Editor's Note: THOMAS STACY is one of the world's most celebrated English horn virtuosos, and one of the busiest. Currently English horn soloist with the New York Philharmonic, he previously held that position with the orchestras of New Orleans, San Antonio and Minneapolis. He was graduated with distinction from the Eastman School of Music, where he was a pupil of Robert Sprenkle. Thomas Stacy's playing has been the inspiration for many major composers to write for the English horn. As one of his colleagues states, "He has done more to put the English horn "'on the map' than anyone. " Increasingly active as a guest soloist and pedagogue for master classes, he recently signed with both American and European artistic managements. When he performs as soloist, his reviews always mention, in addition to his extraordinary musicality, his unusually large dynamic range, palette of tone color, amazing breath control and lush sound.
Since his addition to the faculty of The Juilliard School, English horn is offered as a major there for the first time.
Much has previously been written in these pages about Thomas Stacy's accomplishments. He talks of his future plans herein, including the exciting news of his first annual INTERNATIONAL ENGLISH HORN SEMINAR to be held at Ithaca College this summer, July 9-14.
On a grey Sunday afternoon in November, following a champagne brunch, we sat down in the studio of the Stacys' Cape Cod home in Old Greenwich, Connecticut for this conversation.
DS I should ask you first, which characteristics seem necessary for success in a career with the English horn and/or the oboe?
TS From my view the salient aesthetic quality is innate musicality. Beyond that, I think that a great number of people have what it takes to master the required technique. Other characteristics necessary for success really are not unique to the music business.
DS Do you encourage youngsters to aim for such a career?
TS I don't encourage or discourage youngsters' aims toward this profession, but I do think that it's my responsibility as their major teacher to present the facts about such a career. I think that sometimes that is not done and that's not fair. One should know during their extensive and expensive preparation that it is a crowded field, and to be prepared for what lies ahead in hours of work, reed scrapings piling on the floor at 2 o'clock in the morning and terribly meager recompense, and so I surely, at some time, have a serious talk with my students to tell them all of that. While today I believe that there is less prejudice against females as wind players, women should be aware that they may still encounter discrimination. One must truly love all aspects of this scene, all the ego building and political bull as well as the magic moments of touching the sounds. On a more positive side, there are related fields which offer employment such as the recording industry and other various media production. Also I believe that the discipline and perception necessary to learn to play well can apply to many aspects of a fulfilled life.
DS You started your career--professionally-- right from the first day as an English horn player . . . you never had an oboe job in an orchestra. Isn't that right?
TS Yes.
DS Can you remember when, in your student days you decided to slant your career in this direction?
TS Well, I was intoxicated by the English horn sound a long time ago. From a practical viewpoint, it was discussed at Eastman that there were a lot of elderly English horn players in the profession just then and a lot of young oboe players. I think more young students should consider devoting themselves to the English horn, rather than practicing it very hard for two months just prior to an important audition.
At the Juilliard School the English horn majors really specialize in the English horn, but they also play oboe (and I also have some oboe majors) and I try to make sure that all my students there play the oboe d'amore some, so they won't have their first experience with that instrument on a professional job. There's a heavy concentration on the orchestral literature with the English horn students, though I do have them work on solo literature too as well as etudes. But the course there is really designed to train English horn players for the Juilliard orchestras, and for the profession. I think it's a unique set-up, the idea of an English horn major. Other schools list English horn study in their catalogs, but it's usually with one of the oboe teachers.
DS Are there any players and/or conductors whose work you find inspiring? How do you feel about the playing in foreign orchestras?
TS I'm very chauvinistic. I very much prefer American playing. I do find the fast fingers and tongues of some European soloists quite impressive. I had a pleasant experience at the Leningrad Conservatory and the Moscow Conservatory, to be involved in giving master classes there. Some of the Russians played for us--they were charming young men. These kids played so well technically--they could double-tongue all over the place and do really flashy things, but for me the sound left quite a bit to be desired. Part of the problem there is that they have trouble getting really good instruments. Getting back to the first part of your question, I sometimes remember John Minsker's sound.
