Michel Piguet is professor of oboes and shawms at the Schola Cantorum of Basel and is one of the leading exponents of the baroque oboe in the world. His recent recordings have brought him many Grand Prix du Disque. He has taught the baroque oboe at the Oberlin Conservatory's Baroque Performance Institutes. Piguet has appeared in recitals in the US this fall.
By "Baroque Oboe" one generally means the oboe with two actual keys used around 1650 to 1800. In the classification of "two actual keys" I also include the oboe with three keys. Many instruments in fact dispose of a double key for e-flat, one on the right side of the instrument, the other on the left in order to allow the oboist to use for the lower holes either the right or the left hand. Usually the three-keyed instruments are older than those with two keys, yet there are too many exceptions to establish a rule for the classification of their age according to the number of the keys.
Naturally this definition is only schematical, since the instrument during these one hundred-fifty years developed considerably and one should at least distinguish between the baroque oboe known to Bach and the one for which Mozart composed, that we might call the "rococo Oboe."
The baroque oboe is the result of improvements made to the "renaissance hautbois" at the time of Louis XIV, such as known and described by Praetorius in his "Organographia" 1619 and by Mersenne in his "Harmonie universelle" Paris 1636.
During the 16th and 17th centuries one preferred to play with consorts of homogenous instruments, using bass, tenor, and treble oboes together, as they did with the recorders and viols. However this cannot be considered as a general rule. In England for instance, the broken consort which played with heterogeneous instruments was very popular at the time of Morley (+1604). Gradually the virtuosos preferred a certain tessitura for each instrument, for instance the treble-recorder or the bass-bassoon. The oboe-makers improved thus the treble hautbois (treble shawm) which is the ancestor of the modern oboe. The craftsmen transformed the instruments which were used to play in consorts into soloistic ones: this marks the change from Renaissance into baroque, from polyphony to concerto.
The alterations on the wood-wind instruments made by the craftsmen during the 17th century were mainly the following: they divided the instrument in three parts as to allow an increased accuracy in the bore; they added a key for e-flat to the oboe as they did to the traverse flute; further they doubled the a-hole of the oboe in order that g-sharp and a-flat speak better.
Towards the end of the 17th century the "french hautbois" became through this evolution the most expressive instrument. For instance, the young 11-year old Handel was so enthusiastic over the oboe, that he wrote six trios for two oboes and bass of an extreme difficulty even before he got lessons in composition with Zachow. The baroque oboe which like the traverse flute has a natural tonality of D could reach distant tonalities such as f-sharp min. (Sinfonia from Easter Cantata) of f-min. (Concerto of G. Ph. Telemann).
All these alterations seem to be less important than those made on the recorders or the traverse flute, in which the instrument-makers changed the cylindrical bore of the renaissance to the conical one of the baroque. Still the most important of all alterations on the oboe was the development of the way reeds were made and played on. Unfortunately our information about them is still imperfect and we are forced to base it on suppositions.
Most of the paintings of the middle ages show us the oboist playing with the cheeks blown out, the whole reed-taken into the mouth and vibrating freely. The lips of the player are pressed against a small plate called the "pirouette." This technic is still in use nowadays by Arabian and Balkan folk music-players. We can speak of the modern oboe only since the oboe-players started pressing the reed between their lips. In this way they obtained an increased control of the tone, specially from the dynamic point of view. The sound of the oboe played in the Arabian or Balkan way is similar to the one of the bagpipe. We do not know yet for certain exactly when the definite change of the way of taking the reed into the mouth took place.
It may seem curious to date the development of an instrument on the way it has been played. Yet the reed is the most essential element of the oboe. To illustrate this I will quote the widely held opinion of years ago, that the tone of the baroque oboe must have been harsh and rude. This misunderstanding resulted from the fact that one tried the old museum instruments with modern reeds, the result is disastrous!
The authentic indications concerning the baroque reeds are incomplete; there have been found several wood fragments and several staples, but we do not know which kind of staple belonged to which oboe. The cane-part of the reed is usually shorter and larger than that of our modern reeds and the staple is longer.
The problem of the way a baroque oboe should be played is therefore much harder to solve than that of the traverse flute or the recorder. We have to rebuild at first the principal part of the instrument - the reed - before any successful results can be obtained.
