Double Reed 70 cover - British Double Reed Society

No.85 

Double Reed News 

www.bdrs.org.uk registered charity number 1080461 

The magazine of the British Double Reed Society 

Oboe Joint 

President 

Winter 2008 

Karl Jenkins 

Photo: Mitch Jenkins

“ 

Words from 

our Chairman 

Robert Codd 

” 

As I write, one season slips imperceptibly into the next and the torrential 

downpours of ‘Summer’ are giving way to the persistent drizzle of Autumn, so it is 

time to take stock of the events of the past three months. We begin with some very 

positive news. We now have both of our Presidents in place. Representing the 

bassoon is Roger Bernstingl, one of the really great players of all time and a hero 

of my student days. I was able to hear him play again, about three years ago, in a 

vast, cavernous church in the South Wales valleys. The playing was as immaculate 

as ever; the tone beautiful and centred, the phrasing full of subtlety and the spirit 

of the pieces effortlessly conveyed. Roger has said how honoured he is to be our 

President, and we are fortunate indeed to have him. 

Our oboe President may come as a surprise to some people; Karl Jenkins, 

composer of Adiemus and The Armed Man, among many other pieces. Karl was 

elected democratically by the Committee from a list of eight candidates and, like 

Roger, was surprised and pleased to be approached. I am particularly delighted, 

because he is an old friend, going back to student days in Cardiff University when, 

as a small group of instrumentals – players rather than ‘musicians’ (they were the 

pianists and organists) – we used to sit together in the Professor’s room to discuss 

all aspects of music. 

“How many editions of Palestrina are there in the Library?” 

“Um, two, Professor?” 

“Very good. Which are they?” Long pause. 

“The red ones and the green ones.” 

This was musicology of the highest order. Karl was an oboist and went on to study 

at the Royal Academy of Music. A sensitive and thoughtful musician, his career led 

him to jazz – on oboe, piano and saxophones, especially baritone – which he 

played in a highly personal and expressive way, before his skills in improvisation, 

arranging and composing led him into the field that has now made him renowned 

throughout the world. Although he has parted company with most of his 

instruments, he still has his oboe, his true musical soul. 

I am looking forward to renewing acquaintances with both Roger and Karl and I 

feel that their influence will be highly stimulating and beneficial to the Society. 

I had four weeks with the National Children’s Orchestra during which we had 

spring and autumn in Yorkshire, freezing rain in Derbyshire, and intense heat in 

Italy. I was able to work with most of the oboes and bassoons (approximately 

twenty of each) currently playing in the six age-related orchestras. These are, of 

course, talented and motivated children, but I was very impressed by how well 

they had been taught, and by the superb instruments they were using! 

(I surreptitiously moved my ancient Heckel, all rubber bands and fag papers, 

into a dark corner.) 

Highlights of the month included 

a heart-rending performance of Home 

Sweet Home from the Henry Wood Sea 

Songs, by a 12-year old girl, and some 

magnificent contra playing in the 

Sorcerer’s Apprentice from a 12-year old 

boy who was completely obscured by 

the instrument which appeared to have 

eaten him. 

The final word must go to the great 

bustards mentioned in last edition. 

Great news: two were spotted by a 

BDRS member on the River Severn in 

Gloucestershire! Let’s hope that both they 

and the NCO young double readers will 

continue to flourish. 

In this Issue... 

3 Chairman’s Comments 

Robert Codd 

4 Editorial 

Clive Fairbairn 

5 Happy 20th Birthday, BDRS! 

Anthony Allcock, Peta MacRae 

7 Presidential Acceptance Message 

Karl Jenkins 

10 Reports and News 

Geoffrey Bridge, Marjorie Downward 

Lucy Jurd, Shea Lolin, John Waite 

14 Arias with Obbligato Bassoon 

Jim Stockigt 

19 The Oboe Band 

Sarah Humphrys 

21 Milde has a face! 

David McGill 

26 Facsimilies by Fuzeau 

Geoffrey Burgess 

34 Bassonicus 

Jefferey Cox 

36 Under Foreign Skies: 

Havana and Australia 

Aimara Magana Soler, Celia Craig 

39 Reviews 

Emily Askew, Geoffrey Bridge, 

Richard Moore, Graham Sheen 

43 Noticeboard 

44 Classified 

45 Advertising, Membership, etc 

Double Reed News 85 Winter 2008 3

British Double Reed Society 

www.bdrs.org.uk 

enquiries@bdrs.org.uk 

Joint Presidents 

Roger Birnstingl, Karl Jenkins 

Chairman 

Robert Codd 

chairman@bdrs.org.uk 

Secretary 

Maxine Moody 

5 North Avenue, 

Stoke Park, Coventry CV2 4DH 

0247 665 0322 

secretary@bdrs.org.uk 

Treasurer 

Geoffrey Bridge 

House of Cardean 

Meigle, Perthshire PH12 8RB 

treasurer@bdrs.org.uk 

Committee 

Jenny Caws, Jefferey Cox, Ian Finn 

Sarah Francis, Christine Griggs 

Anthony McColl, John Myatt 

Membership 

Dr Christopher Rosevear 

membership@bdrs.org.uk 

Education 

education@bdrs.org.uk 

Legal Services Co-ordinator 

Nigel Salmon 

4 Portelet Place, Hedge End 

Southampton, Hants SO30 0LZ 

BDRS Web Manager 

website@bdrs.org.uk 

Double Reed News 

Clive Fairbairn, Editor 

Editorial Office DRN, P.O. Box 713 

High Wycombe HP13 5XE 

Editorial enquiries only: 

Tel/Fax: 01494 520359 

drn@bdrs.org.uk 

Advertising, Membership and other 

BDRS/DRN details – see page 45 

ISSN 1460-5686 

4 Double Reed News 85 Winter 2008 

The Editor’s Comment 

Please raise a glass or two as soon as you receive this magazine 

(it’s always good to have an excuse) to the BDRS, because it will 

be 20 years to the month – possibly even the day – since that first 

official meeting set the aims and objectives for the Society we 

know today. Read a little more about it in this issue and spare a 

thought for the hard-working committee that will have to consume 

copious amounts of birthday cake being baked for the anniversary 

committee meeting! 

Now that you have a glass in hand and can relax with your 

favourite magazine, take a look at Karl Jenkins’ presidential 

acceptance message, or Jim Stockigt’s cornucopia of bassoon 

obbligati with which you can contemplate delighting your 

soprano/tenor friend in harmonious duet; or admire the energy and 

determination of Aimara Magana Soler to run her reed-making 

courses in Cuba despite all the difficulties; perhaps gaze for the 

first time at the face of Ludvík Milde whose studies are so well 

known but whose life is a mystery. 

You will also be able to read about other pioneers who have 

formed The Oboe Band, modelled on the baroque bands in Europe 

three centuries ago; and Bassonicus considers Beethoven, whilst 

Burgess reviews the Fuzeau Facsimiles. Top all that up (and your 

glass if necessary) with reports, reviews and other sundries: you 

may even need another bottle! 

As usual at this point in the year, and while contemplating joyful 

celebrations, we at BDRS and DRN would like to wish all our 

many members and readers a very happy Christmas followed by a 

fruitful and prosperous New Year. 

Clive Fairbairn 

CHANDOS CD OFFER 

Chandos Records Ltd and the British Double Reed Society 

are delighted to be collaborating on a Reader Offer which 

will allow members of BDRS to purchase its new recording 

of the BBC2 Classical Star Karen Geoghegan playing 

concertos and other works with the Orchestra of Opera 

North at a special price. Please see page 32 for details.

Happy 20th Birthday, BDRS! 

The event was held alongside the annual 

conference of BASBWE (the British 

Association of Symphonic Bands and 

Wind Ensembles) by whose courtesy the 

facilities at Warwick were made 

available. Indeed, the distant sounds of 

practising and performing groups and 

bands, to say nothing of the more 

On the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of the conception of the British Double Reed Society, we reprint 

Anthony Allcock’s article from issue 5 of DRN. During the inaugural committee meeting to which he refers 

(changed from 16th to 15th November 1988) he was elected Chairman, and a brief report of that occasion 

follows reprinted from issue 6. 

Warwick University, 17th September 1988 

A personal view by Anthony Allcock.. A series of meetings or seminars for double reed players, organised by 

George Caird under the auspices of the Radcliffe Trust, has been held over the past two years or so at several 

venues up and down the country. I attended the most recent, in the Arts Centre at Warwick University. 

immediate music of the saxophone 

quartet during our lunch break, showed 

us something of the lively proceedings 

forming just a part of the BASBWE 

conference. The trade fair was also well 

supported, extensive and interesting – a 

view enhanced only partially by my free 

glass of wine! 

But the Double Reed Seminar was 

independent of BASBWE. Attended rather 

thinly, possibly due to the affects of the 

postal strike, it nevertheless seemed to me 

particularly successful. There were several 

components, only some of which, of 

course, I could attend and I regretted 

missing most of those aimed principally 

at bassoonists. First, a session for teachers 

of the oboe, run by Irene Pragnell and 

Anna Evans, whose joint approach 

covered a wide range of teaching points 

which in turn led to highly beneficial 

discussion. For me, and I suspect for 

many others, this was an excellent 

session; I have been teaching the oboe 

now for… rather a long time and I found 

myself learning. The whole was assisted 

by some fine demonstrations by pupils 

and by a relatively relaxed atmosphere 

throughout. Teachers need this kind of 

meeting. Moreover, such an event can 

encourage us all to break the barriers 

which can put limitations on our use of 

the best teaching methods. I spoke later 

to several young pupils and students, 

and I found a uniformly high opinion of 

the session. 

Before lunch, and therefore before we 

were regaled elsewhere by the saxophone 

quartet, William Waterhouse, John 

Orford, George Caird, Robin Canter and 

Graham Salter played a short programme 

ranging from Fasch and Beethoven to 

Berio and I940s jazz – superb! Several 

people said they believed that to be a 

very important part of the event: high 

standards, fine music-making, a brand 

new piece, something for everyone and 

the whole thing hugely enjoyable. I felt 

that the morning had fully recharged my 

batteries. 

A short session on reed-making was one 

option after lunch. I preferred to use one 


of my miserable existing reeds and join a 

group of goodness-knows-how-many 

oboes and cors to play a series of 

arrangements in umpteen parts for oboe 

wind-band. I regretted having left my 

d’amore at home for I found myself, 

along with George Caird, transposing the 

d’amore parts back on to the oboe; of 

course, I should find transposing easier 

than I do. The event, or rather the people 

attending it, encouraged that kind of 

whole involvement: an occasion on 

which the professional players, the 

teachers, the students and the younger 

pupils all played together – just for the 

fun of it. It sounded good too. 

What may be the most important part of 

the day at Warwick, however, formed the 

final session. After an initial attempt a 

year or so ago, the first positive steps 

Imagine the scene on a rather grey 

November day in 1988: a well-known 

bassoonist, a group of professional and 

amateur oboists and one teacher, all 

sitting around a table in Islington, North 

London, trying to form the British Double 

Reed Society. Many promising and 

exciting ideas were bandied about that 

day, aided maybe by supplies of red 

wine and biscuits. Offers of support had 

obviously flooded in and it was agreed 

that the Society should exist… but would 

anyone actually join? I expected to return 

home from work to find evidence of an 

overworked postman; but initially things 


were taken to form a British Double Reed 

Society. The commitment was there; 

establishing it was felt to be important. As 

a result the first exploratory meeting of a 

small committee is to be held on I6th 

November at which the aims, the 

objectives and the constitution of the 

incipient Society will no doubt be 

discussed – in time for the Double 

Reed event to be held in Glasgow on 

Sunday 27th November. One function 

of the Society must certainly be to 

ensure the success of events for 

bassoonists and oboists such as that 

held at Warwick. 

Did I leave Warwick feeling totally 

uncritical? No. I believed that, despite the 

postal strike, more may have attended if 

the full programme had been made clear 

in the basic publicity. Such a programme 

Membership Secretary’s First Report 

by Peta MacRae, February 1989 

seemed very quiet. This, however, was the 

calm before a storm, for ever since the 

Double Reed Day in Glasgow on 27th 

November there has been a steady stream 

of letters from budding BDRS members. 

At the time of writing, our most northerly 

member lives up in Thurso (North 

Scotland); however the whole country is 

well represented and we even have 

correspondents in Norway and 

West Germany. The ever-increasing 

membership list currently has a ratio of 

about three oboists to two bassoonists, 

with a small number of members playing 

ought to be seen to cater for all 

potentially interested groups. Experience 

will have revealed areas of success and of 

shortcomings, and these should certainly 

influence future content – at least as far 

as the funding allows. The cost to the 

participants has to be kept down too, so 

that even the youngest interested pupils 

feel that they can join these worthwhile 

events. As an outsider unaware of the 

inner machinations, I wondered whether 

some form of association within the 

BASBWE framework might be one aspect 

that the new ‘steering committee’ of the 

British Double Reed Society might 

usefully explore. 

At the end of the day I felt the need to 

thank the organisers and the contributors 

for a highly successful and encouraging 

event. 

both instruments. However, and this must 

underline the attractions of the idea of 

joining the BDRS, we have one flautist! 

We must ensure that we serve his double 

reed interests at least as well as the Flute 

Society serves those of the flute. The 

overwhelming impression I have gained 

from the correspondence so far is one of 

tremendous support, and that this is a 

very worthwhile endeavour. 

I am waiting to hear from many more 

double reed players, so please spread 

the word! At this stage of the Society’s 

growth, bigger would mean better!

Photo: Mitch Jenkins President’s 

Acceptance Message 

“My oboe playing began when I was at school, at Gowerton 

Grammar School, in South Wales. John Anderson later went there! 

I quickly progressed through the ranks of school, West Glamorgan 

and Glamorgan Youth Orchestras eventually to become a very 

nervous Principal in the National Youth Orchestra of Wales. As is 

often the case in these conglomerations there were about seven 

oboes. Down the line was a youngster called David Theodore. I 

wonder what became of him! I then went on to Cardiff University 

where I read music followed by a post-graduate year at the Royal 

Academy of Music, where I studied with Leonard Brain. 

“During my teenage years I had developed a keen interest in jazz 

and eventually became one of the few jazz oboists in captivity, also playing sax and piano in bands 

like Ronnie Scott’s, Nucleus and Soft Machine. There were about three of us ‘globally’ who attempted 

this difficult task: a guy called Bob Cooper who was primarily a sax player in the Stan Kenton Band 

and another sax player called Yusef Lateef. I remember us warming up in adjacent dressing rooms at 

the Montreux Jazz Festival – what a racket! 

“I played a Marigaux by the way. Once I got into composition, the oboe stayed in the case so it is 

therefore with great embarrassment that I have accepted this position. Anyway, I did play one once.” 

Karl Jenkins was born in Wales and 

educated at Gowerton Grammar School 

before reading music at the University of 

Wales, Cardiff. He then commenced 

postgraduate studies at the Royal 

Academy of Music, London. 

It was in jazz that he initially made his 

mark. In those days of ‘Jazz Polls’ he 

was a prolific poll winner, playing at 

London’s famous Ronnie Scott’s club 

before co-forming Nucleus, which won 

first prize at the Montreux jazz festival 

and appeared at the Newport Jazz 

Festival, Rhode Island. 

Dr. Karl Jenkins OBE B.Mus FRAM ARAM LRAM FRWCMD FTCC 

Oboe President of the British Double Reed Society 

Acceptance Message 

Biography 

This was followed by a period with Soft 

Machine, one of the seminal bands of the 

70s. Through many incarnations, ‘Softs’ 

defied categorisation, playing venues as 

diverse as Carnegie Hall, The Proms at 

the Royal Albert Hall and the Reading 

Rock Festival. 

In the field of advertising music he 

has won the prestigious D&AD award 

for best music [twice], the ‘Creative 

Circle Gold’ and several ‘Clios’ (New 

York) and ‘Golden Lions’ (Cannes). 

Credits include Levi’s, British Airways, 

Renault, Volvo, C&G, Tag Heuer, Pepsi 

as well as US/global campaigns for 

De Beers and Delta Airlines and 

Bafta ‘gongs’ for his scores for the 

documentaries The Celts and 

Testament. 

After this period as a media composer, 

his return to the music mainstream was 

initially marked by the success of the 

Adiemus project. Adiemus, combining a 

classical base with ethnic vocal sounds, 

ethnic percussion and an invented 

language, topped classical and pop charts 

around the world, gaining 17 gold or 

platinum album awards while performing 


in Tokyo, Madrid, London, Helsinki, 

Munich, etc. 

The Armed Man; A Mass For Peace, 

commissioned by the Royal Armouries 

for the millennium and premiered at the 

Royal Albert Hall, London has had over 

four hundred performances in recent 

years, while the CD, featuring the 

National Youth Choir of Great Britain and 

the London Philharmonic Orchestra, has 

gained Gold Disc status in the UK. 

Works include the harp concerto Over 

The Stone commissioned by HRH the 

Prince of Wales for the Royal Harpist, 

Catrin Finch, the concertante, Quirk, 

commissioned by the London Symphony 

Orchestra and conducted by Sir Colin 

Davies as part of its 2005 centenary 

season, Tlep written for virtuoso violinist 

Marat Bisengaliev and based on Kazak 

themes, and In These Stones Horizons 

Sing, featuring Bryn Terfel and Catrin 

Finch with the Welsh National Opera 

Orchestra and Chorus, which was 

premiered at the Royal Gala opening of 

the Welsh Millennium Centre in the 

presence of HM The Queen. 


In the summer of 2005 he scored the 

feature film, River Queen starring Kiefer 

Sutherland and Samantha Morton, the 

soundtrack of which won the Golden 

Goblet award for best score at the 

Shanghai Film Festival. 