There's a great disparity in sound among professional English horn players, and in their soloistic temperaments. After all the English horn is one of the most soloistic positions in the orchestra.
I 'm very happy that I had the opportunity to be around the creativity of Harold Gomberg; it was inspiring because I felt he was truly a creative player ALL THE TIME, rehearsals as well as concerts. I don't feel good about people who give their best only at the concerts. (It might be a fatalistic thing to say, but a rehearsal might be the last time!)
I feel that I owe the foundations of my playing on which I heavily rely daily to Robert Sprenkle.
As far as conductors are concerned, I learned a lot about intellectual conceptions of living from Pierre Boulez. I enjoy the musicality of Rafael Kubelik, when he guests here, and I've learned from Leonard Bernstein's Mahler. Ah, I don't know where to stop! But, I don't really feel the necessity to have idols, and I'm not sure I want to be one either.
DS I can't help but observe here with your family, that your work, given its great demands on your time and stamina, hasn't seemed to get in the way of a good family life.
TS I'm by nature a workaholic. My family is proud of what I do and of course that pleases me. I'm proud of them, too! I try never to be the "artiste" at home if you know what I mean. My studio is never off-limits to the kids; they borrow stuff off my reed-desk all the time! My kids are not interested in music as performers; they enjoy going to concerts a lot though. We never push the kids into anything; my older son is interested in going into business. I appreciate the fact that I was never- pushed into this profession; the decision was mine to make, and so there's no one to blame for my successes or failures but myself, and I feel good about that.
DS You mentioned that you prefer the American School. What short-comings, if any, do you feel exist today in that school?
TS Our downfall is the one of creating craftsmen, not artists. I think too often technical excellence is used as an ultimate, rather than the foundation or departure point. Also I think because we have mechanical considerations -- reed-making, instruments, bocals -- that they can get in the way of our ultimate communication with the audience. So often players tend to aim toward playing absolutely perfectly and perfection by itself can come across to the audience like left-over cream of wheat. Certainly teaching creativity is terribly abstract, but I try to at least expose my students to creativity in playing the instrument . . . I rarely work with beginning students anymore . . . but I think the young ones should be exposed to "ad lib" playing as early as possible, don't always have an etude in front of them, trying to make them play perfectly. Have them create sound-on-sound compositions on a tape recorder . . . that can be done after the child knows just a few fingerings. Then talk of the relationship between music and other things, such as sound and color, music and architecture, music and motion, all these things are very abstract, but I think the student should be exposed to this kind of thinking, and not misled into thinking that if they can play every note perfectly in tune with a glorious sound, they will be great artists. We must again and again impress on the student the importance of creativity . . .
DS Can you clarify what you mean by "creativity"? Do you mean the ability to improvise, or the ability to be creative within the framework of a work of art, even a Barret etude?
TS To be creative within the framework of the composer's wishes and maybe sometimes slightly OUTSIDE his wishes! Ad lib playing is certainly not an end in itself, I use it as one way of expressing one's personality, and that I think is very important. I find, for example, that I rarely hear the Tchaikovsky 4th Symphony oboe solo played in such a way that it makes you feel the player has ever seen an onion-shaped dome! The solo rarely sounds Russian at all, and from a technical standpoint, I don't hear crescendos within the large diminuendo which is very hard to do. You must have a great deal of control as well as imagination to do this of course. Another example is the English horn solo in the "Roman Carnival."
I don't think the audience should be aware of the thought processes which go into our practice and preparation for a performance -- that's really our affair. I dissect technique with my pupils -- articulation, nuances -- but I don't think we should consider these things our destination. This work is strictly a framework from which to create. A teacher should always stress that the student play etudes soloistically, and seldom the same way twice. Then be able to perform repetitions of the best sounding way--now there's creative thinking and listening.
