s Profiler/Shaper have the personality, soul, style and quality of the maker. This ability to customize and adapt to the needs of the individual reed maker with unlimited parameters is another critically important aspect of Herzberg s design. This ability is either absent or critically inadequate in all other profilers. Bassoon reeds are instruments on their own. Reeds, as well as bassoons, must have a certain element of

54 52 INNOVATIONS OF HERZBERG PROFILER/SHAPER, THE SYMMETRICAL MACHINE consistency in their design and construction to function. Better bassoons/reeds are more consistent in their design and construction than lesser quality bassoons/ reeds. Great bassoons are impeccably assembled with each tone-hole precisely drilled, contoured and voiced by the hands of skilled makers who follow their own unique formulas. Makers of great bassoons are also capable of duplicating this quality. Herzberg s machine is a tool that will permit reed makers to produce great reeds in a consistent manner that would otherwise be very difficult to achieve. Note: Additional information about the Herzberg Profiler/Shaper is available at < A video interview of Herzbeg Norman Herzberg Memoirs by Yoshiyuki Ishikawa and his students is available online at < Interviews/Herzberg/Herzberg.html>. Phtographs by Yoshiyuki Ishikawa.

55 THE DOUBLE REED 53 Reminiscences of Leonard Sharrow (August 5, August 9, 2004) Compiled by Richard Schaul-Yoder and Ronald Klimko Leonard Sharrow, Honorary Member of the IDRS, died at Cincinnati on August 9, 2004, just four days after his 89th birthday. He was a legend among bassoonists, having served as principal in the National, Detroit, NBC ( and 47-51), Chicago ( ) and Pittsburgh ( ) Symphonies. The Chicago Tribune, in a lengthy tribute published August 21st, called him an extraordinary talent... one of the great bassoonists of his generation, [who] produced a very beautiful sound in a class with Arnold Jacobs on tuba and Ray Still on oboe, two of the other stellar CSO players during the Reiner years. The following are excerpts from some tributes received by the IDRS after Leonard s death: Larry Reed, Norman, Oklahoma What a sad loss of a bassoon giant. My studies with him at both Aspen and at Indiana University were memorable, valuable, and so important to my development as a bassoonist. All who were touched by Leonard remember all the wonderful stories... Toscanini, Reiner, and the rest. Though I know he grieved the loss of Emily a few years ago, I know he lived life to the fullest until the end. The IDRS convention in 1994 at Bloomington featured a great tribute to Mr. Sharrow and Jerry Sirucek. Thanks to his son Neil for keeping us up in recent times on his dad s health struggles and the pleasures that he experienced in hearing from his colleagues. Rick Schaul-Yoder, Boston, Massachusetts (student at Indiana University, ): I studied with Lenny at Indiana in the late 60 s early 70 s. He was a wonderful and profound influence on many of us, personally and musically. A couple of years ago I flew out to Chicago to spend a little time with him - Ray Still had invited him to present a masterclass, which was attended by David McGill and other area professionals as well as the students. After the class, David and I took Lenny to Orchestra Hall, where we had a wonderful, long dinner in the restaurant. Then we took him backstage - a CSO concert was just ending, and as the orchestra came offstage, they swarmed Lenny; everyone wanted a picture taken with him, and, luckily, I had my camera along. He was in his glory. Leonard loved people, and the music they made, and his enthusiasm was infectious. He was full of stories, always goodnatured, always engaging, witty and wise. As to his bassoon playing, it always seemed to me unique. Certainly there Leonard Sharrow enjoying life! were other great bassoonists in his generation, each with a different beautiful sound, but Leonard s seemed somehow more unusual. I - and others - puzzled for years over what combination of embouchure, wind, reed, when combined with his instrument, allowed him to produce that sound. And what was so definitive, so particular, about that sound, anyway? Was it some special combination of timbre, resonance, and presence? He always insisted that students shouldn t try to copy his sound, in any event, because we were all built differently, and would inherently produce different sounds; and, besides, the world would be boring if we all sounded the same. Ultimately, the answer came to me as I sat in the chapel at his memorial service in Bloomington this past August, listening as recordings of his playing of the Mozart, Vivaldi and Hummel concertos were played before the service began. Leonard was right: his sound wasn t any of these things. It was just Leonard, the person. No one else could make that sound, because no one else was

56 54 REMINISCENCES OF LEONARD SHARROW (AUGUST 5, AUGUST 9, 2004) Leonard. His character, the tone of his life, sang as he played, and everyone who was ever privileged to hear it was captivated and enriched beyond measure. From Daryl E. Harris Sr. Our hearts are really saddened at this great loss, but we are grateful to have had such a warm and loving person. He and his late wife were just EXCEPTIONAL. Thanks for Leonard Sharrow, he will be missed sorely. From Kat Sleeper, Palm Beach, Florida Once while in college, I was working on a concerto that had been written for my first teacher, Betty Johnson. She told me to call Leonard Sharrow and talk to him because he had recorded it. I did not really want to do that, because it seemed like a pretty lame reason to be calling up a major player like Leonard Sharrow, but she kept insisting. Finally, just to get her to leave me alone, I did call him and he was wonderful. Very open and helpful and I was so glad she d made me call. He even sent me the recording. Later on in my college career, I attended a masterclass of his. It was inspiring. The most memorable advice to me was on breathing. Someone was trying to do a long excerpt on one breath. He said (and I paraphrase) Arrgh! Why aren t you breathing? Never be afraid to take a breath! It was a very liberating comment and very good advice. He was a great and generous musician. recording of the Mozart Bassoon Concerto with Toscanini I must have listened to 100 times...it blew my mind. Leonard was a true inspiration and a wonderful role model both as a musician and a human being. He treated me like a son. I have his picture now in my bassoon studio, and tell my four kids about him and when I studied with him. From Chris Eberle, principal bassoonist, West Point Band I studied with Mr. Sharrow for two years at the New England Conservatory ( ). During my senior year, I had taken a job with the West Point Band and was commuting from New York to Boston once a week for lessons. This took its toll obviously, but it was easily worth the 3-hour drive each way. Nevertheless, Mr. Sharrow who only taught his NEC students on Mondays (he was still playing in the Pittsburgh Symphony at the time), offered to teach me a two-hour lesson every other week to save me some time and money. He even lent me change for the parking meter so I wouldn t have to pay more to park in a city garage! My memories are of an incredibly hard-working and devoted musician with a no-nonsense approach to teaching that serves me to this day. That he could play in a major orchestra and still fly to Boston every week to teach all day at the age of 73 is simply astounding. His energy and tireless work ethic will be greatly missed. From Michael DiPietro, MD, Professor of Radiology, Univ. of Michigan From Greg Vaught, Principal Librarian, San Antonio Symphony, Texas Leonard was practically like a father to me (as I m sure he was to many of his students), and I shall miss him greatly. From Edwin Caberra I was 19, and performing the Mozart Bassoon Concerto during the fall of I met Leonard for the first time at the Glickman Popkin bassoon camp. So imagine this, a kid from Spanish Harlem in New York, playing the bassoon and taking a coaching from Leonard Sharrow, a living legend, whose Leonard coaching Debra Boyo (Indiana University) at a master class Music as a time machine: We are all saddened by news of the passing of Leonard Sharrow, a musical legend and a link with music history. I feel grateful for having had the opportunity to sit and speak with Leonard Sharrow on a few occasions in recent years. During the IDRS Conference in Morgantown he was sitting by the main entrance of the performance building waiting for his ride. Although we had met and spoken on other occasions at IDRS Conferences and the Glickman-Popkin Bassoon Camp, there was no reason for him to remember me, so I re-introduced myself and took the opportunity to keep him company and chat with him

57 THE DOUBLE REED 55 Leonard Sharrow discusses bassoon technique with Per Jonsson from Sweden after a master class. until his ride arrived. He seemed to enjoy answering my questions and discussing the standard questions which he must have been asked hundreds of times about Toscanini, NBC Orchestra, performing the Mozart Concerto, Reiner, CSO, contemporary famous bassoonists and other musicians, etc. He was always gracious and outgoing and never seemed to be bothered by being asked about his legendary career. Mr. Sharrow had been a guest artist at the Glickman-Popkin Bassoon Camp several times and was guru - in - residence at this spring s session. Although he was under medical care requiring daily intravenous infusions, many bassoonists at camp looked after him including Dr. Thor Wright and Mr. Jim Poe and many others. Thor made many arrangements for the necessary medical supplies to be available so that Mr. Sharrow could attend camp. I know that Leonard appreciated the care he received. Fortunately, we have many physicians who are bassoonists. I had the privilege of covering for Thor during one of Leonard s infusions which gave me the opportunity to chat with him again for over an hour while he received the medication. Once again he was most pleasant and gracious and the time went by quickly. David McGill came to G-P Camp later in the week as a performing guest artist. For one session David told us how as a child he owned the LP of the 1960 CSO recording of Scheherezade conducted by Reiner and with Mr. Sharrow playing the bassoon solos. This recording had an influence on his decision to become a musician and a bassoonist. This recording has been re-released as a CD and David had the group listen to the 2nd movement where Leonard Sharrow on bassoon and Ray Still on oboe and other CSO greats are featured so prominently. I was sitting next to and a little behind Mr. Sharrow who was also listening to David s presentation and to the recording. Several of us who were sitting near Mr. Sharrow could see his subtle body movement and subtle swaying during the playback of the recording. Mr. Sharrow was beaming, and it was obvious that in his mind he was back in his seat in the CSO. Music had transported Leonard back in time! This was a wonderful link between the fantastic current principal bassoonist of the CSO and the legendary former holder of that chair who had influenced his career. It was wonderful to behold. I know that Mr. Sharrow was grateful for this opportunity to be back in the music world. We thank all those who made it possible, and we are grateful that we could share the experience with him. Listening to his recordings will mean even more to me now. May we all be remembered so fondly and honored after we pass on. From Arthur Grossman, Seattle, Washington Leonard Sharrow was one of my idols as a youth. Of course, I had his recording of the Mozart Concerto with Toscanini and the NBC Symphony Orchestra. I also listened to the weekly broadcasts of the NBC, in which he was principal bassoon, and in which he always shone. The sound he produced was the sound I wished to emulate. I first met Lennie in the late 1950s, when I was briefly in the 5th Army Band at Fort Sheridan, and he was principal in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He was very kind to me at that time, and I appreciated very much his warmth and friendliness. During the years at Indiana University, following his stint in Chicago, we corresponded from time to time, usually on matters of wind quintets. He was, at that time, playing in one for the first time on a regular basis, so he often asked me to send copies of programs Soni Ventorum had played to use as examples. We more or less lost contact during his years in Pittsburgh. I next saw him at the Marrowstone Music Festival, where he was teaching and where some of my students were studying and where we renewed our friendship. Since that time we remained in close contact, by telephone and in person when we were in the same city. In recent years he seemed to feel that he had

58 56 REMINISCENCES OF LEONARD SHARROW (AUGUST 5, AUGUST 9, 2004) been forgotten and that none of the young players knew who he was. I tried consistently to call him on a regular basis and to confirm that he was not forgotten and that he was known by reputation even by those bassoonists who had never had the opportunity to hear him except perhaps on recordings. I know that he was heartened by the reception he received at the Glickman-Popkin Bassoon Camp this summer, and I think that served to buoy his spirits in the last few months. He was truly one of the great bassoonists of the 20th century, and he will be sorely missed by those of us who revered him and who counted him as a friend. His wonderful attitude about music and about orchestral playing will live on in the students to whom he passed on those attributes. From James R. McKay, Chair - Music Performance Department, Don Wright Faculty of Music, University of Western Ontario) I had the privilege of studying with Leonard at Indiana University as a graduate student in 1967/68. I was in love with his sound and wanted to sound just like him. One of the most important things that he taught me was that we are all different... different reeds, different bocals and instruments, different physiologies... and that in trying to play in the most efficient way possible, we would discover our own sound. For phrasing, all he had to do was play a passage for me in a lesson, and I suddenly understood! I was really grateful to see him again at the 2003 IDRS in North Carolina. From Jane Ann (Johnson) Orzel Leonard Sharrow was a poet on the bassoon. He was a pivotal influence in my bassoon life. He demonstrated on the bassoon often during lessons, modeling playing which was delightful to the point of being other-wordly. In my own teaching I find that many of his phrases pop out of my mouth. He was a warm, communicative and genial person. He enjoyed what he did, he enjoyed a good story, a good laugh and a good sakitini. He will be missed, and he will be fondly remembered. From Harold W. Kohn, Columbus, Ohio I met Leonard Sharrow in I was in New York for a conference and had just gotten a Heckel bassoon on approval. I called Mr. Sharrow out of the blue to ask him to look it over. Although he didn t know me from Adam, he graciously agreed to see me and look at the bassoon. We spent maybe minutes together, agreed that the bassoon was worth the $750. Before I left, he sold me the best bassoon reed I have ever had! From Milan Turkovic, Vienna, Austria Leonard Sharrow was a big name, everywhere in the musical world. Even at times when the bassoon was not considered to be a solo instrument his work was already known as legendary. Part of the reason of course was the Toscanini recordings, and specifically the Mozart Concerto. I knew the story of this difficult recording session. [Leonard was told of the plan to record the Concerto only at the record- A famous bassoon septet: L to R, George Goslee, Norman Herzberg, Lou Skinner, Sol Schoenbach, William Waterhouse, Milan Turkovic, and Leonard Sharrow.

59 THE DOUBLE REED 57 ing session itself, when the orchestra was otherwise recording other works. Due to time constraints, Toscanini ran through the piece in a single take.] But when he told it to me again I was even more in awe. Everyone who has ever recorded this delicate piece can imagine Sharrow s achievement. I met this wonderful, intelligent and lively man in 1971, replacing him at Indiana University for half a year. Unfortunately our contact in the following years was very rare. But whenever I met with him I felt his friendship and warmth toward me. We all knew he was not well lately. Nevertheless we will probably realize only now how much we miss him. From Ed Lacy, University of Evansville, Indiana Recently, I learned of the death of one of the greatest bassoonists of all time, and my primary teacher and mentor, Leonard Sharrow. Actually, his influence on me had begun even before the time I began my studies with him. After he was discharged from the US Army in 1945, he played one season with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. At the same time, he taught bassoon at Wayne State University in Detroit, and one of his students there was David Gowans, who later became my first bassoon teacher. Gowans often referred to Sharrow and held him up as an example to be emulated. So, after hearing the praises of Sharrow during my entire undergraduate career, it was only natural that I would elect to enter Indiana University to do my graduate work when Sharrow began teaching there upon leaving the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. One of the most memorable lessons I have ever had with any teacher occurred in 1965, shortly after I began studying with Sharrow. I still remember with great clarity that he stated, I don t really want to teach the bassoon. That came as quite a shock to me, since I had resigned my job, cashed in my retirement fund, and moved my family to another state in order to try to learn the bassoon from him. He went on to explain what he meant. He said that he preferred for me to learn on my own the technical aspects of the music, including fingerings, rhythms, technique, etc., and that he would then work with me on musicality, phrasing, tone production and interpretation. While he certainly was capable of great technical facility himself, it was Leonard playing bassoon quartets. (Lucky group!) those more general areas of musicianship that were his greatest strengths as a teacher. He seemingly had hundreds of tips for solving problems peculiar to the bassoon, but he stated that he regarded the bassoon as only the tool that he used to convey his thoughts about music. I was influenced to adopt that as my philosophy of teaching for quite a while (although I have since revised it a little). As a performer, he demonstrated consummate artistry. The beauty of his sound and the way he shaped melodies and phrases would tend to engage and transport the listener during slower, more melodic passages. But then, when faced with a technical challenge, he seemed to have almost unlimited technical facility. Often we, his students, wouldn t be aware of the technical demands of some of the music he negotiated with seeming ease until we later tried to play the same pieces. During his teaching career, he dealt with students of all levels of ability and accomplishment. I never heard him belittle or criticize a student who couldn t quite come up to the standard he held for himself. My observation was that among his class of some twenty or more bassoonists at Indiana, he gave the same consideration to every one, and treated each one as though they were his professional colleague. There are many more stories about Sharrow that could be related, and much that could be said about him as a teacher, musician and man. However, perhaps the above will suffice for the present. When introducing him before a master class he gave at one of the IDRS conferences, I stated that it sometimes seems difficult to find very many bassoonists who don t list Leonard Sharrow as one of their teachers. This gives only a little indication of his great influence on the bassoon world. He will be greatly missed, but he won t be forgotten.

60 58 REMINISCENCES OF LEONARD SHARROW (AUGUST 5, AUGUST 9, 2004) (From John Steinmetz) In Friday s Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Andrew Druckenbrod writes that Leonard Sharrow, principal bassoonist for the Pittsburgh Symphony from 1977 to 1987, died on Monday at the age of 89 from complications of leukemia. At age 62, Mr. Sharrow left [his teaching position at] Indiana University at Bloomington and was hired by then-pso music director Andre Previn...Mr. Sharrow had been a charter member of Arturo Toscanini s NBC Orchestra and principal there later...[he] was considered by many to be the most accomplished bassoonist of his era. Druckenbrod adds, Mr. Sharrow s solo performance of Mozart s Bassoon Concerto in B-fl at Major for RCA in 1948 is still considered its pre-eminent recording... During World War II, Mr. Sharrow served as a member of the pit for Irving Berlin s This is the Army in tours around the nation. From Richard Lottridge, Madison, Wisconsin It was with great sadness that I received word of the death of Leonard Sharrow. Leonard and I were colleagues in the Chicago Symphony (I played fourth and contra) for six years until he left to teach at Indiana University in I met him for the first time at a party for the orchestra prior to the opening of the 1958 season and, right away, he made me feel welcome You can t imagine the thrill of sitting in the section, week after week and season after season, hearing this great artist play. I was even fortunate enough to study with him, as if playing in the section wasn t a great lesson in itself. One can hear his artistry in the CSO recordings conducted by Fritz Reiner and, earlier, the NBC Symphony recordings with Arturo Toscanini. Besides his great artistic playing, Leonard Bassoon trios? L to R: Leonard Sharrow, Sol Schoenbach, George Goslee. Sharrow was a wonderful person. There probably wasn t a more well liked or respected member of the CSO. He and his departed wife, Emily, hosted many dinner parties for members of visiting orchestras, especially foreign orchestras; therefore, they had friends all over the world. A cellist from the Lyric Opera Orchestra described Leonard s unique sound. She said his sound reminded her of flowing caramel -an apt description. I feel privileged to have been a friend and colleague of Lenny Sharrow, a great artist, bassoonist, and human being. From Saxton Rose Unfortunately I didn t have as much experience with Mr. Sharrow as I would have liked but I d like to share this quick remembrance with the list. I performed for him in a master class at the Marrowstone Music Festival a number of years ago. Afterward Mr. Sharrow was asked how throughout all his years performing under Reiner, Toscanini and the like, he dealt with performance anxiety. He said simply that is was preparation. That the only way he combated performance anxiety was to know he was as prepared as he possibly could be. That has always stuck with me. From Robert Williams, principal bassoon, Detroit Symphony I first met Leonard Sharrow as a student at the Aspen Music School in the summer of It was after my freshman year at the University of Arizona. I had heard his recording of the Mozart Concerto and was excited to be able to study with him. He came to the first meeting with his students, our audition, chain smoking and looking like he just came from fishing in a trout stream, not what I was expecting! He and his wife Emily were very helpful and made all of his students feel like family, I had my first blintzes at a party at his house and the experience of studying with him and interacting with the other students that summer was a life changing experience. Getting to play next to him in the Festival Orchestra was a treat. I had a chance to grab a few more lessons with him over the years while passing through Aspen, each time it seemed he was playing the Ravel Piano Concerto in the Festival Orchestra. The magic of recording let me continue to listen to his beautiful bassoon playing in LPs of Scheherezade and Strauss tone poems with Reiner and the Chicago Symphony and of course the NBC Orchestra with Toscanini. One

61 THE DOUBLE REED 59 From Douglas Huff I was Sharrow s grad assistant during his last two years at Indiana University ( 75-77). Lessons on orchestral excerpts were always so much fun because Sharrow really loved to sit up on his bar stool and conduct with a tuning bar mallet and sing all the orchestral parts. Once I told him much I enjoyed his conducting and I asked him whether he ever considered becoming a conductor. His response: I ve considered it but decided against it. So many of my good friends are musicians --- and I don t want to lose them. Two IDRS honorary members and their wives. On the left, Mr. and Mrs. Leonard Sharrow. On the right, Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Hugh Cooper. (Photo by Bill Woodward) fond memory I have is hearing Leonard performing the Haydn Sinfonia Concertante with the Pittsburgh Symphony his first year back from teaching at Indiana University. He looked like a six year old in a candy store. You could tell he loved making music with his bassoon. The last time I saw him was at Jim Laslie s celebration in Indianapolis this past March. He had slowed down quite a bit but he was still giving bassoon pointers every chance he had. His stories about working with Toscanini and Reiner were always wonderful to listen to and he was always giving helpful advice on fingerings and other aspects of the bassoon art. He attended the Glickman/Popkin Bassoon Camp this year and was at Jim Poe s Bassoon Buddies Gathering in northern Michigan just a month before his passing. He was a wonderful musician, teacher and friend and he will be missed by all of us. From Russell Hinkle, former member, Indianapolis Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony; 42 seasons as principal of Dayton Philharmonic) On August 9, 2004, Leonard Sharrow passed away. He had been fighting leukemia for over a year and just slept away. He was one of the giants in the bassoon playing business. There are many fine players throughout the country who owe their skills to his wonderful teaching ability. We all know what a great player he was from listening to the many recordings that are available. I consider myself the luckiest of all because for the last five years I have spent a large amount of time with him. When he moved to Cincinnati to be close to his son and family he was only ten minutes from my house. We had lunch together on a regular basis. We went to the West Virginia IDRS Conference and the Popkin-Glickman Camp together. On two occasions we traveled to Michigan for Jim Poe s wonderful bassoon retreat. Many times he would come to my house and listen to my Northern Hills Bassoon Ensemble rehearse. His erudite comments were always appreciated. I will miss him very much. Leonard Sharrow, What a Man!.

62 60 THE VADE-MECUM OF THE OBOIST: ALBERT ANDRAUD S GREAT ANTHOLOGY PART II The Eastman Theatre in In the 1920 s the Eastman Theatre was one of America s premiere theatres for the exhibiting of what are now called silent fi lms. The Eastman Theatre symphony orchestra played throughout these fi lms, which were shown three times per day, seven days a week, year round. In addition, each showing was preceded by an overture or symphony selected from the standard repertoire, and several scenes relating to the fi lm, including the ballets created by Martha Graham. It was in this great theatre that André Andraud and Mitch Miller played together in the Rochester Philharmonic during the season. Postcard published by William Jubb Co., Inc., Syracuse, NY.

63 THE DOUBLE REED 61 The Vade-Mecum of the Oboist: Albert Andraud s Great Anthology Content and Historical Perspective Charles-David Lehrer California State University at Northridge Vade mecum: [Latin: go with me] Something carried about by a person for constant use, reference, etc., as a handbook or manual. Vade-Mecum of the Oboist: An oversize bright-yellow volume carried about by an oboist for constant use, reference, etc. I. Introduction (Vol. 27, No. 2) II. Albert Andraud and his Brother, André (Vol. 27, No. 2) III. The Etudes of the Vade-Mecum (Vol. 27, No. 2) IV. The Orchestral Excerpts of the Vade-Mecum V. The Chamber Music of the Vade-Mecum VI. Practical Matters in the Vade-Mecum VII. The Practical and Progressive Oboe Method VIII. Conclusion Part Two: Orchestral Studies, Chamber Music, Logos, Editorial Procedures, and Copyright Issues The Grand-Théâtre in Bordeaux, where Antony Lamotte and André Andraud played the oboe during the early years of the 20th century. Courtesy Andreas Praefcke: Carthaia.