Compared with the oboe used nowadays, the baroque oboe had a very large bore, which got during the 18th century gradually narrower. This was a constant evolution, starting with the first types of the oboes made around 1700 by Rouge, Haka, Rippert, Richters, Terton, Denner, Stanesby; then Schlegel, Rottenburgh, Bizey, Anciuti, continuing with the rococo oboe of Mozart's time made by Grundmann, Delusse, Engelhardt, Milhouse and ending with the Triebert oboe of 1830. Since that date the bore stays almost unchanged but the holes get gradually larger.
The result of these alterations on the tone is double: the tone of the baroque instrument is less piercing, it is rounder than that of the modern one. Its response is on the contrary unstable but it has to be so that one may get the octave with the lips and without the aid of a key. On the modern oboe it is impossible to get the octave properly only with the lips.
The instruments around 1700 are tuned lower than our present-day instruments; the pitch varies between half a tone to a whole tone lower. The rococo instruments are tuned nearly as high as nowadays.
One may ask what interest there is in relearning to play a two-keyed oboe. Several reasons seem essential to me: the baroque oboe which would hardly fulfill the requirements of Ravel or Stravinsky, reply perfectly to those of Bach or Handel. Our modern oboe, on the contrary, over-charged with keys and made to sound in concert-halls of 1,000 to 2,000 seats, would not fulfill the requirements of musicians of the 18th century, who used to play in much smaller rooms.
The relation between the size of the hall and the instruments in use or the way of playing them is very important. This relation has marked the evolution of the instruments in general since the French revolution. As for the piano or the violin on which the string-makers intensified considerably the tone during the 19th century, the alterations on the oboe lead to find a tone which could be heard out of a bigger orchestra and carry through a larger hall. At this point I would like to mention that the evolution of the concert-halls has, with the construction of "Festival Hall" and the "Philarmonie" of Berlin reached a new stage since the second world war.
The modern oboe has therefore a larger dynamic scale, a more constant timbre and a tone which must be heard at a certain distance. The baroque oboe sounds better when near and its scale of timbre is richer than that of the modern one. It is hence at an advantage in a small room.
Considering the intensity of tone, I notice when playing the modern oboe together for instance with a recorder, a harpsichord and a bass viol, the oboist must restrain the tone so that his partners may also be heard. The relation between the instruments is in this case falsified, since the recorder can give its full tone while the modern oboe at the same time cannot unfold freely the timbre for which it was built. It is artificial to play softly a piece of music which should be played loudly. With the baroque oboe the balance between the above mentioned instruments is perfect.
The baroque oboe needs a weaker air pressure than the modern one. The scale of articulation is hence richer; it is much easier to shade tonguing and to play for instance "portato" ("loure" in French) i.e., almost slurred. Also the typical baroque way of articulation with the syllable "tiri" comes much easier played on an old oboe. On the other hand "true" slurs are more difficult over the third and this would oblige the oboist to reconsider the "traditional" articulations as they are taught nowadays in the conservatories.
The adding of keys is not only progress as many might think. Keys are often a handicap in playing ornamentations. With keys it is not possible to play the "softening" or lesser shake that is possible with finger vibrato. This ornamentation was very much in use during the renaissance and the baroque time and is still in use by Balkan folk musicians. Besides, the musicians of the 18th century did not play in "equal temperament" as we do today, but in the mean tone temperament, which was in use up to Bach. J. S. Bach, who was one of the first to favour a well-tempered keyboard instrument, which allowed him to modulate in all tonalities, had to content himself on Sundays with an organ tuned in the mean tone temperament and with musicians who tuned after the organ. Long after Bach the mean tone temperament remained in use. In England in 1860 all the organs were still tuned in the mean tone temperament, except some instruments made by French or German artisans. Quantz, after Bach's death, wished to add a second key to the traverse flute: one to play a low d sharp and the other for e flat, giving a distinctly higher tone.
The natural scale of the baroque oboe as well as that of the traverse flute is much nearer to the mean tone than to our actual temperament. The adjunction of keys at the end of the 18th century is not so much to avoid "fork-fingering" but mainly in order to tune equally the wind instruments.
As a conclusion I would like to mention a last reason to relearn playing the baroque oboe. One does not play in the same way an easy piece of music and a difficult one. The sonatas and the concerti of the 18th century are difficult for the musician who plays on a two-keyed oboe. They are easy, or almost for the instrumentalist who uses a modern oboe. Using again an instrument of the 18th century in order to play the literature of the baroque one finds oneself facing problems of articulation and tempi which the musicians of that period had to solve. This experience helps one to find a tone, a frame, a style, in one word, an interpretation worthy of this name.