richard@richardcraig.com.au
×
CALL 0431 136 839

Oboe

My Howarth Life – Sarah Roper

by

My Howarth Life is a new video series brought to you by Richard Craig Woodwind. Over the coming months, we’ll be interviewing Howarth players from all walks of life to see what it’s like to play these fantastic instruments. We’re really excited to learn different perspectives from oboists around the world ad hope you are too.

Sarah Roper is the Principal Oboe at the Real Orquesta Sinfónica de Sevilla, Spain. She has been playing since age 10 and we were lucky enough to sit down and have a chat to her whilst she was in Australia on her masterclass tour.

The music in the intro/outro is from Albéniz- Tango in D on the CD “Cuarteto Emispherio, Quartets for oboe and strings ” which is available here: http://www.oboeclassics.com/catalogue.htm

Richard Craig Woodwind would like to thank Sarah Roper and Howarth of London for making this video possible.

Violet Wood Rigoutat with Gold Plated Keys

by

This is a sensational instrument. Specially commissioned from Rigoutat by a collector in 1992, it has only been lightly used and is in pristine condition. I’ve just finished a comprehensive service, so this sweet sounding, free blowing oboe is singing beautifully.

It’s a full Gillet system conservatoire pro model with left hand F and C sharp. The gold plated keys look spectacular against the violet wood. There are no cracks and the wood has been thoroughly oiled for maximum protection. Priced at around half of what it would cost new today, this is an opportunity to own a unique, fully professional oboe without paying full price for a new instrument.

Price: AUD $7900

Contact me about this instrument

Oboe Tenon Sleeving

by

The middle tenon on an oboe is a critical part of the structure of the instrument and a good fit ensures that it plays reliably. Most oboes have three links between the top and bottom joints; the right hand trill key, the conservatoire bar and the F#-G# link. There is quite a large margin for error with the first two – they will still work ok if the adjustment isn’t perfect. Not so with the F#-G# link, which connects two pads which have to go down perfectly together. If there is any movement in the tenon joint, it’s impossible to get this link to work reliably. If it’s out one way, the F#-G# link doesn’t work. If it’s out the other way, the F# pad won’t go down and the whole right hand of the instrument won’t work.

The important thing to understand is that the cork does not make the joint stable – it’s just there to make an airtight seal and hold the joint together. The stability comes from a perfect fit on the shoulders of the tenon. These tend to wear and eventually the joint wobbles. This is when it’s time to fix the problem by fitting a sleeve to the tenon and manufacturing new shoulders to eliminate the wobble.

Howarth oboes coming out of the factory are incredibly consistent with the fit of their tenons. Before the cork is fitted, you can feel the shoulders slide into the socket snugly and the joint is stable and firm without the cork. Other manufacturers are not so reliable and sometimes even brand new oboes can have wobbly middle joints.

This video shows my technique, as taught to me at the Howarth workshops in London, of sleeving a tenon with a metal tip.