64 62 THE VADE-MECUM OF THE OBOIST: ALBERT ANDRAUD S GREAT ANTHOLOGY PART II IV. THE ORCHESTRAL EXCERPTS OF THE VADE-MECUM INTRODUCTORY REMARKS If the structure of the second half of the Vade- Mecum containing the orchestral excerpts, seems haphazard, it is because the printer, Otto Zimmerman and Son, preserved the order almost exactly as it was received from Albert. There was no subsequent effort to put these items into historical or alphabetical order, although the table of contents presents them in alphabetical order by composer. What Albert handed Zimmerman was, most likely, a notebook of musical manuscripts containing 16 major fascicles, or gatherings, under the names of individual composers: Pages in the Composer Vade-Mecum 1. Hector Berlioz Edvard Grieg Richard Wagner Johannes Brahms Ludwig van Beethoven Peter Tchaikovsky Franz Liszt Igor Stravinsky Georges Bizet Nicolay Rimsky-Korsakov Alexander Borodin Claude Debussy Giuseppe Verdi Richard Strauss Franz Schubert George Enescu For reasons of page layout, Zimmerman often had to break up the contents of certain fascicles. The set for the excerpts from compositions of Peter Tchaikovsky (pp ) is a case in point: it is interrupted by excerpts from the works of Franz Liszt, Richard Wagner, Bedrich Smetana, Vassily Kalinnikov, and Modest Mussorgsky. The genesis of this collection came about when Albert was rehearsing these works or a series of works in the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. He entered the difficult or prominent passages played by the oboe and English horn into the appropriate fascicle in his notebook. Insofar as identification is concerned, he must have been aided in this endeavor, to some degree, by the other two members of the oboe section, Marcel Dandois 1st oboe, and his own brother, André, who played 2nd oboe. He must also have had a close working relationship with the orchestra librarian in order to borrow the parts he needed. In any case, it is clear that he made every effort to identify all of the exposed or troublesome spots for both 1st and 2nd oboes and English horn in the orchestral repertory of his day; these were works that he and his students and colleagues would continually have to be prepared to play. Indeed, these are the very passages that professional players need to look over before a rehearsal or concert in the present day. It should be noted that, within a given composition, Albert did not always make an effort to separate one excerpt from another, thereby giving the impression of continuity. Albert relies upon the teacher to clarify this to the student. Professional players who know these passages well will have no problem here. One of challenges facing me when I organized the list of composers for the orchestral works in the Vade- Mecum, was determining who would get credit for the numerous arrangements of piano works and chamber music. The answer to this was easy with Ravel s Le Tombeau because the composer and arranger are one and the same. But what about Ravel s famous orchestration of Modest Mussorgsky s Pictures at an Exhibition? Although Ravel s orchestration is heard more often than Mussorgsky s original piano work, I have given Mussorgsky the credit here, albeit with reservations. Then, what does one do with the stylistically incorrect arrangements of compositions by G. F. Handel and Christoph Gluck made respectively by Sir Hamilton Harty and Felix Mottl? I have left these with the original composers, realizing that they turn in their graves every time these abominations are performed. But it gets worse: Sergei Diaghilev, who was the producer of the Ballets Russes in the early years of the 20th Century, liked old music and commissioned several orchestral arrangements of masterworks. One of Diaghilev s arrangers, Igor Stravinsky, fought back with Pucinella, and later with Le Baiser de la Fée, by going far beyond the making of mere arrangements of the original music. Certainly one would give Stravinsky top billing here. But what does one do with the ballet Les Sylphides, based on the piano music of Frédéric Chopin, and which involved an entire group of Ballets Russes arrangers, including Stravinsky? With great misgivings, this work has been assigned to Chopin. 120 Another Diaghilev favorite was Hector Berlioz L invitation à la valse, an orchestration of Carl Maria von Weber s piano piece, Aufforderung zum Tanz. Diaghilev s choreographer, Mikhail Fokine, made Berlioz arrangement world famous as the music for his 1911 ballet, Le Spectre de la Rose, in which the solo roles were danced by the renowned Vaslav Nijinsky and

65 THE DOUBLE REED 63 Tamara Karsavina. So who gets the credit? I have never actually heard the piano original, but I assigned this composition to von Weber on principle. 121 Works by Franz Liszt, Georges Bizet, Edvard Grieg, and Eric Satie also got the treatment. Nikolay Rimsky- Korsakov, in an effort to rescue incomplete works composed by Alexander Borodin and Modest Mussorgsky, often recast compositions of those men in his own image. And into which category do we place J.S. Bach s Brandenburg Concerto No. 2? Today, one is used to hearing this composition performed as chamber music and on period instruments; but in Andraud s day this music was played as an orchestral work with the edgy piccolo trumpet and modern flute replacing the natural trumpet and the gentle recorder respectively. Then, there is the mystery of what the Vade- Mecum does not contain: one wonders why excerpts from Hector Berlioz oratorio, L Enfance du Christ, are missing, as are examples from the opera Thaïs of Jules Massenet. Most puzzling, though, are the lack of any excerpts for Haydn s later symphonies, and for Mozart s and Beethoven s piano concertos. To be sure, the challenges of copyright infringement that Albert encountered at the endpoint of his collection restricted what he could include. For that reason, none of Puccini s operas or Mahler s symphonies appears in the Vade-Mecum. But in a clever move, excerpts derived from two of Ravel s most important works, Rapsodie Espagnole and Le Tombeau de Couperin, and from Manuel de Falla s wonderful El Sombrero de Tres Picos, were disguised by Albert as etudes! Even more fantastic is Albert s solution for including Maurice Ravel s 1922 orchestration of Modest Mussorgsky s Tableux d une exposition (1874). Albert has disguised it in the Vade-Mecum by printing the right-hand part of the original piano work! There are other orchestrations of Mussorgsky s composition, but Andraud did not dare indicate which one he had in mind for fear of violating the copyright. The fact that the English horn solo for Il vecchio castello is missing from the Vade-Mecum, clearly points towards Ravel s version, in which the solo is assigned to the alto saxophone. The importance of Albert s collection can not be understated, for, in fact, the orchestral excerpts in it document a Standard Repertory solidly in place within the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, in which music of the 19th century is the core. The earliest ensem- Giorgio Polacco at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago, conducting a rehearsal of the Chicago Grand Opera Orchestra, in which Albert Andraud played 1st oboe from Chicago Daily News negatives collection, DN Courtesy of the Chicago Historical Society. ble item in the Vade-Mecum is J. S. Bach s Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 (c. 1713). After that work, there are only a few intervening 18th-century compositions before the symphonies of Ludwig van Beethoven are reached. Then the order is thickly packed all the way up through Manuel de Falla s El Sombrero de Tres Picos of ORCHESTRAL EXCERPTS OF THE VADE-MECUM IN HISTORICAL ORDER The orchestral excerpts of the Vade-Mecum are derived from the works listed below. I have presented them with the full name of the composer, his dates, the proper name of each work, the date of its composition or first performance, and the page number upon which each item is to be found in the Vade-Mecum: VM. Commentary by the present author is in brackets. The order here is based solely upon the birth date of the composer. To be sure, this system does not always put the compositions themselves into exact historical order, but it still gives a general idea of the placement of these works over the entire period covered, from 1717 until Peter Bloom, this country s leading expert on Hector Berlioz, established the provenance of the solo flute excerpt from Christoph Gluck s opera, Orphée et Eurydice presented here. The connection resides in Berlioz special arrangement of Gluck s opera made in 1859 for use in a new production mounted at the Théâtre Lyrique in Paris. While consulting his old Vade-Mecum, Peter noticed that Albert had transposed the original part down a third! TH-CENTURY COMPOSITIONS George Frederick Handel ( ) Water Music (1717) VM200 [From the arrangement by Hamilton Harty ( ); Handel s extensive chamber work is presented as a short suite for symphony orchestra; the original articulation is modified throughout.] Christoph Willibald Gluck ( ) Orphée et Eurydice (1774) Ballet of the Blessed Spirits in Elysium VM15 [This excerpt is the 1st flute part of a composite score created from two disparate ballets in Act II of Gluck s Parisian score of 1774: Ballet I: Ballet des ombres heureuses and Ballet II:

66 64 THE VADE-MECUM OF THE OBOIST: ALBERT ANDRAUD S GREAT ANTHOLOGY PART II Pantomime ; Andraud has transposed it down a third from F Major/D Minor to D Major/B Minor to suit the oboe!] Armide (1777) Sicilienne VM170 [Ballet Suite No. 1 (c. 1881); this item is comprised of compositions derived from three Gluck operas and arranged by Felix Mottl ( ): Air Gai and Lento from Iphigenia in Aulis, Dance of the Blessed Spirits from Orfeo ed Euridice, and finally, Musette and Sicilienne from Armide; Mottl s articulation and ornaments reflect 19th-century taste] Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ( ) Le Nozze di Figaro, K. 492 (1786) Deh Vieni VM159 Symphony No. 41. K. 551 (1788) VM177 19TH-CENTURY COMPOSITIONS Ludwig van Beethoven ( ) Symphony No. 1, Op. 21 (1800) VM111 Symphony No. 2, Op. 36 (1802) VM111 Symphony No. 3, Op. 55 (1803) VM111 Symphony No. 4, Op. 60 (1806) VM112 Violin Concerto, Op. 61 (1806) VM184 Leonore Overture No. 3 (1806) VM116 [Composed for the 2nd version of Fidelio, Op. 72] Symphony No. 5, Op. 67 (1808) VM112 Symphony No. 6, Op. 68 (1808) VM112 Symphony No. 7, Op. 92 (1812) VM113 Symphony No. 8, Op. 93 (1812) VM114 Symphony No. 9, Op. 125 (1824) VM114 Carl Maria von Weber ( ) L invitation à la valse (1841) VM96 [This is the orchestration of Aufforderung zum Tanz, Op. 65, a piano work composed in 1819 by Carl Maria von Weber. It was created by Hector Berlioz for use in the ballet added to Der Freischütz especially for the Paris production of Berlioz arrangement became famous in the early 20 th Century when it was utilized by the Ballets Russes for Mikhail Fokine s ballet, Le Spectre de la Rose, first danced by Tamara Karsavina and Vaslav Nijinsky in 1911.] Gioacchino Rossini ( ) La scala di seta: Overture (1812) VM174 [The double tonguing required to play much of the allegro is unique; this work received its premiere in the same year as Beethoven s 7th Symphony!] L Italiana in Algeri: Overture (1813) VM151 Il barbiere di Siviglia (1816) VM149 Guillaume Tell: Ouverture (1829) VM10 and VM96 [VM10: transposition of the cor anglais part for oboe] Franz Schubert ( ) Symphony No. 8, D.759 (1822) VM168 [The so-called Unfinished Symphony ] Symphony No. 9, D. 944 (1828) VM168 Gaetano Donizetti ( ) La Favorita (1840) VM33 [Includes an etude by Albert Andraud] Hector Berlioz ( ) Symphonie Fantastique, Op. 14 (1830) VM97 Harold en Italie (1834) VM110 Grande Messe des Morts (Requiem), Op. 5 (1837) VM98 Benvenuto Cellini Ouverture (1838) VM197 Roméo et Juliette, symphonie dramatique, Op. 17 (1839) IV Queen Mab Scherzo VM99 Le Carnaval Romain Ouverture, Op. 9 (1844) VM95 [Created from excerpts derived from Berlioz 1838 opera, Benvenuto Cellini] La Damnation de Faust, Op. 24 (1846) VM 95 and VM198 [Compared to the excerpts from the works of Beethoven, Rossini and Schubert, there is an exponential jump in difficulty in the passages Albert has chosen to present from the works of Berlioz.] Felix Mendelssohn ( ) Symphony No. 3, Scottish Symphony, Op. 56 (1842) VM169 A Midsummer Night s Dream, Incidental Music to Shakespeare s play, Op. 61 (1842) VM176 Scherzo Frédéric Chopin ( ) Les Sylphides (1909) VM171 [Piano works of Frédéric Chopin orchestrated by Igor Stravinsky, Alexander Glazunov, Anatol Liadov, Nikolai A.

67 THE DOUBLE REED 65 Sokolov, and Alexander Taneyev for Sergei Diaghilev s Ballets Russes.] Robert Schumann ( ) Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, Op. 54 (1845) VM136 Symphony No. 2, Op. 61 (1846) VM184 Manfred, Incidental music to Lord Byron s play, Op. 115 (1849) VM134 Ranz des Vaches Alexander Borodin ( ) Prince Igor (1870) VM156 [Completed and partly orchestrated by Nicolay Rimsky-Korsakov and Alexander Glazounov c. 1887] Symphony No. 2 (1876) VM140 In the Steppes of Central Asia (1880) VM141 Symphony No. 3 (1887) VM194 [Alexander Glazounov orchestrated this incomplete composition.] Franz Liszt ( ) 19 Ungarische Rhapsodien Rhapsodie No. 1 VM117 Rhapsodie No. 2 VM117 [Composed for piano ; arrangements for orchestra : Franz Doppler made some of these orchestrations.] Orpheus (1854) VM118 Les Préludes (1855) VM117 Ambroise Thomas ( ) Mignon (1866) VM157 Richard Wagner ( ) Der fliegende Holländer (1843) VM103 Tannhäuser (1845) VM103 Lohengrin (1850) VM104 Tristan und Isolde: Act III (1859) VM103 Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg: Overture (1868) VM118 Siegfried Idyll (1870) VM170 Siegfried (1876) VM102 Parsifal (1882) VM101 Johannes Brahms ( ) Variations on a Theme by Haydn, Op. 56A (1873) VM105 [The composer of the 18th-century theme is not actually Haydn.] Symphony No. 1, Op. 68 (1876) VM105 Symphony No. 2, Op. 73 (1877) VM105 Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 77 (1878) VM105 Symphony No. 3, Op. 90 (1883) VM107 Symphony No. 4, Op. 98 (1885) VM108 Amilcare Ponchielli ( ) La Gioconda (1876) VM133 Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns ( ) Introduction et Rondo Capriccioso, Op. 28 (1863) VM168 Le Rouet d Omphale, poème symphonique, Op. 31 (1871) VM100 Danse Macabre, poème symphonique, Op. 40 (1874) VM98 Samson et Dalila (1877) VM123 Henry VIII (1882) VM174 Giuseppe Verdi ( ) Rigoletto (1851) VM152 La Traviata (1853) VM191 Un Ballo in Maschera (1859) VM157 Aïda (1871) VM146 Otello (1887) VM145 Charles Gounod ( ) Faust (1859) VM139 César Franck ( ) Symphonie en Ré Mineur (1888) VM99 Bedrich Smetana ( ) The Bartered Bride Overture (1870) VM119 Léo Delibes ( ) Lakmé (1883) VM134 Georges Bizet ( ) L Arlésienne (1872) VM132 [27 pieces of incidental music for Alphonse Daudet s play; several were orchestrated and issued in two suites; the second of these suites was created by Ernest Guiraud c. 1876] Carmen (1874) VM132 Modest Mussorgsky ( ) Boris Godunov (1872) VM195 [Rimsky-Korsakov s version of 1908]

68 66 THE VADE-MECUM OF THE OBOIST: ALBERT ANDRAUD S GREAT ANTHOLOGY PART II Tableux d une exposition (1874) VM121 [This is the famous orchestration of Mussorgsky s piano composition which was made by Maurice Ravel in 1922] Khovantshchina (1880) VM169 [Completed and orchestrated by Rimsky- Korsakov in 1883] Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky ( ) Francesca da Rimini, symphonic fantasy, Op. 32 (1876) VM121 Symphony No. 4, Op. 36 (1877) VM122 and VM190 Roméo et Juliette, fantasie ouverture (3rd version: 1880) VM116 Capriccio Italien, Op. 45 (1880) VM121 Festival Overture 1812, Op. 49 (1880) VM118 Suite No. 3, Op. 55 (1884) VM122 Symphony No. 5, Op. 64 (1888) VM122 The Nutcracker (Caisse-Noisette) suite, Op. 71A (1892) VM117 Symphony No. 6, Op. 74 (1893) VM119 Antonin Dvorák ( ) Karneval-Ouverture, Op. 92 (1891) VM156 Symphony No. 9, Op. 95 (1893) VM130 [This is the symphony From the New World; Albert includes his own transcription of the slow movement for English horn and piano] Jules Massenet ( ) Manon (1884) VM151 Le Cid (1885) VM138 Edvard Grieg ( ) Peer Gynt, Op. 23 (1875) Suite No. 1, Op. 46 (1888) VM100 [During his lifetime, part of Grieg s music for Henrik Ibsen s play, Peer Gynt, was published in two suites. The complete score did not become available in publication until after the composer s death.] Norwegische Tänze, Op. 35 (1880) No. 2 in A Major VM100 [Originally for piano, four hands; orchestrated in 1888 by Hans Sitt.] Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov ( ) Capriccio Espagnol (1887) VM142 Scheherazade (1888) VM135 Le Coq d Or (1907) VM137 Vincent d Indy ( ) Symphonie sur un chant montagnard français, Op.25 (1886) VM136 Ernest Chausson ( ) Symphony, Op. 20 (1890) VM176 Ruggiero Leoncavallo ( ) Pagliacci (1892) VM154 Mikhail Ippolitoff-Ivanoff ( ) Caucasian Sketches, Op. 10 (1894) VM136 Claude Debussy ( ) Prélude à l Après-midi d un faune (1894) VM143 Nocturnes (1899) VM144 [Albert indicates triple tonguing in the English horn excerpts] Pietro Mascagni ( ) Cavalleria Rusticana (1890) VM150 Richard Strauss ( ) Don Juan, Op. 20 (1889) VM158 Tod und Verklärung, Op. 24 (1889) VM158 Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche, Op. 28 (1895) VM159 Don Quixote, Op. 35 (1897) VM199 Paul Dukas ( ) L Apprenti Sorcier (1897) VM148 [Made famous by the Philadelphia Orchestra in Walt Disney s 1940 cartoon film, Fantasia as The Sorcerer s Apprentice ; a new plateau of difficulty is reached in these excerpts.] Jean Sibelius ( ) Lemmenkäinen Suite (1896) The Swan of Tuonela (1900 revision) VM165 Pelléas och Mélisande, Op. 46 (1905) VM125 [Incidental music to Maurice Maeterlinck s play: 10 items] Vassily Kalinnikov ( ) Symphony No. 1 (1898) VM120 Erik Satie ( ) Gymnopédies (1888) VM196 [Three pieces for piano; Deux Gymnopédies = Claude Debussy s orchestrations of Nos. 1 and 3 made in 1896]

69 THE DOUBLE REED 67 20TH-CENTURY COMPOSITIONS Maurice Ravel ( ) Le Tombeau de Couperin (1919) VM171 [Orchestration of four movements from a six-movement composition for piano composed by Ravel in 1917; in order to avoid copyright restrictions, Andraud lays out the 1 st movement of the oboe part as an etude; he also alludes here to one of the English horn solos in Ravel s Rapsodie Espagnole of 1907] Manuel de Falla ( ) El Sombrero de Tres Picos (1919) VM170 [Andraud alludes to the English horn part in a study, in order to avoid copyright restrictions] Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari ( ) Il segreto di Susanna (1909) VM175 [In later copies of the 7th Edition of the Vade-Mecum published by Southern Music Company, the start of the Andante in Stanislas Verroust s Souvenir de Vieux- Québec supplants the orchestral excerpts for Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari s opera, Il segreto di Susanna, probably for reasons of copyright which were overlooked by Albert.] Ernst von Dohnányi ( ) Suite, Op. 19 (1909) VM193 George Enescu [known as Georges Enesco] ( ) 2 Rapsodies Roumaines, Op. 11 No. 1 (1901) VM172 No. 2 (1902) VM173 Igor Stravinsky ( ) Pétrouchka (1911) VM128 Le Sacre du Printemps (1913) VM125 Serge Prokofiev ( ) Symphony No. 1, Op. 25 (1917) VM166 [The Classical Symphony] V. THE CHAMBER MUSIC OF THE VADE-MECUM INTRODUCTORY REMARKS Albert created his Vade-Mecum at a time when most of the great chamber music for oboe had yet to be published in practical editions. He therefore did his best to present what he knew. His brother André shed some light on the problem which Albert was trying to surmount: in an interview with The Cincinnati Post published October 6, 1938, André noted: The oboe is one of those instruments with which an artist does not go on concert tours. There are very few solos written for the oboe. 123 Several of the chamber music works Albert chose for publication in the Vade-Mecum are included among the regular etudes; the remainder are found mixed in with the orchestral studies. It is significant that the first item to appear in the latter group is a composition by the founder of the French School of oboe playing, Gustave Vogt. In fact, Andraud attaches a short biog- Music Hall in Cincinnati, Ohio, where the Andraud Brothers, Albert and Andre, played from André as 2nd oboist retired in 1960, but Albert, the English horn player, Bowed Out in Courtesy Andreas Praefcke: Carthalia.

