For quite some time, whenever an oboist would announce to me that he or she was interested in Baroque oboe, I would produce a barely perceptible smile and silently reavow my own credo: "I'll never do that!" I guess this definitive affirmation served to reassure me of my own possible sanity - that at least my inherent oboist's masochism didn't go beyond playing just one of these recalcitrant instruments. Playing the Baroque oboe would merely serve to open up a Pandora's Box of headaches, I thought.

I hope in this article, to convey my impressions of what it was like for me to learn this instrument, the effects that it had on my playing, and consequently to relate and share with other oboists, some ideas and insights I have gained with respect to oboe playing in general.

I began to learn the Baroque oboe while already working on my doctorate at Indiana University. I had no teacher, nor anyone for that matter who could shed light on the instrument and its problems. A written article informed me that in order to make a reed, one must fashion it by hand, minus the trusty shaper tip, and with no specific dimensions as guidelines. I remember agonizing weeks filled with squeaks and fallen octaves. At that point I almost lost the incentive and delusions of grandeur I had felt when listening to the clean technique and sweetness of tone on the recordings of my favorite Baroque oboe players. What resemblance did my inchoate utterances bear on such beauty? Well, in fact, practically speaking they really didn't, however, periodically, just often enough to keep me going, there was a glimmer of something that made me press on - a nicely turned phrase, a G sharp that wasn't choked, even a momentary singing tone quality. In short, I was beginning to like it.

The more I played (and improved slightly), the more this endeavor made sense to me. So much of the oboe's repertoire lies in the Baroque era, that it seemed an excellent way of really knowing the music. Phrases and articulations take on new meanings because the differences between the two instruments are enough that it is necessary to observe the diverse technical needs demanded by each. In the most general sense, the Baroque and modern oboes are more similar than they are different, i.e. double reeds, conical bore, overblowing at the octave, and a relatively similar fingering pattern. The differences and conflicts that are encountered by the modern player are at the same time, both subtle and highly contrasting. This temperamental and sometimes stubborn 18th century oboe is part of our history and heritage. It has undergone many changes, however the fact remains that it is an oboe.

I was struck by the following quotation of the Baroque oboist, Bruce Haynes: "Witnessing the revival of interest in playing on old instruments, one cannot help wondering why it is that comparatively few professional wind players have made the effort to become competent on the 17th and 18th century ancestors of their own modern instruments. There may be several explanations for this, but it would seem to me that one possible reason is the disappointment over the sound and intonation of the old instruments: even by paying close attention to playing technique, they cannot produce what they regard as a 'good' sound, and are left in doubt as to whether the old instruments ever did play properly."[1] This made me realize more clearly why I was interested in the Baroque oboe. I wouldn't go quite so far as to compare my feeling to "climbing a mountain because it is there, but there does involve a certain amount of curiosity and respect for the historical process.

I believe that Haynes correctly diagnoses the dilemma. Why learn an instrument that doesn't even sound well, and risk the embarrassment of missed notes and disconcerting squeaks? In concordance with my idea about the historical process, Haynes goes on to say: "Yet in spite of this unfavorable first impression, a lot must be said for the old winds."[2] It seems that the importance of the old winds lies more deeply than aiming toward virtuosity. It means to have an awareness of these instruments, an awareness which can be achieved through an understanding of their technical and musical possibilities. Subsequently, these aspects could relate to one's modern playing.

Therefore I think that it is important to realize certain psychological aspects with regard to this historical approach. There is more to mastering any instrument than technique, sound, and the ability to play a phrase "correctly". All of these things are, no doubt, extremely important. However, there is also the necessary ingredient of insight. Insight comes from within the player, but is nurtured by a knowledge of and interest in all of the different forces and stimuli that belong to the formative process of music. Although I don't in any way claim that studying the Baroque oboe is necessarily a viable way to achieve a deeper insight, I have found that it has changed my approach to my own playing in general, both technically and mentally.

Due to its larger bore and fingerholes, the Baroque oboe has much less resistance than the modern oboe. Also the reed is larger and more free-blowing than the ones modern players use. This requires a much lighter and freer approach to blowing the larger bore instrument. If this freer style is not properly assimilated, the resulting music will be filled with squeaks, and a harshness of tone that belies the sweet and delicate sound that is its true nature. Some aspects of this lighter style can be helpful on the modern oboe. It is possible for the modern oboist to approach the support and blowing of the instrument in too rigid a manner, wherein the air production may be fine, however the air sustaining is not as free and effortless as it could be. The air may be well supported from the diaphragm, but the transit of the air to the upper chest, and, eventually through the reed, is hindered by muscular and respiratory rigidity. As long as one is playing the modern oboe, chances are a decent sound will be produced anyway, even if it be lacking in lightness and the effortlessness of a well sustained air flow. Note the distinction I am making between air production and air sustaining. The Baroque oboe, lacking any form of octave mechanism, depends on overblowing to acquire and sustain any note above and including e above middle C. The air supply, although produced and supported by the diaphragm, must be sustained in the upper chest at all times, or else the note will drop the octave. Thanks to the modern oboe's more sophisticated octave mechanisms, such drastic results won't occur if the air is not kept high, but there will result a marked loss of' buoyancy of sound, endurance on long phrases, in general then, a loss of a lightness and fluency in the character of the playing. I have found that the necessity of achieving the air sustaining technique for the Baroque oboe has helped my modern playing in giving it a lightness of style and sound that heretofore had been hindered by keeping the air too low.

With regard to musical insight and interpretation, a knowledge of what the Baroque oboe can and cannot do is an interesting experiment in discovering new or different ways of playing Baroque music on the modern oboe. If one is able to play a movement or two of a Baroque sonata on the historical and the modern oboe, one discovers several revelations about the instruments and each's relationship to the music. Each one has its own limitations and special features. Certain slur markings put in by an editor may prove to be impossible to execute on the two-keyed oboe. Nuances and "messa di voce" on long notes which can and should be done on Baroque oboe, sound crass and exaggerated on the modern oboe. Due to the technical limitations of the old instrument, certain trills must be executed a semitone higher than written (e.g., a trill from a to b natural instead of b flat in the key of g minor). Thus one can begin to see and understand certain conceptions of Baroque aesthetics and spontaneity, both caused and affected by the nature of the instruments of the time. Again, my point is not to suggest that the modern oboist must automatically apply these "authentic" esthetics and techniques to his or her performances. But indeed, it could be beneficial to have in mind, that an awareness of the past, (i.e. the accumulated effect of everything that has been before us), has in one way or another, contributed to and determined the music and the way in which we play

In conclusion, I want to stress that the awareness of the history of the oboe, how it functioned and developed, can enhance the players' understanding, not only of Baroque music, but also of the intrinsic beauty and expressive capabilities of the oboe, whether one is playing Bach, Mozart or Berio.

About the writer...

Laura Goetz is currently pursuing a D.M. in oboe at Indiana University, where she studies with Professor Jerry Sirucek. She received her M.M. in oboe at Yale University where her teacher was Ronald Roseman, and for one year was co-principal oboe in the Santiago Philharmonic Orchestra (Chile).

ENDNOTES

1. Bruce Haynes, "The Importance of Original Double Reeds Today," Galpin Society Journal, 30, (1977), p. 145.

2. Ibid.

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