Like this article? Subsrcibe to the e-newsletter for more content

CES Preserves Endangered Woodwind

by

DEEP IN Croydon’s leafy
suburban sprawl, horns are
rasping, oboes are tooting and
bassoons are honking at the
Centre for Endangered Species (CES), a
scheme which is starting players young on
some of the rarer breeds in the teaching
jungle. But the CES aims not only to teach
these instruments: its job is to foster as
many links, friendships and performing
pathways as possible for its beginner players,
with the hope of filling the seats of the
years to come.
After all, says Bronia Parry, assistant head
of instrumental teaching at Croydon Music
and Arts and director of the scheme, not all
the factors which led to these instruments
becoming dangerously scarce can be rectified
simply by providing more instruments and
teachers:
‘What I wanted to do was give them a
special place, because when you play an
endangered instrument you might be the
only one in the school,’ she says. ‘The idea
was to bring them together and form a club –
“You belong to the CES”. They learn together,
then go through the workshops together,
and eventually go through our whole system
together.
‘And I think it’s interesting why the kids
choose these instruments, because they don’t
want to be just like everybody else. They don’t
want to be like the flute player or the violin
player, they want to be slightly different,
and you get some real characters forming.
So with Conor and Claire  for
instance, we’re going to try to have them as a
pair of horns going right the way through our
system together.’
Martin Grainger is the scheme’s horn
teacher. I’ve watched him sitting with the
group’s young horn players, quietly giving
titbits of advice and chipping in with the
general banter (on first-name terms, but not
unruly) which ripples among the children
and teachers, and I catch him after a lesson
with two older pupils:
‘Obviously when the CES was set up
it was because we all realised we had this
huge shortage of horns, bassoons, double
basses and oboes, and it’s been a really good
response to that: every year we seem to have
more take up.
‘Then there’s a workshop band which
runs for their second year, and we try to
promote the group work as soon as possible
because it’s such a big part of keeping them
interested, musically and socially. And horns
particularly benefit from this kind of teaching
because the horn is difficult to teach with
other brass instruments – something that’s
easy for the horns will be in a tricky key for
the other brass instruments, and vice-versa.’
‘Overall,’ he says, ‘I think it’s been really
successful in promoting these instruments.
We manage to get some good work done
while keeping it nice and relaxed, but the
kids have to want to come here – and so it’s
really nice to hear that they enjoy it.’
Conor, 11, and Claire, 9, have both been
attending the CES since November 2009,
learning the French horn in the group with
teacher Martin Grainger.
Claire started off wanting to play the oboe,
which she tried at one of the taster days which
the centre organises at the beginning of the year:
‘And you could just see that she wasn’t an oboist
or bassoonist,’ says Bronia Parry. ‘She was
blowing so hard – so put her on the French horn!’
‘If I’m tired,’ says Claire, ‘then I blow my French
horn and then I go, “Aaah!” and I wake up!’
So how does Conor find playing the horn?
‘Quite fun, I like it,’ he says, ‘I used to play the
guitar but this is better.’ He plays ‘just for fun,’
he says. ‘I might join the school orchestra or
band or something, but not one that does
anything big on stage.’ Yet he has no problem
with performing at ‘Fairfields or something’,
referring to Croydon’s 2000-seater Fairfield Hall!
Calum, 11, and Seb, 12, both started learning
the bassoon at CES. Calum is in his first year,
and Seb has now moved on to the second year,
having individual lessons with Bronia Parry.
Seb enjoyed the group learning aspect of the
CES’s first year: ‘I liked the bassoon because I
already played the cello and I like the nice low
bass instruments,’ he says. Which does he
prefer? ‘I’m better at the cello! But I like them
both really, for different reasons. I like on the
bassoon that you can go really really high or
really really low – it’s brilliant – whereas on the
cello I only really like going high.’
Calum also plays the flute, but found the
bassoon at a CES taster day, and was surprised
to find the bassoon quite playable. ‘We got to
play all the instruments and I found the bassoon
the easiest. I’m not too sure why because, with
playing the flute, the oboe should’ve been
easiest because of the keys. Anyway, I’ll
definitely carry on with it.’
The Centre for Endangered Species at
Croydon Music and Arts is encouraging
a steady stream of young oboists,
bassoonists and horn players.
Alex Stevens takes a look at its
techniques and future success stories
borough’s top orchestras and ensembles for
www.rhinegold.co.uk/musicteacher

Like this article? Subsrcibe to the e-newsletter for more content

Oboe Tenon Replacement

by

So you left your oboe on the bed, forgot it was there, sat on it and it’s snapped in half at the tenon joint. OMG, my expensive oboe – what a feeling!

Well, this video shows that it can be fixed. This is the first time I fixed a tenon using this technique and it’s one that I learned from my good friend Bernd Moosmann when I visited his bassoon factory near Stuttgart in December 2015. One of the things I find rewarding about being a woodwind technician is constantly refining your skills and learning new tricks. Building good relationships with other repairers is a great help in this. No matter how much experience you have, you can always learn from other people’s experience.

I’ve seen broken tenons fixed by gluing them back together, sometimes with pins to reinforce the joint, but this type of repair never seems to last very long. By counterboring into the instrument and fitting a new piece of wood, you get a much stronger and more stable repair. The crucial thing is to make sure the bore of the new piece matches up exactly with the bore of the instrument, so precise measurement of the bore and making an accurate reamer is essential.

Many years ago I had to fix a broken oboe tenon in a hurry because the player had to use it the next day for an audition. I had to use 5 minute araldite because I didn’t have time for the glue to set overnight. This repair lasted more than ten years of heavy professional use before the glue failed and the replacement tenon came out. I refitted it with full strength epoxy and the instrument is still going strong another ten years on.

Like this article? Subsrcibe to the e-newsletter for more content