70 68 THE VADE-MECUM OF THE OBOIST: ALBERT ANDRAUD S GREAT ANTHOLOGY PART II raphy of Vogt; and within it he mentions Vogt s most successful students: Henri Brod, Apollon Barret, Stanislas Verroust, and Charles Colin. At a later time, Albert published three important anthologies of chamber music and concertos for the oboe: the Fifteen Grands Solos de Concert, The Oboist s Concert Album, and the Twenty-Two Woodwind Quintets. These publications include both original works and arrangements created primarily by composers and oboists associated with the Paris Conservatoire. This should not be surprising to us, inasmuch as Albert s teacher, Antony Lamotte, was a graduate of that hallowed institution and one of Charles Colin s most outstanding students. An important exception to the repertory contained in the above-mentioned volumes is an Ef major oboe concerto found at the start of the Fifteen Grands Solos de Concert which Albert attributed to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It is, in fact, a work composed by Mozart s contemporary, Georg Feldmayr (1756-c.1818) who worked at the court of Öttingen- Wallerstein. Indeed, Feldmayr created three other oboe concertos and a Concertante for oboe, bassoon and orchestra. These four works are included in my series, The Double Reed Archaeologist, and can be examined on-line at IDRS.org. 124 The individual chamber music works contained in the Vade-Mecum are fewer in number, but are somewhat more varied than the music found among the three afore-mentioned volumes, especially as to their musical importance: Bach s Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 and Mozart s Oboe Quartet stand at one end of the spectrum, while the characteristic pieces by Guilhaud and de Boisdeffre are at the other end. CHAMBER MUSIC OF THE VADE-MECUM IN HISTORICAL ORDER The order of the chamber music on the list below list is based on the date of birth of the composer. As with the orchestral excerpts, these works are listed by page number: VM ; commentary by the present writer is in brackets. Those compositions located in the first section of the Vade-Mecum with the regular etudes, are denoted by an asterisk. Johann Sebastian Bach ( ) Brandenburg Concerto No. 2, BWV 1047 (c. 1713) VM178 [Although this is a chamber work, in Andraud s day the 2nd Brandenburg was played as an orchestral composition; here it is heavily edited for that purpose] *Partita, BWV 1013 (1718) VM91 [Composed by Bach for flauto traverso, this composition does not quite work on the modern oboe if it is played in A minor, the original key: perhaps G minor would produce a better solution; here it is edited for modern flute by Robert Cavally: his choices for articulation reflect mid-20th-century taste] *Sonata IV for Violin and Harpsichord, BWV 1017 (c. 1723) Siciliano VM38 [Lightly edited] Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ( ) Oboe Quartet, K. 370 (1781) VM185 [Lightly edited; this is the version arranged by Yvonne Desportes in 1940 for oboe and piano and entitled Concertino ] Gustave Vogt ( ) 3me Solo de Concert pour hautbois et piano (1880) VM160 [Based on Vogt s Deuxième Concerto pour Hautbois of 1812; 125 the 1st and 2nd movements of the concerto have been reversed and the finale omitted in the 3rd Solo causing major confusion, since the 2nd movement (originally 1st) is set in a special sonata form which is truncated at the point where its development section would have begun; Andraud entitles this composition 2nd Concertino in F.] Stanislas Verroust ( ) Souvenir de Vieux-Québec pour hautbois et piano VM175 [Laila Storch believes that this sparkling composition might be a pastiche created by Albert Andraud, himself, which he built up from two separate works by Verroust. The opening Andante is clearly a variant of the Larghetto introduction in Verroust s Fantaisie et Variations sur Il Corsaro de Verdi, Op. 54. But the source of the Rondo polonaise has yet to be located. I have posited that since it is unlikely that Verroust ever visited Canada, the work commemorates a trip to Québec made by Albert and the two oboist dedicatees, Fernand Gillet and Pierre Mathieu, sometime before the publication of the pastiche in The complete work for oboe and piano is included in The Oboist s Concert Album and entitled Souvenir of Old Quebec.] René de Boisdeffre ( ) 3 Pièces pour hautbois et piano, Op. 26 (before 1906) No. 3: Villanelle VM183

71 THE DOUBLE REED 69 Georges Guilhaud 4 Pièces pour hautbois et piano, Op. 3 Farandole for oboe and piano VM189 Jules Massenet ( ) *Pastorale d Esclarmonde pour hautbois et piano VM38 [The opera Esclarmonde had its première in 1889] Benjamin Godard ( ) Scènes Écossaises pour hautbois et piano, Op. 138 (1892) No. 1: Légend Pastorale VM182 [The complete work for oboe and piano is included in The Oboist s Concert Album; Andraud indicates that there is an orchestral accompaniment] Eugène Bozza ( ) Divertissement pour cor anglais et piano, Op. 39 (Paris: 1939) VM163 [Dedicated to Albert Andraud] *Shepherds of Provence, Op. 43 (Avignon: 1939) VM 84 [Oboe and cor anglais: dedicated to Albert J. Andraud] V. THE ADVERTISEMENTS AND LOGOS OF THE VADE MECUM As a visual preface to the Vade Mecum, Albert located outstanding drawings for the front cover of his publication: a curved Triébert English horn circa 1830, and the unmistakable profile of one of Henri Brod s oboes circa One can only wonder if Albert, the son of Gabriel Andraud, a painter of stained glass, made these drawings himself during the time he studied in Paris with Louis Bleuzet. They are so accurate, that Albert would have had to draw them in the very museum in which they were exhibited, in order to capture all the detail. In time, many among us would definitely want to know more about those instruments. Geoffrey Burgess, who has dedicated his life to performing on the early oboes, communicated to me the impression made upon him as a young student by those images: I used the Vade-Mecum when I was growing up; I was fascinated by those Brod-period instruments on the front, and played basically all the studies. 127 The 7th edition of the Vade-Mecum was published by Southern Music Company in Its price rose from $10.00 in 1967 to $27.50 in Today s spiral-bound version goes for $ Still, it is a great bargain! Albert never missed a chance to advertise his other publications. For example, in the Vade-Mecum, one finds such overt advertisements on the inside front cover, and on both sides of the back cover. The catalogue which presently follows is taken from the cover pages of a piece by Beethoven transcribed by Andraud for horn (or English horn) and piano, though quite obviously for the former and dedicated to Max Pottag. The solos for oboe and piano which Albert inserted into the Vade-Mecum, are advertisements in themselves, for the piano parts are not included. Albert surely hoped that his clientele would eventually want to buy the complete publication for each of the following works: 1) Christoph Willibald Gluck: Orphée et Eurydice: Ballet of the Blessed Spirits in Elysium: This is an important orchestra excerpt for flute which Albert has transposed down a third from F Major/D Minor to D Major/B Minor to suit the oboe!] 2) Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Oboe Quartet, K. 370: arranged by Yvonne Desportes for oboe and piano and entitled Concertino. 3) Gustave Vogt: 3me Solo de Concert: Albert entitles this composition 2nd Concertino in F, as noted above. 4) Apollon Barret: 2nd Cantilène pour hautbois et piano: this is the slow movement of Sonata No. 4 in Barret s Oboe Method. 5) Antonin Dvorák: Symphony No. 9, Op. 95: Albert s transcription for English horn and piano of the slow movement in the symphony From the New World. 6) René de Boisdeffre: 3 Pièces 7) Georges Guilhaud: 4 Pièces 8) Benjamin Godard: Scènes Écossaises 9) Eugène Bozza ( ) Divertissement Op. 39: English horn and piano. A subtle measure of Albert s personality can be seen within the logo for his Wind Instrument Music Library. This representation can be found on both the front cover and interior frontispiece of the Vade- Mecum. In fact, it is based on a piece of misinformation, what we now call an urban legend, which I remember hearing from my next door neighbor, Mr. Sigmund, within days of bringing home my first oboe from high school: Ooh, the oboe!, he said. The ill wind that nobody blows good! Then after a well-placed pause: Did you know that in the old days, oboists had to wear a leather headband in order to keep the air pressure from blowing their brains apart when they played! Of course, being just a kid, I believed every word. Now, after all these years I realize how that story originated. It so happens that in the early days of the 20th Century, Serge Diaghilev was forever taking his dancers in the

72 70 THE VADE-MECUM OF THE OBOIST: ALBERT ANDRAUD S GREAT ANTHOLOGY PART II The Albert J. Andraud Wind Instrument Music Library Catalogue.

73 THE DOUBLE REED 71 The Albert J. Andraud Wind Instrument Music Library Catalogue.

74 72 THE VADE-MECUM OF THE OBOIST: ALBERT ANDRAUD S GREAT ANTHOLOGY PART II Ballets Russes to museums, with the specific purpose of introducing them to the ancient dancing practices which could be observed in pictorial art. One can now envision what went through the minds of the oboists in the orchestra of the Ballets Russes when they first heard about the paintings on ancient Greek vases depicting aulós players wearing the phorbeiá. This is a practical strap needed to restrain the cheeks while maintaining the position of the two double reeds being held in the embouchure of the performer; and it is held in place with an additional strap which fits over the head. 128 So, a good story was hatched. By removing the front section of the essential embouchure strap of the phorbeiá from the logo on the Vade-Mecum, and leaving only the back of it and the headstrap, Albert presents that outrageous tale to us for our secret enjoyment. In fact, he includes two headstraps! VI. PRACTICAL MATTERS OF THE VADE MECUM ALBERT AND COPYRIGHT LAW Since so many Andraud publications involve the re-publication of musical compositions or of specific editions, the question arises: how did Albert deal with copyright restrictions? The Vade-Mecum demonstrates that, in the majority of cases, Albert worked with very old editions, so there was no problem. On the other hand, there are six items among the etudes and chamber music in the Vade-Mecum which, in 1940 (the year of its publication) violated international copyright law: these include the etudes by Christian Schiemann, Carl Joachim Andersen, and Antony Lamotte; and the solos by René de Boisdeffre, Jules Massenet, and Benjamin Godard. Among the orchestral excerpts in the Vade-Mecum, one finds even more examples of copyright infringement, going all the way back to compositions by Giuseppe Verdi, Johannes Brahms, and Peter Tchaikovsky, and as far forward as Igor Stravinsky s Petrouchka, Le Sacre du Printemps and Serge Prokofiev s Classical Symphony. In international copyright law, infringement occurs when a composition is printed without permission during the composer s life or any time within 50 years after his death. After that, the composition or edition is in public domain. Stravinsky and Prokofiev were certainly alive in 1940, so, how was Albert able to defy the law in utilizing excerpts of their works? In 1886, the Berne Convention established a system of mutual recognition of international copyright laws, but, as it turned out, the United States did not become a signatory until 1988! 129 Also, in 1940, the year in which the Vade-Mecum was first appeared, the countries in which the borrowed compositions had originally been The Aulós Player. Courtesy Archaeonia.Com. published were at war. This gave Albert a real edge, for during this period of turmoil he was able to reprint or extract parts of compositions which were under copyright in France, Italy, Germany, and the Soviet Union, without having fines levied against him. But, there was another copyright law of 1917 which should have caused at least some second thoughts on Albert s part before he included material in his Vade- Mecum without permission. I consulted Janet Page, who is also grappling with the perplexing problem of Albert s run-around of international copyright law; she wrote the following to me: I can t actually say at the moment what the 1917 agreement or others earlier than the UCC [Universal Copyright Convention of 1952] involved, and I m not really an expert on the UCC yet. I believe that one provision of the UCC was that things were only really protected if they had copyright information printed on them. This is not necessary under the Berne Convention--things are copyright whether they say so explicitly or not. I haven t yet been able to find out anything at all about earlier agreements between the US and other countries, although I know there were some. The 1917 document may have been only a national thing. I can t imagine that anyone was making agreements with the Germans in Depending on how whatever agreement there was, was worded, Andraud may well have been in the clear. I m completely in the dark about any retrospective provisions of any of these agreements, and they may well have had different provisions regarding length of time, etc. 130 After World War II was over, a new set of guidelines to control international copyright came about. In 1952, the United States joined the Universal Copyright Convention, cited by Janet Page, but its statutes did not take effect in America until By that time, Albert was on his way out of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and would soon be selling his publishing business. The copyright problems inherent in his publications would have to be dealt with by Southern Music Company, the new owners of his Wind Instrument Music Library. In fact, in later copies of the 7th Edition of the Vade-Mecum, the part of the opening page of the Andante in Stanislas Verroust s Souvenir de Vieux- Québec was added by Southern Music to block the orchestral excerpts for Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari s opera, Il segreto di Susanna VM175. This apparently was done for reasons of copyright infringement which were overlooked by Albert.

75 THE DOUBLE REED 73 ALBERT S SOURCES AND EDITORIAL PROCEDURES Another question that arises concerns the source material from which Andraud worked to create his editions. In the best of all possible worlds, it would surely have been to the advantage of future generations of oboists had Albert worked from primary sources, but this was not the case. In fact, several of the etudes in the Vade-Mecum were derived from European publications of specially-made adaptations for oboe of works originally composed for violin, flute or harp. For example, several unidentifiable harp etudes by Robert Bochsa were arranged for the oboe during the 19th century by Édouard Sabon; and a number of Pierre Rode s well-known Caprices pour violon were treated to extensive revisions by Antonino Pasculli in order fit them to range of the oboe. When these were printed by Andraud in the Vade-Mecum, further changes were made. Another interesting example is an etude for clarinet by Hyacinthe Klosé, which was adapted from a study [for an unidentified instrument] by Henri Aubert; Andraud in turn modified it to suit the oboe. Even more fascinating are four studies by Jacob Dont from his Vorbereitende Etüden op. 37 nach Etüden von Kreutzer u. Rodego für Violine: all four had been transposed by Vladislav Slavinsky to suit the range of the oboe; and it was this very edition, published by the Soviet Central Press in Moscow, which Albert acquired for the Vade- Mecum. 131 It was almost impossible for Albert to keep his hand away from any of the items included in his Vade- Mecum. Many etudes have been given new endings, and several include cadenzas inserted by him. In the Daily Exercises, Op. 5 for Flute by Matthieu-André Reichert, which stand at the very beginning of the volume, it was necessary for Albert to modify the original to suit the oboe s range; in addition, the lengths of two of these studies were truncated. In order to identify each study and chamber music work in the Vade-Mecum, it was necessary for me to purchase the best editions available at the time of writing. In some cases, copies of the original publications were still available, as, for example the oboe methods of Henri Brod and Apollon Barret. But in other cases, only questionable editions could be located: Rodolphe Kreutzer s 42 Études ou Caprices pour le Violon edited by Ferdinand David is typical. Of course, Andraud faced the identical situation when he published parts of these works in the Vade Mecum. This situation regarding the chamber music editions utilized by Andraud can get quite sticky at times: he could have easily copied Johann Sebastian Bach s Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 right out of the Bach- Gesellschaft edition; instead he chose to publish it from an unidentified and absurdly over-edited edition, because he needed an example of the kind played by symphony orchestras. Gustave Vogt s Deuxième Concerto pour Hautbois had already been extensively revised by Vogt and his student Auguste Bruyant to form the 3me Solo de Concert pour hautbois et piano, when Andraud published it in the Vade-Mecum with further emendations of his own. The orchestra works present different problems, since a number of them are arrangements of piano works or chamber music. Some are outstanding, such as Ravel s orchestrations of Mussorgsky s Pictures at an Exhibition and of his own Le Tombeau de Couperin. But others are unacceptable by today s standards, such as Hamilton Harty s arrangement of parts of George Frederic Handel s Water Music and Felix Mottl s Ballet Suite No. 1, the latter being based upon ballet music Mottl derived from several of Christoph Gluck s operas. Yet one must remember, the Vade-Mecum was published in 1940, long before editors were ever criticized for using anything but primary source material. Therefore, it is important for today s musician to understand Albert s editorial procedures in the context of the time in which they were in use. ENTERING THE WORLD OF THE VADE-MECUM I believe that a full appreciation of the intense work Albert put forth to create his Vade-Mecum can be best obtained by way of a complete blow through of the entire anthology. I would suggest following the procedures below which, in my case, took a pleasurable two months or so: 1) Etudes in historical order. 2) Chamber Music in historical order 3) Orchestral excerpts in historical order. Individual oboists can easily create their own procedures for practicing the contents of the Vade-Mecum; the important thing is to get through it all. What should emerge is the undeniable fact that Albert Andraud s musical persona is present in each and every entry: sometimes with his emendations, other times just by the choice of excerpt. To be sure, the pure musical world of today which involves facsimiles of manuscripts, Urtexte, period instruments, and Aufführungspraxis, was unknown to Andraud s circle of musicians. VII. THE PRACTICAL AND PROGRESSIVE OBOE METHOD During World War II, Andraud turned his talents towards providing beginning oboists with their very own vade mecum, by way of his Practical and Progressive Oboe Method, which he published in 1948 and dedicated to his colleague, Marcel Dandois. 132 More than 75 entries of musical examples derived from the repertories of the oboe, violin, flute, harpsichord, piano, solo voice, string quartet, orchestra, ballet, opera, opéra-comique, and even vaudeville are found in this hefty volume, intermixed with dozens of studies for the oboe by

76 74 THE VADE-MECUM OF THE OBOIST: ALBERT ANDRAUD S GREAT ANTHOLOGY PART II Apollon Barret, Henri Brod, Auguste Veny, Frantisek Blatt, Stanislas Verroust, Antony Lamotte, and Albert Andraud himself. Several of the orchestral examples in this volume are important ones, not found in the Vade-Mecum of the Oboist: excerpts from the incidental music for Rosamunde von Cypern (1823) by Franz Schubert, from the opéra-comique Masaniello (1828) by Daniel- François Auber, from the opera Don Pasquale (1843) by Gaetano Donizetti, and from the ballet Swan Lake (1876) by Peter Tchaikovsky. On pp. 9-10, Andraud explains and gives exercises for double and triple tonguing. These techniques are indispensable for performing the excerpts presented in the Vade-Mecum for Gioacchino Rossini s overture to La scala di seta (VM174) and for Claude Debussy s three Nocturnes (VM144). As might be expected for the period in which it was assembled, the Practical and Progressive Oboe Method contains a number of misunderstandings regarding the history of the oboe, and the manner of interpreting 18th century ornamentation. In addition, the editing of the 18th-century examples in the Oboe Method strongly reflects late 19th-early 20th-century taste. However, in all fairness, it must be said that in the 1940s, few musicians had any expertise in understanding those areas of our art. In fact, Andraud s description of just how the ornaments in 18th-century music were identified and realized in the 1940s, is of great importance today for recreating the style expected by Igor Stravinsky in performances of his 1920 ballet, Pulcinella. Like most oboists of the 1940s who had studied in France, Andraud preferred the Lorée oboe and English horn. His Oboe Method includes a fingering chart for the Lorée Système 6 instrument, while the earlier Premier Cahier d Études pour Hautbois ou Cor Anglais, has an insert in which fingerings for the Gillet Model (plateau system) of 1906 are presented. 133 Perhaps he believed that young students in the US should play the openhole Système 6 first, as they were somewhat less expensive than the plateau system; in fact, Laila Storch told me that she purchased such an instrument in 1938 from Baxter-Northup in Los Angeles: at the time, both Horst Moennig and William Lym, experts in oboe repair, were on site to keep her Système 6 in good working order. 134 In the opening pages of his Oboe Method, Andraud presents a detailed description of reed-making as he practiced it. Nowadays, only a few oboists remain in America who make reeds in that manner. Dominique- René de Lerma told me that Andraud s reeds were decidedly French. 135 Earnest Harrison who, as a young oboe student met Andraud when the latter was a judge for a high school music contest in Cleveland, Ohio, reported that Albert used a short scrape reed which had a reedy quality. 136 About 20 years before Andraud began assembling his Vade-Mecum, his great contemporary and countryman, Marcel Tabuteau, began to utilize the French reed of his Paris Conservatoire days as a platform upon which to create a new style of reed, in order to fulfill the demands for color made on the Philadelphia Orchestra by Leopold Stokowski, conductor of the world-renowned ensemble from 1912 until This new style of reed eventually spread throughout America and beyond by Tabuteau s numerous pupils as they began to fill the seats in American orchestras vacated by the older group of players, who were preponderantly Frenchmen. 137 André Andraud with his oboe students at Interlochen during the 1930s. Photo courtesy of Interlochen Center for the Arts.

77 THE DOUBLE REED 75 VIII. CONCLUSION ADDENDUM Albert Andraud s Vade-Mecum, which was created during the period of the Great Depression, is a major achievement in the field of music pedagogy. At the time of its publication in 1940, there were comparatively few Classical recordings available; and easy access to full scores, like our present-day Dover reprints, did not exist. In Andraud s time, performers learned the repertory by listening to live performances and by playing it. To be sure, the standard orchestral repertory of Andraud s day contained dozens of peculiarities: the efforts by Rimsky-Korsakov and others to correct Mussorgsky s works, seem untenable today. And the lack of interest in Haydn s fabulous symphonies, especially those of his Middle Period, is not to be believed, but it was fact. The Vade-Mecum is, therefore, a bit of a time machine, taking us back to those impossibly difficult years during the 1930s when folks like my parents stood in bread lines and scoured the country for work, when the Dustbowl forced thousands of Americans to make an arduous overland journey from Oklahoma and Arkansas to find a better life in California, and when the Second World War began in Europe and ravaged the lives of the citizens of Bordeaux, the Andraud brothers birthplace. In the US, many orchestras, including Albert and André s own Cincinnati Symphony, continued to play throughout this devastating time. There was still very good money to be made in music, especially in the musical theatre, movie studios, and in jazz - that is, if one could get a job. Andraud must have realized that the day would come when oboists would, once again, be in demand as they were during the period of the silent movies. And how right he was, for in the years following World War II, an unprecedented expansion slowly began to take place in the field of music. Several well-established orchestras would slowly emerge from 21-week seasons to full-year employment. By the 1960s, colleges and universities throughout the US would begin to appoint oboists as permanent members of their faculties. In addition, new symphony orchestras and chamber music ensembles would spring up everywhere. From the time when it was first published in 1940, Albert Andraud s Vade-Mecum has sat on the music stand over every oboist in the US: professional players have used the orchestral excerpts to stay at the top of their form, and young performers have plowed in to learn the pertinent studies and memorize the important orchestral passages in hopes of obtaining a position in an orchestra or at a university. Until now, few oboists have realized what history that fabulous book has held within its pages. On September 25, 2004, Michael Finkelman sent me this timely information regarding the orchestras of the Eastman Theatre, and specifically of the oboists who played there during André Andraud s Rochester years in the late 1920 s. It is part of a letter sent to him by the retired second horn player of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Norman Schweikert, a musician who is well-versed in the history of the personnel in American Orchestras. In this communication, Norman points out that I was right on target when I proposed that the core orchestra of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra was, in fact, the Eastman Theatre Orchestra. But, Norman goes on to say that its name was changed to the Rochester Civic Orchestra with the coming of talking films in Nonetheless, it still acted as the core for the Rochester Philharmonic, and also of the Eastman-Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, the name used by the Rochester Philharmonic when Howard Hanson conducted it for recording sessions and other events. But, as Norman points out, information I obtained from V.A. Lenti, The Eastman School of Music, and from Dan Stolper s recorded commentary of Robert Sprenkle, does not completely define the relationship between the oboists who taught at the Eastman School of Music and of those who played in the Eastman Theatre. In fact, Norman adds two additional oboists to the roster of the Eastman Theatre Orchestra, namely Ralph Combattente ( season) and Florian Mueller ( season). Regarding Frederick DeAngelis, Norman says he played two seasons, and , and that Lewis Catalano, who taught at the Eastman School during DeAngelis tenure, was not a member of the orchestra at all. Here is Norman Schweikert s response: I had to chuckle a bit at [Charles Lehrer] finally discovering that there was an Eastman Theatre Orchestra, and that it had been the core of the Philharmonic. That was common knowledge to most of us who studied there years ago. When I joined the orchestra in 1955, there were still a few original members of the ETO in the organization. I heard many stories about the old days. Perhaps I already told you that when talking films arrived in 1929, the theatre orchestra was cut in size to 45 members and was part of a new organization, the Rochester Civic Music Association. The core orchestra was now called the Rochester Civic Orchestra, the ensemble being augmented by the best students of the Eastman School of Music and other local musicians for the Philharmonic Series (15 concerts when I arrived) and for other events, such as the American Music Festival which Hanson directed. For the events conducted by Hanson, and for the

78 76 THE VADE-MECUM OF THE OBOIST: ALBERT ANDRAUD S GREAT ANTHOLOGY PART II recordings which came about, the orchestra was called the Eastman-Rochester Symphony Orchestra. It really had no definite founding, and the personnel was made up of the core orchestra plus Eastman faculty who were not already members of the core orchestra, plus a few Eastman students. It was all rather loose. The Philharmonic rosters of , to which Lehrer refers, are not for just two specific concerts, but represent musicians used at various times for the entire season. It is not at all easy to determine who was part of the core orchestra and who was hired on a limited contract basis, due to the fact that one finds very few rosters of just the Eastman Theatre Orchestra or the later Rochester Civic Orchestra. The general rule, in the case of the woodwinds, is that the principal, and the player of the doubling instrument, were core orchestra members. Therefore, Andraud and Miller would have had a limited contract, or would have been hired on a per-service basis. I did not find a published Philharmonic roster for the first season (it started late in the season) but I did find a roster of the Theatre Orchestra in a Rochester newspaper for 26 August The first oboe was Ralph Combattente. There were three rosters published the next season, , and the principal was Florian Mueller, who ended up a few years later in Chicago. Fred De Angelis was principal for two seasons, , before Arthur Foreman took over in THE TEAM ANDRAUD Access to documentation on the Internet played a large part in making this study of the Vade-Mecum move forward at a steady pace. In addition, pouring in to me daily from colleagues and other experts in the US and abroad made the assembly of the Andraud story a relatively straightforward process. I should now like to recognize those who were directly involved in this unique study. And I invite all oboists who are reading this article to take a moment, and reflect upon this list, for on it you will find the performers, teachers, scholars, and the musical institutions which give meaning to our lives as musicians. Those oboists who imparted first-hand knowledge: Charles Veazey Daniel Stolper Dominique de Lerma Earnest Harrison Frances Estes Jean Barker Cantwell Jo Souder Laila Storch Louis Rosenblatt Pat Nott Rheta Smith Robert Scott Those who sent historical evidence: American Federation of Musicians, Local 1 (Cincinnati) Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra Cleveland Orchestra Opéra National de Bordeaux Public Library of Cincinnati Sibley Library, Eastman School of Music Southern Music Company Agnès Vatican, Conservateur, Archives Municipales de Bordeaux André Lardrot, Schola Cantorum Basiliensis (Basel, Switzerland) Danièle Sabbah, Professor of French Literature, Université Michel de Montaigne David Whitwell, Music Department, California State University at Northridge Ellen Connolly, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra Geoffrey Burgess, Musicologist and Early Music Specialist James Brown, English Chamber Orchestra (ret.) Janet Page, Department of Music, University of Memphis Jefferson Crow, Lyon and Healy West Jerry Luedders, Music Department, California State University at Northridge Joanne and Peter Tanner, University of Massachusetts (ret.) John and Judith Bentley, Music Department, Bowling Green University Kathleen Perez, Interlochen Center for the Arts Mary Kim, Music Department, California State University at Northridge Neal Carter, Université Michel de Montaigne, Bordeaux Peter Bloom, Department of Music, Smith College Rodney Sauer, Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra And finally to my esteemed colleague, Michael Finkelman, who read the rough draft, made necessary corrections, and supplied invaluable historical evidence and perspective.