Other deficiencies I often hear are a misunderstanding of staccato notes. Too often they're like short, ugly bow strokes on a string, rather than a beautiful bell-like sound, as I think they should be and relative to all double reed playing, I think the dynamic scope is almost always too small--that while the color may be changed slightly, it's almost always in the mezzo-forte-mezzo-piano range. I think one must strive to have the equipment, both physically and reed-wise, to make it possible to project a huge dynamic range.
DS This seems to be a problem of the English horn to a great extent . . . the English horn so rarely sounds compelling. It so often sounds blandly mezzo-forte, as you put it . . .
TS Especially with the English horn one must excite the audience with the sonority itself. If you don't have the audience in the palm of your hand with the ictus of the very first sound, you probably won't later! Of course the most important thing is that the English horn can be heard! Let the conductor ask for less! Students often come to me confused over interval projection and "per note" projection. Sometimes the English horn doesn't project because the player makes a diminuendo on every note! Beautifully legato intervals project better at any dynamic level. One must project BETWEEN the notes, as it were. I had a student yesterday who plays in an orchestra that performs in Carnegie Hall; he said the conductor always asks for more in "La Mer". So we worked for a little larger reed opening, a different bocal, and most importantly tried to insure that the pressure point in the reed was at the correct place for the embouchure to touch. Often young players take the guts out of the reed at the point where the lips touch the reed. They're doing that to make it easier to play, but it has the reverse effect; they have to lay back on the blowing and not put a fast enough air stream into the instrument, they then have all sorts of problems . . . projection, playing legato, to a certain extent pitch, but most especially projection. I think . . . to oversimplify one of your concerns--how to project high notes . . . is simply a faster air stream.
Of course there are times when projection is not a problem at all, such as in the Strauss "Four Last Songs" where I have to use a reed made of sautéed onions! For some spots in the Schoenberg "Five Pieces", op. 16 -- the movement called "Reflections in the Lake" where no attacks are called for, I use a mute. Avery Fisher Hall is very live . . . so I use a heavy piece of black cloth, through which the bocal is inserted, leaving it to drape down over the instrument. Sticking something in the bell really doesn't mute very much unless you're playing a lot of low notes, and I find that kind of muting sometimes causes me to miss an attack because it changes the resistance. The cloth kind of mute dampens the sound, because of course, the sound comes out of the holes all over the instrument.
DS It must look pretty exotic . . . like a black veil over the instrument. . .
TS Well it happened to be around Halloween. .
DS Do you gouge your own cane?. . . to change the subject a little . . .
TS Yes. It gives me greater control and consistency. I always have better results if I do every step of the reed-making process myself. I use an old Sassenberg machine I bought some years ago from Otto Eifert . . . it's not a sophisticated one with tons of adjustments and I reshaped the blade myself. I don't make seasonal adjustments in the gouge, although I did make a slight adjustment after Avery Fisher Hall was renovated. The "new" hall requires slightly more sensitive playing than the older version. My gouge measurements are .75-.60 . . . although I have gone as high as .80. "Bought" cane seems to fall off slightly faster-- in other words the arch converges sooner causing lighter sides.
I think one's chances of getting good quality English horn cane are better than getting good oboe cane because there's so much less demand for E.H. cane. I like a rather wide shape . . . the width at the tip is 8.45 mm.
I'm in the process of developing a better shaper for oboe d'amore . . . so much of the playing which I hear on that instrument sounds like something from the Gong Show, but I think that it can be played as well as any member of the family. I think that it should sound like the mezzo-soprano of the family, not a castrato! Most of the commercial oboe d 'amore shapes I see are too narrow, especially in the belly. That gives the sound some of those peculiar whiny characteristics.
DS Do you advocate wire on English horn reeds?
