• On the Making of Oboe Reeds
• On the Necessary Tools for Making Reeds
• How to Proceed
• Remarks on Finishing the Reed
• Reeds for the Cor Anglais, or Alto Oboe, and for Baritone Oboe

Henri Brod's Méthode Pour le Hautbois was one of the important works for the oboe of the early nineteenth century. It contains an extensive treatise on many aspects of performance technique and interpretation, [1] together with a great number of studies and sonatas, many of which are still available in various modern editions. In the second part of the Méthode, published around 1830 Brod presented what seems to be the most complete of the archaic writings on oboe reed making. This treatise was deleted from subsequent editions as being no longer of interest, but today it makes fascinating reading for anyone wishing to pursue reed making techniques before the use of modern gouging machines and shapers. The only other known method for making oboe reeds which even approaches the completeness of Brod's is that of Garnier. [2] Written about thirty years prior to Brod's Méthode, one can see that Garnier used essentially the same tools in approximately the same way. The finished reeds vary a bit in their dimensions, [3] and the extent to which this was attributable to changes in tonal concept or to the changes in pitch [4] then taking place is a matter for conjecture.

It is also difficult to distinguish reed characteristics peculiar to a player or instrument from any general concept prevalent during a given era. One need only consider the national and personal differences between Tabuteau and Goossens to see how careful one must be in making generalizations about our own time. A survey of several surviving reeds from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries [5] tends to confirm this for earlier times as well. Taking these matters into consideration, we here present our English translation of Brod on reed making in its entirety.

It is most necessary to know how to make the reeds one needs; talent and the best natural gifts disappear entirely when one neglects this important point. It is true that they can be procured by applying to a teacher, but it is infinitely more advantageous to be able to make them oneself, because reeds must conform to the nature of the lips, the teeth and the habits of each individual. The individual himself is best able to satisfy all those little circumstances upon which depend a perfect performance. [6]

The making of reeds is not a great difficulty when one is provided with good tools and good cane. It is a work which calls for patience and meticulous care; with these two qualities one is sure to attain satisfactory results after a short time.

Figure 1, Plate VI, represents the form of the knife, the blade of which must be of the same temper as that of a razor. It is good to have several of these knives owing to the frequent use one makes of them.

Figure 2 represents the gouger. It serves to hollow out the cane. One sees that in A its curve is a portion of a circle nearly of the same diameter as the cane which one uses for oboe reeds, that is to say, 10-11 millimeters.

In figure 3 is the scraper, with a blade at each end. They are very thin and rounded following the same curvature as the gouger, and are used to polish and make smooth the cane already hollowed out by the gouger.

In figure 4 is a mandrel; this is a steel spindle, polished perfectly round at A and tapering to an oval form towards B. It is impossible to describe precisely the measurements of this tool, because the least difference in its size can influence the straightness of the (brass) tubes which one makes on such a mandrel. Besides, the making of these tubes being entirely from the makers of the oboe, one can be content with a mandrel which only nearly fits the tubes, the use of this tool here being only to make easier the holding of the tube when one mounts the cane. Nevertheless, if one is to have accuracy, it is necessary to use a tube of which the correctness has been tested. Put in the mandrel and file the tube until the mandrel touches the inside wall all around, marking the place where the end is when the tube is entered with force, as one sees at A. The second mark which one sees there gives the measure of a longer tube, which one sometimes uses to lower the pitch of the instrument.

In figure 5 is an easel or piece of hard wood which is hollowed out in its length following the exterior curvature of the cane, a little larger than what one uses for reeds, except for the butt, which serves to hold back the end of the cane when it is gouged.

Figure 6 represents a tube of cane of a size suitable for oboe reeds, that is to say 11- 12 millimeters in diameter. [7] One cuts the length to seven centimeters; one splits it in three, or four when it is large enough to give four pieces. See A and B. Cane of good quality is rare in France; there is hardly any except in the south. That of Fréjus, of the area around Marseille, and of Perpignan is reputed to be best. The cane must be cut at the time when the fruits mature. It can be used only after two or three years have passed, when the sap has dried. Reeds which one makes from it will have a beautiful sound longer than reeds made from more recent cane. When it is harvested too soon, it must be cut to length, split in three or four as mentioned above, and exposed to the air for some days in order to give it a more elastic consistency. After this it is put in bundles for use in a pinch. One must choose in preference cane which is more mature and of which the pores are very close. It often happens that the cane is not perfectly round, it is necessary then to use the most bulging side, which is usually that which was turned toward the sun and for this reason is the best.

In figure 7 is a little billot or piece of hard wood on which one cuts the end and the corners of the reed.