79 THE DOUBLE REED 77 ENDNOTES 120 Eric Walter White, Stravinsky-The Composer and his Works, 2nd ed. (Berkeley, 1979) p hberlioz.com/predecessors: The Hector Berlioz Website. 122 Peter Bloom: Professor of Musicology, Smith College. September 12, hberlioz.com/predecessors: The Hector Berlioz Website: Scores for Christoph Gluck: Orfée et Euridice. 123 Norine Freeman, op. cit. 124 Georg Feldmayr, 1st Oboe Concerto in C Major. Charles-David Lehrer, ed. The Double Reed Archaeologist No. IDRS.org. Georg Feldmayr, 2nd Oboe Concerto in C Major. Charles-David Lehrer, ed. The Double Reed Archaeologist No. IDRS.org. Georg Feldmayr, Oboe Concerto in F Major. Charles-David Lehrer, ed. The Double Reed Archaeologist No. IDRS.org. Georg Feldmayr, Concertante for Oboe, Bassoon, and Orchestra. Charles-David Lehrer, ed. The Double Reed Archaeologist No. IDRS.org. 125 Gustave Vogt, Deuxième Concerto. Charles- David Lehrer, ed. The Double Reed Archaeologist No. IDRS.org. 126 Philip Young, The Look of Music. (Seattle, 1980) pp Geoffrey Burgess: Musicologist and Early Oboe Specialist. August 25, Curt Sachs, The History of Musical Instruments. (New York, 1940) pp arl.org/info/frn/copy/timeline.html: A History of Copyright in the United States. Janet Page: Professor of Oboe and Musicology, The University of Memphis. October 29, 30, Janet Page. October 30, Miroslav Hosek. Oboen-Bibliographie I. (Wilhelmshaven, 1975) p Albert J. Andraud, Practical and Progressive Oboe Method. (Cincinnati, 1948). 133 Philip Bate, The Oboe. 3rd edition. (New York, 1975) pp Albert Andraud, Premier Cahier d Études pour Hautbois ou Cor Anglais: Gammes et Exercises pour les Commençants. (Paris, 1933) insert. 134 Laila Storch: Professor Emeritus, The University of Washington. September 27, Dominique-René De Lerma. August 7, Earnest Harrison: Oboe Professor Emeritus, Louisiana State University. August 27, David Ledet, Oboe Reed Styles: Theory and Practice. (Bloomington, 1981) pp : reeds of Marcel Dandois, 1st oboist of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra: ; : reeds of Marcel Tabuteau, 1st oboist of the Philadelphia Orchestra: DOCUMENTATION CORRESPONDENCE Arnault, Noëlle: Presse Officer, Opéra National de Bordeaux and Orchestra. September 17, Bentley, John and Judith: Professors of Oboe and Flute, Bowling Green University. October 31 and November 4, Bloom, Peter: Professor of Musicology, Smith College. September 12, Brown, James: Oboe and Cor Anglais (ret.), The English Chamber Orchestra. October 10, 18 and November 2, Burgess, Geoffrey: Musicologist and Early Oboe Specialist. August 25 and September 12, Cantwell, Jean: Student of André Andraud. November 2, Carter, Neal: Research Assistant, French Department, University of California at Los Angeles; Université Michel de Montaigne, Bordeaux. October 14, 15, 16, 20 and November 5, 7, 22, Searches: at the Conservatoire National de Région de Bordeaux Music Library, at the Bibliothèque de Bordeaux, at the Archives Municipales de Bordeaux. Connolly, Ellen: Executive Assistant, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. September 11, 15, October 22, and November 5, Coppen, David: Special Collections Librarian, Sibley Music Library: Eastman School of Music. September 18, Crow, Jefferson: Lyon & Healy West. October 10 and 17, De Lerma, Dominique-René: Oboist and Music Historian, Lawrence University. August 7, 25, and September 2, Doolin, Craig: Archivist: Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. August 29, Estes, Frances: Oboist, Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra. August 31, Finkelman, Michael: English Horn Historian. August 16, 23, 27, September 25, 29 and October 4, 20, Fought, Donald: Librarian, Art & Music Department, Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County. September 25, Harrison, Earnest: Oboe Professor Emeritus, Louisiana State University. August 27, 2003.

80 78 THE VADE-MECUM OF THE OBOIST: ALBERT ANDRAUD S GREAT ANTHOLOGY PART II Higgins, Renée: Associate Director of Publications, Southern Music Company. September 4, Jacobs, Carol: Archivist, The Cleveland Orchestra. September 22 and October 7, Kim, Mary: Professor of Violin, California State University at Northridge, October 23, Lardrot, André. Oboe Virtuoso and Historian. Switzerland. October14, Luedders, Jerry. Saxophonist and Executive Assistant to the Provost, California State University at Northridge. November 7, Nott, Patricia: Dean of Students, New World Symphony. September 4, 8 and October 25, Page, Janet: Professor of Oboe and Musicology, The University of Memphis. October 29, 30, Perez, Kathleen: Photo Archivist, Interlochen Center for the Arts: September 9 and 10, Rosenblatt, Louis: English Horn (ret.), Philadelphia Orchestra; Professor of Oboe, Temple University. September 11 and October 2, Sabbah, Danièle: Professor of French Literature: Université Michel de Montaigne: Montaigne, Bordeaux: November: 11, 12 and 22, Sauer, Rodney: Conductor, Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra. October 29, 30, Scott, Robert: Woodwind Repairman, Interlochen Center for the Arts. September, 10, Smith, Rheta: Principal Oboist, Pennsylvania Ballet. August 9 and 25, Souder, Jo: Principal Oboist (ret.), Lima Symphony Orchestra. August 29, Stolper, Daniel: Professor of Oboe, Interlochen Center for the Arts; Professor of Oboe (ret.), Michigan State University. September 9, 10, and 26, Storch, Laila: Professor Emeritus, The University of Washington. September 11, 27 and October 4, 8, Tanner, Joanne and Peter: Professors of Flute and Percussion (both ret.), University of Massachusetts. November 4, 5, Throm, Carrie: Director of Development & External Relations, Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music. October 2, Vatican, Agnès: Conservateur, Archives Municipales de Bordeaux. November 25, 2003: Documents: Marriage Certificate of February 19, 1885 for the Andraud Brothers parents, Jean Gabriel and Marie Antoinette Latournerie; Birth certificates for Albert and André Andraud dated February 19, 1884 and March 14, 1898 respectively. Veazey, Charles: Professor of Oboe, University of North Texas. October 7, Whitwell, David: Professor of Musicology, California State University at Northridge. October 28, WEBSITES ah.bfn.org/h/movie/sandhu/: Buffalo s Forgotten Theaters, A few notes by Ranjit Sandhu, July ancestry.com: Social Security Death Index and 1930 US Federal Census. andreas-praefcke.de/carthalia/france/f_bordeaux_grandtheatre.htm: Photographs of the Grand-Théâtre in Bordeaux and Music Hall in Cincinnati. archaeonia.com. Source of the photograph of The Aulos Player. Arl.org/info/frn/copy/timeline.html: A History of Copyright in the United States. Bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Ormandy-Eugene.htm: Short biography of Eugene Ormandy. Books-about-california.com/Pages/The_Jewel_City/ The_Jewel_City_Chap_14.html: Information about music at the Panama Pacific Exposition. Cincinnatisymphony.org: Historical Information for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. Cinemaweb.com/silentfilm/bookshelf/1_erape3. htm: Managing a Film Theatre (in 1925) by Erno Rapee, Conductor of the Capitol Theater Symphony Orchestra. Cinemaweb.com/silentfilm/bookshelf/3_27_6.htm: An Exhibitor s Problems in 1927 by Eric T. Clarke, General Manager, Eastman Theater, Rochester, N.Y. defense.gouv.fr/histoire/musique _militaire/ formations _militaires/terre.htm: History of French Military Bands. Ecoles33.ac-bordeaux.fr/Bx-Ameunier/index_conservatoire.htm: Conservatoire national de region ocheste musique. Educanet.ch/home/hansjoergbrugger/ocheste/ kreutzerdownload.htm: Rodolphe Kreutzer s 42 Etudes ou Caprices in Facsimile: Ferdinand David s edition of First World War.com: Primary Documents gabesplayerpianos.org/html/roxy.html: Lavish site describing the Roxy Theater in New York City of Hberlioz.com/Predecessors: The Hector Berlioz Website: Scores for Christoph Gluck: Orfée et Euridice.

81 THE DOUBLE REED 79 Idrs.colorado.edu/Publications/DR/DR13.2/ DR13.2.Klimko.BNOI.html: Photograph of five soloists in the Musique de la Garde Républicaine. Idrs.colorado.edu/Publications/DR/DR14.1/ DR14.1.Stolper.Sprenkle.html: Information regarding the oboe section of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and the Eastman School of Music. Kb.dk/elib/noder/jo_and/index-en.htm: Site at Det Kongelige Bibliotek for the music of Christian Joachim Andersen Kodak.com/US/en/motion/about/chrono1.shtml: Eastman film history. Mediasalles.it/ybkcent/ybk95_f.htm: 100 Years of Cinema Exhibition in France. memory.loc.gov/ammem/amhome.html: American Memory: photograph of the Chicago Grand Opera orchestra. Mont-alto.com/photoplaymusic/aboutmusic.html: The complete background on music used in silent films. Mont-alto.com/photoplaymusic/zamecnik/zamecnik.html: John Stepan Zamecnik: prominent composer of music for silent films in Cleveland and Los Angeles. Niulib.niu.edu/rbsc/2coos.html: Chicago Civic Opera. Opera-bordeaux.com: Interior and exterior photographs of the Grand Thêátre in Bordeaux. p.vtourist.com/ jpg: richsamuels.com/nbcmm/kyw.html: Chicago s first broadcast: Chicago Grand Opera. Servicehistorique.gendarmerie.defense.gouv. fr/musique/dossier/chef2.htm: Information on Gabriel Parès and the band of 40 musicians he brought to San Francisco in 1916 for the Panama Pacific Exposition. Sibley.esm.rochester.edu:8080/specialc/findaids/ Etscrp.htm: Content of the Eastman Theatre Scrapbooks. Soc-pres-music-hall.com/125th.htm: Photograph of Music Hall, Cincinnati, OH. Theiceberg.com/artist/635/mitch_miller.html: A concise biography of Mitch Miller. VintageViews.com: Photographs of the Eastman Theatre. Worldwar1.com/france/miquel1.htm: France at War: The Politics of French Military Leadership, Xs4all.nl/~wichm/filmsize.html: George Eastman and film size. BOOKS, NEWSPAPERS, PERIODICALS, DISSERTATIONS, PROGRAMS, CATALOGUES AND ENCYCLOPEDIAS Bailey, S. Eugene. Music for Strings. Northfield, MN: S. Eugene Bailey, n.d. Bailey, S. Eugene. Music for Woodwind and Brass. Northfield, MN: S. Eugene Bailey, n.d. Bate, Philip. The Oboe. 3rd edition. New York: W.W. Norton, Boyd, Malcolm. Bach. New York: Vintage Books, Card, James. Seductive Cinema: The Art of Silent Film. New York, Clooney, Nick. This Oscar was all too human. 15 March, Conrey, George. The Paris Conservatory: Its Oboe Professors, Laureates: Journal of the International Double Reed Society. XIX: 7-17 (1980). Encyclopedia Judaica. Bordeaux. Jerusalem: Keter Ltd., Estes, Frances. Marcel Dandois. To the World s Oboists, 1.3 (International Double Reed Society) Finkelman, Michael. Philadelphia Story Part V, The Double Reed. 25.4: International Double Reed Society, 2002 Finkelman, Michael. A Study of the English Horn and the Other Lower Oboes in the Classic and Romantic Eras. Thesis. Antioch University International, London, Finkelman, Michael. Historical Bibliography and Provisional World Union Catalogue of Original Music for the Lower Oboes to Thesis. State University of New York at Buffalo, Freeman, Norine. Andre Andraud Can t Take Concert Tours like Dad s The Cincinnati Post. October 6, 1938, p. 25. Gee, Harry. Saxophone Soloists and Their Music: Bloomington: Indiana University Press, Glotin, Danièle. Albert Glotin. La Lettre du Hautboïste. Revue de L Association Française du Hautbois. 2003, p. 58. Guralnik, David. (ed.): Webster s New World Dictionary of the American Language. 2nd edition. New York: Collins & World, Hemke, Fred. The Early History of the Saxophone. Dissertation. University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1975.

82 80 THE VADE-MECUM OF THE OBOIST: ALBERT ANDRAUD S GREAT ANTHOLOGY PART II Hosek, Miroslav. Oboen-Bibliographie I, ed. Rudolph H. Führer. Wilhelmshaven, Germany: Heinrichshofen, Kladstrup, Don & Petie. Wine & War: The French, the Nazis & the Battle for France s Greatest Treasure. New York: Random House, Lang, Paul Henry. Music in Western Civilization. New York: W. W. Norton, Ledet, David. Oboe Reed Styles: Theory and Practice. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, Lehrer, Charles. The Florian Mueller Story Journal of the International Double Reed Society. IV, Lehrer, Charles-David. The 19th-Century Parisian Concerto. Dissertation. University of California at Los Angeles, Margelli, Tad. The Paris Conservatoire Concours Solos: The Gillet Years, Journal of the International Double Reed Society. XXIV: (1990). Merriman, John. A History of Modern Europe. New York: W. W. Norton, Morgan, Ronald. Eastman Theatre Scrapbooks. Rochester: Eastman School of Music Archives, Sibley Music Library, 1996, call number: Nossiter, Adam. The Algeria Hotel: France, Memory, and the Second World War. London: Methuen, Pierre, Constant. Le Conservatoire National de Musique et de Déclamation: Documents Historiques et Administratifs. Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, Raoult, André. Louis Bleuzet, The Double Reed, International Double Reed Society 24.3: (2001). Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra: First Matinee Concert: Season Rochester: Eastman Theatre, Thursday, November 10, 1927: 3:20 o clock. Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra: Second Matinee Concert: Season Rochester: Eastman Theatre, Thursday, November 17, 1927: 3:20 o clock. Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra: Third Matinee Concert: Season Rochester: Eastman Theatre, Thursday, December 1, 1927: 3:20 o clock. Rosset, Lucienne. Antonino Pasculli, the Paganini of the Oboe, The Double Reed, International Double Reed Society (1988). Sachs, Curt. The History of Musical Instruments. New York: W.W. Norton, Schwarz, Boris. Great Masters of the Violin. New York: Simon & Schuster, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. 2nd ed. Stanley Sadie and John Tyrell, editors. 29 vols. London: Oxford University Press, (Unsigned). Albert Andraud, The Cincinnati Post. Cincinnati. April 16, 1975, p. 18. (Unsigned). Funeral Rites Tonight for Ex-CSO Oboist, The Cincinnati Enquirer. April 17, 1975, p. 13. (Unsigned). Horn Player Bows Out, The Cincinnati- Times Star. April 19, 1955, p. 9. Vester, Frans. Flute Repertoire Catalogue. London: Musica Rara, White, Eric Walter. Stravinsky-The Composer and his Works, 2nd ed. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, Wilbur, James. Texas School Honors Andraud, The Cincinnati Enquirer. January 28, 1968, p. H-12. Wilkins, Wayne. The Index of Oboe Music. Magnolia, AR: The Music Register, Young, Phillip. Loan Exhibition of Historic Double- Reed Instruments. Victoria, BC: University of Victoria, Young, Phillip. The Look of Music. Seattle: University of Washington Press, MUSICAL SOURCES: REPERTOIRE, METHODS, AND ETUDES Anderson, Joachim. 24 grosse Etüden für Flöte. Hamburg: Max Leichssenring, n.d. Andraud, Albert J. ed. Fifteen Grands Solos de Concert. Cincinnati: Andraud, 1938(?); R/San Antonio: Southern, s.d. Andraud, Albert J. Practical and Progressive Oboe Method. Cincinnati: Andraud, 1948; R/San Antonio: Southern, Andraud, Albert J. Vade-Mecum of the Oboist. Cincinnati: Andraud, 1940; R/San Antonio: Southern, 1967: 7th printing. Andraud, Albert J., ed. The Oboist s Concert Album. Cincinnati: Andraud, 1938(?); R/San Antonio: Southern, s.d. Andraud, Albert. Premier Cahier d Études pour Hautbois ou Cor Anglais: Gammes et Exercises pour les Commençants. Paris: Leduc, Bach, Johann Sebastian. Johann Sebastian Bach s Werke. Ed. W Rust. Vos.. 9 & 19. Leipzig: Bach- Gesellschaft, 1860 & 1871.

83 THE DOUBLE REED 81 Barret, Apollon. A Complete Method for the Oboe. Facsimile of the 1862 edition. London: Boosey & Hawkes, s.d. Barret, Apollon. The New Barret Oboe Method. ed. Charles-David Lehrer. Colorado Springs: IDRS. org. Bochsa, Robert Nicholas Charles. Two Nocturnes, Op. 50: Nos 1-3 for Harp and Oboe. Lancaster, England: Phylloscopus Publications, Bozza, Eugène, Fantaisie Pastorale pour hautbois et piano, Op. 37. Paris: Alphonse Leduc et Cie., Bozza, Eugène. Dix-Huit Études pour Hautbois. Paris: Leduc, Brod, Henri. The New Brod Oboe Method. ed. Charles-David Lehrer. Colorado Springs: IDRS. org. Brod. Henri. Méthode pour le Hautbois. Part II. Paris: Schonenberger, Demersseman, Jules. 12 Études Mélodiques dans toutes les tonalitiés pour saxophone. Paris: Lemoine, Dont, Jakob. 24 Studies Preparatory to Kreutzer and Rode for Violin, Op, 37. ed. Ivan Galamian. New York: International Music, Feldmayr, Georg. 1st Oboe Concerto in C Major. ed. Charles-David Lehrer. The Double Reed Archaeologist No. 39: ed. IDRS.org. Feldmayr, Georg. 2nd Oboe Concerto in C Major. ed. Charles-David Lehrer. The Double Reed Archaeologist No. 41: ed. IDRS.org. Feldmayr, Georg. Concertante for Oboe, Bassoon, and Orchestra. ed. Charles-David Lehrer. The Double Reed Archaeologist No. 3: ed. IDRS.org. Feldmayr, Georg. Oboe Concerto in F Major. ed. Charles-David Lehrer. The Double Reed Archaeologist No. 40: ed. IDRS.org. Ferling, Franz Wilhelm. 18 Übungen für Oboe, Op. 12. ed. Gunther Joppig. Vienna: Universal, Ferling, Franz Wilhelm. 48 Famous Studies. ed. Albert J. Andraud. Cincinnati: Andraud, 1942; R/San Antonio: Southern, s.d. Giampieri, Alamiro. 16 Studi giornalieri di perfezionamento per Oboe. Milano: G. Ricordi, Gluck, Christoph. Orfeo ed Euridice. Denkmäler der Tonkunst in Österreich, vol. 44a. Vienna: Österreichischer Bundesverlag: Händel, Georg Friedrich. Georg Friedrich Händel s Werke. Vol. 21 & 27. ed. Friedrich Chrysander. Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel: Klosé, Hyacinthe Éléonore. Trente Études pour la Clarinette d apres Henry Aumont. Reprinted from the original plates. Miami: Kalmus-Warner Brothers, s.d. Kreutzer, Rodolphe. 40 Etuden oder Capricen für die Violine. ed. Ferdinand David. Leipzig: Bartholf Senff, s.d. Lamotte (fils), Antony. Dix-huit etudes: Transcrites d après Mazas, Kreutzer, Rode, Schall et Bruni. Paris: Costallat, Lamotte, Antony. Basic Scale and Arpeggio Studies. ed. Josef Marx. New York: McGinnis & Marx, Luft, Johann Heinrich. 24 Etüden in alle Tonarten, Op. 1. Frankfurt am Main: C.F. Peters, s.d. Marais, Marin. Petit Trio d Alcyone. Arr. Albert J. Andraud. Cincinnati: Andraud, Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus. [Oboe] Quartet, KV 370. Charles-David Lehrer, ed. The Double Reed Archaeologist No. 87: IDRS.org. Reichert, Matthieu-André. Daily Exercises for Flute, Op. 5. Reprinted from the original plates. New York: Carl Fischer, s.d. Rode, Pierre. 15 Capricen ed. Antonino Pasculli. Moscow: Muzyka, s.d. Rode, Pierre. 24 Caprices pour le Violon. ed Ivan Galamian. New York: International Music Company, Sabon, Edouard. 12 Études d après Bochsa pour le Hautbois. Paris: Richault, c Schiemann, Christian. Seven Characteristic Studies for Oboe. New York: Musicus, s.d., orig. published by Breitkopf & Härtel. Verroust, Stanislas. 24 Études mélodiques pour hautbois, Op. 65. Paris: Billaudot, s.d., orig. published by Costallat or Richault. Vogt, Gustave. Deuxième Concerto. Ed. Charles- David Lehrer. The Double Reed Archaeologist No. 22: IDRS.org.

84 82 TRIBUTES TO MAURICE ALLARD Maurice Allard recording Vivaldi with the I Solisti de Veneti. Bassoon continuo in the background is Japanese bassoonist Kiyoshi Koyama.

85 THE DOUBLE REED 83 Tributes to Maurice Allard I REMEMBER MAURICE ALLARD Charles Holdeman Willmington, Deleware I first heard the sound of Maurice Allard in the late 60 s, his recording of Boismortier s Concerto on Nonesuch, and even without the enhancements sometimes associated with that era, I know I would have been irresistibly drawn to that magical color, that energetic and elegant voice, as I still am. I heard him perform three times, at the Toronto IDRS conference, at the Met when the Paris Opéra was touring with the Marriage of Figaro, and in Paris, a performance of Elektra. While players of the German bassoon, hearing his recordings, expect some kind of light approach to the bassoon, he was in fact, with his red hair and barrel chest, the lion of the instrument with a robustness of physique, sound, and musicality that was startling. Hearing him in New York, he was the strongest in the wind section, somehow the leader even from the vantage point of the bass clef. When I had the opportunity to study the Buffet bassoon with him in 1977, and at our last lesson asked him to play a Boismortier duet with me ( pourquoi? he said), I had to blow as hard as I possibly could to barely approach his resonance and magnitude of sound, while he appeared his most relaxed, ordinary self. As a teacher, he had his method, his program which everyone was expected to follow, particularly regarding scales, intervals, and technique. There were also lessons on how to choose a reed, which was the best one after playing 3 or 4, as it was necessary to learn to recognize the attributes of a good reed before actually trying to adjust one for yourself. Style and expression were of paramount importance as well, and Edinburgh IDRS Conference 1980: Maurice Allard (L) assisting Jo Ann Simpson (R) as an unknown bassoonist (C) looks on. for this, one played the Milde Concert Etudes; Allard s Billaudot edition including his markings indicating the character to be depicted in each. He wanted the maximum expressivity you could manage, Put lots, lots, lots of sauce on the spaghetti, he said. I ll tell you when it s too much. He was friendly, tolerant of my Americanness ( Why do Americans always want to practice so slowly? ), and, having had a number of foreign students, he knew how to make his French understandable. A few times Gilbert Audin, who became Allard s successor at the Conservatoire and the Opéra, had his lesson after me. They were both from Normandy, and when they began to speak, to me it was completely incomprehensible. Musical history moves on, taste changes, and it remains to be seen what will become of the heroic level of performance on the French bassoon which Allard attained and taught. Surely the generation of his students is strong and at the highest level of musicianship. Still the French bassoon remains embattled. While Allard modernized the way the instrument could be played and had enormous personal success, at the same time he was and is inimitable. We can be grateful to have his recordings and I will always carry within me the personal inspiration he provided. He has left us and we miss him, yet he will remain one off the most illustrious members of our Society s Honorary Membership. Chuck Holdeman is a composer, and principal bassoonist of the Delaware Symphony and the Bach Festival of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

86 84 TRIBUTES TO MAURICE ALLARD A BIENTOT, MAÎTRE : AN OPEN LETTER TO MAURICE ALLARD Ronald Klimko McCall, Idaho Cher Maître, I can t believe that you are gone. You were such a force, such a beacon, such a guiding light for the bassoon in France for such a large part of the 20th Century. Year after year one great student on the systeme français left your studio and took their place in major orchestras of France, Switzerland, Spain, even Japan and carried the torch of the French bassoon forward with their incredible artistry and technique. At one international bassoon competition after another your élèves came away with most of the top prizes time and time again. But then the erosion began. It started small. Far away in the United States, your uncle, Raymond Allard, the great principal bassoon of the Boston Symphony (America s most French sounding orchestra) retired in 1954, and the transformation from the French system basson to the German, or Heckel system fagott was complete. With the retirement of the great American bassoonists like Elias Carman, Simon Kovar, and the great Leonard Sharrow (who most recently joined you in Bassoon Heaven ), the transformation of those who had started on the French bassoon and switched to the German was complete. Now all American bassoonists would, like the late, great Sol Schoenbach, begin and end their bassoon life on the German system alone. Now in the United States, about the only place one could find a French-system bassoon was occasionally in a pawn shop. (My own first Buffet came from such a place.) The erosion continued in the United Kingdom in the 1980 s, when the last of the James boys, the wonderful artist Cecil James retired from active playing and the British orchestra, who for years thrived with the French and German-system bassoons making music side by side, now became exclusively dominated by the German instrument. In other countries, Spain, South America, Switzerland, the trend continued. And then it happened. In France itself such great artists Amaury Wallez, Marc Vallon, and others-many of them former students of yours - began switching from the French to the German system. Some switched by their own volition, but many others were coerced by conductors used to flying around the world constantly, wanting more and more all orchestras to sound alike. Around the time of your own retirement in the 1980 s the bassoon world was shocked to hear of conductor Daniel Barenboim s devilish plan to force all the bassoonists in the last great orchestra to represent the full French tradition, the Orchestre de l Opéra (as they were about to become the Orchestre de l Opéra Bastille) to re-audition and switch to the German instrument. Fortunately politics prevailed, and Barenboim never took over the reins of the orchestra. But the erosion continued, despite this small victory. So many of your students were told, upon winning an orchestral position, that they had to switch. So sad. Oh sure, there were minor pockets of resistance, such as Gerry Corey, one of the IDRS founding fathers, who has spent his whole career, first in Baltimore, then in Canada, performing with artistry and conviction on both system instruments. Also Chuck Holdeman, and Kim Laskowski, American bassoonists who studied with you in Paris - Kim even winning a coveted place in your class at the Conservatoire Superieur, and Chuck continuing to perform and record on the French instrument to this day. Moreover, there was American Phil Gottling in Paris studying with you in 1982 and 1983, shortly before I went there to study with you myself. One must not forget early converts to the French system such as the late medical doctor/bassoonist Art Norris, a former IDRS Vice President (and briefly President!), who went to England and studied with Cecil James and who remained faithful to the French bassoon his entire life. And of course there are many enthusiastic amateur French bassoonists like Larry Ibisch in New York (see Larry s article elsewhere in this issue) and Antero Ojanto in Finland, who remain active on their Buffets or Selmers. In England there are also a number of British players like Lewis Dann and his son who still play the French system, along with a L to R: Cornelia Biggers, contrabassoon; Maurice Allard and William Winstead at the Tallahassee IDRS Conference, August 1983.