TS I use wire on every English horn reed. Also on d'amore reeds. The wire stabilizes the reed, and it should be very close to the tube, 3 to 4 mm above the wrapping. Many English horn players place the wire too close to the playing end of the reed. It chokes the sound when it's out there. Knowing just how tight it should be can be a problem too. It should be firmly around the reed, but not so that it's indenting the cane. The wire I use is called "Anchor Galvanized 28 one ounce" from a hardware store. I always slip the blades of the reeds too in the style advocated in the Hedricks' book. Perhaps this is why my reeds never leak, and so I never use fishskin.
DS You spend the great majority of your time playing the English horn. Do you think it's possible to maintain a high level of oboe playing at the same time?
TS I think so, if one practices accordingly. It happens that if one does a great deal of English horn playing one can lose some sensitivity for the oboe, but this can be regained by conditioning.
DS Do you play the oboe a lot in the course of your particular job?
TS No. I wouldn't have to. But fortunately, in the Philharmonic we have a section that gets along very well together, so we help each other out some. If for instance I go away for a guest appearance, someone plays the English horn for me, and then I reciprocate with some oboe playing. I also don't contractually have to play the oboe d'amore but sometimes I choose to. Ron Roseman and I did "Brandenburg 1 " together and it was fun to work out the ornaments and a good blend of sounds. Doubling is another matter; I think it's mostly a waste and seems more important for looks than sound. Occasionally in a big work it might be important for relief purposes. Fortunately, Mr. Mehta is not much of a believer in it.
DS You mentioned the "Brandenburg". I assume you enjoy baroque music.
TS Oh yes. If I may be pretentious enough to call myself a specialist, my specialties would be baroque music and modern music.
DS Have you experimented with playing actual antique instruments, or replicas? Baroque oboes or English horns?
TS I guess you could say I've experimented, but I've never performed on the old instruments. The idea of learning to play them well really doesn't intrigue me presently, I seem to have enough to do as it is!
DS Some English horn players have expressed a concern to me about the repertoire, and its specialized nature in the orchestra. It implies certain periods in the season where they won't have to play the English horn at all, and then all of a sudden there's a very important solo to deal with . . . sort of like psychological peaks and valleys, as opposed to the more steady character of the exposure a first oboist, for example, learns to handle. Is this a concern of yours?
TS It might very well be a concern of some English horn players, but it's surely not a concern of mine. The New York Philharmonic plays over 200 concerts a year -- that's in 45 weeks, and I guess we have one of the biggest repertoires of any orchestra, so I find that I don't have much time off.
DS So your orchestra doesn't do too many Beethoven or Schubert festivals?
TS No, unfortunately! So I'm playing most of the time. If there are psychological problems inherent in this situation I guess I'm conditioned to them. After all, art shouldn't be considered quantitatively. And along these lines, I like to play concertos with the orchestra a lot . . . (it's a hell of a lot easier than playing in the orchestra!) While the psychological pressure of this kind of exposure can be hard on some people, I like it very much, if I'm well prepared. I think it's good that woodwind concertos are seemingly done more and more here.
DS What are your favorite orchestral solos?
TS I must say I enjoy the Berlioz works, the "Damnation of Faust" especially.
I've gotten away from a subject before I intended to. Speaking again of deficiencies as we were, another is that often players can't play softly with an intriguing sound. When they make a diminuendo, the sound is often just soft. Not soft and beautiful, soft and intriguing. This happens because the dynamic is controlled in the wrong way. I feel dynamics must be controlled by the amount of padding on the vibrating surface . . . the amount of lips on the reed. The support must be kept the same through the diminuendo to maintain the character and interest in the sound.
DS So you make the adjustment for diminuendos where?
TS With the lips. By converging the embouchure in a circular fashion on the reed so there's more padding on the vibrating surface.
DS Do you feel any change in the shaping of the inside of your mouth?
TS No, not ideally. I've observed that when players--sometimes even very fine ones-- have difficulties making a diminuendo using vibrato such as the one at the end of the Beethoven 5th cadenza -- even the most pedestrian member of the audience can detect this problem. If the air velocity is not maintained, the resultant problems are myriad.
