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"Oboe"
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Timbral cues underlie instrument-specific absolute pitch in expert oboists
While absolute pitch (AP)—the ability to identify musical pitches without external reference—is rare even in professional musicians, anecdotal evidence and case-report data suggest that some musicians without traditional AP can nonetheless better name notes played on their musical instrument of expertise than notes played on instruments less familiar to them. We have called this gain in AP ability “instrument-specific absolute pitch” (ISAP). Here, we report the results of the first two experiments designed to investigate ISAP in professional oboists. In Experiment 1 ( n = 40), superiority for identifying the pitch of oboe over piano tones varied along a continuum, with 37.5% of oboists demonstrating significant ISAP. Variance in accuracy across pitches was higher among ISAP-possessors than ISAP-non-possessors, suggestive of internalized timbral idiosyncrasies, and the use of timbral cues was the second-most commonly reported task strategy. For both timbres, both groups performed more accurately for pitches associated with white than black piano keys. In Experiment 2 ( n = 12), oboists with ISAP were less accurate in pitch identification when oboe tones were artificially pitch-shifted. The use of timbral idiosyncrasies thus may constitute a widespread mechanism of ISAP. Motor interference, conversely, did not significantly reduce accuracy. This study offers the first evidence of ISAP among highly trained musicians and that reliance on subtle timbral (or intonational) idiosyncrasies may constitute an underlying mechanism of this ability in expert oboists. This provides a path forward for future studies extending the scientific understanding of ISAP to other instrument types, expertise levels, and musical contexts. More generally, this may deepen knowledge of specialized expertise, representing a range of implicit abilities that are not addressed directly in training, but which may develop through practice of a related skill set.
Journal Article
Problems of oboe teaching in a time of the COVID-19 pandemic
In the modern world, there are an enormous number of changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This fact influences all areas and, in particular, music education. The connection between the pandemic and changes in music education related to oboe teaching will be considered in this work. The research investigates the correlation between music education (oboe teaching) and education modes (offline and online). This correlation was tested for veracity by using statistical analysis of data sets (Student and Shapiro-Wilk tests). These data sets were obtained using a survey that evaluated practice and theoretical skills. The participants were categorized into two distinct groups for this investigation: the control group, characterized by offline education during the experimental phase, and the experimental group, which encompassed both offline and online educational modalities. The survey contained different tasks that illustrated students’ evaluations of their improvements in learning to play the oboe. A fundamental objective of this study involves substantiating the conjecture that online education, particularly in the context of the pandemic, exerts an adverse impact on oboe pedagogy. It was shown from the results (teachers’ interviews) that some problems (like lack of connection with teachers, problems related to self-education, and students’ cheating) have a negative impact on learning to play the oboe, especially on practice skills. However, most of the students evaluated their improvements at a high level, but this perspective lacked empirical basis. It should be noted that there was some improvement in theoretical knowledge, but almost all teachers thought this fact was related to cheating. It also should be noted that students evaluated their skills in the period of offline education lower than teachers.
Journal Article
The skin above my knee : a memoir
\"Music was everything for Marcia Butler. Growing up in an emotionally desolate home with an abusive father and a distant mother, she devoted herself to the discipline and rigor of the oboe, and quickly became a young prodigy on the rise in New York City's competitive music scene. But haunted by troubling childhood memories while balancing the challenges of a busy life as a working musician, Marcia succumbed to dangerous men, drugs, and self-destruction. In her darkest moments, she asked the hardest question of all: could music truly save her life?\"--Amazon.com.
Book
The Organist of Ponikla
In his hand he carried an oboe, on his head an unlined cap, in his stomach a few glasses of arrack, in his heart delight, and in his soul great cause for happiness, for that morning he had signed a contract with Father Krajewski to be organist of the church of Ponikła. Until then, he had roamed about like a sad gypsy, from inn to inn, from wedding to wedding, from country fair to country fair, from one church to another, trying hard to earn whatever he could by playing his oboe or the organ, on which he was more proficient than any of the local musicians. The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the tolling of the great bells and the tinkling of the smaller ones, together with the odor of myrrh, ambergris, and fragrant herbs, the flickering of the candles, and the glitter of the monstrance, all combined to uplift the souls of the people so they felt the nearness of the Great Divine. The good old priest, raising, and lowering the Host, closed his eyes in ecstasy, and Klen did the same in the organ loft; and it seemed to him that the organ played itself; that voices of the metal pipes were rising like waves, flowing like rivers, thundering like cataracts, pattering like rain; it seemed as if they were flooding the church, as if they were flowing under the vaults and before the altar, in the clouds of incense, in the sunshine, and in the souls of his hearers; one voice threatening and majestic, like a thunderbolt, others like human voices, still others like the tender notes of the nightingale. On the deserted road, between frozen meadows buried under the snow that changed from red to blue in the faint evening light, he carried his joy like a bright lantern that lighted his way in the increasing darkness.