87 THE DOUBLE REED 85 Maurice Allard (L) with Bill Waterhouse (C) and Gerry Corey (R) viewing Waterhouse s instrument collection in Edinburgh at the IDRS Conference, August number of professional Brits like Gareth Newman and Meyerick Alexander who will give the French system a bit of a blow when the literature being performed is more suitable to the French bassoon than the German. And finally, I can count myself in this band of misfits, when I took a year away from my teaching duties to live in my beloved Paris and study on the Buffet under your tutelage in while on sabbatical leave from the University of Idaho - my dream year in the City of Light! But mostly the German instrument has won, if you consider it a war, and I know that this was a very bitter pill for you to swallow as you ended your career in the late 1980 s. I know that you sold all your instruments and moved from your lovely home in Chatou outside of Paris to the small village of St. Michel Chef Chef on the Brittany coast where you lived a quiet life, isolated from the bassoon world, until your sad demise a short time ago this year. But that is all sadness and bitterness for you. And it is all past. I am writing this letter to you to thank you for myself and for all your other students for the POSITIVE influence you had on our lives - both musical and spiritual. You were a great man! A great teacher! A shining example of how a true artist lives, flourishes and passes his legacy to those fortunate enough to have come under the umbrella of your great presence. I learned so much from you. In retrospect, my students, through me also learned so much from you. Phil Gottling once told me how remarkable it was to walk down the streets of Paris with you and to see how everyone - the butcher, the waiter, the street cleaner - all knew you, and loved and respected you. Everyone called you Maître. You truly were a force to all of us. What did I learn from you? Oh where do I begin? Perhaps with a couple of paraphrases of quotes I heard from you like: There is no reason to make a mistake in playing the music. (Easy enough for YOU to say!) Or when I told you how after about four hours of practice my embouchure was too tired to continue and you replied how one can play the instrument without the reed and still practice everything: fingering, articulation, even breathing, without making a sound. But mostly I learned from you what that elusive word PERFECTION really means. In my second lesson with you when I was still struggling to do the French fingerings EXACTLY as you had instructed, (to you, there was no other way!) and you assigned me the Milde Op. 24 C Major scale study and the C Major scale in thirds and that was all. You then told me that you wanted to hear them next time PARFAIT. And so for hours on end I played those two damned pieces over and over until I could play them in my sleep, pausing only long enough to telephone Phil Gottling to tell him how I was going out of my mind. But when I returned to the next lesson and played them parfait (or as close to it as I could ever get!) and I had, as Phil had warned me passed a test, and from then on the lessons became one revelation of new concepts and ideas after another. I list these now, because I think it is important to see the difference in preparation that still to an extent exists between the French and American schools and perhaps some Americans can gain some insight from this list. First of all, there is simply the concept of practice. Oh sure, serious American bassoonists practice a lot. But what I practiced for you, Maître, was mostly scales and etudes preparing me to play any music set before me. Scales, scales, scales! Scales in thirds, fourths, fifths, sixths, sevenths and octaves. And had I gotten good enough the next step would have been the chromatic scale in major 2nds, minor 3rds, major 3rds, perfect 4ths, perfect 5ths, minor 6ths, major 6ths, minor 7ths, major 7ths and finally octaves. If you think you know scales, try those on for size. Then there was Milde Op. 24. When I finally got to the end, having been assigned the scale and arpeggio study of the week along with the scale at all intervals, I remember you saying: Now we go back and start again, this time FASTER! I was amazed that in the short year I studied with you, my technique on the French bassoon was almost equal to the German instrument I had spent

88 86 TRIBUTES TO MAURICE ALLARD a good portion of my life working on! Perhaps this is why, when you hear a great French bassoonist performing an incredibly difficult work it always sounds to me like the artist STILL has at least one gear faster than the music demands. (Faster? You want to hear it FASTER? Bien!) And speaking of fingering, in the French system there was never any deviation. Unlike the German bassoon where each player has his or her own individual or pet set of fingerings, there was, when I studied with you and later the great Gilbert Audin only ONE way to finger a given passage. First of all, there were the fundamental or full fingerings - good for the fullest and richest sound acoustically. Secondly there were simplified fingerings for speed or vitesse such as the high e1, which was fingered exactly like the lower octave (rh: x o o, lh thumb covering the E tone hole) but without the whisper key. These worked beautifully in fast passagework. Finally there were certain fingerings for facilitating skips like into G1 or high Bf2, or the forked Bf1. These worked well also. But there were no improvised fingerings - no deviations from the norm. This included HOLDING DOWN the vent keys for all middle register notes where we flick or vent on the German bassoon. These were to be held down, no matter how fast or slow these notes were played! On the French bassoon there was absolutely NO cracking EVER! Ah, Maître, when finally you felt I was ready to tackle actual music rather than just scales and etudes, it blew me away how we would cover a new work every lesson! Unlike my study in the States where I might spend a long time on a work, you expected full mastery within a week or two! I recall how once a month you would ask me to come up to the Conservatoire to be one of the judges for your class as one student after another would stand up and play the work of the month - not the easier Pierne or Dubois works I was working on, but the Jolivet Concerto or worse! And then we would rate each one and you would read off the results: first place, second place.last place! It was fun to see how some of the eléves lowest on the totem pole would rise to the occasion from time to time and move up higher, sometimes considerably so, in the standings. This was impressive to witness, to say the least. Then there were the subtleties of musical style I learned from you, subtleties of articulation, expression, perhaps the hardest things of all to put into words. Reeds too, were so different from the German. I started out getting reeds from you and then using them as models for making my own. Again, you were always the teacher, if not directly then by example. What will I remember most of all, from my enchanting year of study with you, however? Three pictures still stand out vividly in my memory. The first was the time that, on urging from a big fan of yours, Sol Schoenbach, to bring you a bottle of Johnnie Walker whiskey, your favorite, to my next lesson to celebrate your birthday, I dutifully obliged and did so. When I hauled it out of my music bag and wished you Bon Anniversaire!, you exclaimed: Oh Ronald and gave me a big hug, like a father might do to his son. Wow! How many times do you get a hug from a legend?!!! My second vivid memory occurred while going out to Chatou to take a lesson with you. My lessons were on Friday mornings early mostly. I would take the train to La Defense from my apartment in Surenes, a Paris suburb across the Seine from the Bois de Bologne. At La Defense I would transfer to the RER that took me further out of Paris to near your home in Chatou. From the station I had to walk for about a mile north along the Seine. One particular morning in March 1984, the mist was coming off the Seine as I walked next to it, my mind going over the scales in all intervals I had to play for you at that lesson. As the mist rose, however, I became aware how incomparably beautiful the scene was. It struck me that at this moment in time, I was actually walking thru an Impressionistic painting worthy of a Monet or Van Gogh. It was absolutely enchanting, and I felt that I was the luckiest person in the world to be here and be a part of it all. At this tiny moment I felt that I had become, all to briefly, a tiny atom in the actual fabric and culture of this great, mystical nation. But my final memory is of you, Maître. It might have been that very morning following my walk in the mist. Probably not. As I approached your house, I heard your bassoon playing. You were practicing. At that time this had become a rarity - to hear you perform. Your fingers had become so wracked with pain that it was difficult for you to play at all. I stood outside your door for a long time listening to perfection and realizing that this could be the last time I would ever hear you play. It was. In the spring of 84 it came time to present the morceau du concours, the new work by a French composer that would be played by your advanced students expected to obtain their premier prix, at the exams that would be coming up in June (this year it was Pierre Max Dubois Sonatine-Tango). The tradition was for you, le Mâitre, to perform the work and present it to the students for the first time. You broke tradition, however, and I was present with your class as your great student and protége Gilbert Audin played it for the class instead. That tiny moment in time standing outside your home was the very last where I heard you play the bassoon. It was, of course, unforgettable and, in a word parfait. And so, these are the memories I implore you to dwell on, Maître, from your lofty position in Bassoon Heaven. Please remember that there are thousands of your former students, music lovers, even Parisian street cleaners for whom the name Maurice Allard will always conjure up memories of a bon

89 THE DOUBLE REED 87 Lessons with Maurice Allard (R) and Ronald Klimko (L), Chatou, France, homme, an artist, a musician for whom the word perfection was merely an everyday occurrence. Au revoir, Maître! A bientot. (Hopefully not A tout a l heure!) Rest peacefully. Your legacy endures. MAURICE ALLARD, THE LESSON OF A GRAND MAîTRE Marc Vallon Madison, Wisconsin Maurice Allard was a man who left all who crossed paths with him somehow different. His charisma and personality were so overwhelming that it was almost impossible not to establish an immediate emotional relationship with him, whether you liked it or not. As I write these lines today, thirty years after my first lesson with him, these same feelings of admiration, love, fear and frustration come back to me. Maurice, as we affectionately called him between us, has been for a whole generation of French bassoonists much more than a teacher, rather a formidable father figure and I m sure that many of us can still feel today the depth of the impact he had on their lives. One of the reasons why he was such a fascinating figure probably lies in the complexity and contradictions of his personality. For the ones who knew him well, it was almost as if there were two faces to his persona, a sort of Dr. Allard and Mr. Maurice: Le Maître could be, for instance, a perfect example of the cocky arrogance that came with his prestigious position of first solo bassoonist of the Paris Opéra orchestra: Pierre Boulez came once to conduct The Rite of Spring. The story goes that after hearing the first opening solo, Boulez asked Allard to play it in a more crude and primitive sounding fashion. Maurice stood up and said: Maestro, I ve been practicing this solo all my life to make it sound beautiful and expressive, and that s the way I m going to play it! (Later, he received a letter from Boulez saying: Monsieur Allard, you were definitely the King of this Sacre ). I ve seen the Maurice side of the same man when, his hands shaking and sweat on his face, he played for his students the new piece written for the Paris Conservatoire final exam, a duty that has imposed to himself every year during his teaching career. On one side, Le Maître was a man of principles. I still remember the first things he told me when I came to him for my first private lesson: Bonjour, there are two things for you to remember: You will call me Maître, and you will wear a tie. I want people to recognize a bassoonist when they see one. Now, put your bassoon together and play your scales for me. It was the same man who would call you up at 6.30 am and say: What? You re still in bed? Get up quick, and get yourself a good breakfast. Listen, I have a gig for you: Do you want to play second bassoon next to me next week? Grab a pencil. At the end of the conversation, he would quickly add: Look, I m sorry for what I said during the lesson yesterday. Let s forget it, OK? Le Maître could be very demanding and his sarcasms could be sometimes devastating. There was one thing he didn t like: You not knowing your scales. You would fumble your Ef minor in sevenths, and you would immediately be reminded that this couldn t happen. Maurice, who as a kid would get up at 5am to practice before going to school, couldn t understand that you didn t take the time to learn what he considered the ABCs of bassoon playing. But the worst thing for him was to hear a piece played in an uninteresting way. You dared to bore your audience and Maurice was merciless. You had committed the worst sacrilege in

90 88 TRIBUTES TO MAURICE ALLARD Allard s book; not adding la sauce on your musical dish, offering to your listeners something without taste, something that didn t stimulate their musical appetite. Maurice would then be able of the worst sarcasms and his putting down of a student in front of his eleven colleagues was something that still has a bad taste today. How could we stand it? Probably his phenomenal talent as a player would help us swallow these bitter pills. We would squeeze in the little sightless booth at the Opéra reserved to the Conservatoire students and listen to his wonderful sound filling the space. He had a way to combine this almost mechanical precision with this singing voice-like expressiveness that was just breathtaking. When Maurice played, you heard the notes, no doubt about that, but you also heard the words, he was talking to you in a very unique way. Confronted to such beauty, our excitement was almost unbearable. You would be there, listening to the Rite of Spring or Bolero, when suddenly, like an illumination, these long hours of scales, his merciless elitism, his endless perfectionism suddenly started to make sense. And if at the end of the show, Maurice invited us to follow him and the bassoon section to the X, the official bar of the Opéra musicians, we felt like we had been elevated to another level, we were entering a new fascinating world, we were becoming real bassoonists. And there, among the heavy smoke, the loud laughter and the warmth of the drinks, Le Maître was suddenly so close to us, so real and himself, that our frustrations and sorrows seemed to magically disappear, probably dissolved by the bubbles of our Whisky Coca, Maurice s favorite drink. These twelve acneic teenagers we were, looking like dorks with our cheap ties on, were then more than ever ready to attack the next pile of chromatic scales that would be thrown to us. Maurice s teaching was based on one fundamental lesson that was, when I think about it, a sort of embodiment of his own personality: an endless search for perfection combined with an irrepressible need for spontaneity. If I dare to speak on his behalf, I would summarize it like this: Master your instrument to the smallest detail, spend all the time it takes, it will be long and painful, be an irreproachable Maître du bassoon, and then, the minute the concert is about to start, FORGET EVERYTHING, just be yourself. Let your feelings, taste, intuition, and imagination, do the work for you. Just let it happen. Play for your audience and make them hear something they never heard before. With a little smiley wink, he would add. When you play well, you ll have all these girls come to you at the end of the concert wanting to marry you. When I look back today at this period at the Conservatoire, I realize what Maurice had done for us: reveal to us that the central issue in any musician s soul is this dilemma between down-to-earth technicality and idealistic search for beauty. He showed us the way he dealt with it: he wanted both, no compromise, perfection and beauty, no doubt about it. And then he let us find our own way. That was the lesson of a Grand Maître. Another image will stay with me for a long time: an image of Maurice, in the Conservatoire s favorite café, a glass in one hand, a cigarette in the other, ordering another round of drinks (students never pay) after a tedious session of scales. He has this good smile on his face, he s relaxed and tells us joke after joke. He is the way we loved him, close to us, his face slightly red, just imperfectly human. That s the way we ll remember him. Adieu, Maurice.

91 THE DOUBLE REED 89 An Internet Interview with Dennis Michel Ronald Klimko McCall, Idaho It was about 20 years ago while I was playing with the Spokane, Washington, Symphony that I had the fortune to meet bassoonist Dennis Michel for the first time. Dennis was a college student at Eastern Washington University at the time, studying bassoon with Wendal Jones, principal bassoon of the Spokane Symphony and bassoon professor at EWU. Right away I knew that this tall, blonde, talented bassoonist would do well in the bassoon world. His skills took him to membership in the San Diego Symphony as well as teaching at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California. Since 1998, Dennis has been a member of the bassoon section of the great Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Here, thanks to the internet, is a cyber-interview with Dennis in his own words: Ed.) bassoon reeds. I continued to study with him and play second to him in the Spokane Symphony while I went to Eastern Washington University. I then got a Master s from Yale, where I was greatly influenced musically and bassoonistically by Arthur Weisberg. I also learned a lot about music from oboist Robert Bloom, and from Richard Lert, a great conductor who studied with Richard Strauss and Wilhelm Furtwangler. Years later, I had a few lessons with Norman Herzberg from whom I learned a great deal, and in 1996, I studied with Milan Turkovic in Vienna, and I d have to say, he influenced the way I think about music too. RK: How and where did you get started as a professional bassoonist? RK: Dennis, please tell us about your early years and how you got interested in music in general and the bassoon in particular. DM: I grew up on a farm in northern Idaho until I was 10 years old, and my first encounters with music were listening to my father s record collection. My earliest memory of a specific piece was walking downstairs from my bedroom one Sunday morning, and hearing a recording of the Mozart Clarinet Quintet. I was still half asleep and just sat down on the living room floor and listened, thinking this is perfect music! I still feel pretty much that way about that piece. My dad, who had been an amateur clarinetist, had some old Instrumentalist magazines, one of which had an article about the bassoon, which intrigued me immediately. Some years later I heard a New York Philharmonic Young Person s Concert, and they had student soloists playing in the Haydn Sinfonia Concertante. I loved the sound of the bassoon, and decided I had to play it. In sixth grade in Spokane, Washington, I called the junior high band director at the school which I would attend the next next year, to see if they had a bassoon. They did not, and I bugged him until they bought one for me to use. I have been trying to figure out how to play it ever since! RK: Tell us about your schooling: who were your principal teachers and who has exerted the most musical influence on you? DM: In high school, I studied with Wendal Jones, and worked for him one summer, making about 2,000 DM: As I mentioned, I played 2nd bassoon in the Spokane Symphony, starting when I was 18 years old, and basically paying my way through college. While in graduate school, I played 3rd and contra in Hartford. After I graduated from Yale I played principal in the Wichita Symphony and taught at Wichita State where I also played in the Lieurance Quintet. Four years later, my former Wichita student, Wichita Symphony colleague, and friend Arlen Fast who was playing in San Diego convinced me to audition for the principal job there which was just vacated by Judy Leclair going to New York. We spent the next 15 years working together in San Diego until the orchestra went into bankruptcy and Arlen moved on to the New York Philharmonic and I was fortunate enough to land in Chicago. RK: When you got the Chicago job, what was the audition like? DM: Actually, it was a series of three auditions! First, the principal/assistant principal audition in 1996, a second audition in 97 where nobody was hired, and finally, in the spring of 98. I was fortunate to have been a finalist for the principal job in 96, and thus got onto the sub list, so I had the advantage of having performed a bit with the orchestra. Having been off the audition circuit for quite a while, it was an uphill battle. Of course, in my job in San Diego, I had performed all of the standard audition pieces in the orchestra. But an audition, as we all know, is a very different beast. Because this was a mid-career event for me, it was a lot of work to overcome the inertia of stasis that inevitably creeps in to one s playing over

92 90 AN INTERNET INTERVIEW WITH DENNIS MICHEL time. I gained so much from the process of preparing for these auditions that over all it was an incredibly energizing experience. RK: Any advice for young hopeful bassoonists preparing for auditions? DM: Study the whole piece, not just a little bit of the 1st bassoon part! It is not enough to play the bassoon beautifully. Think like a good conductor, and develop a complete interpretation. Understand the structure and harmony of the music. Know what tempo you want, how you want the accompaniment to the solo shaped, and then play the excerpt as a musical statement that is informed by both intellectual and emotional understanding of the piece. It helps immensely to mentally create the orchestra around you when playing an audition; it feels much less lonely up there on stage. RK: What is it like playing in one of the world s greatest orchestras? DM: This seems weird, but I feel like the better the orchestra is, the easier it becomes to play well. When things are well together, it is easer to fit into the ensemble. It is not so often a multiple choice problem of choosing who you re going to play with. Of course, the other side of the coin is that you have to really stay in shape, be on top of preparing your parts, and have the reeds necessary to do the job. Like any orchestra, some concerts are better than others, depending on conditions, conductors, etc (a locally famous CSO one-liner referring to a limited guest conductor is we would have played it better, but he wouldn t let us! ) But when things go well and everyone is on, I still get a lump in my throat, sitting the middle of this amazing sound swirling around me, thinking I m so lucky to be a part of this! the summer there with Ben Kamins since I began in Chicago. I am also on the faculty at Roosevelt University in Chicago, which is just a couple of blocks from Orchestra Hall, and have two students there, and also coach chamber music. RK: Would you describe your basic reed style? Any secrets you can share with us? DM: I d have to say I have a fairly normal American reed style. The blade length is usually 1 and 3/32 measuring from the 1st wire, tube length about one inch. We play at a=442, so I would probably use a slightly longer reed for a=440. I use a Rieger #9 shaper tip, with a slight belly to it, that is to say a slightly convex curve to the sides of the blades. I use an RDG gouger, and a Potratz cane density tester which helps me identify cane that is just too soft for my reed style. I also use a Herzberg profiling machine which is incredibly accurate and adjustable, and a Rieger tip profiler for finishing. I guess that makes me Mr. Gadget when it comes to reed making, but I find that all of these machines help greatly in producing good consistent reeds, and vastly reducing the number of dud blanks that never become playable reeds. My goal is to produce consistent blanks so the finishing process ideally addresses the one inescapable variable: cane quality. The fewer other variables you introduce in your reed making technique, the better your chances of producing a high percentage of good playable reeds. I d much rather spend my time making music, not reeds. RK: What bassoon(s) do you own and play on? DM: I have two instruments, a Heckel, #13,207 made in 1988, and a Fox 601, #30,004 made in 2000, to which Jim Keyes added the Weisberg automatic octave key system. RK: Is the schedule very grueling? DM: It can be. I find our summer season at Ravinia hard, as we usually have three full symphonic programs per week on minimal rehearsal time, so the need to prepare music in advance is even greater. Also, during the year difficult programs can back up against one another, but usually our contract mandates a reasonable schedule. When things get crazy for me, it is usually because I have booked too many outside things, such as teaching, coaching and chamber music at an already busy time. RK: Are you teaching privately as well as playing? If so, where and how many private students do you have? DM: I ve been teaching at The Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara since 1988, now splitting RK: You were one of the first bassoon players to embrace the new Arthur Weisberg octave key system and have it added to your bassoon. What prompted this decision and when did you have it added? DM: Having been a Weisberg student, I was well trained to be keenly aware of middle register cracking and to avoid it as much as possible. Arthur s approach involves carefully balancing the reed tip, using half holes judiciously and great care in adjusting the embouchure. In playing with as full a sound as one must in a modern orchestra, however, and trimming my reeds accordingly, I was very frustrated with how much I was still cracking attacks on middle A, Bf, B, C and sometimes Cs and D. While I was still in Wichita, I met Chuck Ullery and heard how beautifully cleanly he plays. Chuck studied with Norman Herzberg and of course was well versed in using the A, Bf and C keys

93 THE DOUBLE REED 91 in the middle register as octave vents or flick keys. So, at about age 24, I re-vamped my playing, and learned to flick the middle register and really clean things up. It is mechanically awkward at times, and some of those keys, which are really intended to properly vent the highest register, are not really in the right place or of the right size to properly vent the middle register. Thus, one must learn to make some lipping and voicing adjustments. However, for me, flicking was the only insurance policy I could find to guarantee clear, clean attacks at any dynamic level in that register. In 1999 or so Arthur Weisberg came through Chicago, and showed us his automatic octave vent system, which while it is revolutionary for the bassoon, is really like systems in use on saxophone and oboe for a century! I played the system, and immediately recognized its advantages in cleaning up the middle register attacks and simultaneously freeing the left thumb from flick key servitude. It also has the unexpected advantage of improving many downward slurs, like the A octaves in the solo in Mahler s First Symphony. I was convinced that I had to try this system in the orchestra, but wanted to try it out long term before I had my Heckel modified. So I bought a new Fox 601, which has turned out to be a really excellent instrument, and promptly sent it to Jim Keyes to have the octave keys added. RK: Tell us what your impressions of the system, now that you have had a chance to use it for awhile. DM: I love it! I have played my 601 with the Weisberg system exclusively since December of It is a liberating experience to get consistently clean attacks without flicking. The resonance, response and intonation of the middle Cs and D are noticeably improved. As I mentioned before, many downward slurs are much better with the system as well. I know now that I will have it added to my Heckel as well. RK: Does it have any disadvantages that you have observed? DM: There are a few things to get used to, but I would not consider them disadvantages, especially when weighed against the improvements that the system offers. With the Weisberg system, one has to be more diligent in closing the whisper key in the low register. A traditional bassoon is a little more forgiving if you don t quite get the whisper key closed as you descend below open F. With the Weisberg system, if it is not closed, you get the upper octave. Also, in the highest register, it becomes more important to use the Ef resonance key to prevent doubly venting the highest notes. Over all, the mechanism has proven to be very sturdy, easy to keep in adjustment and not at all fussy. That is one thing many people seem to be concerned with, especially since there are two more bridge keys from the boot to the wing joint. But it is much less complicated than many oboe mechanisms, and it has several adjustment screws so if something does change, as cork pads compress, or with seasonal humidity changes, a simple turn of the screw sets everything right. RK: What are your musical plans for the future? DM: This fall I begin as an ensemble member with the Chicago Chamber Musicians, a group which I have performed with on and off for a few years. CCM is composed of winds, strings, brass, and piano which gives us the capability to perform an incredibly wide range of chamber music. I find chamber playing to be very rewarding, and helps to balance a steady diet of orchestra work. RK: Dennis, thank you so much for taking the time from your busy schedule to answer these questions and to enlighten us on your great career and your experiences with the Weisberg octave key system. I am a strong believer in this marvelous improvement to the bassoon and hope to see many bassoonists adopt it as the traditional system on future bassoons. Your insight is invaluable to this process. DM: Thanks much, Ron.