Advanced students often come to me, and in a matter of a few minutes, I can get them playing with a faster air stream and everything is better. They don't have to take breaths as often, and they get rid of that horrible old-fashioned habit of having to have places marked in the music where they stop and let out some air. Use enough air to begin with --have a Cadillac engine--use enough gas all the time and maybe you won't have to stop to let it out!
DS What do you think of the idea-- I'm not sure whose it is--of the sensation of having a ping-pong ball in your mouth?
TS I always say a grapefruit! Maybe that's the difference between oboe and English horn! I advocate the idea of maximum space in the mouth having the tongue down, with its tip close to the tip of the reed, for efficient tonguing.
DS May I ask you some questions now in line with something we touched on earlier -- how you were able to help a student by making suggestions about bocals, reed styles, and so forth? About instruments, I know from our long association that you are not a user of French-made instruments as a general rule. Do you want to comment on your choice of instruments, and what to advocate for students? Is it a matter of what works well for you?
TS For my own playing, I very much prefer Laubin instruments. I bought my first Laubin oboe while I was at the Eastman School and have used them almost exclusively, except for a short time when I experimented with Gordet instruments, which didn't work out, and I do own a Loree oboe d'amore. I especially prefer the Laubin English horns, because they're ME! However, I surely believe one can find a fine Loree English horn.
I suppose the difference in makes of instruments always comes down to preferences in sound. I must say a Laubin bocal has improved almost every instrument I've seen.
DS Some advice for young English horn players of the dollars and cents variety. You use No. 2 Laubin bocals; is that a standard choice because it's "middle of the road"?-- or are stability and tone quality characteristics distinctly superior?
TS I'm not the "Middle of the Road" type on anything. Yes to part two.
DS What about the player who finds himself/ herself in an orchestral situation where the pitch is on the "up" side. Is a shorter bocal the answer?
TS Could be, but a No. 1 bocal is fairly rare. Most are 2 and 3 lengths. By playing with a slightly shorter reed, one can play pretty high using a No. 2.
DS What reed length do you advocate?
TS I use reeds that are between 55 and 57.
DS What about the problem of sagging C's?
TS For instance at the end of the Fantastic Symphony Solo? I find that this is almost always a bocal problem but having the C tuned too low and/or the C key not raising high enough will exacerbate this problem.
Also the reed tube should go securely home on the bocal--its actually a continuation of the bocal. The reed should go on the bocal about 10 mm. There should be no leakage at this juncture. If English horn players try to play with a leak here, it's like having one of the octave keys slightly open. I use a short piece of dental tubing on the bocal and slide the reed under it at this point. But one may use aquarium tubing, or wrap this juncture with damp cigarette paper or fishskin .
Additionally, this will also help keep the reed where it belongs on the bocal instead of accidentally coming off in your mouth. Another insurance against that happening is when you tie up an English horn reed, after tying the knot at the bottom, leave enough string to rewrap back up to the top, leaving spacings of about 4 mms. This gives you a grip on the reed, especially good if your hands are wet during performance.
I also wanted to mention a concern over the note A-flat on the first leger line. It's often flat and is also usually a bocal correction. That seems to have been an age-old problem with the English horn; you no doubt know the old fingering charts advocated starting to use the second octave key on the note A-flat.
DS For particularly long solos, such as the "Swan of Tuonela" or the one in the Shostakovich 8th symphony, is it? or the slow movement of the Ravel G major concerto, do you make reed adjustments, or are these parts of the repertoire no special concern to someone who's in good form?
TS I never think about endurance, but of course I play almost constantly. I know some players who feel they must "build up" toward certain solos, but I don't. Perhaps physical differences account for some of that. An exception for me is the second movement of the Bach oboe d'amore concerto, which I frequently play. I find, if I've been doing my running, and not procrastinating about that, and if I've lost a little weight and been laying off too many Negronis, it helps, because, as we know, if you get the breathing going in the wrong places in that movement, it's disastersville for the music! I would never make reed adjustments for the solos which you mentioned.