In figure 8 is a steel blade, polished and rounded at both ends, the thickness of a playing card and about 15 millimeters in width. This blade is put in the opening of the reed in order to thin the tip as much as necessary when scraping.

In figure 9 is a fine file the use of which will be seen later.

In figure 10 is a pliers which serves in the making of reeds for the cor anglais and baritone oboe.

In figure 11 is the mandrel on which one mounts cor anglais reeds. Its form is round at A as at B,, and the same size as the bocal of this instrument. One also makes a mark up to where the reed comes. One can have a similar mandrel for the baritone oboe, giving it the size of its bocal.

In figure 12 is a tube on which one mounts the cane. Its length is 46 millimeters; it is round at A and oval at B;; its interior diameter at A is 5 millimeters, and the small diameter of the oval at B is 2 millimeters the large 3 millimeters. One sees there several strokes of a file with furrows at the place where the cane must be tied, the use of which is to give more strength to the reed. At the other end is a small rim which keeps the thread with which one covers this little tube so that it will fit correctly in the oboe.

The making of this little tube can influence the tuning of the instrument. There must exist between its bore and that of the oboe a certain relationship of dimensions necessary for the intonation, the quality and the volume of sound. When it is too narrow at B the high notes are too flat, the oboe has less sound, and one has less facility attacking notes above the upper d. The opposite happens if this end is too large. It is necessary to put much care into the choice of these tubes, and once one has matched them well to the instrument on which one uses them, it is necessary to preserve them carefully, in view of the difficulty one often suffers in finding them perfectly in tune.

Having chosen a piece of cane (figure 13) of good quality and of the length given above (7 centimeters), one makes it 7 millimeters in width, removing with a knife the two protruding angles remaining on the inside after the tube of cane has been split. See figure 14.

The above mentioned cane is laid down in the channel of the easel. One takes this latter in the left hand so as to have the butt end A (figure 5) against the thumb of the right hand in which one holds the gouge.

Then, holding the middle finger of the left hand on the end of the cane to keep it in the channel, one gouges it, trying to remove only shavings of the whole length. The success of this is in the feel of the finger which pulls it. One reduces it to the thickness of 3/4 of a millimeter all along the middle of its width, this thickness diminishing towards the sides where there must remain only the bark of the cane, as seen in figure 15. It is necessary to keep this proportion for the whole length with perfect equality. This is impossible to obtain using only the gouger, but the scraper brings about this perfection. For this purpose take the cane, one side against the middle finger and the other against the thumb of the left hand, sustaining the middle by the index finger and then, taking the scraper in the other hand, guide it from one end of the cane to the other so as to remove all the roughness which the gouger left. Sometimes one wets the cane to facilitate the disappearance of these little inequalities. When they are completely removed, one can be assured of it by passing the end of the finger lightly and quickly over the scraped area. It is yet necessary that the cane have a thickness suitable to its quality, elasticity and hardness. If it is flabby or spongy it must be thicker than if it is hard with close fibers. Finally, it is necessary to gain the knack of knowing the degree of force to give it. The means of appreciating this better is to take either end of a piece of cane between two fingers and to twist them. If one can twist them with no resistance the cane is too weak. If it resists more than a quarter of a turn it will be too strong, but one can by means of scraping bring it to a medium strength capable of supporting a half turn without too much resistance or too much flabbiness. Looking at the play of light through the cane thus scraped, one should see in the middle and from one end to the other an even, opaque line blending into half transparent toward the sides.

