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Double Reeds Unite!
May. 1st, 2006 10:45 pmOkay, I finally found the cool thing about Symphony of Psalms by Stravinsky that will let me connect with the piece emotionally. (And it's a good thing, too, because the first performance is Saturday night!)
I walked into the hall this evening for the first rehearsal with the orchestra, and noticed something really cool: the number of double reed instruments. There were four oboes, three bassoons, an english horn and a contra-bassoon. Woo-hoo! Way cool! As an oboe player, I love the orchestration.
In case you don't know what a double reed instrument is, here's an explanation. Clarinets and saxophones are single reed instruments, that is, their sound is created by air passing over a single piece of shaped cane that vibrates against a plastic mouthpiece. Double reed instruments have two pieces of shaped cane that vibrate against each other. They're a lot harder to learn to play (especially if you don't want to sound like a dying duck), and also more expensive (both the reed and the instrument itself). Orchestras generally have one or two oboes and one or two bassoons; when an english horn is needed, one of the oboists will generally switch for the piece (or section of piece) that needs it. So having nine double reed players in one group is a very cool thing that doesn't happen often.
I took oboe lessons while I was in college at Luther. The general consensus among all of the double reed players was that if we had known, when we started playing, just how difficult and expensive and time-consuming it was to learn to play, we would have chosen different instruments. But now that we're as good as we are, it's really cool because there aren't that many people out there in the world that can do what we do.
I walked into the hall this evening for the first rehearsal with the orchestra, and noticed something really cool: the number of double reed instruments. There were four oboes, three bassoons, an english horn and a contra-bassoon. Woo-hoo! Way cool! As an oboe player, I love the orchestration.
In case you don't know what a double reed instrument is, here's an explanation. Clarinets and saxophones are single reed instruments, that is, their sound is created by air passing over a single piece of shaped cane that vibrates against a plastic mouthpiece. Double reed instruments have two pieces of shaped cane that vibrate against each other. They're a lot harder to learn to play (especially if you don't want to sound like a dying duck), and also more expensive (both the reed and the instrument itself). Orchestras generally have one or two oboes and one or two bassoons; when an english horn is needed, one of the oboists will generally switch for the piece (or section of piece) that needs it. So having nine double reed players in one group is a very cool thing that doesn't happen often.
I took oboe lessons while I was in college at Luther. The general consensus among all of the double reed players was that if we had known, when we started playing, just how difficult and expensive and time-consuming it was to learn to play, we would have chosen different instruments. But now that we're as good as we are, it's really cool because there aren't that many people out there in the world that can do what we do.