Journal Article
Variations in timbre qualia with register and dynamics in the oboe and French horn
Many musical instruments produce a myriad of sound colors resulting from diverse playing techniques, both traditional and extended. Such techniques include parameters that are often regularly manipulated in music, such as pitch, intensity (dynamics), articulation style, and duration. Despite the likely contribution of such timbral variations to musical experience, within-instrument timbral flexibility and its semantic consequences have not been addressed empirically. Participants rated sounds produced by the oboe and the French horn on 12 combinations of register and dynamics using the 20-dimensional timbre qualia model from Reymore and Huron (2020). Data are modeled with Exploratory Factor Analysis, partial proportional odds regressions, and random forest classifiers. Although trends between ratings and register/dynamics emerged, the results illustrate the complexity of within-instrument timbral variability. Some trends were approximately linear, others demonstrated non-linear patterns, and some timbre qualia dimensions displayed interactions between register and dynamics. While certain trends were shared between the oboe and French horn, such as an increase in sparkling/brilliant ratings with register, others seem to be unique to each instrument, such as the relationship of ratings of woody to register for the oboe or of ratings of muted/veiled to dynamics for the horn. Results demonstrate that within-instrument timbral variability based on dynamic and register is apparent to listeners and that semantic interactions among parameters can be present. The methodology established in this paper can be extended to address within-instrument timbral flexibility with respect to articulation, duration, and other sources of variation for any instrument or group of instruments.
Journal Article
A case series of wind instrument players with cleft lip and/or palate
It might be more difficult for patients with cleft lip and/or palate (CL/P) to generate sufficient muscle tension of the upper lip and intraoral air pressure to play a wind instrument. We aimed to explore and describe the key aspects of wind instrument playing with a repaired cleft. An in-depth interview was conducted among ten patients with CL/P and one with a functionally comparable problem and we found that: individuals with CL/P can achieve a professional level on a wind instrument; the oboe and trumpet may be less suitable for patients with CL/P because of the high lip muscle tension and intraoral air pressure that must be generated; air leakage through a fistula, unrepaired alveolus or velopharyngeal insufficiency can be troublesome; and for people with CL/P, a brass instrument with a large mouthpiece is easier than a small mouthpiece. While dentists, doctors and music teachers should discuss the probability that wind instrument playing might be more difficult for patients with CL/P, they should not discourage it.Key pointsTo play a wind instrument, two aspects are important: 1) the amount of muscle tension that can be generated with the lips (especially for high notes); and 2) the air pressure that must be generated in the mouth (without escaping through the nose). For both reasons, the oboe and trumpet may be less suitable (to start with) for patients with a cleft lip and/or palate.Air leakage through a fistula, unrepaired alveolus or velopharyngeal insufficiency can be troublesome.With a brass instrument, the upper lip should be able to vibrate. Scar tissue can be disruptive in this regard. A brass instrument with a larger mouthpiece is, therefore, easier to play for patients with a cleft lip than one with a small mouthpiece.
Journal Article
Venetian Three-Voice Ripieno String Scoring in J. S. Bach’s Early Concerted Works
In this study, I argue that when Johann Sebastian Bach traveled to Dresden in the fall of 1717 to take part in a keyboard contest with the French claveciniste Louis Marchand, he encountered Venetian composers at the electoral court whose music had a powerful impact on the compositional style of the concerted instrumental and vocal music he composed while in the Saxon capital and soon after. This Venetian influence manifested itself above all in a specific instrumentation—three-voice ripieno string scoring. This scoring differs from the more normal four-voice ripieno string scoring for two violins, viola, and continuo, in that there is only a single violin voice, either because the two violins are doubled at the unison or because there is only a single violin part. Being able to date certain of the composer’s works to the period from approximately late 1717 through early 1718 has important ramifications for the chronology of the composer’s early concerted instrumental music as a whole. As such, I would suggest that this scoring can serve as an important “chronological marker” in Bach’s works, both vocal and instrumental.
Journal Article
EAST TENNESSEE STATE UNIVERSITY REED DAY 2022
The fifth annual East Tennessee State University Reed Day took place on Saturday, February 19, 2022. The workshop was directed by Lisa Perry, assistant professor of clarinet, and Heather Killmeyer, associate professor of double reeds, and was coordinated through the ETSU Reed Club, a student-led organization featuring students that play clarinet, oboe, bassoon and saxophone. Over 120 students, music educators and community music lovers from the Appalachian region of East Tennessee and Southwest Virginia visited campus for a day of master classes, clinics, performances and more.
Journal Article