Teaching Concept

This section will present my credo as a musician: Music is about expression, and expression requires flexibility. I will follow to explain my approach to oboe playing, which is that the oboe should be played in a natural manner, without power or effort. Theunderlying physical principles that explain natural and effortless breathing are explained in a separate section, as are the principles of reed-making.

Finally, I will address oboe repertoire, orchestral playing and auditions.

Introduction – Flexibility Vs. Sound

Playing all musical instruments consists of two complementing tasks: mastering the instrument itself, and learning music. Learning and teaching music and its’ interpretation is universal and should not be different from one instrument to the other. Obtaining command of any instrument should also be aimed at the same goals. Mastering an instrument is a process of acquiring a set of tools, used to express music: a dynamic range, a variety of articulations, a palette of sound-colours (in plural), a flexible vibrato etc. All of these elements make up musical flexibility. Flexibility is – by definition – instability. Yet today’s music market, especially in orchestra, demands that we perform with great stability: of sound, of intonation, of sound attack, of finger-technique etc. The elements that make up stability are all measurable, and are relatively easy to judge and evaluate. With the fierce competition today, the importance of these measurable elements increases, and they became the standards by which musicians are judged. Only after one has proven capable of stable and reliable playing, is his actual musicality discussed. More often than not, a stable yet less interesting player will get a desirable position. Yet many top orchestras are looking in vain for a player who is not merely stable but also a fine, sensitive and expressive musician. Musicians are torn by these two conflicting forces: flexibility and stability.

Stable intonation and good solid control of the instrument are naturally prerequisites. But the fashion in recent years is that one must also have a very specific kind of “sound”, or to be exact – sound colour. And so it is, especially in the oboe – that a tension is created between sound and flexibility.

This tension originates from the reed: more cane means more stability, but also more resistance, fewer Vibrations and less flexibility. Many players prefer such reeds due to the stability they provide and the allegedly required sound colour: dark, round and covered. The sound actually produced is however not really round and dark but rather dead and lacks projection, because it is based on fewer vibrations. This lack of vibrations kills both flexibility and music. What is left is almost only one single “beautiful” sound colour, which costs a great deal of effort, due to the high resistance. This is not the right way to produce a truly beautiful, round and rich sound. The right way is based on a lot of vibrations and flexibility – in the correct proportions.

Naturally, one does need a beautiful sound, but the balance between sound and flexibility needs to be adjusted: I believe that in today’s music market and especially in the oboe world musical flexibility and expression and are gravely neglected due to the demand for “sound” and stability. Musicians should not be judged by sound alone, but first and foremost by their musical interpretation and expression: how long, gradual and soft a diminuendo they can produce; how they can vary their vibrato; what a range of sound colours they can produce to portray different emotions in a piece and so on, all in order to express a musical interpretation of the highest level.

Task Definition

Each instrument poses different technical difficulties in the search for both stability and flexibility. The modern oboe is particularly difficult, because it has very high resistance that must be overcome. Overcoming this resistance is achieved by a high speed of air.Yet the opening of the oboe reed is very small, thus adding another difficulty: blowing a small quantity of air. It is the combination of these two that defines the difficulty of playing oboe: To play the oboe we need to continuously blow a small quantity of air at a very high speed.

Most players confront this task with great force, pushing with their abdominal muscles and biting the reed down with their teeth. Very few reach a degree of comfort in their playing, and even fewer play with real ease. I was very lucky to have studied with Maurice Bourgue, who has long ago found a very natural and effortless way of playing the oboe. I have studied and researched this approach for 5 years and have summed it up in an explanation that received Prof. Bourgue’s approval. Today I am able to present a comprehensive explanation of how oboe-playing works; how playing can be achieved with very little force (but with a lot of energy); what are the underlying principles of reed making – of any style, and what are the possible choices that a player can make. This approach to natural playing without force is universal and is independent of style, school of playing or sound concept.

Based on this theory, I have drawn a complete set of exercises, that teach and practice effortless play step by step: Breathing exercises; Reed exercises; Posture, Embouchure and reed control; scales, air-control, intonation and articulation. Regular practice of these exercises, with precise instructions as to how and why, leads to a confident mastering of the oboe, with effortless playing. I have successfully trained several players in this manner. As the breathing technique is universalto all wind instruments – I have instructed not only oboists but also flute, clarinet, horn, trumpet and singers.

Click here for a detailed lecture about breathing technique

As soon as the basic technique is established, etudes follow – of increasing difficulty. There are many etude-books that practice finger control, air and phrasing – from beginners to professionals. Among those are: Gekeler (beginners), Sellner (beginners), Ferling 48,118,148 (Medium), Gillet 24 (advanced) and Lamorlette (advanced). There are many more, and they can all serve us well, but these should suffice.