Recent CD releases include Requiem, 

which went to No.1 in the UK classical 

charts, Kiri Sings Karl with Dame Kiri Te 

Kanawa, and This Land Of Ours, a 

musical celebration of Welsh culture 

featuring the Cory Band (winners of the 

2007 British Open Championship) and 

the male choir, Only Men Aloud. Stabat 

Mater was released by EMI Classics on 

March 9th prior to the premier at 

Liverpool Cathedral on March 15th, 

while Quirk, a collection of concertos, 

was released on Oct 4th. 

Karl has been the subject of the ITV 

South Bank Show with Melvyn Bragg, 

as well as a castaway on Desert 

Island Discs. 

In 2004 he entered Classic FM’s ‘Hall of 

Fame’ at No.8, the highest position for a 

living composer, and has been the highest 

placed living composer since, as 

well as in 2006 No.4 amongst 

British composers. 

Karl holds a D.Mus from the University of 

Wales, has been made both a Fellow and 

an Associate of the Royal Academy of 

Music, where a room has been named in 

his honour, and has fellowships at Cardiff 

University, the Royal Welsh College of 

Music and Drama, Trinity College 

Carmarthen, Swansea Institute, and 

was presented by Classic FM with the 

‘Red f’ award for ‘outstanding service to 

classical music’. 

He was recently awarded an honorary 

doctorate from the University of Leicester, 

the Chancellor’s Medal from the 

University of Glamorgan and two 

Honorary visiting Professorships, 

one at Thames Valley University/London 

College of Music and the other at the 

ATriUM, Cardiff. 

Karl Jenkins was made an OBE by 

HM The Queen in the 2005 New Years 

Honours List ‘for services to music’.


Reports and News 

Continuing my show of disappointment 

that no Brits appear in these competitions, 

here are the results of the German 

Broadcasting Union Bassoon Competition 

(Munich 13th September 2008) 

announced on the 17th September. 

The first prize, which was awarded for the 

very first time in the 57 years of the 

competition, went to 29-year old Marc 

Trénel from France. He had already 

played as Solo Bassoon in the Orchestre 

de Paris and is about to join the Tonhalle 

Orchestra in Zurich as Principal Solo 

Bassoon. He has CDs to his credit of 

music by Skalkottas, Dutilleux and 

other French composers and is a 

Professor at the Paris Conservatoire. 

He is an ex-pupil of Pascal Gallois and 

Sergio Azzolini. 

The second prize was awarded to 

Christian Kunert, a German player who 

has been a guest Principal Bassoon with 

the NDR Orchestra in Hamburg and from 

2004 has been Principal Bassoon for the 

Hamburg State Opera. He is 25 years old. 

Set in a magnificent central London 

venue, the East London Clarinet 

Choir will be presenting its second 

Woodwind Orchestra Playday at the 

Regent Hall on 31st January 2009. 

Open to all orchestral woodwind 

instrumentalists, the day will 

encompass original repertoire and 

popular arrangements lead by some 

of the country’s leading specialists 

including Richard Dickins, 

Caroline Franklyn, Paul Harris and 

James Rae. 

ARD Munich Competition results 

Geoffrey Bridge bemoans the continuing apparent lack of interest from British players. 


A joint second prize and the audience 

prize was awarded to Italian bassoonist 

Philipp Tutzer. He is also 25 years old 

and from 2007 has been the Principal 

Bassoon for the Salzburg Mozarteum 

Orchestra. 

The third prize went to 28-year old 

Vaclav Vonáek from the Czech Republic. 

He is currently a member of the Czech 

Philharmonic. 

As in the previous double reed 

competition held last year for oboe 

there were no British entries who 

successfully made the final rounds. The 

oboe competition in 2007 had 60 

players in the finals and this year there 

were 40 bassoonists who successfully 

made the ‘cut’. Those players – from 

both double reed competitions in 2007 

and 2008 – came from many parts of 

the globe: USA, Korea, China, Japan, 

most of the European countries 

amongst them. 

Alas no Brits. 

Woodwind Orchestra Playday 

from Shea Lolin, a playing day with a difference – and a discount! 

Oboists and bassoonists are invited to 

come along for a chance to meet other 

woodwind players, make music and 

browse the great selection of trade stands 

including Clarinet Classics and Rosetti; 

also Wood, Wind & Reed (Cambridge) 

will be selling printed music, CDs, 

instruments, accessories and offering 

instrument repairs by its in-house 

technician and director Daniel Bangham. 

Artistic Director Shea Lolin is 

particularly keen to entice double 

Are we therefore to conclude that our 

young players just do not cut the 

mustard? Witness the fact that recent 

principal oboe positions have gone 

foreign. To name a few, City of 

Birmingham Symphony Orchestra to 

Rainer Gibbons from New Zealand, 

London Symphony Orchestra to 

Emmanuel Abuhl from Switzerland, Hallé 

Orchestra to Stephane Rancourt from 

Canada, Royal Scottish National 

Orchestra (replacing Stephane Rancourt) 

to Emmanuel Laville from France. 

Where are the new players from these 

shores to replace previous incumbents 

such as Neil Black, Richard Weigall, 

Roger Winfield, Tom Ratter, John Williams 

and the like? Do we not train them well 

in the Conservatoires? Are the current 

crop of young players trying to be clones 

of others to the extent that they have no 

individuality? Do they not work hard 

enough? 

Answers on a postcard (or an email) to 

me or the Editor… 

reed players to come along and 

experience this event that he is able to 

announce a 50% discount for oboe and 

bassoon players, only £15 therefore for 

the day. 

For further information and to download 

an application form, log on to 

www.elclarinetchoir.co.uk/playday or 

call 01708 750 786 to request an 

application form.

Photo: Catriona Crosby 

Wind & Fire 

Due to the success of the 2007 event, the 

2008 Wind & Fire Gathering made up an 

impressive score list of 17 oboes, 6 cor 

anglais, 11 bassoons, 4 contrabassoons, 

9 trumpets, 8 French horns, 3 trombones, 

1 tuba, 4 percussionists and 1 serpent, to 

perform an intriguing programme of 

music conducted by John Grundy. Players 

travelled from as far north as Thurso in 

the Highlands and as far south as 

Hampshire in England. 

To a keen and well-populated audience, 

the concert was detonated by the 

conductor, John Grundy with a strong 

rendition from the brass and percussion 

The inspiration and influence of the oboe teacher, Margaret Rennie Moncrieff, ignited an idea from two of her 

ex-pupils, Chris Crosby and Caroline Snell which came to fruition first in 2007 and was repeated this year on 

Sunday 31st August at the Stewart’s Melville Performing Arts Centre in Edinburgh, reports Marjorie Downward. 

of Copland’s stirring Fanfare for the 

Common Man. This was followed by 

exquisite arrangements from Geoffrey 

Emerson of some of Debussy’s well 

known piano works: the Arabesque from 

Suite Bergamasque and from Children’s 

Corner, The Cakewalk. As in all of his 

arrangements, Emerson makes good use 

of all forces to create a wide range of 

unique sensitive timbres. 

During the performance of Simon 

Rennard’s skilful arrangement of the film 

theme to Schindler’s List, I noticed 

directly straight ahead of me, a young 

child sitting on the stairs truly transfixed 

whilst holding a treasured stuffed animal 

in one hand and sucking the thumb of 

the other. This smaller double reed 

ensemble made quite an impact with 

this moving piece and it was suitably 

followed with the Popular Song 

from Walton’s outrageous cabaret 

entertainment, Façade. Both 

arrangements gave an opportunity to 

highlight all four members of the oboe 

family and, who knows, perhaps in years 

to come that little girl on the stairs will 

exchange sucking her thumb with 

crowing a double reed! 

As well as being a very refined 

bassoonist, Simon Rennard clearly has a 

talent and the energy for arranging music. 

His skills were evident as demonstrated 

in a spectacular arrangement of Widor’s 

Toccata from the 5th Organ Symphony. 

It conjured up all the ingredients of a 

whirlwind, fast moving with a curious 

feel for excitement! 

With a sense of high celebration and a 

sparkle at the end of the baton, John 

Grundy propelled the ensemble through 

the Music for the Royal Fireworks by 

Handel. This was fun and a wonderful 

way to round off this unique gathering of 

64 musicians who took part in what 

could be called ‘a flaming good event!’ 

I am sure many BDRS members were 

present and would gladly raise a glass to 

the organisers and of course, to their 

initial inspiration, Margaret Rennie 

Moncrieff. 


John Waite, 15 years: 

The Day started at around 10.00am with 

a quick greeting from Graeme Adams and 

then the Massed Band. We played three 

pieces: Tango, Blaze Away and Suite in 

E minor. There was a good mix of oboes 

and bassoons, with a few cors anglais in 

the band and a contra bassoon. All in all 

it sounded very good. 

After a short break, we started the 

masterclass where Roger Birnstingl 

listened to people play; he gave his 

personal views and some very useful 

advice on how to improve. Surprisingly, 

he always started by correcting a player’s 

posture and how they held the bassoon, 

rather than their actual playing technique. 

However, the difference in most people’s 

playing was immediate and very 

dramatic. 

There were stalls open throughout the day 

from Crowthers, Reed Angel and Fox. As 

well as bassoons and reeds, the Fox stall 

was demonstrating an extension which 

can be added to the bassoon to balance 

the weight better on a strap or harness. 

After lunch, we began working in small 

groups on the chamber music that the 

teachers had provided. Our group (a 

bassoon quartet) worked well. We chose 

Ave Verum Corpus by Mozart as our piece 

and spent an hour and a half trying to 

Gloucestershire Double Reed Day 

Two reports by participants 


perfect it with help from one of the teachers. 

After another session of masterclasses and 

tea, we all came together for the concert, 

which started with a performance from 

the Massed Band. Then all the separate 

groups from the chamber music session 

played the piece that they had been 

working on. After all the groups had 

performed, Gareth Hulse and Roger 

Birnstingl performed a piece together as 

well as some solos. 

At the end of the day I only had one 

regret. There is only one Gloucestershire 

double reed day a year! 

Lucy Jurd: 

We arrived nice and early at Cheltenham 

Ladies’ College and the day kicked off 

with an introduction and safety talk. 

Opening the day’s activities was a Big 

Band session where everyone (oboes and 

bassoons) came together for a lungclearing 

blast. 

We then divided into groups, all the 

bassoons going off for their activities and 

the oboes into three groups depending on 

ability. The first activity for my group was 

a masterclass taken by Gareth Hulse, who 

demonstrated how to improve tonguing 

techniques by making more use of the 

diaphragm, and how to give a convincing 

performance by engaging the audience 

rather than playing into the music stand. 

This was then followed by a rather 

delicious lunch of pork stroganov, and 

strawberries and cream! 

The next session was chamber music, 

where the group was divided into smaller 

units and joined by some of the bassoons 

to rehearse various pieces in preparation 

for the evening concert. Next was reedmaking. 

There were quite a few 

successful attempts at making reeds, the 

majority of the group producing reeds 

that squawked and some talented 

individuals even produced ones that 

made a good sound in the oboe! 

As we groaned under the weight of the 

quality catering, there was some free time 

to practise the chamber music or to take a 

look at the trade stalls selling all sorts of 

music for bassoons and oboes, along with 

reed-making tools and other accessories. 

The evening concert started with the Big 

Band pieces. The various chamber groups 

then performed the pieces they had 

been rehearsing earlier in the day, to 

an impressive standard. To give us all 

something to aspire to, this was followed 

by Gareth Hulse playing two of Britten’s 

Metamorphoses after Ovid: Pan and 

Bacchus. The event closed with Gareth, 

Roger Birnstingl and John Kane playing 

Milde’s Trio for Oboe, Bassoon and 

Piano, bringing the day to a great close.

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Arias with Obbligato Bassoon: 

My interest in vocal works with obbligato 

bassoon began about 30 years ago. On 

the car radio in Melbourne, I heard a 

tenor aria with two wonderful bassoons 

– pungent French bassons of the sort 

that are now a threatened species – and 

more similar arias followed. The work 

was part of Laudate Nomen Domini, a 

motet from psalm 135 of Jean Gilles 

(1668-1705); a couple of months later 

the vinyl 33rpm of the abbreviated Jean- 

Loius Petit version arrived. The complete 

motet is now on CD (see below). 

Several years later, I heard a tenor aria 

accompanied by a duo obbligato of cello 

and bassoon in an ‘authentic instruments’ 

broadcast from Vienna of Fux’ Orpheo ed 

Euridice; the Garland publication of that 

opera showed that Fux had actually 

written for two bassoons. An incipit of the 

aria in a paper on Fux obbligati for bass 

wind instruments identifies a library 

source that leads to a volume in the 

Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek, 

Vienna that contains twelve virtually 

unknown arias with obbligati for one or 

two bassoons, written between 1710 and 

1730 by various composers, including 

some highlights from a hidden repertoire 

by Jim Stockigt. This repertoire summary is respectfully dedicated to the late William Waterhouse in deep 

appreciation of his unique contributions to bassoon literature, scholarship and organology. Without his stimulating 

and generous encouragement, this project would not have progressed. 

Bill Waterhouse and the author, examining recent additions to this repertoire. 

(Sevenhampton, Gloucestershire, September 2007) 


Fux and Caldara. The material is so well 

preserved (see illustration page 15) that 

paste-ups from microfilm are easily 

legible after almost 300 years! 

A collection of almost 200 arias with 

obbligato bassoon, alone or together with 

other instruments as part of a concertante 

group, has now been put together from 

vocal works written between 1700 and 

1850. Since submission of the original 

article in The Double Reed magazine, 

over fifty more works have been added; 

details of the collection are available on a 

website www.obbligatofagotto.com that 

also includes some on-line scores and 

parts suitable for performance. 

The abbreviated summary that follows 

draws together some of the more 

interesting works, together with their 

sources either published or unpublished, 

with some information about available 

recordings. Details of better known 

published and recorded sources, such 

as the JS Bach cantatas BWV 143, 149, 

155, 173a, 177, 197 and 202 are not 

given here. 

The 200 or so arias include works from 

several sources that deserve more 

detailed study. For example, the 1400 

cantatas of Christoph Graupner (1683- 

1760), accessible at the Hessische 

Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek, 

Darmstadt, contain at least 30 arias with 

challenging obbligato bassoon parts. 

Many of these are elaborate ostinato 

continuo parts that require great facility 

and stamina. Of one of the Graupner 

arias listed here, Gross sind des Herren 

Werke from Wie wunderbar ist Gottes 

Güt (1717) for bass, oboe d’amore, 

bassoon and continuo, Bruce Haynes in 

The Eloquent Oboe (p.369) writes: “The 

‘Hautbois’ part is very simple. The real 

soloist in this aria is the bassoon”. (That 

cantata has been recorded by Accademia 

Daniel, with the Australian bassoonist 

Simon Rickard). A further fourteen 

Graupner arias together with links to the 

solo bassoon parts are now included on 

the website. The cantatas of Georg Gebel 

(1709-1753) held in the Thüringisches 

Staatsarchiv, Rudolstadt, contain many 

cantatas with challenging bassoon 

obbligati, often with oboe. Twelve more 

of his arias with links to the solo bassoon 

parts have now also been included on 

the website. As far as I know, the oboe 

obbligati in the Gebel works still 

remain unexplored. 

The church cantatas of Telemann, 

still not completely catalogued, include 

about thirty works with bassono or 

fagotto obbligato! Some of these works 

are gradually being published by 

Habsburger Verlag, Frankfurt 

(www.habsburgerverlag.de). 

The selection that follows highlights some 

of the main works that could extend the 

bassoon repertoire, for performance and 

for further research. Librarians and 

archivists from European libraries are 

helpful in making this material available; 

they are as keen as anyone to publicise 

little-known repertoire from their 

collections. Many libraries now have 

catalogues available on-line.

The obbligato bassoon part, a paste-up from the manuscript score of the aria Scocca 

dall’alto il fulmine from the opera Mitridate by Antonio Caldara, performed in Vienna in 

1728. The setting is for tenor, solo fagotto with unfigured bass, with only a few bars for 

two violins and viola. (Reproduced with permission, from Sammelband Mus. Hs. 17051, 

(Livero Terzo), Musiksammlung der Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek, Wien.) 

[Adapted by the author from his recent 

article in The Double Reed, Journal of the 

International Double Reed Society. Jim 

Stockigt’s email is jrs@netspace.net.au] 

Arias with obbligato bassoon 

(1700-1850): selections from a 

little-known repertoire. 

Instrumental designations from original 

sources are underlined 

Voice, bassoon(s), continuo 

Caldara Antonio (1670-1736) 

Missa dolorosa Gloria, No.6 Domine Fili 

for tenor, bass, fagotto solo, continuo 

Denkmäler der Tonkunst in 

Österreich 1906; 26: 78-81 

and Carus Verlag 40.680, 1980 

Gionata, Aria del Oratorio: Occhi, che vi 

fissate nel sole for bass, fagotti, continuo 

Il due Dittatori, Aria dell’Opera: 

Non dovria chi impera e regge for bass, 

fagotti concertati, continuo 

The second and third arias are in 

Sammelband Mus. Hs. 17051, 

(Livero Terzo), Musiksammlung der 

Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek, Wien. 

(The first is an elaborated continuo, the 

second and third are challenging dual 

obbligato parts.) 

Fux Johann Joseph (1660-1741) 

La Desposizione dalla Croce di Jesu 

Cristo Salvator Nostro Aria del Sepulcro 

No.14: Se pura piu nel core for bass, 

fagotto solo, continuo 

CD Haselböck Novalis 150 089-2 AVC 

Switzerland 1992 

Orfeo ed Euridice, Componimento da 

Camera No.1: Per Regnar con piu di 

Gloria for tenor, fagotto 1º, fagotto 2º, 

continuo 

Both arias are in Sammelband Mus. Hs. 

