A significant new book on oboe reed-making has recently become available. Entitled Le Roseau Chantant (The Singing Reed.- An Introduction to Reed-Making) (90 pp., 30 cm.), the trilingual (French-German-Engllsh) volume Is the product of Alain Girard, professor of oboe at the prestigious Musikakademie der Stadt Basel. The work was published by that institution in 1983. (A reissue by Pan Verlag, Zurich, may soon be in the offing.)
The first chapter is entitled "Why We Make the Reeds Ourselves", and deals in a very few words with truisms often requiring years for oboists to realize. Apposite quotes from Henri Brod's Méthode grace this section.
Chapter two, "From the Gardener to the Oboist" provides the best illustration of the process of cane cultivation and preparation this reviewer has yet seen in print. The numerous large, crisp photos here are a particular delight; the text complements them effectively. Every stage in the life of the Arundo donax plant from young green shoot to seasoned and calibrated tube is covered graphic detail.
Chapter three, "From the Cane to
the Reed" quite naturally concerns itself with the fashioning
of the reed itself. By way of succinct descriptions and excellent
photographic illustrations, the various stages in reed-making
from the splitting of the tube to the testing of the near-finished
reed are documented with instructive detail of great value to
the student. At the same time, the text is not over-burdened with
technical terms.
This book would be an eye-opener to those non-oboists to whom
the instrument is a profound and impenetrable mystery. For this
very reason, the present work recommends itself as much to aspiring
students as to professional players who must not only explain
the art of reed-making to their pupils, but from time to time
also to bewildered music-lovers! (Is there an oboist who has not
had this experience?)
A set of appendices completes the volume. The first section here furnishes bibliographic citations for books primarily concerned with oboe reed-making; the author's comments are included. (Highest marks are given Sprenkle and Ledet's standard text.) The next section presents a selection of worthwhile books on the history of the oboe; methods and lists of oboe literature follow. The last of the bibliographical listings here includes a panorama of more specialized literature. The appendices continue with an address list of cane-growers and machinists. A price list (in Swiss francs!) of reed equipment finishes the work. (The utility of this last is debatable, considering present international monetary conditions.)
Here and there, a few less-than-idiomatic phrases appear in the English translation of the author's original French, but these are insignificant.
In sum, this useful and handsome volume, hardbound, and on glossy paper, belongs in every well-stocked music library. It contains a great deal of information tastefully presented in a relatively few pages. The work is highly to be recommended to all those who wish to add to their collections a fine pedagogical text on reedmaking and at the same time a most attractive piece of oboistic literature.