Reed Making

As mentioned above, the theory includes a comprehensive explanation of how a reed works, what are the components and what is their respective influence on the reed. These should be studied carefully and applied on reeds as the students progresses and develops his/her own concept of sound and of musical expression.

Click here for a information about reed-making

Repertoire

The oboe repertoire is very rich in two historical periods: the baroque period and modern times. The classical and romantic period did not produce much solo repertoire, but abundant orchestral repertoire for the oboe.

Mastering the instrument means acquiring many different capabilities. In order to do that one must confront various challenges and push oneself over old limits, into new possibilities. The best way to do this is to play diverse repertoire from all periods. For this reason students should play repertoire from all periods, from composers such as:

–          François Couperin – Zelenka – Vivaldi – J.S. Bach – CPE Bach

–          Mozart – Haydn – Schumann – Pasculli – Kalliwoda

–          Poulenc – Dutilleux – Britten

–          Strauss – Martinu –VaughanWilliams – Zimmermann – Skalkotas

–          Berio – Holliger – Dorati – Yun – Carter

Some might consider this training unnecessary for orchestral playing, because the orchestra poses very different difficulties. Be that as it may, it is my belief that the better orchestral players are those who are versatile, and have great flexibility and a rich experience playing various genres of music in solo, chamber music and orchestra formations.

Orchestral playing

Playing solo and recital repertoire and concerti requires great flexibility, as the soloist plays almost all the time and is responsible for most of the musical activity. Therefore on such occasions, one can and should play with more musical flexibility, even at the cost of sound-colour.

Playing in orchestra, on the other hand, involves playing short phrases, which the oboist is expected to deliver with great precision and reliability coupled by a beautiful sound. Being expressive is secondary. Moreover, in orchestra today one is expected to deliver a very certain kind of tone. This is generally referred to as “dark, round, rich, covered”, or by negation: not “bright, clear, or open”. In order to obtain such a sound, many players increase the resistance of the reed and reduce its’ vibrations, thereby significantly reducing the ease of playing and musical flexibility. Many conductors, who themselves demand that “dark sound” readily accept this reduction of flexibility, and many oboists are content with the beautiful “dark” sound and good stability, even at the cost of great physical effort and limited musical expression.

It is indeed important to pay attention to obtaining a beautiful sound in orchestra, yet it is my view that “sound” should not come at the cost of flexibility nor of comfort of playing. The principles of sound production and of reed making I present offer the possibility of achieving that desirable beautiful, rich and full sound and that necessary stability not at the expense of ease of playing and flexibility. It is precisely by relying on ease of playing, little resistance and a complementing reed that one may reach stability and a beautiful soft sound, alongside flexibility.

Auditions

When preparing for auditions, students should be required to do the following:

1. Obtain the full score of the piece
2. Copy each relevant section of excerpt: before and after the solo
3. Analyze the structure of the movement, and the structure, motives and harmony of each excerpt
4. Obtain the original orchestral oboe part
5. Obtain at least 3 different recordings of the entire piece
6. Make sound copies of the excerpts themselves (mp3)
7. Several students will then perform in front of the entire class, and will be required to explain and defend their musical choices of tempo, atmosphere, phrasing and timing, sound colour choices etc.

This process should proceed continuously with a few excerpts per semester, allowing the students to build up the orchestral repertoire not all at once, but rather thoroughly and systematically. Mock-auditions follow only in later stages, once the underlying control of the instrument has been established. Once students are ripe and prepared, mock-auditions will be very effective and fruitful.

Summary

 This paper presented my credo as a musician: Music is about expression, and expression requires flexibility. Beautiful sound is a necessary requirement but insufficient without great flexibility and expression.  I followed this by presenting my approach to playing the oboe: the oboe should be played in a natural manner, without power or effort. There are underlying physical principles that explain natural and effortless breathing and sound production, as well as tailored reed-making for solo, chamber music or orchestra. One must study those principles carefully in order to understand them, and practice them slowly and diligently. Finally, I presented a structure for teaching oboe, with a comprehensive set of exercises, that systematically establish control of air, reed, sound production, intonation and resonance; etudes that perfect technique and musical phrasing; and an elaborate set of repertoire: solo, recital and orchestral.

You are invited to join me on the quest for effortless joyful playing. Students are urged to listen to the lecture on breathing before coming to class. A comprehensive set of exercises that systematically establish control of air and reed, sound production, intonation and resonance can be found in the instructional videos.

© Copyright Guy Porat, all rights reserved

17.05.2011