17051, (Livero Terzo), Musiksammlung 

der Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek, 

Wien. The second aria is published by 

Garland Publ. 1978, and Akademische 

Druck- und Verlageanstalt, Graz, 2004, 


pp109-116. (Both arias have wonderful 

obbligato bassoon parts!) 

Gebel Georg (1709-1753) 

Cantata, Ihr Tränen geht Ich will länger 

nicht verweilen for soprano, bassono solo, 

continuo Thüringisches Staatsarchiv, 

Rudolstadt; HKR 849, 52a,b 

(This is one of 20 or so obbligato parts 

from this unknown master. There are also 

numerous oboe obbligati.) 

Graupner Christoph (1683-1760) 

Cantata, Liebster Gott vergisstu mich 

(1711) Aria: Es ist genug. Herr Jesu lass 

mich sterben for oprano, bassono solo, 

continuo Hessische Universitätsund 

Landesbibliothek, Darmstadt (D-DS) 

Mm 419/13 

(Melodic solo writing from 1711 that 

seems well ahead of its time.) 

Heinichen Johann David (1683-1729) 

Litaniae pro Festo Corporis Domini Aria: 

Peccatores te rogamus for tenor, bass, 

three bassoni, continuo Sächsische 

Landesbibliothek-Staats-und- 

Universitätsbibliothek Dresden. 

D-Dl Mus. 2398-D-30 

Keiser Reinhard (1674-1739) 

Opera, Octavia (1705) Aria: Geloso 

sospetto tormenta for soprano, 

bassoons 1,2,3,4 and continuo 

Editions Viento (www.editionsviento.com) 

Phylloscopus (www.phylloscopus.co.uk) 

CD: Camerata 30CM-545 Turkovic et al 

(As a showpiece it belies the sombre text; 

two virtuoso and two simpler parts.) 

Steffani Agostino (1654-1728) 

Opera, Tassilone (Hannover, 1709) 

Aria No.35: Sinor foste il mio tormento 

for soprano, fagotto solo, continuo 

Denkmäler Rheinischer Musik, vol 8. 

Musikverlag Schwann, Düsseldorf 1958. 

pp 18-20, 62-64, 158-160, 163-168. 

(Elaborated bass line) 

Vivaldi Antonio (1675-1741) 

Serenata a tre, RV 690 

Aria: Dell alma superba for tenor, 

bassoon, continuo 


Score on-line: http://www.mutopia 

project.org/piece-list.html 

(Elaborated bass and colla voce line, 

similar to an aria from L’Incoronazione 

di Dario.) 

Voice, bassoon(s), strings, continuo 


Mitridate, Aria dell’Opera: Scocca 

dall’alto il fumine for tenor, 2 vlns, vla, 

fagotto, continuo 

Eighteenth-century transcription in 

Sammelband Mus. Hs. 17051, 

(Livero Terzo), 

Musiksammlung der Österreichischen 

Nationalbibliothek, Wien. 

(Virtuosity and stamina required, see 

illustration; possibly not yet performed 

in modern times.) 

Gilles Jean (1668-1705) 

Motet Psalm 135: Laudate Nomen 

Domini for alto, tenor, bass, SATB, two 

solo bassoons, solo ‘cello/gamba, continuo 

MS score, Bibliothèque nationale 

FRBNF39637766 

Record: Arion AR 38186, Ensemble 

Vocal d’Avignon, J-L Petit, 1973 

CD: Les Festes d’Orphée, 

Grand et petit motets, 

www.crotchet.co.uk/K617193.html 

(French baroque; multiple movements 

with major parts for obbligato bassoons.) 

Handel George Frederick (1685-1759) 

Ariodante HWV 33: Scherza 

infida for soprano, bassoon, strings 

Chrysander, 1881, Kalmus New York 

pp 70-73. 

Hiller Johann Adam (1728-1804) 

Handel’s Messiah, Aria: If God be for us 

(Ist Gott für uns, wer kann uns schaden) 

for soprano, bassoon, strings, continuo 

Hiller altered this aria in 1786 by 

addition of bassoon as obbligato 

instrument. The aria was later replaced 

by a recitative by Mozart in 1789, but 

the Hiller version was retained by 

Breitkopf and Härtel in 1803 in Der 

Messias, nach Bearbeitung von 

W.A.Mozart; Stadtbibliothek zu Leipzig 

III, I, 31. 

(Some nineteenth-century scores include 

two versions: eg Novello c.1850, strings 

only pp 253-256, with bassoon pp 257- 

260. Could be a surprise twist in a 

routine Messiah performance. There 

appear to be no known published 

orchestral parts.) 

Naumann Johann Gottlieb (1741-1801) 

La passione di Gesu Cristo (1767 Padua 

version) 

Aria: Se a librarsi in mezzo all’onde 

incomincia il fanciulletto for tenor 

fagotto obligato, strings 

Sächsische Landesbibliothek-Staatsund-Universitätsbibliothek 

Dresden. 

Mus 3480-D-7 (Bd1-2) and The Italian 

Oratorio vol 27 Garland Publishing, 1986 

Ed Howard E Smither pp 123-167. 

CD, 2008, cpo 777 365-2, 2008, 

La Stagio Armonica, Balestracci. 

(An obbligato of concerto proportions, 

with simple string parts. There is 

a version, in Padua’s Archivio 

Musicale della Capella Antoniana 

Padova D IV n.1465, with added 

bassoon cadenzas, without the upper 

string parts.) 

Telemann Georg Philipp (1681-1767) 

Die Donnerode TWV 6:3a No.2: Bringt 

her, Ihr Helden for soprano, fagotto, 

strings, continuo Bärenreiter, BA 2947 

pp 27-31. CD Collegium Musicum 90 

Chandos CHAN 0548 

Das befreite Israel TWV 6:5 No.10: Du 

hast Dein Volk geleitet for tenor, fagotto, 

strings, continuo Bärenreiter, BA 2947 

pp 156-159. CD Das Kleine Konzert 

cpo 999 673-2 

(Wonderful colla voce writing for bassoon 

up to a’; full string group required.) 

Motet, Deus judicium tuum (Psalm 71) 

TWV 7:7 

Aria: Descendit sicit for tenor, 2 fagotti, 

strings, continuo Telemann Gesellschaft, 

Magdeburg, 1967, Mus 203a 

CD Brilliant Classics 99996/3. 

Rheinische Kantorei 

(Technical workout for both players)

Trauerserenata, für August den Starken 

(1733) TWV 4:7 

Aria: Beströme dein gerechtes Klagen for 

soprano, fagotto, strings, continuo 

Telemann Gesellschaft, Magdeburg, 1999, 

Mus.1199 

This aria has two alternative original 

versions. 

CD Rheinische Kantorei Capriccio 67 004/5 

(Little known major aria that would be an 

excellent recital piece, with string group, 

or in reduction with continuo.) 

Voice, bassoon, orchestra 

Cherubini Luigi (1760-1842) 

Medea, Neris’ aria: Ah! nos peines 

for soprano, bassoon, strings 

Gregg International Publishers Ltd. 

England 1971 

Piano reduction in preparation. Editions 

Viento (www.editionsviento.com) 

(A wonderful late eighteenth century 

paradox, with little distraction from 

soprano and obbligato bassoon. In 

the 1959 La Scala version (Callas, 

Serafin), EMI CD CMS 763625-2, the 

obbligato is played by the legendary 

Enzo Muccetti. Various performances 

have been given in piano reduction; 

publication awaited.) 

Mozart adaptations 

Requiem K626: Tuba mirum for bass with 

fagotto solo, trombone, strings 

Version published 1800 by Breitkopf and 

Härtel Leipzig. (Trombone plays only the 

introductory chords.) Stadtbibliothek zu 

Leipzig PM 6981 

(Apparently there was a trombone 

problem in Leipzig. A critic in 1801 

was unimpressed by this version!) 

Aria: Mens sancto Deo, soprano, solo 

bassoon, orch 

Aria: Plasmator Deus, soprano, solo 

bassoon, orch; this is a resetting with 

obbl. bn of Se il padre perdei from 

Idomeneo). Sources of the latter two 

adaptations have not yet been identified; 

settings for soprano, with bassoon and 

organ are available from wkleber@web.de 

CD: Arts Archives 43012-2 63m, 

Unbekannte Arien für Sopran 

(The original source of these two 

adaptations remains a secret. Excellent 

keyboard (organ) versions were prepared 

without access to the original sources. 

These may be available from Wolfgang 

Kleber and Gabor Meszaros: 

wkleber@web.de) 

Voice, bassoon, other obbligato 

instrument(s), continuo 


Joaz, Part 2: Cosi a fiume, cui rigido 

ghiaccio for alto, alto trombone, fagotto, 

continuo 

Facsimile, Garland Publishing 1986, 

vol 12, pp 122-135. 

Ed Howard E Smither from Mus Hs 17129, 

Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Wien 

(Virtuoso writing for both instruments. 

Excellent facsimile from the same copyist 

as the Caldara and Fux arias.) 

Graupner Christoph (1683-1760) 

Cantata, Wie wunderbar ist Gottes Güt 

(1717) 

Aria: Gross sind des Herren Werke for 

bass, oboe d’amore, bassono, continuo 

Hessische Universitäts- und 

Landesbibliothek, Darmstadt 

D-DS Mm 425/3 

CD Accad Daniel, 2000, GEMA disc 

hrmk 005-01 

(One of many Graupner arias that require 

great facility and stamina.) 

Handel George Frederick (1685-1759) 

Rinaldo HWV 7 A/B No.17: Venti, venti, 

turbini (1711 version in G, 1731 version 

in F) for alto, obbl violin, obbl bassoon, 

oboes, strings, continuo 

Bärenreiter 4059 pp 77-84 

L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato 

HWV 55, Duet No.39: As steals the morn 

upon the night for soprano, tenor, solo 

oboe, solo bassoon, strings, continuo 

Bärenreiter, BA 4023 pp 168-178. 

Hasse Johann Adolf (1699-1783) 

Mass in g (Terza nuova Messe, 1783): Qui 

tollis peccata mundi for soprano, chorus 

SATB, oboe, bassoon, (2 hns), strings. 

Sächsische Landesbibliothek- Staats-und- 

Universitätsbibliothek Dresden. 

Mus 2477-D-504 pp 92-113 

CD, Berlin Classics CD BC 1006 2 

(1990), Virtuosi Saxoniae, Güttler 

(Apparently unpublished. Wonderful 

writing for interwoven solo oboe and 

bassoon. The conclusion would need to 

be revised, if performed as a single work. 

Keyboard reduction awaited!) 

Haydn Joseph (1732-1809) 

Opera, Armida Act 3 No.2: Torna pure 

al caro bene for soprano, solo flute, 

solo bassoon, strings 

G Henle Verlag, München 1965, 

pp 269-276. 

(Beautiful writing for flute and bassoon 

together.) 

Ryba Jakub Jan (1765-1815) 

Missa pastoralis in C: In Nativitate 

Domini in nocte for SATB soli and coro, 

fagotto solo, clarino solo, 2 vln, continuo 

Carus Verlag 40.683 (2006); CD 

Multisonic 31 0200-2 Belohlavek, Legat 

(A short – 16 min – uncomplicated Mass 

with obbligato bassoon throughout, 

with clarino for punctuation. Ready for 

performance in the Carus version, 

after a few corrections.) 

Telemann Georg Philipp (1681-1767) 

Tag des Gerichts, TWV 6:8 Vierte 

Betrachtung No.7: Ich bin erwacht nach 

Gottes Bilde for Soprano, oboe d’amore, 

fagotto, continuo Denkmäler Deutscher 

Tonkunst 1 Folge vol 28, 1907, 

pp105-107 

CD Telefunken 2CD 9031 77621-2 

Concentus Musicus, 1966 

(A very early use of oboe d’amore; 

elaborate tenor register bassoon 

part in A.) 

Cantata, Wo soll ich fliehen hin? TWV 

1:1724 Ergib dich, mein Herze for bass, 

traverso, oboe, fagotto, continuo 

Habsburger Verlag, Frankfurt, Telemann 

No.40. CD Mertens, Accent ACC 24167 


(Wonderful ensemble obbligato writing; 

bassoon colla voce.) 

Zelenka Jan Dismas (1679-1745) 

Lamentationes Jeremiae ZWV 203 

Lamentation 2, Easter Eve, No.6 soprano, 

tenor, obbl. violin, oboe and bassoon, 

continuo.Three arias (two recits) (D-Dl 

Mus. 2358-D4); Carus Verlag 40.762/60 


Voice, bassoon, piano 

Kreutzer Conradin (1780-1849) 

Aria: Der tote Fagott 

For bass, bassoon, piano 

Pub. R. Schottstädt, Köln: 

schottstaedt@schottstaedt-music.de 

CD Camerata CM-15036-7 

Turkovic et al 2004 

(A lighthearted Schubertian aria that is 

either derived from The shepherd on the 

rock – with clarinet obbligato – or is a 

send-up of that work.)

The Oboe Band 

The Oboe Band was founded in 2005 on 

an old barge moored at Canary Wharf, 

which was my home at the time. The four 

of us all went to different universities 

and music colleges: Frances to St. John’s 

College, Cambridge and the Royal 

Academy of Music, Sarah to the Royal 

College of Music and then to the 

Schola Cantorum in Basel, Joel to the 

Birmingham Conservatoire and then to 

the RAM, and Rebecca to Trinity College 

of Music and then to the Guildhall School 

of Music and Drama, and Paris. Joel and 

I met later on the Britten-Pears course 

in Suffolk and had the idea of forming 

the band. 

Oboe bands were enormously popular in 

the late-seventeenth and early-eighteenth 

centuries, employed both by courts and 

in the military, and in theatres or for 

private functions. Louis XIV had one as 

part of the royal musical household and, 

when French musicians brought the oboe 

to England in 1673, Charles II soon 

followed suit as did his successors James 

II and William of Orange. They played for 

ceremonies and parades, balls, dinners, 

concerts, coronations, birthdays and 

Oboe bands flourished in the late-seventeenth and early-eighteenth centuries. Three oboists and one bassoonist 

have come together to revive that tradition and one of its members, Sarah Humphrys, explains more. 

(L–R: Sarah Humphrys, Frances Norbury, Rebecca Stockwell, Joel Raymond) 

funerals, and a large body of repertoire 

developed over the years. Much of the 

simpler march music, for example, was 

probably learned and played from 

memory, but plenty was written down. 

Louis XIV had Philidor compile a volume 

of music specifically for court musicians 

to draw on; this is one of the most useful 

sources for us today. 

It was with the aim of reviving this once 

ubiquitous ensemble that we formed The 

Oboe Band. The sound of three baroque 

oboes and bassoon, or two oboes, oboe 

da caccia/taille and bassoon, has a 

unique and special quality: we very much 

enjoy researching new material and its 

background, and presenting this to 

audiences with plenty of historical 

and social context. 

Our group goes from strength to strength. 

Last year, in 2007, we were finalists 

in the York International Early Music 

Competition, and this year we have given 

concerts and workshops at the London 

Handel Festival, Concerts in the West, 

Huddersfield University and the Mayfield 

Festival. Our diary is filling up for next 

year, with concerts planned at Les 

Musicales de Normandie, Leeds 

University, the East Cork Early Music 

Festival and the London Handel Festival. 

We will shortly record our first full length 

CD, War and Peace. 

In July we were fortunate to receive a 

grant from the Performing Rights Society 

to pay for a new commission for the 

group. The Catalan composer Blai Soler 

has written a five-movement piece 

entitled Oboes, which makes use of all 

the possible combinations of oboes, 

oboes d’amore, oboes da caccia and 

bassoon to explore the sound world 

of our instruments. The premiere* 

was given at St George’s Hanover Square 

in September. 

BLAI SOLER: OBOES 

Blai Soler introduces his composition for 

The Oboe Band 

I was immediately drawn into the sound 

world of baroque double reeds at a 

casual meeting with The Oboe Band, 

where I was shown the range of playing 

techniques and sounds that can be 

produced on these instruments. I was 

struck by the array of timbres that they 

could create across the registers. 

Particularly impressive was the sound of 

the oboe da caccia, with a round tone in 

the lower register resembling that of a 

French horn. I straightaway considered 

the possibility of composing a work for 

The Oboe Band, an exciting opportunity 

to explore this wonderful and archaic 

sound world within a modern context. 

As the members of The Oboe Band made 

me observe, the baroque double-reed 

instruments, as versatile as they might be, 

are designed to play diatonic music and 

are rather ill-adapted to the chromaticism 

of contemporary compositional 

techniques. Furthermore, all the 

instruments have chromatic note gaps in 

their ranges. These were crucial factors to 

take into account for the composition of 

my piece. 


Oboes is a 5-movement work which uses 

to full effect the rich timbral and 

combinatorial possibilities of the oboe 

band. Each of the five movements is a 

stand-alone miniature, with its own inner 

structure and character. Each movement 

is devoted to a different combination of 

instruments – bearing in mind that the 

oboists in the ensemble can all play up to 

three different instruments, oboe, oboe 

d’amore and oboe da caccia: 


1. Risoluto (3 oboes da caccia, tacet 

bassoon) 

2. Scherzoso (2 oboes d’amore, oboe da 

caccia, bassoon) 

3. Largo e sostenuto (oboe, oboe 

d’amore, oboe da caccia, bassoon) 

4. Alla danza (3 oboes, bassoon) 

5. Un poco solenne (oboe, 2 oboes da 

caccia, bassoon) 

With Oboes I hope to bring out an 

Woodwind specialists 

innovative and fresh sound world by 

respecting the archaic characteristics of 

the baroque oboe band, at the same time 

blending them with the new possibilities 

of modern composition. 

[* A review of the concert appears in the 

Reviews section of this issue.] 