For younger students, I recommend that they practice for more, shorter time periods, such as 15 minutes in the morning, 15 minutes in the afternoon and 15 minutes after dinner, as a means of building up the musculature around the embouchure. This may sound like short periods of time to many, but I mean the physically/musically aware kind of attentive practice.
DS Do you practice much with the tape recorder?
TS I'm a believer in it. For a while I tried to record a short piece of Bach every day, and that is VERY revealing. I think that kind of practice can be very valuable for what the tape recorder tells you musically; one can't get overly concerned about the quality of sound . . . too many variables, room sound, microphone . . . young students often get very upset about the sound when they listen back to themselves . . . but if they listen primarily for the communication, the phrasing, in that way the recorder is indeed the truth machine! I also recommend using other electronic devices, the metronome and the strobe tuner.
DS OK Tell me this . . . what's different about the English horn? What does the oboist need to rethink, to do differently when he or she decides to play the English horn? Does the English horn really need to be treated uniquely? Are there special problems, special demands on the player?
TS That's a very good question. There are times that I think it's treated TOO uniquely. I myself apply the same principles of playing to the three instruments.
DS Back to your solo playing. I believe that you do more of that than almost anyone. I know the literature isn't a large one--even the oboe solo literature isn't overburdened with masterpieces. Which concertos do you find yourself playing most? Which do you really enjoy?
TS I really like the new Persichetti concerto. That was commissioned for me as you know, and it will be recorded, hopefully, and I hope to be playing it some at the international festivals in Europe in 1980 with the Philharmonic. (I also like Persichetti's little unaccompanied piece, Parable.) The enlargement of our repertory is one of my pet missions. In a really unselfish way, I try to make English horn playing better, and a bigger literature would help that. For instance as I told you I couldn't resist the other night asking Messaien to write something for English horn and organ, (Zubin Mehta acted as translator!) and the other day in Juilliard I rode three floors on an elevator with David Diamond and asked him to do a sonata. I like the Hindemith sonata, even though many people do not, perhaps because it's rather a severe piece, as you observed, and because many times it's not played well. I'm not sure the tempo markings are really what they should be . . . I rather like the piece Syd Hodkinson wrote, for me, The Edge Of The Olde One, for electrified English horn, which I premiered here with Boulez. I'm scheduled to play it on a recital at Eastman in April, with their "Musica Nova"; it's an ideal place to do it because they have all the necessary electronic gizmos, and they're eager to hear it there. The other concertos I mostly play are oboe d'amore concertos. I'm especially fond of the Telemann A Major concerto which I'll do with the Philharmonic this summer. And I like the Bach concerto very much. The English horn solos in the orchestra repertory seems to have whetted the appetite of the listener for more of this sound. And with seasons being longer, I think managements now like to present something a little different from the usual piano, violin or cello soloist. This makes me think of stage presence for the woodwind soloist. When I play solos I use a long black swab that goes all the way through the instrument. It's so obnoxious-looking to the audience to have to take the instrument apart, get a feather out, all that mechanical commotion between the movements. Don't swab if it isn't necessary. Of course, sometimes you're trying to gain a little time for yourself; but the overall effect is not good. When I'm soloist I never play a tuning note--I never play one note on stage before the first note of the piece. Thankfully, I was taught at the Eastman School how to bow--how to show the top of one's head in bowing.
DS Tell me something about your plans for the future.
TS The Philharmonic has commissioned an oboe d 'amore concerto for me, and I'm really excited about that.
DS Who 's the composer?
TS Jon Deak, our associate principal bassist. It must certainly be the first concerto for this instrument since Telemann. It'll be fun because I'll be able to work closely with the composer; we get along very well together. And we see each other daily, so it'll be convenient. It's to be completed for the '80-'81 season.