94 92 IN MEMORIAM OF JIŘÍ TANCIBUDEK ( ) In Memoriam of Jiří Tancibudek ( ) Miroslav Hošek Olomouc, Czech Republic THE LAST LETTER In 1962, he was a soloist at the Adelaide Festival of Art Our correspondence began in I was just starting to collect materials for my study about world oboists. During that time Mr. Tancibudek was the oboe professor at Adelaide University in Australia. He and worked with the very fine violinist and patron of the arts, Yehudi Menuhin. Tancibudek remained at this music center until the end of his life, mainly because he was asked to teach in the music department at immediately sensed my Adelaide University (Eider sincere interest in collecting as much information as possible about oboists and all aspects of oboe playing. Conservatorium). Here Tancibudek worked closely with the Adelaide Wind Quintet, with which He answered all my he went on two world tours. questions in detail, shared his experiences with me, recommended several books about the oboe (many of which he himself sent me), and also gave me addresses of leading oboists, many of whom he knew personally. He sent me One of the concert stops was Prague (February 26, 1969, Besedni dum). There we met for the first time in person and I witnessed Tancibudek s cestvi (Czechness). Between an afternoon rehearsal and an evening short humorous greetings concert we took a walk on from his concert tours where he performed as soloist or with his Adelaide Woodwind Quintet. That is how I learned Jiří Tancibudek the riverbank towards the National Theater. The sun was illuminating Hradcany. Mr. Tancibudek looked in much about him, his work as a teacher and soloist, and about the international oboe world, which had previously been kept secret in the Czech Republic by the totalitarian regime. As we know today, Mr. Tancibudek, along with the conductor Kubelik, left his position of principal oboist of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra in Prague in He worked at the Radio Orchestra in Stuttgart for several months and taught oboe at the Sydney Conservatory for three years. In 1953, he accepted an offer to be principal oboist of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, where he remained for eleven years. During his time in Melbourne, Tancibudek asked Bohuslav Martinů, who was then living in France, to compose an oboe concerto. Martinů agreed and in 1956, Tancibudek premiered it in Australia with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Tancibudek gave premieres of this concerto around the world, making a name for himself and the composer. that direction, shed a tear, and said, You know, in Australia I have everything a man can wish for - but there I miss this view.... I have over one hundred letters from Mr. Tancibudek. In each one I learned how great a person he was. After renewed political freedom in 1989, we met in Prague a few more times. That year he was giving a master class at the Academy of Musical Arts in Prague; and since 1996, he had been one of the judges at the Prague Spring international competition. During his visits he was always accompanied by his guardian angel, his dear wife, Vera. Until March of this year we still had things to write about. Our letters were philosophical reflections on the oboe and its world. His last letter from March 16 signaled that his life energy was leaving him. Before I was able to reply, I learned that he passed away. The Czech oboe legend entered into history. In honor of his memory!

95 THE DOUBLE REED 93 Interview with Yoshiyuki Ishikawa, Webmaster of Terry B. Ewell Towson, Maryland Terry B. Ewell (TE): This is Terry Ewell, and I am in Boulder, Colorado with Dr. Yoshi Ishikawa, who is the web master for the International Double Reed Society. Dr. Ishikawa, when did you become interested in creating a website for the International Double Reed Society? Yoshiyuki Ishikawa (YI): It was about 1985 that I read in a computer publication about the Internet, a resource that was only available until then for the military and the government to distribute information. I believe that it may have been used as a backup in case of a nuclear crisis to communicate among military officers. This resource I thought would be a wonderful opportunity for the International Double Reed Society to use to disseminate information. I further read about the experimentation conducted by CERN scientists in Switzerland in distributing their most current findings on research and physics. They created an initial website to experiment with the use of the Internet. That is when I first became interested in it. I knew nothing about it at the time. It was interesting. TE: What were some of the first features, or what was first posted on that website? Yoshi Ishikawa and Terry Ewell seated in front of the IDRS web server. TE: In the roughly ten years or so since the website started we have grown by leaps and bounds. It has been amazing what has been added to the site. Can you talk about some of the most recent features on the site? YI: The most recent features are the streaming videos and the audios, whether in MP3 or MIDI format. With the increased speed and processing power of the computer, as well as the speed of the Internet and advancement in compression software, we are now able to easily distribute CD quality audio over the Internet and very good quality video. Of course the client must have a DSL or faster connection to be able view them. My newest project includes videos of the past two Gillet/Fox competitions, various interviews of our Honorary Members, and master classes presented during the past three or four conferences. TE: The International Double Reed Society was recently privileged to receive a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. This is terrific recognition for our Society and the quality of our website. This grant has allowed us to purchase some new equipment and to do some new things. Can you describe that equipment and the features it will allow us to do? YI: The first postings were To the World s Bassoonists and To the World s Oboists, which were the earliest publications by the International Double Reed Society. Gerry Corey was the bassoon editor at that time, followed by Dan Stolper, oboe editor. These are gems in terms of the content and wonderful resources that they contain; however, they were extremely difficult to obtain. Unless you were one of the pioneer members of the IDRS in the 70s, you may not have had a chance to read them or know about them. They contain really wonderful information. I thought that we had a great opportunity to collect these publications and put them on the Internet so that they could be accessed by anyone. YI: Yes, of course the two most important parts of the web server out of three are the hardware and software. The third part is the backbone or connection that the University of Colorado at Boulder provides. The grant from the National Endowment for the Arts allowed me to update the IDRS server with one of the most powerful personal computers available. I have used Apple computers, and the IDRS server now takes advantage of the very fast G5 technology made by the Apple computer company. I have also installed extremely sophisticated software for serving video streams over the Internet. This hardware and software as you can imagine are extremely expensive, and the NEA grant allows us to purchase them.

96 94 INTERVIEW WITH YOSHIYUKI ISHIKAWA, WEBMASTER OF TE: Now our web server and many features of our website are physically present at Boulder, Colorado. I have visited your office and have seen the large cabinet the equipment is situated in. Can you talk a little bit about what we need to do to be good citizens for the University of Colorado for the hosting of this website, and how we can continue on a good relationship with them? YI: Yes, the University of Colorado is very generous and very liberal about its use of the Internet backbone for faculty and students, for the reason that the University firmly believes in freedom of speech and does not restrict us in terms of content or what we deliver, except that the content cannot be commercial in nature. Even though the IDRS is a non-profit organization, the University of Colorado restricts us from monetary gain when using the web site. Of course this does not mean that we can t use the website to allow our members to re-join the Society, but we are prohibited to allow double reed merchants to sell products through the website. So, we must honor this request by our very generous host, the University of Colorado, and I do take my time and care in administering this requirement. TE: We are keenly aware, Dr. Ishikawa, that you have a full-time job as a professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder. In addition, you do carve out time during your day or night to service the website. I would like you to describe the kinds of things you do behind the scenes that we may not be aware of, and what your typical week might look like. YI: The web does require daily maintenance, and there are two portions of the IDRS website that require work, the list and the server itself. The IDRS list requires daily maintenance. I usually do that early in the morning when I come into my office. If I don t, the pile of work that accumulates is overwhelming. I get quite a few messages each day as you can imagine. As far as the web server is concerned, that requires a long stretch of time for me to administer. If I start on a portion of the website, whether maintenance or the addition of a feature, I must finish it or the website will be unavailable or rendered useless until I finish. For that reason, I usually work late at night starting at about 10 o clock and finishing later whenever the job is completed. I don t mind it, I enjoy it. TE: On behalf of the International Double Reed Society, I want to thank you so much for your vision, for conceiving this project and for your tenacity, for following through in the last decade or so since we have had this website. I view this website as one of our three crown jewels of the Society. The other two are our annual conferences that are such wonderful events, and our publications, which we have already talked about. On behalf of the International Double Reed Society, I want to thank you for all you have done. YI: It is my pleasure, Terry. Thank you.

97 THE DOUBLE REED 95 An Interview with Alex Klein Michele Fiala Bowling Green, Kentucky (This article fi rst appeared in I Fiati and is reprinted with permission.) It s difficult to sum up the career of oboist Alex Klein in just a few sentences. He has won First Prize in the Concours Internationale d Execution Musicale in Geneva, Switzerland, and in both the Fernand Gillet and New York International Oboe Competitions. On July 3rd he played the last concert of his distinguished, nine-year tenure with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. In 2002 he won a Grammy for the Best Instrumental Soloist with Orchestra for the Strauss Concerto with Barenboim and the Chicago Symphony. He also taught at Northwestern University, Roosevelt University, and was the oboe tutor for the Civic Orchestra of Chicago. He spoke to me from Brazil. MF: In your development as a musician who influenced you? AK: Growing up in Curitiba, Brazil, I was away from the major music centers. My contact with great music was through recordings. Unbeknownst to them, my masters were Harnoncourt, Karajan, Oistrakh, Heifetz, Sviatoslav Richter, and many more violinists and pianists. Through them I learned the aesthetics of music. MF: What was your early background, before Oberlin? AK: When I was nine I started on recorder because I could not find an oboe. The local oboe teacher, João Ramalho, insisted that I purchase a new oboe - a very good one - because the oboe is hard enough to play as it is. He was self-taught, so he would know. He was paramount in my understanding of music expression. Being self-taught, he was not so tied up with the technique of the instrument. He right away started teaching me about music, about the sounds we make on the reed alone, how beautiful and varied they can be. Before I bought my first instrument, I spent about four months having sound and articulation lessons using only a reed, bringing it home to practice. Once a week, during my oboe lesson, I would play on my teacher s oboe and learn some fingerings. We learned lots of exercises with the reed to create something that was exciting and musically expressive. I loved my first teacher because he was able to show that you can create a lot of expressive and beautiful music with very little. This knowledge, and at a very young age, was to be one of the most important artistic principles in my career. From there I went to the university, to study conducting and composition. This was my major for the two-anda-half years prior to my transfer to Oberlin as an oboist. I decided to go as an oboist not only because it was my instrument of choice, but because of the more convenient and quicker path to school admissions. MF: Of the different facets of your career - orchestral performing, solo performing, teaching, conducting - which do you enjoy most? What kind of balance do you like to keep between the elements? AK: I like to do a large number of things. It is very important to me to have variety. I can get bored with playing or with teaching or with conducting. When you stop creating, or if you create too much of the same thing, it becomes boring and frustrating. Teaching can be exciting when you see that spark in a student s eye, when they light up because of something in the lesson. But doing that every day for months on end is not something I can do with my full heart. I avoid engaging in an activity that becomes repetitive and thus robs the music of its natural flowing value. When musical expression stagnates it is no longer art. Therefore, I engage in a variety of musical venues. I played in a wonderful orchestra; I play chamber music; I play solo; I play Baroque music on Baroque oboe, Classical music on Classical oboe. I m doing some jazz concerts this year on oboe with Claude Bolling. I also do oboe d amore, English horn and bass oboe. I conduct. I direct a major music festival in Brazil and I

98 96 AN INTERVIEW WITH ALEX KLEIN participate in the planning of another in Panama, one in China, and a recent similar project in Mozambique. I also participate in a number of music festivals during the northern hemisphere summers. What unites all of these activities is the creative process. I like to sit down with a problem and find an original, creative solution to it through music. Helping a student from Africa come across the ocean to Brazil to be in a festival is one of the problems I treasure solving through music. MF: How do you approach your study of a musical piece? AK: Music to me is similar to a good book. I research what the composer is trying to tell me and what is inspiring me to express myself through [the piece]. I then transpose that to my playing. This is strictly on the musical side. There are, of course, technical issues that need to be dealt with: I need to make my reeds; I need to make sure my oboe plays, etc. Like reading a book, for example: you are not going to read a book and concentrate on the spelling or the grammar. Sometimes we admire the grammar and we admire the vocabulary of the writer, but that is a side issue. We concentrate on what the author is trying to say with that technique, and not on the technique itself. We picture the images that are being described in the book, and enter the realm described by the author. The same should happen in music. We should relegate the technical part to its place. It is not important how many notes people play; it is important what they mean in the artistic context. So I try not to spend a lot of time thinking about the technical issues involved in music making. Technique is a necessity, yes, but the musical part is most important. I need to understand how the music touches me; I need to make it breathe with me, or else I cannot expect the audience to be fulfilled by its power. MF: Do you do any type of analysis or read about the history of a work? AK: Sometimes. Most of the music I play is already well-known and fully researched. When it comes to sonata form in traditional music, for example, I use common analytical skills to make my own observations and find interesting things as I practice. About 10-15% of the works I play are new works. In that case, I usually talk to the composer, especially if they are written for me. But music is usually self-explanatory and leads the interpreter by its own inherent qualities. If it isn t - if the music doesn t have a clear and natural flow and understanding to it - then I am not inclined to perform it. MF: What qualities do you try to obtain in a reed? AK: The first thing I look for is a tone quality that I like, a voice that I recognize as my own. If a reed has good response and good technical qualities but does not have a soul, I am probably not going to use it. It does not take me a lot of time to get a good reed, and I do not mind spending the time making sure it has all the other technical qualities I need, but that soulful sound is central to my reed making. MF: You played your last concert with the CSO on July 3rd. Are you embarking on a new phase of your career? AK: There are both exciting and very sad tones to this. I have been in the CSO for nine years now, and this is the most time I have dedicated to any single professional activity in my life. During this time I toured the best concert halls in the world. I recorded and performed with the best soloists, the best conductors. I received a Grammy award as a soloist and a few others as a member of the orchestra. I played all the major orchestral repertoire. These were nine years full of wonderful memories. About three years ago I started having difficulty with my fingers. Two of the fingers in my left hand did not work together anymore. I went to as many doctors and treatment facilities as I could. The list of treatments I have endured is appalling. In the process, I have learned a lot about the human body. The final diagnosis is focal dystonia. It is a brain ailment where a pathway that deals with oboe playing has been burned out and it cannot be replaced. This is irreversible. Many musicians have stopped playing or curtailed their careers as a result of this injury. Perhaps the most famous examples are the pianists Leon Fleischer and Gary Graffman, who both lost use of their right hand because of focal dystonia. But there are others and we are all trying to find ways to manage this. Through the help of Leon Fleischer and Glen Estrin, head of the Musicians with Dystonia Foundation, I have been improving quite a bit. But it is still not enough to maintain a solo chair in the Chicago Symphony.

99 THE DOUBLE REED 97 Our ability to play an instrument is stored in our memory banks. When we play we bring it from the memory to the motor cortex. On its way, that pathway gathers information from many different places in the brain. If you are going to play an A, your auditory perception prepares you to hear an A, so that if you accidentally play a G, by reflex your finger immediately jumps and makes a correction. Thus, many different areas in your brain are set up for you to play one single note. All of that information gets sent to the motor cortex and down your neck to the parts of your body that are needed for you to play. Somewhere between memory and motor cortex, a few neurons have died, and the information collected throughout the brain is not arriving at the tips of my fingers in its entirety. I still know how to play the oboe, but by the time the information gets to my fingers, it is faulty, and sometimes the fingers will lift off the keys when they are not supposed to, or stay down when they are supposed to be lifted. On occasion, I felt I was dealing with fingers that had never played the oboe before. Naturally, my response was to practice harder and to force the fingers to go, but that adds more tension to the muscles, with obvious secondary consequences. That has allowed me to continue to play in the symphony for these three years as I tried desperately to find a better solution, but the consequences of this extra muscle tension brought me dangerously close to other muscle and localized problems such as tendonitis, a painful and separate condition which a few times forced me to stop playing altogether for a few weeks. My fingers have moved and curled to the side a little bit after I acquired focal dystonia. To facilitate my playing, I added bridges to the oboe mechanism, bridges that connect the oboe to my fingers. With this modified oboe adjusted to the height and location of the tips of my fingers, I can play any repertory I want, including works by Pasculli and Berio. With minimum regular practice I can perform concertos without any difficulty. However, I am still using muscle tension to play, even if that is minimized as much as possible. For that reason I feel it is better that I limit my oboe performance to chamber music, concertos and recordings from now on, and no longer engage in activities that require many hours of rehearsals at a time. If I play more than an hour at a time, I start feeling a lot of tension in the arm. The problem with adding tension is that at some point in the next few weeks the muscles will become too hardened to offer me the flexibility and relaxation I need in order to play the oboe. I believe I acquired focal dystonia five or six years ago and have been gradually adding tension to the point where I could not play anymore. For a year or two I had this ball of muscle in my triceps that could not unravel no matter how we massaged it. That was a result of forcing my muscles to do this intense and unnatural work. The answer was to clean up all of these muscles and relax them. That allowed whatever information was going through the nerve to arrive at the muscles more cleanly, thus making the whole system work more efficiently, even if it was already damaged. Although I am sad to depart the Chicago Symphony, I am very fortunate that my case of focal dystonia is a small one. I have not lost my entire ability to play, nor have I lost the control of an entire hand. My problem is limited to two fingers and can be overcome or completely eliminated if I am careful with what and how much I play. I left the CSO because I think it is better that I use whatever oboe playing is left in me to do things that I can do. This opened up a lot of other opportunities that I now am developing full-time, including conducting, directing educational music festivals around the world and other humanitarian activities that are close to my heart. MF: Would you describe the humanitarian activities? AK: The music festivals I refer to are all teaching oriented, even if they involve a number of concerts played by their participants. Here in Brazil we do 100 concerts during the ten-day festival, most of them in lower-income neighborhoods and performed by young people who need performing experience. I noticed when I visited China how there is a hunger for oboistic knowledge there. Their concepts of oboe playing are about forty years off from the rest of us. We are going to do something different: the festival in China is going to be for oboe and philosophy because I also want to reach that part of learning. We re doing something similar in Panama. I would love to get involved in musical activities in central Africa as well and have begun contacts to that effect. I am proposing to be music director of an orchestra or two in Brazil and the project is entirely based on social action, presenting excellent performances based on social outreach. The point is that music can be a tool for reaching out to people of various nationalities and inspiring them with a sense of belonging, of being part of a common society. MF: Will you be doing any other teaching? AK: I am going to be teaching regularly in Portugal at the Centro Politécnico Castelo Branco, in the city of Castelo Branco in central Portugal, not far from Lisbon. MF: What has been the most exciting project you have ever participated in? AK: Most of them were in partnership with the CSO, such as the Brahms Requiem with Barenboim, the St. Matthew Passion with Peter Schreier, the Der Meistersinger recording with Solti. There were some

100 98 AN INTERVIEW WITH ALEX KLEIN really wonderful concerts there that I am never going to forget. Outside of the CSO, the festival in Brazil has been thrilling. It is culturally unique and an educational success. We have 1000 students from twenty different countries, six orchestras, all of that in ten days. We have eighty faculty members and another eighty staff members taking care of the numerous venues we occupy in the city of Curitiba. I have been trying to emphasize the social interaction between students and faculty. This is particularly important for this student body that, like me, learned good music from recordings and tends to deify their favorite recording artists. They get a chance not only to take lessons from these excellent professionals, but to go out to lunch with them and hear that they are actual people: they exist, they are not unreachable godly figures. In this festival, this social interaction, the ability of the students to get to know the person inside their teacher and not just the player, is of primary importance for their ultimate musical maturity and development. There is one particular restaurant in the historic district where every night approximately 500 students and teachers gather informally. I take great pride and pleasure at seeing this kind of learning happening in Curitiba. I now hope to take the basic principles of this festival in Brazil (reaching out to the needs of the student body) to several other locations in the developing world. Michele Fiala is the assistant professor of double reeds at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, Kentucky and the principal oboe of the Owensboro Symphony Orchestra in Owensboro, Kentucky. She previously held positions at Georgetown College, Asbury College, and Eastern Kentucky University. She earned both the Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees at Arizona State University and a Bachelor of Music from the University of Kentucky. She has performed at the 2002 and 2003 IDRS conferences and with numerous ensembles including the Louisville Orchestra, Phoenix Symphony, Knoxville Symphony and Dayton Philharmonic.

