Some of the most beautiful elements of the world belie the difficulty of their creation – only their finely finished face is presented to the public. Classical music, whether presented in a concert hall, in a church or at a high school recital is the wonderful result of hours, months and years of personal dedication and practice.
The process we undertake to improve and refine our musicianship and ourselves, remains essentially a private pursuit, out of the public view. Even the most famous among double reed players, the already proven stars of our special niche in the world of music, continue to spend hours and hours of dedicated time in the practice of their art. Why do we do it? - Brian Charles
Loree is the leading manufactuer of professional oboes and English horns
In the double reed family, there is the oboe, English horn, and bassoon. Of course, accompanying the oboe and bassoon are it's children and cousins, the oboe d'amore and the Contra-bassoon among many other variations of the two fabulous instruments. It is scientifically proven that the resistence received from playing an oboe for, oh say... five minutes does temporarily effect the brain. Now you know why the oboists you are friends with are always a bit wired during rehearsals.
I would also like to reinstate the conjecture that making reeds may also be a cause for temporary insanity. One cannot criticize and oboists and his/her reeds until he OR she has tried it. Many painstaking hours can be wasted because your dog thought your almost finished reed was a chew toy. This is why I would reccommend that all oboists attempt to get into the field of percussion. Banging fervently on a timpani is much fun and an excellent way to relieve the frustration/insanity/tightness that playing only oboe may cause. A wonderful thing about oboists, though, is that they are not allowed to be pissy towards one another. Flutes, go right ahead. Clarinets? sure! And violins? They have the most right to give a fellow player the finger or any other cras gesture at an audition. But because of the not-as-intense competition that accompanies the other pain-staking qualities of oboe playing, oboists are not allowed to be rude to one another. If anyone is, he/she is a pre-madonna and eventually should and will be put in their place. Hmph! And finally, an oboe is NOTHING like a clarinet in any way shape or form, though they are both made of wood. -This article was written by Julia Warren, an aspring Doublereedist herself and one of my great friends.