When one has reached this point, one removes by scraping with a knife the bark in the center of the length of the cane such as one sees in A, figure 16, about 1/3 inch on each side from point C, from the middle. Then one cuts the cane in such a manner as to give each side the form of a curved line B.C.B. The two ends BB, must keep a width of two millimeters. One removes the bark for 3 or 4 millimeters at their extremity. The piece thus made ready, one wets the center a little. It is put perpendicular on the edge of the knife; then, pressing the knife on the scrape, one brings together the two ends as one sees in figure 17. The knife is withdrawn and one completes the bringing together of the two ends as they are in A, figure 18. One puts there a little tying of thread, B, which one stops by rolling the two ends between the fingers. One places the reed thus prepared in the mouth for 3 or 4 minutes so that the cane can become moistened and softened, in the right condition to lend itself to the form of the tube. One takes the latter, to which one has carefully tied the thread necessary to insert it correctly into the oboe. See figure 19. This thread must never come untied when one breaks up a reed, at least until it is too old and decayed. One puts the moistened cane on the tube far enough for the sides to join one another before the extremity of the tube A. One ties up the two ends by two or three turns of silk string B, which has been tied first to a nail or other immovable body. The cane being thus fixed, one looks to see if the cane is straight, if the tube passes well by the center of the width. If this is not the case, one can still straighten it and push it back to one side or the other, and then one winds the string going back to the mark A, taking care to put each turn against the other. If the reed does not yet close when there is room for only one turn to arrive at the end of the tube, it is necessary to untie it in order to bring the cane further on the tube. Then one begins again to tie it. Likewise if the sides are joined together before the silk has reached nearly a half millimeter from the end of the tube, it is necessary to untie and bring the cane out so that at the place where the reed must close the cane will be narrower seeing that the tube must exceed the silk a little. Otherwise the reed will be totally unsuccessful; the sound will be ambiguous and uncertain. When the reed has closed well on each side, one crosses the silk over the turns already made and one finishes covering the part of the tube which is between the end of the cane and the thread, after which one stops it by one or two turns which one sets strongly after having passed through the remaining silk. The end is cut, the mandrel is withdrawn from within the reed, and the bond of thread, B, figure 18, is untied. To be sure that the reed is well closed it is only necessary to blow into the large end of the tube. The wind will find only one outlet; otherwise it is necessary to begin to retie again, which one must do until the reed holds the air well. Having succeeded in this it is only a question of making it speak. First one cuts, on the little billot, about a millimeter from the end which holds the two blades of the reed together. If it is to be good, the opening which then occurs must not exceed a millimeter, figure 22. Put the little blade, figure 8, into the opening of the reed, then thin each side in the form of a bevel until the end is as thin as letter paper. Blowing therein, it should already give a sort of hard squeal, so indistinct that one cannot distinguish any tone. In this state the reed should be too long and too wide. First one makes it the width of seven millimeters, removing the excess from each side by means of the knife, going from the middle of the reed towards the extremity, that is to say from CC to DD, figure 21. [8] Then one passes the file over the places CC, to round off the sides and to give the reed a graceful form. Then one cuts the scrape to the length of 14 to 16 millimeters, after which one scrapes again using the small steel blade until it will be good to play. The first sign is when one can obtain the hard squeal of which I have already spoken. It is necessary to take care to cut the corners DD, so that they will not prick the tongue when one releases the sound.

The end of the reed must be tapered from the two sides as much as possible. The scrape should not be longer than 10 to 12 millimeters, finished pointed at A, and perfectly smooth as far as B, figure 21.

When playing, if one has trouble attacking the low notes, scrape the reed at A, called the heel, and always guide the knife to the extremity in order not to make any unevenness. When tonguing notes strongly, especially f and f sharp in the middle register, if one hears a little very high-pitched whistling, it could be that the reed was scraped too much toward the extremity B. It is necessary then to shorten it a very little bit. One feels one's way sometimes quite a long time before arriving at the point one is looking for, but it is necessary not to lose patience, because with the reed brought to this point one can always obtain help by the means indicated above.

If, when one has begun to scrape the inside of the cane, one left the sides too thick, the reed will have a hard sound, very difficult to control and make softer. If on the contrary, one has made them too thin, it will be difficult to make the sides of the reed come together, which gives rise to the whistling of which I have already spoken, and the reed will probably be too weak. Much practice and long experience are necessary to get the thickness which one must give the cane.

They differ from that of the oboe only in their dimensions and in that they are not mounted on metal tubes. The rest is the same.

One takes a piece of cane, figures 24 and 30, from a tube (of cane) a little larger than that used for the oboe, figure 23. Cut to 9 millimeters width by 10 1/2 centimeters length for cor anglais and 10-11 millimeters width by 11 1/2 centimeters length for baritone oboe. Both are hollowed out by means of the gouger and scraper, taking care to leave them at a thickness proportional to their dimensions. After having removed the bark from the middle of the length, AA, figures 24 and 30, one folds them in two and shapes them following the form traced in figures 26 and 31. The first should be 7 millimeters width at A, and, from A to B, a little more than half the length of the reed, there should be the same width. The second should be one millimeter more at the same points.

The cane thus shaped, one ties the two ends together with a little thread, C. One fixes to a solid body the end of an iron wire the size of no. 2 which one uses for piano strings, and one carefully gathers it together. Holding the other end between the fingers, one makes two turns very close, 24 or 25 millimeters from the extremity of either blade, A, figures 27 and 31. One stops these two turns by crossing the wire so as to twist both ends, after which one cuts them with a little pincer. One forms a similar ligature 5 millimeters away from the first, going toward the end fitting of the bocal, B, figures 27 and 31. This distance is 8 millimeters for baritone oboe reeds.

