My first meeting with the late young Canadian bassoonist, Norman Tobias, took place several summers ago when we shared bassoon duties at the Stratford (Ontario) Shakespeare and opera/concert festival. I was immediately impressed by Norman's unusual talent in being an accomplished artist musician, yet also extremely up-to-date on all things electronic, acoustic, automotive, and mechanical.
During our many talks about everything under the sun, I mentioned to Norman my long-standing interest in the qualities of the French bassoon. Out of this conversation and his own keen curiosity Norman later made friends with the well-known Parisian bassoonist, Paul Hongne. In a brief time Mr. Hongne had picked out a fine new Buffet bassoon for Norman to investigate.
It was the hope of Norman Tobias and Wayland Mosher to combine efforts in producing an all-new bassoon in Canada. Their aim, according to Norman, was to combine the best characteristics of the Heckel bassoon, the Buffet bassoon, and the contrabassoon into a new instrument which might be superior to any in several aspects. It is truly tragic that these hopes were laid to rest when Norman died in an automobile accident two winters ago.
With this issue's article of the current bassoon section of the Toronto Symphony we thought it fitting to add two footnotes about this very rare and gifted young bassoonist: from Wayland Mosher,
" My first meeting with Norman Tobias, as I remember, was at a rehearsal for the Prom concerts in Varsity Arena. He also met Ernie Huggins there, thus beginning a lifelong friendship among the three of us. This, of course, did not exclude other friendships in the bassoon fraternity, but in this instance, the lifelong quality was established all too soon.
Norman was 15 years old at the time, which would make the date around 1951. I still have a small photograph of him at that age, taken for his class picture.
He came to me occasionally for so-called lessons. We mostly just sat around and made reeds and played duets and enjoyed being surrounded by all the collateral that goes with bassoon playing. A typical session would start out on a half-hour basis and would only be interrupted hours later when his mother would phone to find out what had happened to him. His mother and my wife became well acquainted through these phone calls.
Norman was a very complex character. I suppose everybody who knew him has had some experience of this. There was no meanness in him, but he was a master of the put-on, and even his parents were not exempt. . . . One of my favourite examples of his willingness to make personal sacrifices in order to create an incident of bizarre humor involves a taping session where his partner on bassoon was trying to cope with a difficult reed. Norman offered to give him a reed out of his own case, but insisted on testing it first. Apparently he wasn't satisfied with it, so he stubbed it out on his music stand. This went on through several reeds, while his colleague became more and more distressed.
Along with his talents in mechanical, electronic, and other areas, Norman was a natural musician. He admired the artistry of the best players of the French bassoon, and although he played the German system, his playing had the vibrancy and expressiveness that Jancourt must have had in mind when he wrote that of all the instruments, the bassoon is the one which most nearly approaches the quality of the human voice."
And from Nicholas Kilburn,
" The most inquisitive student I have had. A mind that sought the extraordinary. Quiet, purposeful, yet breakfasted with eggs and ice cream. Came for one lesson rather bruised, having driven his motorcycle through a brick wall. Took pride in the strength of his home-built case after absent-mindedly backing his car over it.
Hermann Scherchen was very excited by the principle of the Mosherator, a device for teaching Just Intonation, devised by Wayland Mosher and designed and executed by Norman.
Despite the differences in bassoonistic styles with which he had to work, he never missed an entry and was always able to match timbre, pitch, dynamics, and musical intent.
The range of his interests was truly amazing, yet none of these interfered with his excellence as a performer.
He suffered the true musician's strong doubts about orchestral excellence and longed for a quiet, more peaceful life."