I'm scheduled to play a recital in Rochester on April 10, which I think I mentioned earlier, and with the Orchestra Piccola in Baltimore for performances of Bach's oboe d'amore concerto on April 15 and 16 and with the Philharmonia Virtuosi of New York on May 4. And the Telemann performance on May 13 with the Philharmonic under Neville Marriner. On January 28th I 'm doing a recital in Wilton, Connecticut in which I play all three instruments. This recital will also include a premiere of a new work for English horn and harpsichord being written for me by Braxton Blake, a young composer at Eastman. My long over-due book, SOLOS FOR THE ENGLISH HORN PLAYER, from G. Schirmer, should be out any day now. I'm working on another studies book now, but heaven only knows when I'll get to finish it. SOME VERY EXCITING future plans are for the First Annual International English horn Seminar with Thomas Stacy at Ithaca College this summer for one week, starting July 9th. Peter Hedrick is helping organize this project and will be its administrator. Paul Laubin will be on hand as special instrument consultant.
DS Back to some technical questions. Many English horn players feel the need for extra fingerings for the high register. Do you use them?
TS No, I don't feel the need for them; they can actually be a hangup and I almost never use them. Not even the high C in the "New World" solo, which I finger normally. I think that note is more resonant without the auxiliary fingerings. I use harmonic sounds fairly freely if I think they sound appropriate, extensively in the Persichetti concerto. It can be good to occasionally add extra fingers as an aid to slurring.
DS Does someone like you, with your busy schedule of rehearsals and concerts, still feel the need for a steady routine of practice?
TS I can -- and have -- played without practicing, but I'm more comfortable with my own playing if I practice. It's a security builder and I enjoy practicing. I actually have a written-out routine of practice, to help myself mentally reorient around certain tenets of good playing. I very rarely practice the orchestral literature, but I do think about the literature. Sometimes I feel more thinking, less just playing through, is probably more fructiferous.
DS Do you teach circular breathing?
TS Yes I certainly do, and there's no special "glass-blower's" mystique about it. I find most of my students can learn it in about five minutes. First of all I have them work with the reed alone, having them blow on the reed while pushing the air out of their cheeks with their hands, and while they're doing that and concentrating on it, I have them take a breath through the nose. So all they have to think about is taking a breath and pushing the cheeks with the hands. You can even go another step and have another person actually push the student's cheeks while they're playing the instrument. (Sounds obscene, doesn't it!) I find the technique useful in my own playing. I do not use it in the "Swan of Tuonela" for instance, because I can hear it a little and that bothers me, but in certain situations, such as on a trill, it works just fine. There is always a slight change in the sound where the depth of the support changes for just an instant.
DS In the 12/8 Barret Grand Etude in G Major with rising sixteenth notes and descending eighths, do you concern yourself with a different articulation style in each direction? In your teaching in general, do you concern yourself with physical sensations in situations like this.?
TS I feel strongly about analyzing the physical sensations and their results. After all, one doesn't need a teacher to tell them that it SHOULD sound good, but rather HOW to achieve that end. I'm all for breaking down the technical parts of playing and reed making! I teach vibrato, for instance, in great detail, and perhaps one of the things I do with the vibrato that's different is that I don't advocate working on vibrato with the metronome. I find once that's practiced a great deal, the vibrato maintains that metronomic quality. However vibrato should be even in width and "height" and in intensity -- what I would term a "diaphragm intensity vibrato". I start the student out making pulses in the sound with kicks from the diaphragm activated by the lower muscles. I think as the vibrato becomes faster -- as the pulses become closer together . . . that it works up in the body and is not so obviously activated from the diaphragm. The main thing I try to achieve in beginning vibrato teaching is evenness . . . I draw a diagram . . . the vibrato should look like this.
When one plays with vibrato for a pitch machine, I don't think the vibrato should be very visually obvious.
DS I don't want to get you away from your train of thought, but something you said intrigues me, and that is that as the kicks in the diaphragm, the pulses, become faster, the sensation works up in the body. Do you feel that you can actually see motions in the diaphragmatic area, the abdominal area, when a person is producing a good vibrato? Is this desirable?