101 THE DOUBLE REED 99 A New Shape for the Bassoon s Bocal Developed by Using Fluid Dynamics. Roger Grundmann Technical University of Dresden Translated from the original German by Laszlo Szeucs, Durango, Colorado (The following article appeared in Issue #4 (Dezember 2003) of Rohrblatt: Magazin für Oboe, Klarinette, Fagott und Saxophon, [pp ] and appears here with permission. Ed.) 1. INTRODUCTION According to Joppig [1], the first use of the word fagot (bassoon) in the literature can be traced back to medieval French publications in the 13 th century. One can assume therefore that the instrument itself dates back to this period. If in those days the bassoon was a base- or baritone instrument, as it is today, then (due to its length) it probably had the same shape as today. The beautifully curved bocal between the pipe (mouthpiece) and the wing (the main component of the instrument which is made of wood) made it possible for the musician to grasp the tone holes. According to bassoonists, the bocal the beautifully curved, thin, conical tube that connects the double reed mouthpiece with the wing) possesses many different attributes. These attributes can be judged only in a subjective manner, because each bocal behaves differently when mounted on different bassoons. Since these attributes depend on many parameters it would be difficult to judge them in an objective manner. Some of these parameters are: the geometry of the hand crafted bocal its size, shape and thickness of its wall; variations in the oscillation of the bocal, caused by the strength of its wall and by the air flow; and phenomena of fluid dynamics, such as asymmetrical transversal flow and flow relief. 2. NUMERICAL COMPUTATION OF THE FLOW IN THE BASSOON S BOCAL. In the technical literature the bocal is known as Newly shaped bocal in action. the diffuser. Its function is to reduce the speed of the air that passes through it. This is accomplished by increasing the crosssectional area of the bocal in the direction of air flow. This process creates a problem: the low air pressure on the pipe must be changed into high air pressure on the wing. This creates a strenuous activity for the bassoonist. If the diffuser were a straight conical tube, then the resistance to the necessary increase of air pressure would be minimal. Any curvature in the diffuser produces (due to the centrifugal forces at hand) an acceleration of the flow. This acceleration is equivalent to an increased coefficient of friction between the air and the interior surface of the tube. The bassoonist will experience increased resistance; it will become more difficult to play the instrument. Therefore, careful design of the bocal s curvature can result in reduced resistance. We need a method that would make the air flow in the bocal s interior visible, in a colorful representation of the velocity vectors, the rotation of the flow, or its direction, similarly to the way in which X-rays are used to reveal hidden features (see Grundmann & Albrecht [2]). This goal is achieved by the use of fluid dynamics, which uses computations to make the air flow visible. 3. ANALYSIS OF AIR FLOW AND SOUND PROPAGATION IN THE INSTRUMENT S BODY. This section contains only math and fluid dynamics (See next page).

102 100 A NEW SHAPE FOR THE BASSOON S BOCAL - DEVELOPED BY USING FLUID DYNAMICS. Section 3 from the rohrblatt. 4. NUMERICAL COMPARISON OF THE TRADITIONAL AND NEW BOCAL SHAPES. This section contains a lot of technical material. Here is the gist of it: Figure 1 (see next page) shows the coefficients of friction (a) for a traditionally built bocal (b) for a bocal built according to the new design and (c) for the diffuser, which is a hypothetical, idealized bocal which is straight and has the shape of an inverted funnel. The graphs show the coefficients of friction (y axis) as a function of position on the bocal (x axis). A small coefficient of friction is desirable, because it results in small resistance to the musician s efforts. The total coefficient of friction of the traditionally built bocal is times that of the diffuser. The total coefficient of friction of the bocal having the new design is only 1.22 times that of the diffuser. Three variations of the actual shapes for the new designs are shown in Figure 2 (next page); they are compared in Figure 3 (next page).

103 THE DOUBLE REED SUGGESTED CHOICES OF NEW BOCALS WITH MINIMAL RESISTANCE. In order to carry out the above computations, a geometry module was written, which provided the basis for the commercial grid generator program Gambit [5]. The flow was then computed using the commercial flow computation program Fluent [6]. In order to satisfy the initial- and boundary conditions required by the computations, the air speed upon entry into the bocal was set at 4 m/s, and the Reynolds number Re (a constant of proportionality) at Re = The shapes of the newly constructed bocals are shown in Figure 2. The number 27 refers to the radius of curvature (of the significant bend) in mm. In contrast to the bocal 27, the bocal S27 has a point of inflection near the entry point. In contrast to S27, S27R has an ergonomic angle, which is compensated by another (barely visible) angle in the opposite direction. This latter angle has a disadvantageous effect on the coefficient of friction. Figure 3 represents graphically the coefficients of friction for the three shapes shown in Figure 2 (in addition to the straight diffuser). The three graphs differ from one another only marginally. At the start of the bocal the S27R has higher friction than the other two shapes. The total coefficient of friction (the sum over all positions) for the S27 is 4.3%. The difference between the 27 and the S27 is 1.8%. The small hump in the curve at the position s/l = 0.85 is caused by a change in the bocal s curvature. Figures 1 and 3 clearly show that the curvatures must be designed with care. 6. CONCLUSION. The numerical studies presented

104 102 A NEW SHAPE FOR THE BASSOON S BOCAL - DEVELOPED BY USING FLUID DYNAMICS. in this article were motivated by the subjective judgment of the quality of the bocal, which is of course a very important component of the bassoon. The large number of parameters that determine the construction of a handcrafted wind instrument makes it difficult to analyze a single component in an objective fashion. Through experiments and numerical methods, individual parameters can nevertheless be isolated and analyzed objectively. Every bocal will of course behave differently on different bassoons, because each bassoon also has its own personality and possesses its own set of air flow characteristics. There is still a possibility, however, to derive general conclusions about air flow. Advances in the construction of wind instruments which take fluid dynamics (rather than only acoustical factors) into account appear to be significant, as shown in this article. In particular, the combination of acoustics with fluid dynamics in the construction of wind instruments is a new field of research. Various firms are currently engaged in the construction and testing of bocals having the new shapes described in this article, using different materials. The author: Roger Grundmann was born in Berlin in He received his doctorate in aeronautical engineering at the Technical University of Berlin in From 1972 to 1993 he worked at the German Aeronautics and Space Flight Center in Köln and Göttingen. From 1986 until 1991 he was professor at the von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics in Brussels. Since 1993 he has been professor and director of the Institute for Aeronautics and Space Flight at the Technical University of Dresden. He has been active in music as a bass player and sousaphonist in jazz bands since the age of sixteen. He has been playing the bassoon for three years.

105 THE DOUBLE REED 103 Henri Brod: Oboist, Maker, Inventor, Composer (13th June th April 1839) Part I of II Andre Lardot Servion, Switzerland Translation by Geoffrey Burgess Northhampton, Massachussetts Henri Brod s biography represents a case history riddled with more discrepancies than those of most musicians. As one tries to follow the course of his tragically short life, one constantly encounters contradictions concerning the man, the instrument maker, and the composer. Even the date and circumstances of his death and familial relations have, until now, been open to diverse interpretations. With the help of supporting evidence, this article attempts to bring some order to the biography of one of the most important oboists in the history of the instrument. There are, for example, no personal accounts from friends or acquaintances of Brod that could give us information on his personality. Several autograph letters, the three engraved portraits at the Bibliothèque Nationale and the Bibliothèque de l Opéra, and the statuette by Dantan (Musée Carnavalet, Paris) of which I will speak later, are the only concrete images of him that exist. My sources comprise copies of official documents, newspaper articles, extracts from nineteenth-century music books and archival documents. THE MUSICIAN AND HIS FAMILY Brod s mother, born Anne-Marie Scheil (or Scheill), was a native of Trier. 1 She died in Paris before His father, Jean Henri, an instrument maker, was born in 1766 in Bouxwiller (in the French department of Bas-Rhin), and died in Paris at 30 rue de la Rochefoucault on 15th July, He is Ill. 1 Henri Brod engraving by Léon Viardot after portrait by Emile-Jean-Horace Vernet (Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Département de Musique, Mus. Est. Brod 005) Ill. 2 Henri Brod, lithograph by Fonrouge, after portrait by Pirot, published by Blaisot, c. 1835, Galerie Universelle, n 261 (Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Département de Musique Mus. Est. Brod 002). referred to in official documents most frequently as Henri. The couple had three children: Sophie born in 1795, Henri in 1799 and Jean Godefroy in Malou Haine, in Les facteurs d instruments de musique à Paris au XIX e siècle, 2 cites a piano with the signature Heinrich Brod, Parisi Fecit 1794 rue de Bussy, Jean Henri (i.e. Heinrich), father of Henri the oboist was in fact living at 389 rue de Bussy in 1796, the year of his daughter Sophie s baptism. In 1819 he was listed as a piano and organ tuner, residing at 30 rue Bellefond and in 1820 under the same rubric at 10 blvd Bonne-nouvelle. 3 He may also have made harps like the piano makers Érard and Pleyel. A letter written in 1830 to Joseph Léon Gatayès ( ), harpist, composer and music critic proves that he sold them at any rate: My dear Gatayès, I am quite angry to have missed the opportunity to do something for you, but my harp was sold the day before yesterday and I now only have one for Fr, which I invite you to come to see when you wish. 4 In April 1837 the music journal Le Ménestrel reported that a magnificent organ had just been inaugurated in the village of St-Julien (l Aisne), and that the instrument had been built under the direction of M. Brod. Here again it could be a reference to the father of the oboist, whom Karl Ventzke cites as an assistant organ maker, 5 or to the oboist himself, since in Arien

106 104 HENRI BROD, OBOIST, MAKER, INVENTOR, COMPOSER (13TH JUNE TH APRIL 1839) de la Fage s Quinze visites musicales à l Exposition Universelle de 1855 one is surprised to read that He [Brod] constructed a little organ on new principles. 6 Sophie, Brod s sister, born 12th January 1795, died in December His brother Jean Godefroy, born 4th August 1801, gained first prize at the Paris Conservatoire in The Conservatoire registers call him Brod jeune. In 1820, the two brothers the elder working at the Opéra, the younger at the Théâtre St-Martin lived at their father s address 10 blvd Bonne-nouvelle. From 1828 Henri and Jean Godefroy collaborated as instrument builders. This association lasted several years and oboes from this period carry the stamp Brod Frères. Jean Godefoy Brod was a member of the orchestra of the Italian theatre in St Petersburg. An article in the Leipzig Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung says that he was a good soloist, but less good in the orchestra, the sound is not sufficiently round and his staccato is not extraordinary. 7 There are traces of a tour in Finland made by Carl Friedrich Weitzmann with the oboist H. Brod. 8 The first initial in this case is certainly wrong. Weitzmann was solo violinist with the St Petersburg Orchestra from ; it would thus have been logical that he knew Jean Godefroy Brod, his oboe soloist, and the proximity of Finland to St Petersburg (from 1809 all Finnish territories were ceded to Russia) makes it almost certain that the references was to Jean Godefroy and not Henri. Among the foreign agents of Gambaro publications, there was one in Alexandria called Brod (no forename given). 9 Here again it would appear to refer to Henri s brother, if one thinks of the intensity of Henri s activities and the fact that he made but few journeys abroad. Several works give 4th August 1801 as the date of Henri s birth. This is clearly that of his brother. Henri Brod was born in Paris on 13th June 1799, during the Directorate. It is necessary to stress the date of his birth, as at least five different dates are given in various encyclopedias German for the most part dating from 1842 to 1961, as well as in several of the most important French dictionaries. Even in 1999, the same incorrect information can be found, both in notes accompanying CDs of his music, and books on nineteenth-century music. The official source of Brod s birth as 13th June 1799, is found at the Paris Archives and in Constant Pierre s Le Conservatoire National de Musique. 10 In 1811 under the First Empire Brod entered the solfège class (some sources state voice class) and the oboe class of Gustave Vogt who was at the time assisting Sallantin at the Conservatoire Impérial de Musique et de Déclamation. Very gifted, he gained a first commendation (premier accessit) for oboe in The return of the Bourbons in 1814 brought dark days to the Conservatoire. Louis XVIII s new régime would make the school pay for its revolutionary origins. The director Bernard Sarrette, who had been dismissed in November 1814, was reinstated by the Emperor in 1815 and fired once again after the Cent Jours in the Spring of From March 1816, the abolished Conservatoire was replaced with the Ecole Royale de Chant et de Déclamation. The direction was conferred on François Perne, who remained until 1822, when he was replaced by Cherubini. This short historical excursus explains why Brod, although a talented student, had to wait out two years of political unrest before returning to his studies with Vogt, who had by then been named full professor. In 1818, he won a brilliant first prize and the competition at which he gained this honor was, according to Fétis, a true triumph for Brod. 11 The morceaux de concours from 1824 to 1854 were by Vogt and those from (with only three exceptions) by the acting oboe professor. Nothing is known of the set piece for It could have been by Sallantin or already by Vogt. Well after gaining their first prizes, former Conservatoire pupils still participated from time to time in the Exercices des Elèves. On 20th April 1823, four years after his first prize in 1819, the clarinettist Buteux played an air varié for clarinet by Brod, and on 9th May 1824, Brod of the Académie Royale de Musique (i.e. the Opéra) played his own 5th Fantaisie concertante for oboe, bassoon and orchestra with Reickmans (first prize 1819). 12 Henri Brod married Georgette Soler (or Soller) on 14th August Soler had gained a first prize in piano at the Conservatoire Impérial de Musique de Paris. The newlyweds lived at 16 rue Vivienne. From this union was born on 6th June 1828 at 2pm ( deux heures de relevée ) a boy called Henry [sic y]. This child died at 23 years of age on 27th May His wife Georgette having died shortly after the birth of their son on 6th December 1836, Brod married Cathérine Barbe Spégélé and as further proof that for him nothing came easily, the mother of his second wife had been born Catherine Barbe Brod! Brod was awarded the Légion d honneur in The chancellery s documents from that period no longer exist, but a press announcement provides relevant details. The decoration of the Légion d honneur in favor of several renowned artists has just been announced. Our celebrated oboist, M. Brod, was included in these nominations, and this sign of honor which in this case is fully justifi ed, recognizes not only the artist s distinguished talent, but also the remarkable improvements that he has introduced in the manufacture of instruments. Le Ménestrel, 17th Sept 1837

107 THE DOUBLE REED 105 Henri Brod had the honor of being represented in the Charges et Portraits de Musiciens by Jean-Pierre Dantan ( ). Dantan sculpted satirical statuettes of musical celebrities of his time: Cherubini, Liszt, Chopin, Beethoven, Bellini, Donizetti and others including singers of romances, female singers and numerous musicians employed at the Opéra (much of the collection is now housed at the Musée Carnavalet in Paris). Dantan s statuettes did not go unnoticed by the press, which commented humorously on the new figurines. That of M. Brod in particular, apart from the satirical exaggeration of his features, bears a striking resemblance. Le Ménestrel, 3rd June 1838 Brod is one of the most distinguished musicians at the Opéra, so rich in talented artists. Brod knows how to draw from his oboe sounds capable of taming tigers and tigresses if tigresses should ever appear at the Opéra! To listen to Brod is to be convinced that it was with his instrument that Orpheus performed the miracles which are spoken of in society. In order to give a more pastoral demeanor to the musician of the rue Lepelletier [the address of the Opéra from ] Dantan has him blowing into a rustic bagpipe, and it is this instrument, and not the musician that is decorated with the cross of [the Légion d ]honneur. Louis Huart, Galerie des charges et croquis des célébrités de l époque (Paris: H. Deloye, 1839) On the base of the statuette Dantan sculpted a jug [in French broc] followed by the letter d, a cipher spelling out the name Brod. Three signatures appear on the engraved portrait of Brod housed at the Bibliothèque Nationale (ill.1): H. Vernet, L. Viardot and H. Brod. The artist, Emile-Jean-Horace Vernet (called Horace, born and died in Paris ) was a celebrated military painter. Several of his paintings are exhibited in the Louvre. Baudelaire said of him: M. Vernet is a military who paints. Léon Viardot, engraver, was born in Dijon in 1805 and died in Paris around Vernet s portrait can also be found in the collection of the Bibliothèque Nationale and, like many other cases, the engraving and painting are mirror images of each other (ill. 4). 14 Another lithograph from around the same time by P. C. van Geel (printed in Paris by Kaeppelin) is said to be taken from life (Bibliothèque Nationale, Département de Musique Mus. Est. Brod 004). At the end of 1838, Brod suffered from a grave and incurable illness that affected him for Ill. 3 a) Henri Brod, statuette by Dantan (Musée Carnavalet, Paris); b) engraved silhouette by Louis Huart/Maurisset after Dantan (Musée Carnavalet, Paris) Ill. 4 Vernet, portrait of Brod (Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Mus. Est. Brod 003) Ill. 5 van Geel, portrait of Brod (Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Mus. Est. Brod 004)

108 106 HENRI BROD, OBOIST, MAKER, INVENTOR, COMPOSER (13TH JUNE TH APRIL 1839) several months. On the 31st January 1839 he wrote to the Baronne de Mongenot: Madame, I am ashamed not to have replied to the two letters with which you honored me: the illness that has affected me for more than a month is the cause of my negligence. This is thus the second time that I miss, to my regret, the opportunity to make music with you, Madame, but although I may be sentenced to at least another two months under doctor s orders, I do not lose the hope of recovery. Yours,... The illness nevertheless did not affect an extreme enthusiasm to learn; it will suffice to say that at the moment when in the prime of his strength and talent death was at the doorstep, he applied himself to the study of the Chinese language and had already made rapid progress. 15 Those who knew him will regret the loss not only of the great artist who triumphed without rival, but also the man of intelligence who brought the most beautiful qualities of the spirit and the heart to life s intimate encounters. La France musicale, 11th April, 1839 The date of his death or rather dates because there are at least four cited in specialist dictionaries and encyclopedias gives rise to considerable speculation and a legend that survives even to the present. Several years ago, the famous Dutch oboist and collector Han de Vries acquired a Brod oboe. The case of this magnificent instrument bears the inscription: This is the oboe that Brod played at the moment of his death. Taken from... [Algeria] by F[...] who died there in 1846, it was returned to me in [Signed] Widow Brod. A literal translation of the moment of his death and the confusion of the instrument and the man, led Philip Young, author of reference works such as 4900 Historical Wind Instruments, 16 to write in the catalogue of the IDRS exhibition in Victoria, Canada, August, 1988 that Brod died during a recital in Algeria at the age of 39. Still today, one hears that Brod died during a concert in Algiers. The conquest of Algeria lasted from 1830 to 1847, and in the latter period France mobilized an army of 100,000 under the command of General Bugeaud. It could be that Brod s oboe was taken to Algeria by a soldier ( F...?) who died there in 1846, the instrument then being returned to Mme Brod in This hypothesis, albeit more plausible than Philip Young s, nevertheless remains in the domain of fiction. Henri Brod died in Paris on 6th April 1839 and the principal daily musical newspapers give two slightly different accounts of his funeral. We are saddened to announce that M. Brod succumbed to a grave malady on Saturday. This loss will be felt acutely by all admirers of his fi ne talent. [ ] His funeral procession will take place Monday; all of M. Brod s colleagues and friends proposed spontaneously to collaborate on the music for his funeral. But as M. Brod was a protestant, this service will not be able to take place. Gazette Musicale de Paris, 7th April, 1839 Brod s colleagues held their friendship above any religious consideration. Last Monday the funeral of Brod, first oboe at the Académie Royale de Musique, Chevalier of the Légion d honneur took place at the Batignolles Protestant place of worship. A crowd of artists, including practically all of our musical élite, attended to pay last respects to their belated colleague. The entire orchestra of the Société des Concerts performed Beethoven s Funeral March [from the Eroica Symphony] and a hymn of majestic quality with French text by M. Halévy under the direction of M. Habeneck. Le Ménestrel, 14th April 1839; La France musicale 11th April 1839 Brod was buried the same day, 8th April 1839, in the Montmartre Cemetery. A eulogy was pronounced over his grave by one of the commissioners of the Société des Concerts. The grave, in which also rests the remains of his son and sister, is still visible today, not far from those of Gustave Vogt and Georges Gillet. He was one of the greatest artists of his instrument for which he wrote excellent compositions and of which he also greatly improved the design. Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung, 8th May, 1839 Brod, Heinrich: oboist, one of the most remarkable virtuosi of our time. Thus Gustav Schilling ( ) began his article on Brod, one of the first to appear in an encyclopedia after his death. On the one hand this article is well documented (the author speaks, for example, of a treatise on acoustics written by Brod) 17 but on the other it has helped propagate quite a few errors. It concludes the comment: He made few tours as a virtuoso; this is why the wellmerited renown which he so justly enjoyed in his own country was disseminated only very little abroad. Encyclopädie der gesammten musikalischen Wissenschaften (Stuttgart, 1842), supp. p.66. We have all at one time or another heard of or read numerous authors who repeat the story of Cherubini s

109 THE DOUBLE REED 107 judgment on Brod. Berlioz recounts the scene under the title Sensitivity and Laconism: a funeral oration in three syllables Cherubini was promenading in the foyer of the Conservatoire concert hall during intermission. The musicians around him seemed sad: they had just learnt of the death of their comrade Brod, the remarkable virtuoso, first oboe at the Opéra. One of them approached the old master: And so, M. Cherubini, so we have lost our poor Brod! Eh? What? (The musician raised his voice.) Brod, our comrade. Eh! So? He is dead. Ugh! Meager tone! Les grotesques de la musique (Paris: Lévy, 1880), p.256. Yet another myth must be silenced: Brod was never professor at the Paris Conservatoire. Many music historians, particularly German and American, have confused the Société des Concerts du Conservatoire with the Conservatoire itself. It thus follows that since 1842 to our own time, the title professor has been attached to Brod s name and often one can even read the date of his appointment as The register of the Conservatoire s teaching and administrative staff for the period makes no mention of this; nor does the list of oboe teachers from 1793 to 1890 include his name. 18 Henri Brod entered employment at the Opéra as hautbois titulaire on 1st July 1819, with an annual salary of 1200Fr. In 1834 after Vogt s retirement, he was named oboe soloist. Alongside Vogt, Brod played in the Chapelle Royale of Louis XVIII (1819) and subsequently that of Charles X ( ). For this he earned 1,000Fr a year; Vogt 1,800Fr. About 1836 Brod s name is finally found amongst the musicians of King Louis-Philippe s Chambre. 19 During this period the inscriptions Composer to the Royal Household (op.6); Composer for Windband [harmonie] to the King (op.8); Composer of Military Music to the King (op.9); Composer of Music for the King s Bodyguard [gardes du corps du Roi] (op.10) appear on the title pages of different editions of Brod s music; after that only of the Académie Royale de Musique is given. In 1828 Brod and Vogt were amongst the founding members of the Société des Concerts du Conservatoire, and Brod formed part of the founders of the Cercle Musical (1834-5) which in 1835 became the Société Musicale I. The Cercle Musical was founded in December, 1834 by thirteen musicians amongst whom were the pianists Bertini and Herz, the violinists Alard and Cuvillon, the cellist Franchomme, harpist Labarre, horn player Gallay and oboist Brod (in charge of subscriptions). Chopin and Liszt were also part of this first group. On 21st December 1834 the Gazette musicale de Paris printed: despite comprising for the most part the most famous musicians, the Cercle Musical does not seem to have had the least success. In fact harmony did not reign in the group, and already by 27th January 1835 Liszt, Chopin and Franchomme had resigned. According to Le Ménestrel, the enterprise found itself ensnared by the malice of its members. It could be that one of the association s rulings was the basis of the dissension: The members made amongst themselves the formal contract to not perform at any other public meeting. This notwithstanding, the first concert took place on 4th January 1835, with the third item on the program being a Fantasie [sic.] for oboe on Swiss Tunes, performed for the first time by M. Brod. After three concerts given at the Salle Chantereine, 21bis rue de la Victoire, the Cercle Musical took the name Société Musicale. On 1st February 1835 the new society s third concert included the Sextet by Bertini. The performance was good and presented no notable incident apart from the astonishment M. Brod caused by undertaking the performance of the doublebass part in the absence of the musician who was supposed to have played it. No one was aware of the oboist s latest talent. Revue musicale, 1st February, 1838 The society was dissolved after the eighth and final concert on 2nd April 1835 at which the founders, including Brod, participated as soloists. The Société musicale II, founded in 1838, had practically the same membership as that of Its concerts took place at the Salle Érard, 13 rue du Mail. Here are the ironic comments on the birth of this new society from Le Ménestrel: All of Paris knows that at the Salle Érard a formidable organization has just been established to assault and revolutionize concert music. [ ] As this volcano that has fi nally been ignited in the rue du Mail, under the direction of Bertini, Doehler, Urhan, Brod, Dancla and Chevillard must in one single day annihilate the romance, chansonnette, fantasy and air varié, those four foundational pillars of our benefi t concert programmes neither more nor less let us await the eruption! Le Ménestrel, 9th Dec, 1838 The concert program of this new society featured a trio by Beethoven for two oboes and cor anglais performed by MM. Brod, Soler and Lavigne. This organization disappeared in February 1839, just before Brod s death. After Brod s decease, his widow suffered grave financial difficulties. On repeated occasions, she wrote to the administration of the Opéra and the Ministry of the Interior, requesting assistance to fund the education