The Oboe Band’s website is 

www.theoboeband.com 

New and second-hand instruments. 

Reeds, recanes, cane, reedmaking tools, accessories, and sheet music. 

Instrument servicing and repair. 

Instrument rental. 

Free advice. 

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Email: britanniamusicshop@btinternet.com

Milde has a face! 

Ludwig Milde (1849–1913) wrote 

arguably the most important and popular 

etude books used by bassoonists around 

the world today. His 50 Concert Studies 

(Op.26) and 25 Studies in Scales and 

Chords (Op.24) have been staples of the 

pedagogical repertoire for the better part 

of a century – and are likely to remain so. 

I have long regarded many of Milde’s 

50 Concert Studies as worthy of public 

performance for bassoon alone, but their 

complex harmonies had suggested to 

me that they might also be effective as 

romantic concert pieces if provided with 

suitable piano accompaniments. Because 

of a curious three-bar rest appearing in 

study No.49, I began a search in 

2003 to find out if Milde had written 

accompaniments for them. But my 

preliminary research came up empty. I 

did find that some accompaniments had 

been written by other musicians for a few 

of these studies, and eventually that one 

man, Rainer Schottstädt of Kassel, 

Germany wrote and self-published 

accompaniments for all fifty. By the time I 

discovered those accompaniments, I had 

already begun the arduous task of writing 

my own, while teaching bassoon at 

Indiana University during my 2003-04 

sabbatical from the Chicago Symphony. 1 

David McGill’s dedication to Milde’s Concert Studies helped shape him, like so many others, as a player, becoming 

Principal Bassoon of several top North American orchestras. Now also a rescpected author (Sound in Motion pub. 

Indiana University Press), he has been trying against the odds to discover the man himself. 

Ludwig Milde (c. 1880), courtesy of the 

Prague Conservatory of Music 

After examining the few accompaniments 

I could find (one for No.7, one for No.13, 

and the Schottstädt) I was determined to 

go ahead with this mammoth undertaking 

because of my own strongly held musical 

ideas about Milde’s great studies. 

In June of 2004, at the Glickman-Popkin 

Bassoon Camp in Little Switzerland, 

North Carolina, I taught a class that 

concerned itself solely with Milde’s 

Concert Studies. The class opened with a 

recitation of the few facts about Milde’s 

life that I had been able to find on the 

Internet. This took about two minutes: I 

had, by that point, only found two articles 

that essentially mirrored each other, both 

having appeared in IDRS publications. 

Each contained only one short paragraph 

about Mr. Milde and they differed in only 

a few details. I then went on to speak 

about and play the first seven of his 

Concert Studies with my newly written 

accompaniments. 2 During that class I 

asked, by a show of hands, how many of 

the eighty or so bassoonists present had 

gone through all or significant portions of 

the 50 Concert Studies. All but three of 

them raised their hands, and one of those 

three was only twelve years of age! 

Clearly Milde had exercised great 

influence on the bassoonists of all ages 

gathered in that room. 

My curiosity about this important man of 

music continued to grow as I wrote more 

accompaniments. Once I had finished the 

first twenty-five in November of 2006, 

I decided I would do all I could to 

humanise this disembodied name on the 

cover of an etude book. Hoping that 

more information had been discovered, 

I renewed my Internet search but came 

up with little new information. And I 

was also on a mission to find a photo of 

this man. 

One of the short articles I did manage to 

find on-line was in German. It accurately, 

and sadly, assessed Milde’s current status: 

‘Ludwig Milde – Prague composer born 

April 30, 1849 – is known today by 

bassoonists only as a term.’ When I read 

this I needed nothing more to spur me on 

to greater efforts to gather information. As 

Gerald Corey wrote in his article for the 

IDRS (Ludwig Milde – About the Bassoon, 

a Genius): “Many assume vaguely that 

[Milde] was German and just a teacher.” 

How wrong it is to do so. 

A Life Not Chronicled 

Here are the few bare-boned facts of 

his existence that I have been able to 

unearth: 

Ludwig Milde was born April 30, 1849 in 

Prague. He began studying the bassoon 

at the age of twelve. From 1861 to 

1867 he studied bassoon at the Prague 

Conservatory with Voijte v 

k Gross who 

taught there for nearly forty years (and 

had also taught in Bucharest, Romania 

from time to time). Milde was 

undoubtedly a model student. Through 

contact with Ales v 

Kan v 

ka, a Deputy 

Director of the Prague Conservatory, I 

received Ludwig Milde’s grade reports (in 

German) from 1864, 1865 and 1867. 

None of the wind students listed on those 

pages (clarinettists, bassoonists and all of 

the brasses) live up to the level of grades 

Milde achieved in courses as diverse as 

French, Harmony, Religion, German, 

Chorus, Maths and Geography. In every 

instance Milde receives either an E for 

Excellent or ‘ad E’ for Excellent-Plus (‘ad’ 

being short for Additionszeichen or 

‘plus-sign’). Others did receive those high 

grades in a few subjects but they also 

received a 1 or a 2, which are obviously 

lower grades. There is not a sing grade for 

Milde lower than an E. His graduation 

report states: 

Herr Ludwig Milde, 20 years old [sic], 

born in Prague/[student] from the years 

1861–1867 with unflagging diligence: 

In Instrument – Bassoon/Excellent 

In Harmony and Counterpoint/Excellent 

In Religion/Laudable 

In Literature/Excellent 

In French/Laudable 

Has hereby matriculated. 


Herr Ludwig Milde is now qualified as a 

most suitable Orchestra and Solo player. 

Prague, the 25th of July 1867. 

If the reported date of Milde’s birth is to 

be trusted, then he had achieved his 

graduation at the age of only eighteen 

and not, as stated on this document, at 

twenty. Did he or his family lie about his 

age to allow for his entrance to the 

conservatory at the tender age of twelve? 

If so, Milde’s early graduation makes his 

industry all the more impressive. After his 

graduation as a bassoonist, Milde 

continued his musical studies for three 

more years (1867–70), but it was now 

composition that consumed his time and 

effort. Frantis v 

ek Zdene v 

k Skuhersky´, well 

known for his liturgical works and 

founder of a famous organ school in 

Prague, was Milde’s teacher. Perhaps 

study with this church musician 

influenced Milde to leave his first job, 

Principal of the Linz (Austria) Opera 

Orchestra, after serving for only two years 

(1870–72), to become a choirmaster in 

Novi Sad, Croatia for some period 

between 1872 and 1874. Perhaps at that 


Courtesy of the Prague Conservatory of Music 

young age the bassoonist/composer Milde 

also had a desire to conduct. 

On the face of it, Milde seems to have 

been deeply influenced by his mentors – 

Skuhersky´ and Gross. His seeming respect 

for them, and probable adherence to their 

advice, may have led him first to his 

choirmaster job in Croatia (Skuhersky´ 

being well-known in church music 

circles) and later to Bucharest, Romania, 

where Milde taught bassoon at the 

Conservatory of Music from 1874 

(1875 according to pay records at the 

Conservatory) until 1886. Milde’s teacher, 

Gross had, after all, taught in Bucharest 

off and on. 

On May 12, 1886, at thirty-seven, Milde 

succeeded Gross to become Professor of 

Bassoon at the Prague Conservatory 

(selected from four applicants). I would 

imagine that Milde had every hope of 

having a long and productive tenure 

teaching at his alma mater, but he taught 

there for only eight years. He resigned in 

July of 1894, at the age of forty-five, due 

to health concerns. Incidentally, after the 

organ school founded by his composition 

teacher, Skuhersky´, became affiliated 

with the Prague Conservatory, Milde 

was also engaged to teach piano at the 

conservatory temporarily, beginning in 

October of 1888. 

An interesting sidelight: during his tenure 

in Prague Milde may have known Antonin 

Dvor v 

ák, who served as Professor of 

Composition at the Conservatory during 

the 1891–92 school year. Dvor v 

ák left 

Prague after his single year teaching there 

to become the Director of a new National 

Conservatory of Music in New York City. 

This new school of music was formed by 

an act of congress (the only music school 

so formed) and it had a special emphasis 

on training African-American students. In 

America Dvor v 

ák composed his Symphony 

No.9 From the New World as well as his 

Cello Concerto. 

In 1897, after three years possibly spent 

in ill health and recuperation, Ludwig 

Milde accepted once again the bassoon 

professorship at the Bucharest 

Conservatory. By that time, Frantis v 

ek 

Dolejs v 

was well into his long tenure as 

Professor of Bassoon at the Prague 

Conservatory (1894–1925). I have been 

unable to find how long Milde remained 

as a professor at the Bucharest 

Conservatory for this second period. 

In Gerald Corey’s IDRS article, Will 

Jansen states that in Milde’s later years he 

“remained active as a soloist and as a 

private teacher”. In the other IDRS article 

I found – Famous Bassoon Tutors and 

their (Less Known) Authors – Jansen 

asserts that Milde played in woodwind 

quintets during this autumn period of his 

life. However, I have been unable to 

find any information to support these 

assertions. 

Ludwig Milde died in the spa town of Bad 

Nauheim, Germany, in 1913, presumably 

during the course of trying to recuperate 

his health. He was only 63 or 64. I have 

not been able to find the exact date of 

his death.

It bears mentioning that Milde’s student 

Josef Füger taught at the Prague 

Conservatory from 1925 to 1940. Füger 

was Karel Pivon v 

ka’s teacher. Also, Julius 

Fuc v 

ík, the composer of Entry of the 

Gladiators – the famous circus tune – and 

of The Bear with a Sore Head, was a 

bassoon student of Milde’s. Fuc v 

ík was 

known as the ‘Bohemian Sousa’ for his 

many marches for band. 

Unanswered Questions 

There are many questions that remain 

about the man and his life. In my quest 

for information about Ludwig Milde I 

have found no mention of marriage or of 

a family and no hint of what his physical 

affliction or afflictions may have been that 

forced his resignation from teaching in 

Prague and caused his death nineteen 

Courtesy of the Prague 

Conservatory of Music 

years later. The graduation record makes 

me wonder if April 30, 1849 is truly his 

date of birth. What is the exact date of his 

death? Are there Milde descendants living 

today? Where is his final resting place? 

Where are the manuscripts of his etudes? 3 

Are the orchestral accompaniments to his 

bassoon concertos available? Could it be 

possible that Milde ever played on a 

recording? What woodwind quintet 

groups did he play in during the last years 

of his life? Are there extant reviews of his 

solo appearances? 

Milde’s very name raises questions. I am 

told that Milde is definitely a name of 

German origin. It translates into English 

as ‘mildness, geniality, softness, 

gentleness, gentility’. In a 1995 IDRS 

article by Miloslav Masier entitled The 

History of the Bassoon School at the 

Conservatory of Prague, Masier refers to 

Milde as Ludvík, not Ludwig, as is printed 

on all of his published music. Was Milde 

born into a German-speaking Czech 

home or was his name simply 

Germanized by his publishers and in his 

school records, which were officially kept 

in German? Are his birth records available 

to confirm his given name? 

Although Milde spent the greater part of 

his life teaching, it is his compositions 

that are his legacy to bassoonists today. 

His 50 Concert Studies are his chief claim 

to fame, such as it is, but he also wrote at 

least two bassoon concertos (No.1 I have 

never been able to locate, although there 

is reason to believe that his Concertino 

for Bassoon and Orchestra is, in fact, his 

Concerto No.1, and, interestingly, the 

middle section of his Concerto No.2 for 

Bassoon and Orchestra has the same 

theme as that of Concert Study No.20). 

Besides these two bassoon concerti, there 

is a charming Andante and Rondo for 

bassoon and piano, a Polonaise for 

bassoon and piano (largely the same as 

Concert Study No.34) and a Tarantella 

and Three Recital Pieces for bassoon and 

piano, the third of which is the same as 

Concert Study No.3. There is also a brief 

Concertino for Oboe, Bassoon and Piano 

(again, I assume, a piano reduction). 

Finally there are 14 Trios and possibly a 

quartet for bassoons. 4 There are other 

works for piano and clarinet as well as 

chamber works including a wind sextet. 

The whereabouts of a Trumpet Concerto 

and a Concertino for Clarinet, Bassoon 

and Piano remain a mystery. 

The Concert Studies 

Yet, it is the Concert Studies, above all, 

that continue to fascinate me. Maurice 

Allard stated in the IDRS article by 

Gerald Corey, that: “As a composer, 

Milde was not among the greats, but for 

understanding the nature of the bassoon, 

he was a Genius!” Allard was absolutely 

correct. Although he was no Dvor v 

ák, 

Milde’s etudes are truly expressive, deeply 

romantic compositions that deserve 


wider exposure. They develop technique, 

endurance and, most importantly, musical 

expression. 

The original Merseburger edition of Book 

One of the Concert Studies (c. 1895) is 

dedicated to ‘Herrn Wilhelm Heckel, 

President of the Musical Instrument 

Factory in Biebrich am Rhein’. This 

suggests that Milde may have played on 

Heckel bassoons. Book Two is dedicated 

to the Vienna Music Academy. This might 

suggest that Milde was seeking an 

appointment there during his supposed 

period of convalescence (1894-97) 

before returning to Bucharest. 

A Faceless Man Revealed 

As mentioned earlier, in order to try to 

answer the many questions I had about 

Milde, I decided directly to contact Ales v 

Kan v 

ka, one of the directors of the Prague 

Conservatory. He responded quite 

promptly, telling me that he would check 

with the archives and let me know of any 

discoveries they might make. (By the way, 

it was telling that in his correspondence 

with me, Mr. Kan v 

ka also referred to Milde 

by his Czech name, Ludvík.) To my 

surprise and deep satisfaction, in addition 

to the graduation document and grade 

reports mentioned earlier, the archives 

located a single photograph of Milde, 

possibly taken around 1880, showing him 

at what appears to be around the age of 

thirty. After three years of living with 

his etudes night and day (writing 

accompaniments for them) and thirty 

years of knowing them, finally seeing 

Milde’s face moved me deeply. 

In the photo published here for the first 

time, Milde has a determined look in his 

light blue or grey eyes. He has a strong 

jaw; his slightly parted lips seem poised 

to speak. He is well kempt, wearing a 

snug suit jacket buttoned only at the top. 

His immaculately pressed shirt collar is 

held in place by what appears to be an 

ornate pin or button set with stones. He 

sports a neat handlebar moustache and a 

small tuft of hair growing under his lower 


lip, much in the manner of Paderewski. 

But unlike Paderewski, Milde has short, 

smoothly combed, slightly receding hair. 

No wild romantic man with mussed 

tresses and long Brahmsian beard, he 

reminds one more of the slim late 

Victorian men who rode bicycles and 

took walks in the public parks with their 

paramours. This was not at all how I had 

pictured Milde in my mind. 

Milde now had a human face. He had 

lived and breathed. He wasn’t just a 

disembodied name to be made fun of 

anymore (‘Mildew’ or ‘Moldy’). With the 

discovery of this photo, for me, Milde 

truly became a human being. 

A Plea 

Ludvík Milde lived for a reason and we 

owe it to ourselves to gather more 

information about this giant of bassoon 

pedagogy. His etudes have helped 

develop the great majority of the 

bassoonist talent in the world for over 

one hundred years and yet we know 

almost nothing about this man. Every day, 

all over the globe, bassoonists young and 

old are playing his etudes – struggling 

with their difficulties and marveling at 

their invention. I have examined etude 

books for many instruments including the 

beloved Barret and Ferling studies for 

oboe, the Anderson flute book and the 

Kreutzer violin studies. None has struck 

me as having the musically expressive 

qualities of those two special books of 

concert studies for the lowly bassoon. We 

bassoonists are lucky to have them. 

Finally, one telling observation about 

Milde deserves to be known (to my 

knowledge, the only personal anecdote 

about him), as told by Dr. Vlastimil 

Blaz v 

ek in his 1936 book about the history 

of the Prague Conservatory: “[Milde] has 

never been fond of the bassoon and has 

hardly played it [during recent times], 

while the piano was for him an ideal 

instrument. He has mastered it well and 

with taste.” How well many of us can 

relate to the frustration felt when trying 

to express what is in the music while 

fighting the bassoon reed every step of 

the way. 

I am sure there are inaccuracies in this 

article, both in my translations and in 

some of the assumptions I have made 

about Milde’s motives for moving from 

one position to another, but this is a 

first attempt at fleshing out this man’s 

existence. Milde was a man – not simply 

a term – and now he has a face. 

If there is anyone reading this who has, 

or can help find, more information 

about Milde and his music – especially 

Czech, German, Croatian or Romanian 

musicians – please contact me. I intend 

to make it a cause of mine to insure that 

no bassoonist of the distant future will 

wonder, “Who was this man?” Milde 

has enriched our world as bassoonists 

immeasurably and he deserves to be 

remembered. 

Thank you, Ludvík. We want to know 

you better. 

Footnotes 

1 I have recently been offered a contract 

to have my accompaniments published 

by Hal Leonard Publications. Book One 

should be available soon. 

2 Leonard Sharrow was present and, to 

my great satisfaction, he was very 

complimentary of my efforts. 

3 I know that William Waterhouse was 

able to obtain microfilms of the 

manuscripts of some of his other works 

at the Prague Conservatory years ago. 

Mr. Waterhouse was extremely helpful 

by making me copies of all of the 

information he had been able to 

unearth about Milde. I thank his 

memory profusely for this, and for 

his encouragement. 

4 Most of these concert works are 

published and available, thanks to the 

industry of William Waterhouse. 