TS Yes, a slight movement . . . I'm opposed to a throat vibrato or any other kind of vibrato, OTHER THAN DIAPHRAGM.
DS Do you feel any sensation--pulsation--in your throat?
TS No, I think the throat should be entirely passive.
DS Would I be misinterpreting if I suggested that by your use of the word "passive" some pulsation could be taking place without your wanting it to, but that it happens as a natural phenomenon?
TS I mean that the throat doesn't do anything, except to act as a passageway for the air.
DS Some of the oboists I admire most speak quite freely of their use of the throat vibrato and their teaching of it. From what you've said so far, am I right in saying that you are completely opposed to the idea?
TS Very definitely. The trouble with most throat vibratos I've heard is that they're too fast, and playing where we do, in big, live halls, you might as well not bother with that. Remember the reverb time in a good hall is about 2'.6" so this has an effect on the vibrato, and if you play a long tone, out front you are in effect getting sound-on-sound. If the waves of the vibrato are too fast, you don't hear any vibrato at all. I think vibrato can be overdone to the slow side--it's one of the parts of playing that SHOULD be overdone for the audience, as an actor overdoes his makeup. I've never heard a slow enough throat vibrato; I don't know if it can't be produced slowly enough, or if that's just the taste of the player. The diaphragm vibrato gives a warmth to the sound which is easy to maintain across the intervals and enhances that sonorous sound we spoke of that I feel must reach the audience immediately. I'm not for varying the speed of the vibrato relative to where the notes fall--the range--for high notes I advocate playing the same speed as for low notes. I do feel that this type of vibrato has enough flexibility to suit anyone's tastes. What I like about it so much is that there's actually a physical awareness of the vibrato integrated into the blowing. It really all goes together. Teaching the vibrato to a youngster produces good results in several areas--everything seems better! The support becomes more constant, the throat is more open (more passive), and everything blooms--that's why I believe in teaching vibrato to young students. Also, many of the players whom I hear using the throat vibrato cannot make an attractive decrescendo, using vibrato, without the pitch changing.
DS Do you feel your vibrato succeeds or fails depending on the character of the reed?
TS That's a good question. There is a relationship there. It has to do with the reed's opening. It must be large enough to accommodate the variance of the air stream caused by the kicks from the diaphragm . . . sometimes a student's vibrato will be inhibited by the reed's having too small an opening.
DS What about rosewood English horns?
TS I find them generally light in sound, and of course weight.
DS Speaking of weight, do you use a neck strap ?
TS No.
DS Can I come back to our Barret "Grand Etude", and ask you how you teach your students a concept of articulation style for the detached eighth notes?
TS Their length must be just right; I find if those particular notes are too short they sound ugly. Of course this is related to the way the notes are ended- I find more students have trouble ending notes skillfully than they do beginning them! The support must be kept constant, as though those eighth notes were to be slurred, and then simply interrupt with the tongue to produce the duration of sound you want. I use the tongue to end the eighth notes, even at a slow speed.
DS Would you agree with me, that in general, shortness has a lot to do with the way the note ends and not the way it begins?
TS I think the production of a note is the same whether it's a staccato note or a legato note. The only thing different of course is the length . . . the start should sound exactly the same. I think there's no such thing as a "hard attack--soft attack", "legato tonguing" is a bunch of bull.
DS Would you say that one efficient tongue stroke should serve you for most every musical situation?
TS Yes. I feel there's no other way to think about articulation then starting and stopping notes with the tongue.
DS Thank you for giving us your candid views and ideas in this conversation.
TS Thank you for asking me to give them! I hope that I have been articulate in expressing some of my thoughts and that they might be of some practical use to someone out there. (I can well remember how it was to grow up in a small town in Arkansas where there was no oboe teacher readily available.) I feel that this publication should be used for exchange of ideas, and in doing so further our art.