After having bound these two very securely, one unties the little thread C, figure 26 [9] and one splits in small parts of about a millimeter each the cane which is on the side of the second ligature, C, figure 27, so that it takes more easily the round form of the bocal. The pliers, figure 10, help in making this opening from the second ligature to the end at the suitable diameter.

One then inserts the mandrel, figure 28, up to the mark. One forms a third ligature of wire 4 or 5 millimeters from the end of the cane, A. After having drawn up well and cut the ends of the wires, one makes sure that the two parts of the cane are well joined on the sides, and if one is inclined to overlap the other, which happens often, one can pass a knife blade between the blades of cane in order to put again the two parts one against the other.

Finally one takes a heavy silk string, or heavy thread, and one fixes the first turns against the second metal ligature, A, figure 29. Then, bringing together as much as possible the other turns, one winds up to against the ligature of the mandrel B, which one re-covers, continually crossing over it as much thread or silk as is necessary to conceal it. This should form a pad by which one takes the reed to put it on or remove it from the bocal.

As for making the reed speak and finishing it, one sets about it the same as for the oboe, only one reduces the width of the opening, for that of the finished cor anglais reed to 8 1/2 or 8 3/4 millimeters, and for that of the baritone oboe to 10 millimeters. After having cut the extremity of the reed C, figure 29, one adjusts its opening by means of the metal rings. If the reed is too open, it can be closed again by flattening the first ring or by opening the second. One does the opposite if it is necessary to open the reed.

I must speak yet of the tool which I made up completely new, which is the shaper (taille anche), copied from the pen or quill cutter (taille plume) [10] which is used to give the reed its proper form after it is gouged and scraped, figure 16. The design is shown in figure 32. It has the advantage of shaping all reeds to the same width and the same form, of marking by a little shaft the place where the last turn of silk should come, and consequently how far one must advance the cane on the tube. With this tool, one is sure of never straying from the true form of the reed.

I have made models of these tools for shaping cor anglais and baritone oboe reeds. Having these tools made under my supervision, I put my name on all those of which I approve the cut as conforming to the desired dimensions.

FOOTNOTES

1. A summary and general discussion appears in Peter Hedrick, "Henri Brod's Méthode Pour le Hautbois Reconsidered," The Consort, XXX. [return]

2. Francois Garnier's treatment of reeds is summarized in Thomas Warner, "Two Late Eighteenth Century Instructions for Making Double Reeds," GSJ XV, p. 25. [return]

3. Ibid., p. 27. Brod's finished reed was about one millimeter narrower than Garnier's, and the brass staple apparently varied by a millimeter or less. Warner states that Garnier's diagrams are life size. Brod's illustrations are approximately life-size, but they do not always conform strictly to the dimensions he gives in the text. The brass tube in figure 12, for example, measures more than 47 millimeters, while the dimension given in the text is 46 millimeters. [return]

4. These variabilities presented obvious difficulties for any reed maker, and the means for adjusting pitch given by Brod could not have been satisfactory for changes of more than a few cycles per second. Tapering wells into which the string-wrapped tube could be adjusted using more or less string seem to have been in use from the beginnings of the oboe until well into the nineteenth century. The extreme variability of pitch levels prior to and during the nineteenth century is demonstrated in Alexander J. Ellis and Arthur Mendel, Studies In The History Of Musical Pitch (Amsterdam, 1968), pp. 51-54. [return]

5. We looked at a variety of old reeds in the Musée Instrumental du Conservatoire (Paris), the Gemeentemuseum (The Hague), the Horniman Museum (London), the Pitt Rivers Museum (Oxford) and, the most extensive of all, the Morley-Pegge Collection, housed at the Faculty of Music at Oxford. They seemed to come in all shapes and sizes. One should be cautioned that, at some of these places, and likewise in other museums, there were also modern reeds which had been fitted to old double reed instruments so they would look complete. Further, it should be noted that the dimensions of the oboes for which these reeds were made varied considerably more than those of different makers today. [return]

6. c.f. J.F.C. Majer, Museum Musicum (1732). ". . .but in respect of bassoons and oboes one must take special care to use good reeds, and the best masters fashion them themselves to suite their own mouths for a good reed is half of a good performance." [return]

7. Brod is inconsistent here; c.f. comments for figure 2, which are probably correct. [return]

8. Unfortunately the letters for figure 21 in the illustration are missing in the British Museum copy. [return]

9. The illustration contains a misprint; the lower figure 28, to the right of figure 25, should be figure 26. [return]

10. This ingenious device apparently did not catch on, and this writer is aware of no surviving example. [return]

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