[To contact David McGill email: 

DMcVegan@juno.com]


Facsimilies by Fuzeau 

These three volumes, reviewed here by 

Geoffrey Burgess, form part of an 

ambitious project launched by the 

esteemed French music facsimile 

specialists JM Fuzeau, the goal of which is 

to provide a compendium of instructional 

material for all instruments from 1600 up 

to 1860. The volumes under discussion 

here are dedicated to French publications 

for the oboe from 1800-1860. I will also 

have course to mention the prequel: 

Méthodes et Traités 3: Série I: France 

1600-1800 (ed. Lescat and Saint- 

Arroman, 1999). The two volumes of 

English oboe methods from 1600-1860 

were released in August, 2006 (ed. G. 

Burgess), and further volumes of German 

(ed. G. Burgess) and Italian (ed. A. 

Bernardini) methods are anticipated. 

You might be wondering what there is to 

review in a facsimile edition. The first and 

most obvious point of discussion is 

faithfulness to the original. This 

responsibility is shared by restorer, 

publisher and printer, but ultimately 

engages the judgment of the overseeing 

editor as well. Those curious to learn 

more about earlier playing traditions are 

not seeking a facsimile that could pass for 

the original. Actual replicas printed on 

paper identical to that used for the 

original, with watermarks accurately 

reproduced and all ink blotches and signs 

of wear preserved, are obviously 

unnecessary. Music facsimiles serve a 

more practical role. They need to be 

accurate photographic reproductions of 

the original but with the practicality of a 

modern publication: using durable print 

stock and binding, with text and graphics 

rendered as legible as possible with 

minimal intrusion from the restoration 

process. With only a few lapses, Fuzeau 

are rigorous about presenting clean 

copies. Digital image processing has 

certainly contributed to the miraculously 

pristine condition of virtually every page 

of the hundreds they have printed, but it 

also makes it even more apparent where 

they did not have access to high-grade 

microfilms, photocopies or scans of the 

source material. 

Hautbois: Méthodes, Traités, Dictionnaires et Encyclopédies, ouvrages generaux, 3 vols. Ed. Lescat and Saint- 

Arroman. “Méthodes et Traités” 14, Collection directed by Jean Saint-Arroman, Series II: France 1800-1860 

Paris: Fuzeau, 2003, ISMN: M 2306 5861 4 


The second and equally important aspect 

to a facsimile edition concerns the 

selection and organisation of the material, 

and here the burden of responsibility falls 

on the editorial team. Both the choice of 

the works and the selection of the specific 

original prints need careful consideration. 

I assume that Fuzeau have aimed to 

provide a complete anthology of all 

relevant works within their chronological 

frame. Likewise I infer that they intend to 

reproduce all relevant portions of each 

work, and I use these criteria to evaluate 

this publication. The job of editor of a 

facsimile edition is somewhat like a 

treacherous sudoku puzzle that requires 

not only a sound knowledge of the field 

and patient research skills, but an astute 

diplomatic acumen. In the case at hand, 

the editors’ task was confounded by the 

often confusing array of works bearing 

distressingly similar titles, and multiple 

editions of the same work with slight, but 

often significant, differences. Once having 

decided which works to represent, the 

editor must then find surviving copies and 

clear reproduction rights with holding 

libraries or private owners. 

The job of editor 

of a facsimile edition 

is somewhat like 

a treacherous 

sudoku puzzle… 

“ 

” 

In this review, my intention is not simply 

to point out the shortcomings of this 

edition: its strengths deserve more 

respectful consideration. I will also 

provide supplementary materials that 

were perhaps unavailable or unknown to 

the editors and publishers. It has taken 

me some 18 years of collecting and 

studying nineteenth-century pedagogic 

material pertaining to the oboe in order to 

develop some degree of confidence to 

address the topic. I have supervised 

Fuzeau’s volumes of English and German 

oboe methods, and I feel it my duty to set 

the record straight with the volume of 

French methods as well. 

Nowhere does Fuzeau explain the 

cut-off date of 1860; it certainly 

seems arbitrary to use this date for all 

instruments. A more relevant date for 

the oboe might have been 1881 when 

Triebert’s système 6 was officially named 

the Conservatoire model, thus launching 

its status as modern international 

standard. Still, it is usual for published 

instrument methods to lag behind 

practice; so although système 6 was 

around from sometime in the 1860s, the 

appearance of Georges Gillet’s revision 

(or rather rewrite) of Brod’s method in 

1890 would be a more meaningful 

terminus ad quem. (Paris: Lemoine et fils; 

an English translation of this version 

appeared five years later.) With its text 

fully revamped and new fingering charts, 

this publication served as the first official 

method of the Conservatoire oboe. The 

following six oboe methods were 

published in the period from 1860 to 

1890 and would complete the 

documentation of oboe technique in 

France up to the adoption of the 

Conservatoire model. 

The French translation of AMR Barret’s 

Méthode complète de hautbois 

(Paris: Triebert, 1866) 

L. Girard, Petite méthode de hautbois 

(Paris: Gautot aîné, 1866) 

Victor Bretonnière, Nouvelle méthode 

de hautbois Op.400 (Paris: Joly, 1867) 

Victor Chalon, Méthode de hautbois 

ordinaire et à système Bœhm 

(Paris: J. Kelmer frère, 1877) 

Émile Coyon, Tablature du hautbois, 

16 clefs 2 anneaux 

(Paris: E. Gheluve, 1880-3) 

Hippolyte Garimond, Méthode 

élémentaire pour hautbois 

ancien et nouveau système 

(Paris: A. Leduc, 1880) 

In addition, there is notable information 

in Félix Clément’s Histoire de la musique 

depuis les temps anciens jusqu’à nos 

jours (Paris: Hachette, 1885).

It may come as a surprise to open an 

anthology of oboe methods from 1800- 

1860 and find that the first work is not for 

oboe but Frédéric Chalon’s Méthode pour 

le cor anglais (c. 1802). It might have 

been less misleading to mention cor 

anglais in the title of the anthology. 

Cholon’s is the only work dedicated 

specifically to the cor anglais, but the 

instrument is treated by several other texts 

included in the anthology. Despite being 

no more than an assemblage of fingering 

charts for a two-keyed instrument and a 

series of duets, Chalon provides us with 

rare and important information, including 

a scale in quarter tones intended to 

instruct how to “draw the sound from one 

note to another [filer un son d’un ton à 

l’autre]”, also a chart of trill fingerings, 

and special fingerings to use for slurring 

across octaves. Moreover, this work 

should not be passed over by oboists as 

all the material is equally applicable to 

the two-keyed oboe. The duets were 

printed with the parts for corno primo 

and corno secondo in separate 

gatherings. The facsimile reproduces the 

part books sequentially in one volume. 

This is a shortcoming as it is impossible to 

perform the duets without copying the 

pages for one of the players. 

Of all French methods, Joseph-François 

Garnier’s Méthode raisonnée pour le 

hautbois enjoyed perhaps the widest 

dissemination. As well as being translated 

into German (Offenbach: André, 1815) 

and Italian (Bologna: Cipriani n.d.), 

publishing houses in Germany and Italy 

extracted the musical exercises and 

studies for separate publication. The 

studies lived on and are to be found in 

one anthology as late as 1896 – the 

second edition of Paul Wieprecht’s 

Studienwerk für Oboe unter 

Zugrundelegung der Oboeschule von 

Garnier, Op.7 (Offenbach: André). 

Despite the influence it exercised in 

the nineteenth century, the Méthode 

raisonnée is not printed in Fuzeau’s 

nineteenth-century volumes. It is 

however, to be found in the first volume 

of French methods from (1600-1800). 

Dating Garnier’s work is problematic. It 

certainly stands on the turn of the century 

– the Fuzeau editors preferred to date it in 

the 1790s while more recent research 

based on imprint details suggests a date 

just into the new century (1802). 

Supporting an earlier dating is the fact 

that this method is in the older tradition 

of the eighteenth-century self-help 

manual rather than the more thorough 

nineteenth-century Conservatoire method 

tutor. It is unfortunate that Fuzeau did not 

have access to cleaner copies of Garnier’s 

plates, as the reproduction does little 

justice to the fine quality of the original 

engravings. Note that although Garnier 

indicates that the illustrations of the 

Delusse oboe and reed-making 

equipment are printed at actual size, the 

lengths given alongside the different 

joints of the oboe in pouces and lignes 

correspond to the scaling in neither 

original nor facsimile. 

The Grande méthode de hautbois by 

Henri Brod is one of the most valuable 

and rarest of all the methods presented 

in the anthology. Rare from the 

bibliophilistic standpoint because 

this finely printed work survives in 

remarkably small numbers outside the 

dozen or so found in public collections, 

and even more valuable from the 

musical and historical standpoints 

because it documents the work of one of 

the most important oboists and oboe 

designers of nineteenth-century France. 

Here Brod presented his progressive 

oboe designs, exceptionally detailed 

instructions on reed-making as well as a 

comprehensive array of study material 

and a discussion of performance 

practice issues. Fuzeau chose to use 

the copy in the British Library (shelf 

number: h.2660) giving the date as 

1826/35. This might seem confusing, 

but as this is the complete, two-volume 

edition incorporating the first 

part printed in 1826 with Brod’s 

supplementary second volume from nine 

years later, the designation is apt. Still, 

there are further complications ascribing 

this date. 

Instrumental method books that endured 

any longevity were invariably in a state 

of flux. Revisions and additions were 

constantly being made in response to 

changes to instrument design and musical 

fashion. The result was that practically 

every surviving copy of a work such as 

Brod’s is unique. 

Ideally the editor should examine every 

known exemplar and base the decision 

of which copy to reproduce not only the 

physical state and completeness of each 

exemplar, but on its historical 

significance. 

Add to this the many practical factors 

such as where the surviving copies are 

housed, and whether the library or owner 

is willing to furnish adequate copies and 

grant reproduction rights. As it turns out, 

the choice of h.2660 was not entirely 

fortuitous because this copy lacks Brod’s 

original fingering chart for 8-keyed oboe. 

Notice the discrepancy between the oboe 

depicted in the illustrations on pages 3 

and 4 [pp.93 and 94 of the anthology] 

and the chart of specific fingerings on 

p.96 which were all part of the original 

publication, and the keys listed in the 

chart for the 11-keyed oboe on p.95, 

and the one for 15-keyed oboe on p.105 

which were interpolated sometime in the 

1860s. The copy probably dates from well 

after Brod’s death in 1839, and also after 

Fuzeau’s self-designated cut-off date of 

1860. 

This chart on p.105 of the anthology was 

prepared by Victor Bretonnière and served 

a variety of functions. It, or a clone, 

appeared in Bretonnière’s own Nouvelle 

méthode de hautbois (Paris: Joly, 1867), it 

was also sold separately at the Triebert 

shop, perhaps distributed with each new 

oboe and, as we see here, pressed into 

service to extend the marketability of an 

earlier method. So, while it is fascinating 

to see how Brod’s method was updated 

and adapted to more modern oboe 

designs, it was misleading to include this 

chart in the anthology, particularly as 

there is no editorial commentary pointing 


Ill.1. 

out that it could not have been part of 

Brod’s original publication. This was not 

the only fingering chart interpolated into 

Brod’s method: another copy of the 

method owned by oboe collector 

Richard Abel in Pittsburgh, USA 

features the Tablature générale du 

hautbois à 12 clefs compiled by Émile 

Corret in 1855. (This chart is 

reproduced as an independent 

publication in the Fuzeau anthology III, 

233.) There are more authoritative copies 

of Brod’s method which would have 

better served Fuzeau’s needs in the 

Bibliothèque nationale (A.540, Ci.8 

which has an autograph dedication to 

Cherubini but is apparently lost) and in 

private collections. For sake of 

completeness, Brod’s original chart is 

reproduced as Ill.1. 

Long-lasting and far-reaching in its 

influence, Sellner’s Theoretisch 

praktische Oboe schule (Vienna: Sauer 

& Leidesdorf, 1824) was arguably the 

most significant oboe method of the 

nineteenth century. The Fuzeau team 

dates the French version to 1835, but this 

seems too late. Translations were 

generally produced within a few months 

or years of the original. I propose 1827, 


which is both closer to the 1824 release 

of the original Viennese edition, and 

matches to the sequence of the 

publisher’s plate numbers, and also the 

same year that an Italian version of 

Sellner’s text was printed by Pozzi of 

Mendrisio. It remains something of a 

curiosity that a French translation of 

Sellner’s method was released at all. 

Ill.2. 

There are no records of Sellner-system 

oboes being used in France, so who 

would have bought a method that 

addresses so directly the technique of this 

particular oboe? Nor is there any reason 

to believe that Fouquet, the principal 

oboist at the Opéra Italien who reviewed 

the translation, played any oboe other 

than what would have been standard in 

France at the time. Despite this, the 

translation remained in print and is found 

in a Triebert catalogue from 1866, and 

Lemoine, who bought the stock of 

Richault, the work’s original publisher, 

continued to offer it into the 1890s. 

Clearly French oboists considered the 

musical content sufficiently useful to 

warrant keeping the work in print. While 

it was sensible for Fuzeau to print just the 

French text and omit the 200-odd pages 

of music from Sellner’s method (these will 

at any rate appear in the German/Austrian 

volumes), a more serious omission is one 

of the most substantive additions to the 

French edition: the fingering chart for 

French oboe that would certainly have 

increased the method’s salability in 

France. This chart also found its way into 

copies of Brod’s method, including the 

one in the Bodleian library in Oxford 

(see ill. 2).

A similar situation exists with Barret’s 

method as reproduced by Fuzeau. This is 

another French translation of a foreign 

method originally printed virtually 

simultaneously with the release of the 

original version. The complete English 

edition is also reproduced in the Fuzeau 

volumes of English oboe methods. If the 

modern editors omitted the music from 

the French version of Sellner, why did 

they opt to reproduce the entire 

musical text of Barret’s substantial work, 

particularly given that the hefty 206 pages 

of studies were printed from exactly the 

same plates for both English and French 

editions? 

Vény’s Méthode abrégée (Volume II) was 

released with the title of Méthode 

complete. The ‘completion’ constituted 

the re-engraving of the fingering charts, 

plus the insertion of two new ones for 

more modern oboe designs, and the 

addition of Quatre grandes études by 

Bretonnière. Otherwise the méthode 

complete re-used exactly the same plates 

as the Méthode abrégée. Even though it 

was published in Paris by Cotelle around 

1850, and therefore falls within Fuzeau’s 

chronological purview, the Méthode 

complete does not appear in the 

anthology. The fact that the only extant 

copies of the Méthode complete are 

found beyond the borders of France in 

libraries in The Hague and Berlin may 

explain why the French editors 

overlooked this work. The omission is 

unfortunate, not only for the excellent 

studies by Bretonnière, but the fingering 

charts for Triebert’s système 5 and Boehmmodel 

oboes which include precise 

instructions on the use of the clef à 

octavier (octave key) and clarify our 

understanding of the progressive 

introduction of mechanism to the oboe in 

the nineteenth century. It is often difficult 

to read the fingerings in the chart that 

Fuzeau has included from the Méthode 

abrégée (II:31). Some of the open holes 

are smudged and look like closed holes. 

(As a footnote let me add that with luck 

we can look forward to seeing Vény’s 

worthwhile set of studies with piano 

accompaniment published by Pozzi of 

Mendrisio in the Italian volume.) 

“ Otherwise the 

méthode complete 

re-used exactly the 

same plates as the 

Méthode abrégée. 

” 

Fuzeau prints the Méthode pour le 

hautbois by Stanislas Verroust from a copy 

at the Bibliothèque National, taking the 

date 1857 stamped on its title page as an 

indication of its date of publication. 

However the library was not in the habit 

of providing publication dates: this is the 

acquisition date. Judging from its 

contents, this method originated in the 

early 1840s rather than the end of the 

next decade. Verroust took over from his 

teacher Gustave Vogt as professor at the 

Conservatoire in 1853, but prior to this he 

taught at the École de musique militaire. 

The inclusion of a fingering chart for 

hautbois pastoral, an instrument played 

by amateurs and particularly military 

musicians, suggests that this method was 

produced while Verroust was still 

teaching at the École, rather than later 

when he was training the professional 

orchestral oboists at the Conservatoire. 

Kastner’s Méthode élémentaire pour le 

hautbois was an international publication 

printed in Paris by Troupenas and Co, and 

in Leipzig by Breitkopf und Härtel (1844). 

The same year an Italian version – 

Metodo elementare per Oboe – 

appeared from Lucca and Ricordi. Fuzeau 

used the copy of the French-German 

edition in the British Library but did not 

reproduce the third fingering chart for 

11-keyed oboe. Is the chart missing from 

this copy? The chart was under the 

editor’s noses at the Bibliothèque national 

(Vm8.i.10) and likewise appears in the 

Italian editions. This omission skews the 

picture that Kastner provided of the oboes 

in use at the time he was writing. Here is 

the chart. 

Other specialised works are omitted from 

the anthology. One is Joseph Küffner’s 

Principes élémentaires de la musique et 

gamme de hautbois suivis de 24 duos 

instructifs d’une difficulté progressive 

pour deux hautbois Op.199 (text in 

French and German, Mainz, Paris and 

Anvers: Schott, 1826; a copy is found in 

the library of the Hochschule für Musik in 

Köln). The editors did not reject French 

Kastner, 11-keyed oboe 


versions of other foreign oboe methods, 

so why did this not make the cut? I am 

assured that the German version of this 

work will be included in the relevant 

volume. 

The fingering chart for the Buffet Boehmsystem 

oboe by Pedro Soler (Paris: 

Richault) should also have been included 

in the anthology. This large-format single 

page survives in only one copy at the 

Bibliothèque national (Vm9.4892) 

stamped 1868. Soler had died in 1850, so 

this document must date from before then 

and the address on the bell of the oboe 

illustrated is where Buffet worked up to 

1839. It is one of the first publications 

pertaining to the Boehm oboe and gives a 

thorough explanation of this model with a 

few examples of passages that are 

technically more facile on the new oboe. 


It is reproduced in The Oboe by Geoffrey 

Burgess and Bruce Haynes (Yale UP, 

2004), p.163. 