110 108 HENRI BROD, OBOIST, MAKER, INVENTOR, COMPOSER (13TH JUNE TH APRIL 1839) of Brod s son, who was at least twelve years old. Brod had worked at the Opéra for only nineteen years and nine months: alas, twenty years service were required before his pension could be transferred to his widow. As it was, she couldn t even recouperate the monthly installments taken from her husband s pay since he had entered the employ of the Opéra. Mme Brod s letter of 20th August 1839 was a true cry for help. Left without means with a young son, whose future is destroyed by such a cruel loss, I commend myself to your benevolence, M. Ministre, by which the administration often honored my husband and beseech Your Excellence to grant me in my predicament all due consideration. She finally received an annual pension of 1,186Fr and a one-time payout for her son of 593Fr. On 19th October, 1866, Mme Brod tried to sell one of her husband s oboes and wrote to the director of the Musée Clapisson: 20 M. the Director, I take the respectful liberty of addressing you a request, in the hope that you will be able to do it justice. Several musicians, among others M. Triébert, professor at the Conservatoire, have communicated to me the desire to see an oboe by Brod amongst the instruments in the Musée Clapisson. I am profoundly touched and gratifi ed by these signs of esteem and wish with all my heart to respond to them in order to perpetuate the glorious memory of my late husband, but I bitterly regret that I am unable to make a purely free gift. The reason for this lies in the precarious state in which the cruel loss of my late husband, whose fortune amounted to nothing more than his talent 21 and whose premature death left no occasion to guarantee his family s security. [ ] I beseech you, then, M. Directeur, please take into consideration all my misfortunes and intercede on my behalf with His Excellency M. le Ministre to obtain from his lofty benevolence a small payment for the sacrifi ce that I make by giving up an object that is dear to me on several counts, and for which I have often refused highly profi table offers. [ ] P.S. The instrument is in bois des îles [probably rosewood], decorated with silver keys and worth an intrinsic value of Fr. M. Brod improved [perfectionné] it, for which he received a medal at the 1839 Exhibition. Mme Brod apparently never received any compensation. 22 manufacture, it is virtually impossible to establish a coherent chronology or to draw logical conclusions from the sources. All articles on Brod the instrument maker from the last forty years begin with it seems, it is possible, it could have been, it is thought. Fétis is the most authoritative in his writing on Brod, and as often as possible I have had recourse to his account. If Brod had been, as Constant Pierre informs us, one of the small specialists compared to those who employed larger personnels and whose manufacture encompassed all types of wood and brass instruments, then his primary concern was to address improvements to the oboe, English horn and baritone oboe, as much regarding sonority and keywork as the very shape of the instruments and reeds. Brod was dissatisfied with the four-keyed oboe that he had at his disposal and very early made investigations particularly regarding acoustics with an end to correcting the oboe s intonation, sound quality and ease of tone production. It is probable that in this he was associated with the maker Guillaume Triébert, for in part I of a Méthode published c he stated that Triébert s oboes were then the best available. Bate, The Oboe, p This eight-keyed oboe depicted in the original edition of part one of the Méthode is much simpler than the one shown in the second part (1830). In the preface to the second edition, Brod then indicated that Figure 1 in Plate V shows the oboe that I make myself for my own and my pupils use drawn to half scale. Meaning thus a Brod oboe. On the same plate the cor anglais moderne and the hautbois baryton are modeled after Brod s designs; the curved English horn is, on the contrary, an instrument by Triébert. Michael Finkelman 24 has shed new light on Brod s debut as an instrument maker. Brod, he writes, began his research very early, as in 1823 or perhaps even earlier, he was employed as advisor to Triébert. It is possible that he had already conceived the baritone oboe, which left the workshop in 1825 and was presented at the Exhibition in At the 1827 Exhibition Triébert presented his instruments for the first time: flutes with C foot, oboes, English horns and baritone oboes (also called tenor oboes) which, with its beautiful sounds and the new resources it will bring to orchestras and military bands, drew the jurors attention (bronze medal). C. Pierre, Les facteurs d instruments de musique, p THE INSTRUMENT BUILDER Numerous contradictions are found in the various biographical entries on Brod. Regarding his instrument In 1828 Fétis furnished supplementary proof of the association between Triébert and Brod.

111 THE DOUBLE REED 109 At the Exhibition a new instrument of the oboe family appeared which was made according to the advice and under the direction of M. Brod, one of our most distinguished artists. This instrument (Triébert) is a tenor oboe. Revue musicale de Paris, 2 (1828): 223 Did Brod begin making his own instruments in 1828? Already in that year he had sent an instrument to the exhibition in Bordeaux. This instrument arrived too late to compete, but nevertheless attracted the attention of the jury who considered it worthy of praise. It could be that this instrument was of his own manufacture, doubtless undertaken at the Triébert workshop. But in 1828 he complained that his oboe was bad and as we will see later, he had the Opéra pay for a new oboe from Triébert. In the first part of his method (1825), Brod indicates that the best oboes are made in Paris by Triébert, 1 rue Guénégaud and he adds Those of Delusse are also highly esteemed but one is always obliged to have keys added to them, as in his time the instrument had only two. Fétis tells us, Delusse s investigations were concerned above all with ideal bore dimensions and after long study, he arrived at the same degree of perfection in this aspect of manufacture as Stradivari s proportions are for the violin. Revue musicale, 11th May, 1834 are not beyond reproach. Perhaps the oboe would have remained in a state of imperfection if M. Brod, whose fine technique has won him fame and who has made the theory of wind-instrument construction the subject of his contemplations, had not undertaken a design of his own. A fortunate incident set his determination on this quest: that incident was the discovery and acquisition of Delusse s designs (modèles) and reamers. Revue musicale, 11th May, 1834 Further on Fétis commented on the results of Brod s work: Struck by the diffi culty of playing the instrument s low notes softly, because the sound is formed in the bell of ordinary oboes, M. Brod conceived of the ingenious idea of lengthening the bore such that the range of the instrument extended to Bf or even to A, so that the low D and C holes were repositioned in the straight part of the bore, he gave them the sweetness of the notes of the middle register without sacrifi cing their projection. This advantage, along with the intonation of the scale resulting from the correct division of the tube and the ease of response produced by the excellent proportions of the Delusse bore, are the qualities that distinguish oboes made under Brod s direction. Revue musicale, 11th May, 1834 Unfortunately no instrument by Brod descending to A has been found. On the other hand, in 1855 Fétis again wrote: Brod worked on two aspects - tone and technique - by lengthening the bore and by adding or moving keys. Having acquired the reamers and tools of Delusse, the former maker whose oboes excelled in tuning, equality and beauty of tone and which are still sought out, I undertook, in collaboration with my brother, the manufacture of this instrument, hoping gradually to be able to improve it, to make its study easier and to spread its rightly deserved reputation to be named the first of all wind instruments. Méthode pour le hautbois, II:107 Fétis continued: The improvement of intonation has for the last thirty years been the goal of many artists and makers experiments; they sought to achieve this by adding keys. Thus on the top joint keys were added for [high] F 26 and Af; on the second joint there are also keys for Fs and Ef and C. M. Triébert of Paris exhibited oboes equipped with these keys this year. Regarding their finish, Triébert s oboes are satisfactory but it must be admitted that, regarding tuning and bore measurements and the effect these have on the equality of the notes and ease of response, they The best instruments of this type are made by the Triébert fi rm in Paris. The oboes shown at the Exhibition by the firm descend to A, from which result the improvement of the notes above Bf, B, C, Cs and D. Rapport sur les instruments de musique mis à l Exposition Universelle de Paris The Triébert archives preserved by the Couesnon establishment disappeared in a fire in 1979 (Michael Finkelman). Adopting the concepts of flute and clarinet makers whose influence was pervasive, Brod, thanks to his meticulous workmanship, created a mechanism that was in no way inferior to that of his contemporaries. From Laurent s flute design he adopted the forged iron keys mounted on metal supports; a metal axle silversoldered in such a way that it gave the impression of being an integral part of the key, was attached with precision to a strong rod made of hard metal, screwed into the supports which were themselves attached to the wood by means of a metal platform. James MacGillivray, Encyclopédie Fasquelle en trois volumes, p

112 110 HENRI BROD, OBOIST, MAKER, INVENTOR, COMPOSER (13TH JUNE TH APRIL 1839) On today s oboe, only the F key remains to explain this somewhat elliptical description. A key that is depressed, soldered onto a perpendicular axle; inside this axle a rigid rod screwed at both ends into pillars fixed into the wood. The metal platform often lozenge or elliptical in shape was quite quickly abandoned by Brod, replaced by the screwed pillars that are still familiar to us. From Ivan Muller s clarinet, he borrowed the new pads, initially made of chamois filled with wool, later of felt covered with onionskin and modified from keys in the shape of little spoons. Brod also introduced the pierced pad designed to facilitate half-opening the top hole for the octaves of Cs, D (our half-hole pad!) and extended the range of the oboe down to Bf. MacGillivray, op. cit. In Fétis 1855 report the invention of the half hole is attributed to Triébert: The half-hole key, added to the original oboe by this maker [Triébert], is a fortunate invention. 28 Heinz Becker, in his article on Brod in MGG (1961, col.1797) thinks, with reason, that the innovation should be attributed to the two collaborators Triébert and Brod, given the proof that they worked together closely. Brod also introduced new keys, repositioned others for greater facility and invented what he called the little see-saw (bascule) for the right-hand little finger which allows the slur Cs-Ds (Df-Ef) in both low and middle octaves. Later Brod introduced the low-bf key, then the key now called the octave key which was originally designated for the extreme high notes from e3. The first low B written by Brod appears in the Étude no. 14 in the Méthode (p.135), then in the finale of op.42 (1837). There is no low Bf in the Méthode; the earliest appears in the Theme from Mercadante for oboe and piano (op.51, ). In the finale of op.42 there is effectively a low Bf, but the note an octave higher is given as an alternative. In 1830 Triébert moved from rue Guénégaud to rue Dauphine. 29 On 5th September 1831, Brod lent a clarinet in F or bassethorn with 14 keys to the Opéra for the sum of 140Fr, also a clarinet in B with 13 keys for the same fee. 30 The clarinet in Bn is no longer in use today. It was used by Mozart in numbers 15 and 19 of Idomeneo, also no. 25 in Cosí fan tutte. It was certainly used for several more decades at the Paris Opéra. These two clarinets remain enshrouded in mystery. Brod, who made oboes, rents two clarinets outside the norm (basset horn and B clarinet). Who made them? Perhaps Triébert, although no clarinets appear in his catalogue until 1845, perhaps another maker. He did make what was for an oboe builder an unlikely instrument: a contrabass clarinet. French musicians have M. Dacosta to thank for the propagation of this instrument [bass clarinet] which, with the contrabass clarinet recently made by M. Brod, completes the clarinet family. Revue musicale, 15 (11th May, 1833):123 Brod, first oboe at the Opéra: makes improved (perfectionné) wind instruments such as oboe, English horn, baritone, clarinets, bass clarinets etc. Makes reed machines; Faubourg Montmartre 25 Planque, Agenda musical pour l année Brod s inventions were not always imitated by Triébert, and in his articles in the Revue musicale, Fétis remarked several times on the differences between the two makers work. Nevertheless their collaboration over the space of several years led to real progress in oboe making. Brod did not show his instruments at the 1834 Exhibition, and Fétis regretted the omission. He wrote: The artist did not feel the need to send his products to the Exhibition; whatever his motifs, I do not feel it necessary, in reporting on this exhibition, to remain silent on the improvements that he brought to oboe making. Revue musicale, 11th May, 1834 Further on, Fétis enumerated the improvements effected by Brod in the manufacture of English horns: The English horn has remained in an imperfect state because composers use it only rarely in their works; only in the last twenty years has it been used with any regularity: but still only as a solo instrument. I believe that it will not be long before each instrument will be used in complete families; thus the English horn will be a real tenor to the oboe, and there will be the imperative need to build it according to the highest principles maintained by the best makers, including M. Triébert who has himself exhibited several this year. M. Brod has undertaken experiments to improve the construction of the English horn according to the same principles that guided him in the reform of the oboe s imperfections. I sincerely regret that M. Triébert did not feel the need to adopt these important improvements in the manufacture of English horns, and in basing his resistance, it might be said, on what has for long been used, unchallenged and unimproved, on these instruments, he has not understood that the exhibition of industrial products is dedicated only to demonstrating progress. Revue musicale, 11th May, 1834 In his Method Brod himself criticized Triébert s

113 THE DOUBLE REED 111 curved English horns quite harshly before enumerating the improvements incorporated in his cor anglais moderne (hautbois alto). Fétis further remarked: Struck by these considerations, M. Brod undertook experiments to improve the construction of the English horn according to the same principles that guided him in the reform of the oboe s imperfections. After straightening it and adding a curved bocal to make it easier to play, he reproportioned the bore of this instrument which is simply the alto version of the oboe, then divided the bore exactly with the result that the defective intonation of several notes disappeared entirely and the instrument became much easier to play. Revue musicale, 11th May, 1834 Fétis again, on the baritone oboe: improved oboes is conferred to M. Rémy and Co., instrument makers, rue Grenelle-St-Honoré. Le Ménestrel, 17th Sept, 1837 The stamp of the late Brod which he left with the maker Jules Rémy as well as the maker Delusse s tools and reamers were offered to the Musée des Instruments du Conservatoire de Paris by Laurent Grillet. Florence Gétreau, Les collections instrumentales du Conservatoire de Paris, p. 275 One often reads that Brod built Boehm-system instruments. If he did in fact entertain this idea, his various obligations, and perhaps already his illness, left him no time to do so. The minutes of the meeting of the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts (Institut de France) on 24th March 1838 include the following text: Again I must mention Brod s name, even though he did not feel the need to exhibit his discoveries. [ ] Obliged to position each hole for correct intonation, M. Brod in no way resorted to the barbarous invention of obliquely-bored holes that still denature the bassoon, and which was invented only to allow fi ngerings that would otherwise be impossible because of the spacing of the fi ngers. By means of keys, M. Brod was able to put each hole in its correct position, and the instrument is found no less in tune than the oboe and English horn. I don t know whether the baritone oboe exhibited this year by M. Triébert was built precisely according to M. Brod s design, and if he [Triébert] is resolved to obtain impeccable intonation or if he is content with the frightful approximation that, even today, leaves most wind instruments in a deplorable state of imperfection. Revue musicale, 11th May, 1834 Did Fétis forget that in 1828 he announced the birth of a new Triébert instrument, the tenor oboe, constructed under Brod s supervision? This critique from 1834 adds even more to the confusion of the relationship between Triébert and Brod. In 1833, we can say that Brod separated from Triébert more or less definitively. M. Brod announces that he is going to set up an establishment for building oboes, alto oboes (or straight cors anglais) on new principles and clarinets, which he has also improved (perfectionnées). Revue musicale, 29th June 1833:182 From then, it is easy to follow the progress of his atelier. We inform our readers that the manufacture of M. Brod s The fl ute that we have the honor of presenting to you today was built according to the procedures of M. Boehm by M. Buffet, one of the most able makers in the capital [ ] Inspired by the excellence of this discovery, several of the most famous of our virtuosi wish to apply it to the manufacture of the instruments on which they excel: M. Brod the oboe, M. Berr the clarinet, M. Gebauer the bassoon, etc. [ ] Signed Cherubini, Paër, Auber, Halévy, Carafa, Berton. The Académie adopts the conclusions of this report. 32 None of the oboes by Brod catalogued today are made according to Boehm s principles. OBOES BY BROD CATALOGUED TO DATE In his book 4900 Historical Wind Instruments Philip Young lists twelve Brod oboes together with their specifications (length, type of wood, number of keys in brass or silver, location, etc.). The constantly growing inventory does not however include those found in Switzerland: one at Lausanne, one in Einsiedeln and one in Servion (owned by the author). This last instrument with ten keys, but without octave key, bears the mark 124. In France, according to Philip Young s list, there are only five Brod oboes: it would seem there should certainly be more. Eight English horns and one baritone oboe by Brod are catalogued by Young likewise two oboes and two cors anglais bearing the mark Brod Frères. A splendid Brod English horn can be seen at the Rigoutat collection in Joinville-le Pont (Ile-de-France). Mention should also be made of an English horn by Gustave B(?) at the Musée du Conservatoire de Paris [now the Musée de la Musique at Porte de Pantin; E.1101]. 33

114 112 HENRI BROD, OBOIST, MAKER, INVENTOR, COMPOSER (13TH JUNE TH APRIL 1839) ENDNOTES 1 Trier was part of the German empire, annexed by France in Brussels, 1985, p César Gardeton, Annales de la musique , R; Minkoff, F-Pn, lettres autographes, roll Henri Brod: Ein Oboenvirtuose als Obenbauer, Tibia, 3/77: Paris, 1856, p AMZ, 8 Nov MGG, 1968, vol.14, col Dictionnaire des éditeurs de musique française, ed. A. Devriès & F. Lesure (Geneva: Minkoff, 1988), p Paris, 1900, p Biographie universelle, Paris, 1861, vol. II, p Pierre, op.cit. 13 Montmartre Cemetery, letter to the author 27 July The catalogue information at the Bibliothèque Nationale dates this painting as c.1850 and suggests that it is taken from the engraving. It is much more likely that the reverse was the case. All the protraits except the painting show the part in Brod s hair to his right; perhaps the painting was made in reverse as the model for the correct rendering of the lithograph for publication. 15 La Fage, op. cit. 16 London: T. Bingham, Shortly before his death, he communicated to us certain theories of acoustics and he was busy putting his notes in order to publish them in the columns of La France musicale. This work will astonish the musical public for the novelty of its perspective and the erudition that it contains. (La France musicale, 11 April, 1839) 18 Archives of the Paris Conservatoire. 19 Charles-David Lehrer, JIDRS, 19 (1991), p The Musée Clapisson was an early manifestation of the Musée du Conservatoire, presently the Musée de la Musique, which has as one of its strengths the instruments donated by former professors. 21 In the inventory taken at his death, Brod s estate was established at 6,316.60Fr (furniture) (Archives de la Ville de Paris). 22 Florence Gétreau, Aux origines du Musée de la Musique, les collections instrumentales du Conservatoire de Paris, (Paris: Klincksieck, Réunion des musées nationaux, 1996), p.201. The oboe is no. E.379 in the collection; Mme Brod s letter is found at F-Pan AJ ,6b. 23 London & New York, 3rd ed, Die Oboeninstrumente in tieferer Stimmlage, (part 6) Tibia 1/2000, p Paris: Sagot, 1893, repr. Geneva: Minkoff, The key for slurring to the upper register and attacking notes in the extreme high register was often called high F key in Germany where it was first invented; this is the only reference I have seen to this term in French. It is more usual to see clé d octavier (key to slur up the octave). [trans.] 27 Paris: Fasquelle, Pierre, Les facteurs, p Pierre, Les facteurs, p Pierre, Les facteurs, p Reprint, Geneva: Minkoff, A copy of these minutes dated 24 March, 1838 was kindly furnished by Ludwig Boehm, great-great grand son of Theobald Boehm. 33 Gétreau, op. cit., p.677.

115 THE DOUBLE REED 113 A Bassoon Lite, Please... War Is Swell Alan Goodman Bedford, Wyoming This is my war story. Looking through mists of memory, past cobwebs of rationalization, I see events could easily have taken a different turn, one that would have saved a lot of aggravation, a turn I now learn was available to many of us faced with danger. By George, it just took the Commander-In-Chief to cue me in. If only, only, only I had thought of it myself. And so much sooner. ********************* I stood before Colonel Schlumph in his office at the United States Military Academy Band Building. It was 1964, not a vintage year to be irritating one s commanding officer. Two small steel balls ground together in Schlumph s hand. The sound of their friction was annoying, mesmerizing and continuous. I wondered if he was consciously copying the habit of Humphery Bogart, the ill-fated Captain, in the movie, The Caine Mutiny. Goodman, you were reported for playing wrong notes on your saxophone during yesterday s parade, Schlumph said. I m a bassoonist. I m a bassoonist, SIR! he repeated. You are? I answered. I didn t know that. I mean, I m an officer of the United States Army and you will address me as such. Schlumph s eyes flitted back and forth from the desk top to a spot inches above my forehead. You re a troublemaker, Goodman. I m shipping you out. Colonel Schlumph wasn t a military man. His was a commission granted by the United States Army to qualified civilians who wanted to march, conduct a band, and give orders: One day a mild-mannered, corduroyed jacket with pipe. The next, a Lieutenant-Colonel with creased blue pants, the United States West Point Band at hand, and government-issue steel balls. In wartime a draft-age bassoonist found refuge from bullets in one of several military bands. Getting shipped out was not in the master-plan of bassoon survival. But, Sir, when I auditioned on bassoon you said I merely had to do my best marching with the saxophone. Wrong notes are my best. Your best, SIR! Schlumph squeezed for optimum steel-juice. My best, Sir. The steel balls sounded like overdrive on the dry transmission of my first car. ********************* You, see? It could have been different. If only... But, I digress. ********************* From West Point, I was assigned to a small military band stationed on Governors Island. The duty in this fifteen-piece band was playing incoming ferry boats plying waters to and from nearby Manhattan. The commander was a Warrant Officer, a rank neither officer nor enlisted. Men rising above the rank of sergeant and not quite to the level of Commissioned Officer are warrant officers. I see you re a bassoonist, Goodman. I stood before Warrant Officer Hakima, a native Hawaiian, a thirty-year Army veteran. Yes, sir. I wasn t going to get caught ignoring military niceties again. Yes, Mr. Hakima! His eyes glanced up from the papers on his desk that explained how I had interrupted the training of future Generals at West Point Military Academy by playing wrong notes on the saxophone. I m no goddamned Commissioned Officer. And you will not address me as one! Yes, Mr. Hakima. Goodman, I don t need bassoons in my band. You can t hear the damned things anyway. What I need is an oboist. Seems our oboist fell off a balcony last week and landed on his head. Think you can do that? Fall off a balcony on my head? Fall off a balcony on my head, MR. HAKIMA!! He half stood up, knuckles on desk, to emphasize my lapse of military protocol. Maybe I can try the saxophone again, Mr. Hakima. Who learns to play the oboe when half-way to insanity is good enough on a bassoon, I thought? I had never played the oboe in my life let alone FOR my life. Look, Goodman. It s very simple. I need an oboist. Colonel Schlumph recommends I move you along to Viet Nam where you d make a good rifleman. I m a great oboe player, MR. HAKIMA!! A GREAT OBOE PLAYER!! ********************* See? All this trouble-making could have been avoided. The solution was available. I just didn t think clearly enough under fire. When Colonel Schlumph harangued

116 114 A BASSOON LITE, PLEASE... me in his office at the United States Military Academy, I should have maintained my cool. See? ********************* Goodman, you were reported for playing wrong notes on your saxophone during yesterday s parade. Sir, I m bored playing the saxophone on the parade grounds. That s not what my life is about. I ve been accepted at Yale and would like to leave for school today or tomorrow. Oh, why didn t you say so, Goodman. A man has an obligation to his country to educate himself. I admire that. Here, hold these steel balls for me a moment and I ll write out your transfer to Yale immediately. And, Goodman, thank you for playing wrong notes on the saxophone for us. The Army needs wrong notes like you. Good luck in your future. Don t forget to write and let us know how you re doing from time to time. ********************* And Mr. Hakima on Governor s Island? Well, he too just didn t realize I might have higher priorities. Things could have been different there too. ********************* Goodman, I don t need bassoons in my band. You can t hear the damned things anyway. What I need is an oboist. Seems our oboist fell off a balcony last week and landed on his head. Think you can do that? Mr. Hakima, falling off the balcony and landing on my head is a too-generous offer. But I have a more urgent one from Mom. Seems she needs someone to taste her home-baked cookies. Poor woman has no one there to sample the goods as they come from the oven. My brother used to do it, but some woman stole him from Mom s kitchen and he went off to get married. You can see how this is a family need of utmost urgency. And it would just be for the last fifteen-months of my service commitment. I d be happy to send you several recordings of good oboe players falling off balconies. ********************* Old age allows you to see further than ever before. Only drawback is that you re looking backwards. Into the past where war is swell. Ya see, By George? Ya see?

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118 116 THE DOUBLE REED Reviews