A FOUR YEAR UNDERGRADUATE COURSE OF STUDY FOR THE OBOIST


Florian Mueller
Professor of Music
The University of Michigan

Florian Mueller retires this summer after a distinguished career as performer, teacher, and composer. He came to Ann Arbor from the Chicago Symphony, where he played first oboe for twenty-five seasons.

A four year course at an American university or college should attempt to cover the great literature of the past as well as prepare the student for the performance of the music of the future. This list of 60 odd solos and methods is intended to give a survey of the important music for the oboe.

The music of the Baroque is of course predominant as the bulk of our literature is from this period - the Romantic composers ignored the oboe - and contemporary styles change so often and so radically that it is difficult to tell which music should be studied intensively.

I have tried to make this a basic list. There is certainly more music available and valuable, but I believe that a fundamental schedule of "WHAT EVERY OBOIST OUGHT TO KNOW" is necessary.

I have not graded this music, nor have I indicated any particular sequence to be followed.

The few etudes selected all solve definite problems. Ferling, florid passages in different time values; Prestini, patterns of articulation. These studies should be augmented by scales and by a thorough study of the Daily Exercises for the Flute by Andre Maquarre. Work of this kind will develop a firm and strong technical foundation.

The Baroque sonatas will bring to the student a sense of the great music of the past, as well as showing how the great Romantic masterpieces grew out of them. The teacher should encourage the student to ornament the cadences of Handel, Telemann, and other Baroque writers. This is not too difficult to do and will give the student a sense of making a valid musical contribution, which indeed he is.

The study of twentieth century techniques can be helped by the book by Bartolozzi and the Twenty One Dodecaphonic Studies by Reinhard Luttmann (Leduc). This method combines the study of serial writing plus the use of double and triple tonguing, harmonics, tremolandos, etc. The study of these books plus the "Sonata for Oboe and Harp" of Heinz Holliger will bring the student fairly up-to-date on what has been done for the oboe in the last few years.

The works mentioned in the preceding paragraph are generally deferred until graduate study because the time spent in ensembles and recitals leaves the undergraduate student very little time for things other than fundamentals.

Repertory List

Methods and Duets

Table of Contents