The fingering chart from the Petite 

encyclopédie instrumentale; Collection 

complète de tablatures et gammes ou 

méthodes abrégées en tableaux 

synoptiques compiled by Adolphe Le 

Dhuy (Paris: Schonenberger, c.1840) is 

also a notable omission. 

Where are the 25 Grandes études de 

Hugot Op.13 transcrites pour le Hautbois 

et précédés de gammes, arpèges, de 

notes coulées et des trilles by August 

Bruyant (c.1950)? Although études do not 

properly fall in the category of either 

method or treatise, Bruyant’s text contains 

significant information on oboe technique 

that warrants inclusion. The studies are 

available in a modern edition from 

Billaudot/Costallat. 

The scientific study of orchestration in the 

early-nineteenth century centred on 

France, and the anthology includes 

portions on the oboe from three 

important texts: François Francœur’s 

Diapason general, Georges Kastner’s 

Traité general d’instrumentation (1836) 

and Héctor Berlioz’ Grand traité 

d’instrumentation (1844), the section on 

the oboe originally published three years 

prior in the Revue et gazette musicale de 

Paris (8/63:550-1). Relevant extracts from 

other orchestration and composition 

manuals that could have been included 

are found in the Méthode élémentaire de 

composition by Georg Albrechtsberger, in 

a translation by Choron (Paris: Vve 

Courcier, 1814); Anton Reicha’s Traité de

la mélodie (German original 1814, French 

version Paris: Richault 1832); Georges 

Kastner’s Traité d’instruments considérée 

sous les rapports poétiques et 

philosophiques (Paris: Mersonnier & 

Heigel, 1839-42), the Manuel général de 

musique militaire à l’usage des armées 

françaises by the same author (Paris: 

Didot, 1848) and Ferdinand Simon 

Gassner’s Traité de la partition (German 

original 1838, French trans. Paris: 

Richault 1851). Absent also are the 

extensive writings of François-Joseph Fétis 

which, within the chronological frame of 

the Fuzeau anthology, would include his 

important reports on the expositions of 

1834, 1839, 1851 and 1855 plus the 

description of the oboe in his general 

manuals: La musique mise à la portée de 

tout le monde (Paris, 1834) and the 

Manuel des compositeurs, directeurs de 

musique, chefs d’orchestre et de musique 

militaire (Paris, 1837). His Manuel does 

not fail to include attributes of a fine 

oboist: 

Un bon hautboïste doit tirer de son 

instrument des sons pénétrans sans 

exaggeration de force; il doit monter 

avec facilité, éviter la dureté dans les 

sons graves, et modifier le souffle avec 

expression. Il doit aussi avoir de la 

sûreté, c’est à dire, éviter avec soin les 

accidens qui proviennent de la 

presence de l’eau dans les trous du 

tube. Il y a peu de bons hautboïstes. 

[A good oboist must extract sounds 

that are penetrating but not 

exaggerated in strength from his 

instrument; he must ascend with ease, 

avoid harshness in the low register, 

and adjust the air stream expressively. 

He must also be reliable, that is, avoid 

at all costs the accidents that arise 

from the presence of water in the 

holes. There are few good oboists.] 

Leaving omissions and turning to 

duplications, across the four volumes of 

French oboe methods, there is one text 

that appears on no fewer than three 

instances. The seventeenth- and 

eighteenth-century volume includes an 

extract from Francœur’s Diapason general 

(pp.93-7). This presentation of the 

instrument’s technique and characteristics 

is specific to the late-eighteenth-century 

French oboe and is directed to composers 

and conductors. Alexandre Choron’s 

Traité général des voix et des instruments 

d’orchestre (1813) reprinted Francœur’s 

text from the original plates and added a 

one-page explanatory preface and an 

appendix regarding the cor anglais 

(Fuzeau 1800-1860 vol.I, 31-42). 

Francœur’s text is also quoted verbatim 

(this time typeset) in Choron’s Manuel 

complet de musique of 1836 (II,117-48). 

The Fuzeau editors did not alert readers 

to the authorship of this text in Choron’s 

publications. It is interesting to see how 

Francœur’s text was modified across a 

period of some 60 years, even in the face 

of its growing distance from actual 

practice. Francœur’s comments on 

intonation and range are relevant to the 

two-keyed Delusse oboes used in the last 

decades of the eighteenth century in 

France, but as oboe design evolved these 

comments became increasingly less 

relevant. In his Manuel complete, Choron 

added fingering charts for a 2-keyed 

oboe, even though by 1836 it was hardly 

state of the art. Yet another version of the 

Francœur text again edited by Choron 

and La Fage in their Nouveau manuel, 

would have been interesting to include as 

it has versions of studies by Frœlich (ie 

Garnier) and Chalon. In addition, in the 

form they are reproduced in the facsimile, 

these charts are virtually useless because 

of faulty restoration. Many fingerings are 

wrong because the open and closed holes 

were not correctly interpreted. This was 

doubtless a symptom of a poor copy 

where the open holes were smudged and 

therefore indistinguishable from the 

closed holes. It would have paid off for 

the editors to check the original here, 

ideally with the assistance of an 

experienced oboist. The section on the 

manufacture of wind instruments is an 

important addition; however, the 

scanning of the images was not done 

correctly and, although clear, they 

certainly do not resemble the original. 

Here Fuzeau has incorporated the 

musical examples, which were originally 

in a separate appendix, with the text. 

However, the publisher’s house style 

obliges readers to juggle the heavy 

volume in different directions to assure 

the transition from text to music. 

Oboe – Wind 

instrument with 

a very delicate reed. 

Its fault is that 

it often quacks… 

“ 

” 

The reproduction of the Manuel complet 

also demonstrates how loosely Fuzeau 

takes the term ‘facsimile’. Here we have 

an original with pages of 10x16.5cm 

blown up to 23x33cm with no 

explanation for the enlargement, apart 

from the apparent need to conform to the 

pre-established format of the anthology. 

There may be instances where blowing 

up the original size of a document 

increases its practicality, but this is not the 

case here. This is not the only source that 

is reproduced so far over size and without 

any indication of original scale, that it 

makes a monstrous distortion of the idea 

of facsimile. 

In addition to method books and treatises, 

the anthology includes dictionary entries 

on the oboe. The information contained 

on the oboe, even in specialist music 

dictionaries, can be very variable. Take 

for example the following extract from the 

Encyclopédie méthodique (1791-1818 

ed., Paris: Panckoucke, II,87): 

Hautbois – Instrument à vent qui a 

une anche très-délicate. Son défaut est 

de canarder quelquefois; mais on ne 

lui connoît que des qualités brillantes 

quand M. Vogt, élève de M. Sallantin, 

en joue. (de Momigny) 

[Oboe – Wind instrument with a very 

delicate reed. Its fault is that it often 


quacks, but one only hears its brilliant 

qualities when Sallantin’s pupil M. 

Vogt, plays it.] 

An appendix gives the range of the oboe 

from c1-g3. (de Momigny) 

That’s all! That’s the full description of the 

oboe in one of the most extensive 

musical dictionaries produced in France 

around the turn of the nineteenth century. 

It was later cited by Oscar Commetant in 

his only partially satirical essay on how 

musicians’ physiognomy relate to their 

chosen instruments as an example of how 

writers on music have eschewed the 

subject of the personality of musical 

instruments. Ironically, Commetant 

stumbled on one of the rare examples of 

an eighteenth- or nineteenth-century 

dictionary entry that includes the names 

of oboists. 

In the 1600-1800 volume Fuzeau 

included the earliest references to the 

oboe in general dictionaries by Richelet 


and Furetière, as well as Brossard’s 

famous music dictionary, and the 

extensive entries on the oboe from the 

great Encyclopédie ou dictionnaire 

raisonné des sciences, and an earlier 

edition of the Encyclopédie méthodique 

than the one quoted above. Still, the 

sample seems small. Why are there so 

few definitions of the oboe? The reason is 

that although many other music 

dictionaries were printed in the lateeighteenth 

and early-nineteenth centuries, 

such as those by Jean-Jacques Rousseau 

and Meude-Monpas, they do not mention 

the oboe as they deal exclusively with 

music theory. They consequently omit 

information on the practical aspects of 

performance – instruments, composers 

and performers. One would expect the 

nineteenth century to be richer in 

lexicographic references, but as it turns 

out, this is not the case. Apart from 

Castil-Blaze’s Dictionnaire de musique 

moderne, there is hardly anything 

significant up to 1860, after which point a 

number of entries document the rise of 

Chandos Offer 

the Conservatoire oboe and the Gillet 

school of oboe playing, such as Pierre 

Larousse’s Grand dictionnaire universel du 

XIXe siècle (Paris, 1865-1890). One 

reference that falls within the purview of 

the anthology but that was omitted by 

Fuzeau is the curious epigram by de 

Momigny, and that is why I felt it valuable 

to quote it in full above. 

At between 60 and 80 euros per volume, 

one pays dearly for this anthology, and 

the editors could have taken more care to 

avoid unnecessary duplication, to check 

all material for relevance, to be more 

practical with layout, and less extravagant 

and distorting with the scaling of the 

facsimiles. Nevertheless, this is a 

monumental achievement of huge 

importance to our growing awareness of 

the development of musical instrument 

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Bassonicus 

Ludwig Van, marathon man! 

by Jefferey Cox 

The marathon is the iconic event of the 

Olympic Games, and with two days to go 

before the event in Beijing, the media 

was already discounting public interest in 

some of the other finals in anticipation of 

that climactic moment. But what a long 

way we have come since that day in 

490BC when a Greek soldier ran the 

distance from Marathon to Athens to 

bring the news of his army’s victory 

against the Persians! In the first place, the 

word has acquired a meaning separate 

from the act of running, and far from 

heralding good news, it could mean 

wasted effort or be the harbinger of 

misfortune. That extended meaning of 

marathon – a protracted ordeal or effort – 

is what we are concerned with here. 

If you were asked to list the qualities 

required to run a marathon, I guess 

you would include some or all of 

the following: a sense of mission; 

determination; fitness and stamina. Some 

knowledge of how the feat originated, 

and why the event has an epic quality 

might add to the sense of occasion. After 

all, a marathon remains rather special, 

and the hype surrounding the annual big 

name races has mercifully not detracted 

from this. 

Those of us who play in orchestras are 

only too aware that live music-making is 

threatened by spiralling costs on the one 

hand and tightening purse strings on the 

other. You can only charge so much for 

concert tickets, and this means that even 

a large audience may not cover the full 

cost of putting on a concert – let alone 

yield a margin to subsidise leaner 

receipts. The net effect is a drain on the 

orchestra’s capital and ever greater 

dependence on members’ subscriptions, 

sponsorship or grants to bridge the gap. 

Faced with this problem, our conductor* 

suggested we undertake a Beethoven 

marathon, or ‘Beeth-o-thon’ and play all 

nine symphonies in one day! He had 

tried it with a London orchestra and the 

event had generated good publicity for 

the orchestra and a useful sum for its 

coffers. Perhaps we should attempt 


something similar. We decided to do just 

that, but replace the 9th with the Violin 

Concerto – less iconic perhaps, but in our 

case more manageable (we are fortunate 

in having a Leader of exceptional calibre) 

and still a wonderful climax to the day. 

We also decided to embrace two local 

charities: the Parish Church Restoration 

Fund (the church being our usual concert 

venue); and a charity, set up to help 

young people in the Borough. 

So much by way of background. What 

of the music? Tackling eight ninths of 

Beethoven’s symphonies in a day plus the 

violin concerto is a huge commitment, 

and you begin by asking yourself whether 

you are equal to it and whether your lip 

will stand the strain! Should you have a 

‘dep’ standing by in case it doesn’t? Even 

without the 9th you are about to embark 

on a journey through 32 movements, 

several thousand bars (no, I didn’t have 

the opportunity to count them myself!), 

and a total time span which lies 

somewhere between 4 hours and 19 

minutes (Zinman) and 4 hours and 45 

minutes (Furtwängler), depending on 

whose version you choose. In that time, 

you will traverse some 25 years of a 

man’s creative life and in effect 

accompany him on a journey from his 

first attempt at the genre to some of his 

last thoughts. Clearly, in Beethoven’s 

case, not playing the 9th (more than an 

additional hour’s worth) left a significant 

hole in the overall fabric, so whatever 

judgments one makes have to take this 

into account. His 8th was far from his last 

word on this subject. 

Or could it have been? We, of course, 

can look back knowing that it was not, 

and that there was the monumental 9th 

to come. But Beethoven’s contemporaries 

would not have known this, and were 

therefore obliged to judge each of his 

symphonies on its merits. They might well 

have thought that the 8th was lightweight 

and something of an anti-climax after the 

daemonic 7th. They might have been 

disappointed – or indeed relieved! The 

point is that whereas we have the 

luxury of being able to view the nine 

symphonies in the round, and as a 

distinct corpus within Beethoven’s output, 

Beethoven’s contemporaries had no idea 

what each successive symphony was

going to bring, and for them, each 

symphony represented a surprise. 

Nowadays we think we have the measure 

of the symphonies and usually categorise 

the odd numbered as ‘innovative’ and the 

even numbered as ‘consolidatory’, but 

even that is a relative judgement because 

there are innovative and consolidatory 

elements in all the symphonies. Where 

there is less likely to be disagreement is 

with the comment that there is not a 

linear development between the first and 

last. For Beethoven what constitutes the 

essence of the symphony lies at the hub 

of a wheel, so to speak, and he examines 

it from nine points on the circumference. 

Personally I find this quite a helpful 

analogy: it does not attach a preeminence 

to any particular symphony – 

each spoke of the wheel has a part to 

play in the strength and integrity of the 

wheel – and it encourages you to think of 

a symphony not simply as a separate 

entity, but as having a part in an overarching 

creative endeavour. 

To my mind Beethoven uses the opening 

bars of the 1st Symphony to make this 

very point: the symphony is in C, but the 

first chord is the dominant seventh of the 

key of F major; the next bar seems about 

to correct this ‘mistake’ but takes us in 

another direction altogether with an 

interrupted cadence; it reaches at last the 

dominant key (G major) in bar 4. Only 

then does the slow introduction begin 

properly. Simply perverse? Or a statement 

of intent compressed into the smallest 

possible space? You decide; but for me 

this is an Einsteinian moment – a sort of 

B=mc2, where Mass and Creativity meet 

in Beethoven! This is Beethoven’s 

shorthand for saying that the voyage of 

discovery will visit remote corners; that it 

will be unpredictable and sometimes 

confrontational: that it will eschew 

convention; and that the journey of 

10,000 bars starts with the first chord! 

And Beethoven keeps his promise. There 

may be moments when the writing is not 

so inspiring (the last movement of the 7th, 

for example, when I feel the dotted 

rhythm makes its point but outstays its 

welcome), but for the most part we know 

we are in the company of a genius. 

The extraordinary 3rd, whose first 

movement alone is longer than entire 

symphonies by Haydn and Mozart, and 

its wonderful Trio for three horns; the 4th 

and its notorious bassoon solo in the 

Finale; the iconic theme in the 5th which 

was adopted by the BBC as its call sign in 

WWII; the wonderful tone-painting of the 

Pastoral (6th) symphony; the rhythmic 

complexities of the 7th and the deft 

humour in the 8th! The sheer range of 

utterance leaves one breathless! 

Beethoven also used the symphony to 

introduce his own invention – the 

Scherzo, transformed from the classical 

Minuet: the lightest of soufflés invented 

by the most skilful of chefs! 

Talking of skills, Beethoven had no 

hesitation in demanding virtuoso playing 

from his instrumentalists, not least the 

bassoon. It is quite remarkable how many 

solos and countermelodies he puts the 

way of the bassoons, and how often he 

draws on the colour of two bassoons 

playing in harmony. He frequently 

couples 1st clarinet and 1st bassoon, and 

some of the trickiest runs demand 

absolute co-ordination between the two 

instruments. For the most part the notes 

lie well under the fingers, but players of 

instruments with a dodgy tenor F sharp 

may see their past life flash before their 

eyes as they reach for the very exposed 

notes (including an E sharp!) in the 

opening adagio of the 4th symphony, and 

the awkward and totally solo, repeated 

leap from D flat to G flat in the slow 

movement! 

The Fourth is by some way the most 

difficult of the symphonies for bassoon 

and, for the 1st bassoon, everything is 

overshadowed by that notorious solo 

statement of the theme in the last 

movement. By this time the conductor 

usually has the bit between his teeth 

and is pounding for the finishing post! 

Staccato semi-quavers at breakneck speed 

are no joke, and just to make things more 

awkward Beethoven has the bassoon start 

the theme on the off-beat of the bar. I 

wonder what the very first bassoonist 

ever to play those bars thought? He was 

fortunate in the sense that they came as 

a surprise and probably overtook him 

before he knew what had happened! All 

of us successors now know what lies 

ahead! 

So, Marathon over, we can relax and 

reflect on a happy and successful day. I 

rather suspect that it may be a while 

before a Beethoven symphony features 

again on our concert programmes! More 

seriously however, apart from benefiting 

local causes, has it made a difference to 

us as musicians? Not easy to answer. 

Thinking about my own reactions I would 

be inclined to say ‘Yes’. I was a latecomer 

to Beethoven, and had shied away 

from his symphonies in favour of his 

piano sonatas and quartets. I now feel I 

am close to being on first name terms 

with his symphonies, and I like that 

feeling. I also now know what Beethoven 

requires from my instrument and I have 

great admiration for the skill with which 

he uses it. I feel fortunate to be able to 

play well enough to participate in 

communicating Beethoven’s ideas. 

Finally, we live in troubled times and in a 

society increasingly at odds with itself. 

My marathon spent with Beethoven 

provided a bracing reminder that there is 

more to life than current head-lines. If 

only we could harness Beethoven’s values 

to remedy today’s problems! 

[*Levon Parikian (conductor), Clare 

Howick (leader and soloist in Beethoven’s 

Violin Concerto) and Kingston 

Philharmonia] 


Under Foreign Skies 

Reeds can be an issue in an oboist’s life. 

Sometimes it seems like a reed has a life 

of its own: it can decide your fate in a 

concert. It might at first be very pleasant, 

then all of a sudden your reed can 

‘decide’ that it is going to close, or break; 

and then, disaster! Oboists throughout the 

world will recognise this. 

For the Cuban oboists, however, these 

were much finer issues yet to be 

addressed. Their problems were in the 

basic category. They did not have tools for 

reed making and they still do not have 

the means to obtain materials regularly 

and in good supply. In addition, they did 

not have the information or the training to 

make reeds for themselves. 

From the third week of July until the last 

week of August this year, a Reed-Making 

Workshop was held in Havana, which 

addressed some of the problems specific 

to Cuba. With help from Howarth of 

London and Oboe Reeds Direct, who 

donated cane and tools for the workshop, 

and with the support of the High Institute 

of Arts (ISA) and the National Centre for 

Concert Music (CNMC) in Cuba, we 

made this happen. 

THE OBOE HABANA PROJECT: 

Reed Making in Havana 

by Aimara Magana Soler. For the Cuban oboe students, this summer will not be easily forgotten. For the first time 

in their lives, they had the opportunity to take part in a reed-making workshop, in which they started from zero but 

after six weeks were playing on their own reeds. 


I taught in the workshop where there 

were students from different teachers and 

schools, all at various standards: from 

early and intermediate, to the last years 

of university. Many of these students are 

teachers as well. We started from the 

very beginning and went systematically 

through the complete process of making a 

reed. 

This workshop was intended as a 

preliminary step and as preparation for 

the start of the Oboe Habana Project. 

This is a young project in its initial stages. 

It plans to involve every oboe player in 

Cuba, from students in the early stages to 

young professionals. It is envisaged as a 

means to ‘rescue’ Cuban oboe playing, 

which is in a perilous state with poor 

access to instruments, poor equipment 

and supplies, and a shortage of teachers. 

The aim is to bring as much help as 

possible to Cuba in terms of teaching 

and training. 

In its next stage we hope to provide 

masterclasses, group classes and 

one-to-one lessons in oboe as well as 

wind repertoire classes and chamber 

music coaching. The students need 

training with the orchestral side of oboe 

playing and of course cor anglais lessons. 

The project is also going to include 

regular sessions in reed-making. 

Besides the teaching part, there will be a 

programme of concerts that will help the 

Cuban students to know first hand about 

what is happening in Europe. We are 

thinking about providing teaching skills 

training to those students in the final 

years of their careers, to make sure that 

the work is carried on for the next 

generation of players. 

The Cuban institutions which are 

supporting the project, such as the 

Cuban Music Institute, the High Institute 

of Arts and the Ministry of Culture, are 

currently analyzing what has been 

achieved over the summer and what the 

next steps can be; they are also in the 

process of creating ways to guarantee all 

the logistics necessary for the project. 

They intend to invite teachers from 

abroad, mainly from the UK, and they 

will encourage all students to attend 

and participate and ensure good 

administrative and organisational 

support. 

On the English side, the project has the 

help and support of Michael Britton and 

William Ring at Howarth of London, 

Eimear Saunders at Oboe Reeds Direct, 

and the British Double Reed Society’s 

magazine; the Guildhall School of Music 

and Drama is offering tutoring and 

guidance and Dr Helena Gaunt will offer

a four-day Master course in April 2009 to 

work on all aspects of oboe playing. We 

are looking for sponsors for this course; 

even a small financial contribution to this 

project will make a difference to the 

country’s culture. 

Here is what the Cuban students had to 

say about the first stage of the project: 

“Very interesting; we needed it 

desperately.” 

“It is very encouraging to know that there 

are people concerned about us, people 

that want to and have given us their 

help.” 

When I first arrived in Australia, not 

knowing many people here, I started 

trawling the internet for possible suppliers 

of Glotin double reed products, having 

used Glotin staples all my life and also 

being a big fan of Glotin’s tube cane. I 

had ordered a kilo from Glotin in the 

“For the first time in our lives we could 

make our own reeds and play on them!” 

“This workshop has been a major 

breakthrough in my career.” 

For my part, I agree that the workshop 

really was that major breakthrough. I was 

impressed by the results that they 

achieved in such a short time. The reeds 

worked and they could play on them. Of 

course, they are far from being the best 

reeds in the world and the students still 

have a long way to go before they have a 

consistent result, but this is just the 

beginning. Now they can start addressing 

issues beyond the basics, because now 

they do know how to make reeds. 

I think the next stage of the project can 

have very significant results in a short 

time. In Cuba, there could be financial 

difficulties, and it must tactfully address 

outdated teaching methods; but there is a 

great will to learn and to work hard. 

There is a lot of untapped talent and 

potential. Anything that we can do for the 

students to guide them in the right 

direction will make a difference; the reedmaking 

workshop shows us that a little 

goes a very long way. 

Postscript: 

Dear Members 

This is a note to say Thank You to all of 

you at the British Double Reed Society 

JEAN-PIERRE SOURDAIN: 

Australia’s ‘French Connection’ 

from Celia Craig, President of ADRS 

1990s and found it to be so consistent 

and straight that there was hardly any 

wastage and it had lasted me for years. 

But now my supplies of that particular 

French cane were starting to run low. 

Imagine my surprise when I found 

advertised: 

and to Howarth of London for all the 

contributions for the project to support 

Cuban oboe students. Thanks to the 

donations, the Workshop took place and 

now students are playing on reeds that 

they have made themselves; for them this 

have been a major achievement. On 

behalf of the Cuban oboe students and 

me: Thank You again, it would have been 

impossible to achieve this without your 

support. 

Aimara Magana 

‘Welcome to Jean-Pierre’s online music 

store. We stock only the finest French 

Reeds for your woodwind instruments. 

A third generation family business, 

established since 1937, that prides itself 

on knowing its customers and their 

needs. Today, armed with the 


determination inherited from her father, 

Daniele Glotin guides her family’s 

company in the creation of premium 

quality reeds…’ 

I was intrigued. Who was this person in 

Kiama who knew the Glotin family? How 

exciting that he could source top quality 

Glotin products at prices cheaper than I 

had enjoyed in Europe! I rang him and 

introduced myself. 

Born in France in 1925, Jean-Pierre 

Sourdain has been awarded the Legion 

d’Honneur by the French Government 

for his services to the French language 

and the French Community in Australia. 

He has also been awarded the National 

Order of Merit and the Palmes 

Academiques. He was a Matelot in 

General de Gaulle’s Free French Navy 

and Managing Editor of the oldest foreign 

language newspaper in Australia, le 

Courier Australien, for 26 years. I asked 

him about his family’s business 

connection with the Glotin family. 

“My parents emigrated here from France 

in 1936. My father was the Director of 

the French Newspaper in Sydney and also 

ran a business importing clarinet reeds 

from France just before World War II. His 

connection was with the Chedeville 

company, who had created styles of reeds 

specifically for the Australian market 

(called ‘Real Vox’ and ‘Selecta Vox’, still 

for sale today). In 1974 Chedeville was 

sold to Glotin and they took over all 

production at the factory. 

“I first met M. Glotin myself in 1986. He 

was actively involved in all the aspects of 

production at his factory and very serious 

about expansion of his company. 


(He was particularly interested in 

conquering the American market, and 

printed all of his price lists in both French 

and English to that aim.) M. Glotin and 

my father got on very well, partly due to 

both being named Albert! In 1990 

I met M. Glotin’s daughter Daniele, a 

delectable woman, who took over the 

business when her father died, and we 

have maintained a direct but fragile 

contact ever since.” 

I asked Jean-Pierre if he had been 

involved in the business all his life. 

“No, I was sent to join the French Free 

Navy in 1943 and after World War II, 

when I was demobbed, I returned to 

Australia and did a social science degree. 

I was qualified as a social worker but in 

those days there were no jobs for men 

except in the prison service which I did 

not want to do. My father, as Director of 

the French Newspaper, invited me to join 

his business, which I did and eventually 

took over his job when he became ill; 

and the reed business too. The office was 

in Castlereagh Street and I used to get a 

lot of students from Sydney Grammar 

School who came in for reeds. When I 

retired I moved down to Kiama – I have 

my children near me – and I continued 

running the reed business by mail order. 

“I can also get knives, reedboxes, 

goldbeater’s skin as well as cane and 

staples – anything Glotin sells I can get, 

and at very reasonable prices too. Their 

clarinet reeds should be better known, 

but they always lose out to Vandoren. If 

there is any special order that you need to 

get, I am more than happy to talk to 

Glotin for you. Translating letters into or 

from French is no problem.” 

I asked him if he has customers coming 

to his home in Kiama. 

“I had one the other day, a little boy all 

the way from Cairns! It was just after the 

last Reeding Matter advert had come out 

and he came all the way from Cairns to 

buy two bassoon reeds! I was thrilled! He 

was on holiday in my area anyway and 

he’d seen my advert in Reeding Matter. If 

you are in the area, pop in and see me. If 

you’re driving through Kiama, I shall 

expect a visit.” 

[The Australasian Double Reed Society 

website is www.adrs.org.au where 

details can be found of the latest events 

happening in Australia for double reed 

players. Reeding Matter is the journal 

of the ADRS. Celia Craig, President of 

ADRS, can be contacted through 

www.celiacraig.com.au]

Reviews 

DVD REVIEWS 

Two DVD’s Detailing Methods of European-style 

Oboe-Reed Making 

1. by Fabio Croce (60 minutes) €18 plus postage 

Available in English, German, Spanish, Italian from: 

Fabio Croce 

Gochsheimerstrasse, 48 

75038 Oberderdingen 

West Germany 

Tel: 00497258 926400 

Email: cornoboe@nexgo.de 

Web: http://www.fabiocroce.com/ 

Fabio Croce is an Italian born oboist who now works in 

Germany after studying there with Georg Meerwein at 

Karlsruhe Hochschule. In this DVD he demonstrates a 

style of reed-making reflecting a standard German 

method with a short scrape of 10 mm, thin tip and a 

V-shaped hump behind. As with all method explanations, 

pictures are much more revealing than words. In this 

video every process is painstakingly shown. The 

camera work is mainly very good to excellent and only 

occasionally does lack of focus intrude in the close up 

shots. The pace is very measured and clear with a 

commentary in English. 

There are interesting ideas promulgated for cane 

preparation prior to shaping; for instance soaking damp 

cane in a sealed environment for 12 hours, making sure the 

dimensions are correct in the gouge by using a scraper and 

finishing the inside surface with fine sand paper. Tying on is 

very well shown with an old method of wrapping a cut 

piece of twine around the forearm (over a towel to prevent 

cuts!) in order to gain the necessary tension. The formation 

of the scrape is well demonstrated and the finishing 

explained in detail. The largest part of this DVD is the 

scraping process and how to adjust the almost finished reed 

to make it play. The final chapter has Tips and Tricks for 

improving the finished reed. 

2. by Linda Walsh: The Oboe – Reedmaking (96 minutes) 

About £23 plus postage from Australia, on offer at the time 

of writing. 

Available directly from Linda Walsh at the web site. 

Email: info@oboereedmaking.com 

Web: http://www.oboereedmaking.com/ 

The commentary is available in four languages – English, 

French, German and Spanish; you choose the appropriate 

one at the outset after it loads in your DVD player. 

This DVD demonstrates comprehensively the construction 

of a European-style oboe reed and is beautifully produced. 

The tying-on and scraping process is well explained and I 

feel this would be a very useful introduction to reed-making 

for newcomers to the Art. 

The chapters making up the DVD include: Introduction, 

Tools, Tying-on, Scraping, General Tips and Cane Selection. 

There are sections on American-style reeds from Martin 

Shuring, cor anglais reeds from Bram Nolf of the Belgian 

National Orchestra and the ever problematic business of 

knife sharpening. 

But the real coup de grace is the contribution made by the 

guests to this video. This is an enormous bonus. The DVD 

includes filmed comments on reed-making from eight 

outstanding oboists such as Francois Leleux, Nicholas 

Daniel, David Walter, Sebastian Giot and others. There are 

also scenes in the film from technical experts, Udo Heng of 

Reeds n’ Stuff and Dimiter Jordanov of Roseau Chantant. 

They demonstrate cane-processing machines and give very 

helpful insights into their use. 

As commented by Francois Leleux, there are no definitive 

answers to the problem of making oboe reeds! Each player 

has to find his own way. On the other hand these two 

DVD’s go far along the journey in helping us oboists find a 

method we can trust to at least approach a reed nirvana. 

They are both well worth the investment. 

CD REVIEWS 

50 Years of French Bassoon Music 

Marc Vallon, bassoon 

CD information below 

Geoffrey Bridge 

Beginning on the basson, transferring to the Heckel system 

and collecting along the way the baroque and classical 

instruments, it would be something of an understatement to 

say that Marc Vallon has had a wide-ranging career as a 

bassoonist. He is a distinguished and original teacher of 

students of all ages. Before taking up his present position as 

Professor of Bassoon at the University of Wisconsin, he not 


only had his own baroque bassoon class at the Paris 

Conservatoire, but also assisted Marc Trenel there with 

the students of the German system. 

The ‘50 Years’ in question begin in 1950 with Tansman’s 

classic Sonatine. This is a beautifully measured 

performance, with well chosen tempi (the composer’s 

metronome marks are, I think, a little too quick) and fluid 

passagework. Thereafter we progress chronologically to 

Marc’s own Cantus of 2001 [Trevco Music], a bonus year by 

my calculations. Cantus is an intriguing work for solo 

bassoon which I am honoured to have played and recorded 

myself. This is an excellently proportioned work juxtaposing 

extended melodic lines with dramatic leaps across the 

entire compass of the instrument. I highly recommend this 

to students, who from time to time have to play a piece 

with the ‘extended techniques’ of multiphonics, fluttertonguing, 

muting and so on. In this vein there is also 

Phillipe Hersant’s Hopi [Durand], which nowadays makes 

regular appearances in our music colleges. Marc adds 

another work by Hersant, the much less well known Duo 

Sephardim for bassoon and viola [Durand]. This beautiful 

lyrical duet also deserves more performances. 

From 1973 and 1999 come two more challenging yet, 

nevertheless, impressive pieces; one with piano – 

Ebauches (Sketches) by Ginette Keller (b. 1925) [Editions 

Transatlantique] – the other is with pre-recorded CD and 

called D’un geste approvoisé (With a Tamed Gesture) 

by Jose Luis Campana (b. 1949) [Editions Musicales 

Européens]. Both stretch instrument and soloist to the 

extremes of colour and dynamics. The energy and abandon 

with which these works are presented cannot be praised too 

highly. Indeed for me there is, throughout the disc, a true 

sense of the excitement and the presence of a performance. 

This is especially so in Marc’s characteristic reading of his 

own Cantus. 

Compliments, too, to pianist Todd Welbourne and violist 

Sally Chisholm; also to Pascal Gallois who was responsible, 

the sleeve notes tell us, for the exotic sounds on Campana’s 

pre-recorded CD. 

50 Years of French Bassoon Music is available 

from The University of Wisconsin website at 

http://wisccharge.wisc.edu/music/all.asp 

By purchasing it you will be making a donation to 

scholarships offered within the university. Another good 

reason for buying this excellent disc. 

Graham Sheen 


Concertos, etc by 

Hummel, Weber, Jacobi 

Elgar, Berwald and Gershwin 

Karen Geoghegan, bassoon 

Chandos CHAN 10477 

Karen Geoghegan, with whom most BDRS members will be 

familiar, was one of the three finalists in BBC2’s Classical 

Star competition. The first prize, given to pianist Sophie 

Cashell, was a recording contract. However, as was clear 

from the judges’ comments, the final decision was by no 

means unanimous. Shortly after the winner was announced, 

Chandos offered Karen Geoghegan a richly deserved 

contract to record her first commercial CD with the 

Orchestra of Opera North under the baton of Benjamin 

Wallfisch. Of the six works chosen for this disc, Karen has 

been able to claim the première recording for both those by 

Jacobi (in the full version with orchestra) and Gershwin. 

This CD opens with the Grand Concerto by Hummel, which 

is the work that projected Karen through to the finals of 

Classical Star. She approaches it with youthful exuberance 

and complete command of her instrument. Of the half 

dozen or so recordings I have of the Hummel I can say with 

certainty that Karen stamps her own mark on this work very 

successfully. As anyone who knows the bassoon will attest, 

the Hummel contains some extraordinarily difficult 

passages, which Karen takes amply in her stride. In fact we 

are left with no clue as to how difficult some of the fingerwork 

actually is. In a couple of places I take issue with 

her interpretation. The rubato employed in the cadential 

passage prior to figure ‘F’ of the first movement would have 

been more effective as an accelerando, rather than losing 

pace as the cadence approached. I felt also that the 

cadenza in the second movement was rather over extended 

and self-conscious. These quibbles apart this is a fine 

performance which, for one aged 19, is quite remarkable. 

The Hummel is followed by three other concertos from the 

classical period, which I will come to later. Next follows 

the Romance Op.62 by Elgar. This is a very pleasing 

performance. Elgar departs from the comic and trick-cyclist 

aspect of bassooning to provide us with a work of some 

gravity. Here, Karen shows her versatility in adjusting 

beautifully to the required lyrical style of playing, though I 

would have preferred even greater contrast between the 

middle and outer sections. 

The final work on this CD is David Arnold’s arrangement of 

Gershwin’s Summertime for bassoon and orchestra. In my 

opinion this is the best played work of all six. Karen is

clearly at home with this piece. She is able to convey with 

utmost clarity and feeling the atmosphere of sultry summer 

days. A truly great performance! 

Returning to the remaining three classical works: Berwald’s 

Concert Piece is a lovely work and is played well, but I was 

less convinced by the Andante e Rondo Ungarese Op.35 of 

Weber and the Introduction and Polonaise Op.9 by Jacobi. 

Both works I know well and they work well as concertos, 

however they need greater dramatic treatment. In the Weber 

one has to convey something of the exotic. He wrote this 

work at a time when Hungary was feared and whose 

culture seemed strangely exotic to the West. Consequently 

Weber employs many devices to express a sense of the 

bizarre. An example being his use of 2 1 ⁄2-octave leaps; 

though the bassoon can effect this with relative ease it 

surely pays to maintain the illusion of having achieved a 

feat of extreme difficulty? Similarly for the Jacobi: this opens 

with a passionate operatic recitative and proceeds to the 

Polonaise, which mocks the over-serious opening. The 

Polonaise gains momentum to a breath-taking finish with 

the più allegro, which I felt was far too slow. Nonetheless, I 

suspect most listeners will not know this once-popular work 

(which used to grace the back pages of the Otto Langey 

Tutor) and will find it both attractive, and its Polonaise 

theme memorable. 

In all, this is a marvellous start with which to launch one’s 

career. Karen should be congratulated on her achievement. 

I can truly say that I look forward to following her 

progression as she develops as a soloist and matures 

her style. 

MUSIC REVIEW 

Richard Moore 

Time Pieces for Bassoon, Volumes 1 & 2 by Ian Denley 

ABRSM Publishing 

www.abrsmpublishing.com 

Time Pieces comprises an anthology, mostly arrangements, 

of short pieces for beginners and intermediate students of 

the bassoon. Specifically, volume 1 is aimed at those who 

are working at Associated Board grades 1 to 3, while 

volume 2 provides material suited to those aspiring to 

grades 4, 5 and 6. Usefully, volume 1 may also be used by 

youngsters who are starting out on the mini-bassoon (in G) 

as the piano part, suitably transposed, may be requested for 

free from the publisher or downloaded from their website. 

The sequence of works in each volume is rather carefully 

selected to show a progression of musical styles from the 

sixteenth to the twenty-first centuries, to introduce children 

to a broad spectrum of composers – many familiar, others 

less so – from Bach, Mozart and Brahms, to Vaughan- 

Williams, Maxwell Davies and McCabe, to acquaint 

youngsters with some of the core classical repertoire; and 

to provide a vehicle for developing expressiveness and 

musicianship. 

In selecting these 37 short pieces, Ian Denley has sought to 

provide inspirational material for young players, which is 

eminently performable and at the same time provides a 

vehicle for more general musical education. Knowing 

Denley personally since 1974, I can vouch for his very 

special qualities as a musician and his concomitant success 

as a teacher of woodwind instruments. He believes, as I do, 

that music is nothing if it does not communicate. So, in 

choosing pieces that are lyrical and varied in period and 

style he has given us a rich resource to incorporate into our 

instrumental teaching regimes. I particularly like, and 

support, his use of lyrical material as I believe this is 

inspiring for youngsters to play and, importantly, it 

connects instrumental playing with the human voice. 

For the experienced player there is something here too. 

Occasionally one demonstrates an unfamiliar instrument or 

needs to reacquaint oneself with an instrument infrequently 

played. I found Time Pieces a very useful resource for 

selecting a short piece to play on the French bassoon, 

which is not my usual performance instrument. Oboists, 

who occasionally make the cross-over to bassoon, or 

bassoonists who dabble infrequently with the contrabassoon 

or baroque bassoon might similarly find these pieces an 

effective and useful resource to have at hand. 

I can thoroughly recommend them. 

CONCERT REVIEW 

The Oboe Band 

25th September 2008 

St. George’s Hanover Square 

London 

Richard Moore 

This was a fabulous performance from the unique 

ensemble, The Oboe Band. Formed in 2005, they have 

carved out a niche in the early music world, being the only 


professional ensemble of their kind in the UK. This attempt 

to revive the once highly popular ensemble of baroque 

oboes and bassoon has been successful, taking them to top 

venues across Europe as well as to the final of York 

International Early Music Competition. 

One may be unsure what to expect from an evening of 

music for three baroque oboes and bassoon, but would no 

doubt be pleasantly surprised. Ranging from jolly dance 

tunes to slow, beautiful melodies, The Oboe Band displayed 

a breadth of musicality throughout that brought this concert 

to life. 

This particular programme explored original works written 

for oboe band in both the seventeenth and twenty-first 

centuries. The first half of the concert included contrasting 

dance tunes from Mr. Paisible’s Music for His Majesty and 

the New King of Spain and Henry Purcell’s Incidental Music 

to The Gordian Knot Untyed. These were played stylishly 

with an abundance of light and shade. The tempo of 

Purcell’s Ouverture seemed a little adventurous for the 

church acoustic but the sense of energy was clearly 

communicated, contrasting with the bassoon’s delightfullyplayed 

Lilibulero melody within the gigue. The Queen’s 

Farewell by Paisible then served as an effective ending to 


the first half of the concert, the instruments blending 

seamlessly to produce a stately, yet beautifully captivating, 

funereal atmosphere. 

In surprising and refreshing contrast, the second half of the 

concert began with a world premiere of Oboes by the 

Spanish composer Blai Soler. This is a specially 

commissioned piece funded by the Performing Rights 

Society and described by the composer as ‘an exciting 

opportunity to explore this wonderful and archaic sound 

world within a modern context’. § The performers 

maintained excellent technical control throughout, 

succeeding in creating a wonderfully expectant atmosphere. 

This was followed by Lully’s Character Dances and Roman’s 

beautiful Trio Sonata in G minor, during which The Oboe 

Band seemed particularly relaxed and produced lovely 

phrasing, dynamics and a variety of colours. The concert 

ended with arrangements of three movements from Handel’s 

Music for the Royal Fireworks. 

Emily Askew 

* See the article on The Oboe Band and Blai Soler on P.19 

of this issue.

Notices 

2009 Gillet-Fox Oboe Competition applicants, should see 

www.gilletfox.org to check on application procedure and 

deadlines. The final stage of the competition will be held in 

Birmingham during the IDRS Conference 2009. 

See www.idrs2009.org for further information about the 

Conference itself. 

Woodwind Orchestra Playday, 31st January 2009, London. Come and 

play through original compositions and arrangements for woodwind 

orchestra led by Richard Dickins, Caroline Franklyn, Paul Harris, 

Shea Lolin and James Rae. Trade stands from Wood, Wind & Reed 

(Cambridge), Rossetti and Clarinet Classics. 

*50% Discount for double reed musicians:only £15! 

See www.elclarinetchoir.co.uk/playday for further details 

or call 01708 750 786 

600 or 700 new printed music publications are being 

released into the UK every month. Finding out about new 

publications and keeping up-to-date is becoming more and 

more challenging! Print Music Data is on a mission to provide 

musicians and the wider music industry with an authoritative, 

rich, online search engine on new printed music publications. 

Check out www.printmusicdata.com 

Christmas House Party at Benslow, 24–27 December 

(Course no.08/332) 

Enjoy a musical Christmas with all the trimmings. A mixture of 

formal and informal music-making for singers and 

instrumentalists, or just relaxing in front of the open fire. Guests 

are welcome from 3pm on Christmas Eve and the festivities will 

end after brunch on the last day. 

Benslow Music Trust, Little Benslow Hills, Hitchin, Herts 

Tel: 01462 459 446 (9am-5pm weekdays) 

E-mail: info@benslow.org Website: www.benslow.org 

International Bassoon Competition in Paris, 14th – 15th 

March 2009 in Paris-Ville d’Avray. The Jury consists of 

Frank Vassallucci, Franck Leblois, Kiyoshi Koyama (Japan), 

Benjamin Coelho (USA) and Jean-Louis Petit. 

First Prize: 1500 euros; Second Prize; 1000 euros. The 

competition is open to all bassoonists of any nationality 

without age limit. The competition registration fee is 

50 euros. The deadline for sending back the application form 

is 1st March 2009. Details from: Jean-Louis Petit, 34 Avenue 

Bugeaud F-75116 PARIS 

E-mail : jlpetit@jeanlouispetit.com 

http://int.comp.paris.va.free.fr/index.html 


Classified 

Bassoon and Contra Servicing and Repairs. Also all other woodwinds. 

Ian White Tel 01865 873709 (Oxford). 

Torda Reeds – quality handmade reeds by a professional oboe player. 

www.tordareeds.co.uk Tel/Fax: 020 8505 0519. 

Bassoonists! Free your hands and neck and use a spike. 

www.bassoonspike.co.uk 

Howarth S20 Oboe. Very good condition. Serviced by Howarths. £1,200 ono. 

Tel: 01708 756204. email: beverley_warren@btinternet.com 

Billerbeck Oboe Reeds. Quality cane and staples used. Prompt service. 

Marjorie Downward Tel: 01343 835264 www.billerbeckoboereeds.co.uk 

With REAL support anything is possible. 

Consultations with Sien Vallis-Davies... all details: www.OpenAcademy.info (phone 01458 860006). 

Come and enjoy making friends with your diaphragm and improving your playing dramatically. 

Howarth cor anglais. Good, straightforward, thumb-plate instrument. 

Well maintained. Semi-automatic octaves. £1,100 

roscarver@hotmail.com Tel: 01460 73714 

Gouge & Profiler Blades Re-sharpened. Oboe and Bassoon Gougers made to order. Prompt service. 

Tony Spicer Tel: 01903 892098 


Howarth S2 Oboe. VGC. Well maintained, recently serviced. £1,200 

Tel: 01380 840368 ros_pendry@yahoo.co.uk 

Oboe to loan to student in need of Lorée Conservatoire system, advanced model, good condition. 

Call 07710 990372 or email hughro2@yahoo.com 

Howarth S20 Oboe. Ideal for keen student, sold with Howarth hold-all bag. 

Contact: 07756 145941. £1,150 ono 

Howarth XL Cor Anglais (thumbplate model) for sale. Beautiful instrument, only 2 years old. 

With 2 crooks and Bb extension. £4,900. 

Please contact hollyfawcett@yahoo.com 

Adler bassoon, 26 key. Excellent condition, warm sound, good intonation £2,550. 

Tel: 01743 241827 

Mönnig oboe, professional dual system model, with automatic octaves. 

Lovely sound. 25 years old. Well maintained. £1,000 

roscarver@hotmail.com Tel: 01460 73714 

Cor Anglais completely reconditioned/serviced, lightly used. 

Howarth S2 with double case and carrying case cover. £2,500. 

Phone 01484 533503 for further details. 

Boosey & Hawkes Regent 572-Oboe Bought new – never played. £450 ono. 

Contact 07934 558251. 

Howarth S20 Semi-Pro oboe, 1992. Excellent condition, recently overhauled. 

Beautiful tone. Includes hard case and reed case. £1,750. 

Jo: 07885 539716 or jo.laing2@btinternet.com 

Lorée Professional Oboe, £3,300 ono. 18 months old, mint condition with spare AK bell. 

Tel: 07961 749403

Advertising 

in the Double Reed News 

Copy deadlines: 

Spring Issue 15th December 

Summer Issue 15th March 

Autumn Issue 15th June 

Winter Issue 15th September 

The following rates apply for camera-ready copy. Any additional artwork will 

be charged at cost. To place an advertisement or obtain further information 

please contact Geoffrey Bridge, Treasurer BDRS, House of Cardean, Meigle, 

Perthshire PH12 8RB or 

email: advertising@bdrs.org.uk 

Single Series 

Whole page (265mmH x 190mmW) £190 £171 

Half page (130mmH x 190mmW or 

265mmH x 92mmW) £121 £109 

Quarter page (130mmH x 92mmW or 

62mmH x 190mmW) £70 £63 

Eighth page (62mmH x 92mmW) £44 £40 

Special positions add 10% 

Loose inserts Up to 8grams £125 

Over 8grams by arrangement 

Classified Pre-paid only, first 12 words £5.00 

Extra words £0.40 (per word) 

Please make cheques payable to British Double Reed Society. 

Copy requirements: 

If sending a disk or email please enquire first to discuss format. 

Photographs should be prints or negatives. Camera-ready artwork, 

bromide, disk or film. Layout and text is acceptable but the publishers 

reserve the right to charge for origination or typesetting. 

Advertisers will be notified if this is necessary. Screen 120. 

TERMS AND CONDITIONS. The society reserves the right to refuse or withdraw any advertisement at its 

discretion wihout stating a reason, nor does it accept responsibility for omissions, clerical errors, or the 

statements made by advertisers, although every effort is made to check the bona fides of advertisers and 

avoid mistakes. The Society welcomes articles, letters and other contributions for publication in this 

magazine, and reserves the right to amend them. Any such contribution is, however, accepted on the 

understanding that its author is responsible for the opinions expressed in it and that its publication does not 

necessarily imply that such opinions are in agreement with the Society. Articles submitted for publication in 

this magazine should be original unpublished work and are accepted on the basis that they will not be 

published in any other magazine, except by permission of the Editor. However, the BDRS has agreements 

with like-minded societies with whom the sharing of published items does from time to time take place. 

Acceptance of material for publication is not a guarantee that it will in fact be included in any particular 

issue. No responsibility can be accepted by the Double Reed News, the Editor (or the British Double Reed 

Society committee) or contributors for action taken as a result of information contained in this publication. 

© Copyright 2008 British Double Reed News. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be 

reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying and recording and the 

Internet, without the written permission of the publishers. Such written permission must also be 

obtained before any part of the publication is stored in a retrieval system. The Society’s membership list 

is held on a database. The policy adopted by the Society is that the list will not be disclosed to any 

third party and is maintained solely for the purposes of administering the Society. The individual name 

and address of any member who is on the Teachers’ Register may be given in answer to a query from 

someone wishing to take up music lessons. Any organisation wishing to circulate the membership is 

free to ask to place an advertisement in Double Reed News or make a leaflet insertion in the next issue 

on payment of an appropriate fee. 

Membership 

Students £15 

Full Members £25 

Overseas Members £25 (plus postage) 

Fees will be payable in Sterling only. 

Membership Enquiries: 

Dr Christopher Rosevear (Membership 

Secretary) The Old School, Winchfield, 

Hook, Hampshire RG27 8DB 

membership@bdrs.org.uk. 

Re-order Services 

Back copies of DRN (where available) 

can be obtained by sending £4.50 to the 

Membership Secretary 

Single articles are available from the 

Editorial Office. Post/fax/email the details. 

Copies will be sent out with an invoice for 

50p per page. 

Concessions 

10% discount on music, accessories and 

insurance from the following and various 

concert discounts as advertised in DRN: 

T W Howarth 

31/33 Chiltern Street, London 

W1U 7PN 

020 7935 2407 

J Myatt Woodwind 

57 Nightingale Road, Hitchin, Herts 

SG5 1RQ 

01462 420057 

Crowther of Canterbury 

1 The Borough, Canterbury, Kent 

CT1 2DR 

01227 763965 

British Reserve Insurance 

6 Vale Avenue, Tunbridge Wells, Kent 

TN1 1EH 

0870 240 303 

The British Double Reed Society is a 

non profit-making organisation 

established to further the interests of all 

involved with the oboe and bassoon. 

The BDRS acts as a national forum 

for debate and the exchange of ideas, 

information and advice on all aspects 

of double reed instruments. It also fulfils 

an important role in encouraging greater 

interest in the instruments, and securing 

their place in the wider cultural and 

educational environment. 


Index to Advertisers 

Britannia Music Shop ..................................................................................................................20 

Britannia Reeds ...........................................................................................................................13 

Paul Carrington ...........................................................................................................................33 

David Cowdy ................................................................................................................................8 

Fortay Reeds................................................................................................................................25 

Fox UK..............................................................................................................Outside back cover 

Fratelli Patricola...........................................................................................................................25 

Pete Haseler/Gregson Knives.........................................................................................................8 

Howarth London ..................................................................................................Inside front cover 

K.Ge Reeds ...................................................................................................................................9 

Le Roseau....................................................................................................................................13 

F. Lorée ................................................................................................................Inside back cover 

Andrew May ...............................................................................................................................33 

Medir SL......................................................................................................................................25 

Oboereedsdirect..........................................................................................................................33 

Phylloscopus/K. R. Malloch.........................................................................................................33 

Püchner/Jonathan Small/Graham Salvage/T. W. Howarth.............................................................18 

Jessica Rance...............................................................................................................................33 

Tiger Books .................................................................................................................................33 

Sien Vallis-Davies ........................................................................................................................33 

Woodwind & Co. ........................................................................................................................25 

46 Double Reed News 85 Winter 2008

Depuis 1881 

HAUTBOIS OBOE 

HAUTBOIS D’AMOUR • COR ANGLAIS • HAUTBOIS BARYTON • HAUTBOIS PICCOLO 

DE GOURDON. 48 rue de Rome 75008 PARIS France 

Tél. : +33 (0)1 44 70 79 55 Fax : +33 (0)1 44 70 00 40 

E-mail : degourdon@loree-paris.com www.loree-paris.com

Fox Bassoons 

Oboes and 

Cor Anglais 

All Double Reed 

Accessories 

and CDs 

For information on all Fox 

products, the range of Double 

Reed Accessories from other 

manufacturers or to arrange an 

appointment, please contact 

Tom Simmonds at 

Fox UK 

Sole UK agent for 

Fox Bassoons and Oboes 

83 Dudley Road 

Grantham 

Lincolnshire NG31 9AB, UK 

Tel/Fax +44 (0) 1476 570700 

enquiries@foxproducts.co.uk 

www.foxproducts.co.uk

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