Oboe Player Research Articles

How can autonomy and active learning be stimulated in a blended oboe class program?

This research is an exploration into stimulating autonomy and active learning in musical tuition. Through an explorative journey in my teaching practice I developed tools to increase autonomy, active learning and self-regulation in students, using the self-determination theory, new learning and self-regulation as the main learning theories to find answers to my research question. In my lesson practice students rarely come in as active-, self-directing autonomous learners. However, literature and experiences of other teachers, show us that students – even beginners – can learn to become active, self-directed learners. It is not common practice yet to implement these theories in music classes. This is why I would like to create a toolkit and a user manual for teachers that would like to incorporate autonomy supportive teaching and self-regulation in their practices. I will also create a blueprint to inspire working with blended programs in music classes. A flipped classroom can trigger an ongoing learning process in the week, it can aid students in their practice and it is a tool to reflect on teaching practices, teaching styles and programs. The research took place in the BASIS oboe classes at the School for Young Talent, in The Royal Conservatoire of The Hague. There were 5 beginning oboe players, in the age group of 7 till 13 years. I used a combination of design and action research. With the design research I developed the online learning space and the tools for active learning and self-regulation. With action research I reflected on my teaching, students learning, development and well-being and the use of the tools. It was possible to use learning theories in different ways. I used tables and frameworks to reflect on my teaching, I used existing tools, I tailored tools to the age group of my students and I combined aspects of active learning and self-regulation. After three design cycles there is a blueprint of a toolkit that can be used in a flexible way and there is a blueprint for blended learning in instrumental music classes. The changes in my teaching style, the implementation of the learning theories and the reflections on the program using the online environment had a great impact on the teacher – student dialogue, the content of my lessons and the overview of the program. In students I saw an increase in motivation, autonomy and effectiveness. They are very engaged young learners, they learned to choose repertoire and strategies in their practice, they are able to plan, practice and reflect on their process and they have covered more repertoire and technique over the last year in comparison to the year before. They started sharing their music outside of classes and started thinking about their own goals in their oboe practice.

Useful Feedback in Asynchronous Lessons of Music Performance: A Pilot Study on Oboe Players

In the COVID-19 era, the demand for remote and asynchronous lesson of music performance is increasing; however, it is not clear what kind of verbal information should be used. In this study, we collected 239 pieces of textual feedback in Japanese from 12 teachers for 90 performances of the same 10 orchestra studies of oboe performed by nine students. We quantitatively found that the contents of the textual feedback differed most significantly by teacher. Then, we performed multilevel modeling based on hierarchy among teachers to examine usefulness of contents, and found that four types of content contribute usefulness of the textual feedback. The results of a survey of students also supported our analysis, and in addition, suggested that ambiguous statements should be reduced to further improve the usefulness of textual feedback.

Ragnar Kjartansson and the Art of Pleasure

Ragnar Kjartansson and the Art of Pleasure

The personality and the creative work of A. Pasculli in the context of the West European music art of the 19th century

The authors of the research focus on Antonio Pasculli, a famous Italian virtuoso oboe player and composer of the late 19th - the early 20th century, whose name had long and undeservingly been in the wilderness. In the last two-three decades, his legacy has been getting a new lease on life. Pasculli’s compositions are on the concert list of oboe players all over the world. Despite the performance popularity, the personality and creative work of the outstanding Italian musician are still on the periphery of the research focus of Russian musicologists. All valuable information is contained in rare foreign researches. Therefore, the purpose of the article is to reconstruct the artistic portrait of Antonio Pasculli in the context of time. This research is the first in Russian musicology to introduce into Russian scientific discourse the data from foreign sources revealing the peculiarities of Pasculli’s creative life. Based on the analysis of the collected data, the authors conclude about the necessity to revise the role of Pasculli’s work and legacy in the context of European music culture of the 19th century. It is believed that familiarization with the information about the Italian musician, unknown to the Russian audience, will help to not only dive deeper into the specificity of Pasculli’s compositions, but also to reinterpret his place and role in the evolution of playing woodwind instruments.

The influence of the functional state respiratory system on oboe players’ sound duration and quality

The influence of the functional state respiratory system on oboe players’ sound duration and quality

Bilateral Mixed Laryngocele in an Oboe Player

Laryngocele is a rare benign dilatation of the laryngeal saccule, which is filled with air. Prevalence of laryngocele is five times higher in men; its aetiology is still unclear which includes some congenital and acquired conditions. In this study we have presented a case of 19 year-old-boy, an oboe player, who was observed with a bilateral swelling of the neck and after undertaking the Otorhinolaryngological examination, it revealed a bilateral painless mass in the neck that increased in size and also Computed tomography (CT) and histopathological report demonstrated it as laryngocele. We have performed bilateral cervical approach and removed the laryngoceles. We have reported rare association of laryngocele with laryngeal carcinoma, especially supraglottic carcinoma in this study

A harmonic analysis of oboe reeds

Because oboists make their own reeds to satisfy personal and physiological preferences, no two reed-makers construct their reeds in the same manner, just as no two oboe players have the same sound. The basic structure of an oboe reed consists of two curved blades of the grass Arundo donax bound to a conical metal tube (a staple) such that the edges of the blades meet and vibrate against one another when stimulated by a change in the surrounding pressure. While this basic structure is constant across reed-makers, the physical measurements of the various portions of the reed (tip, spine, and heart) resulting from the final stage of reed-making (scraping) can vary significantly between individual oboists. In this study, we investigated how the physical structure of individual reeds relates to the acoustic spectrum. We performed statistical analyses to discern which areas of the finished reed influence the harmonic series most strongly. This information is of great interest to oboists as it allows them quantitative insight into how their individual scrape affects their overall tone quality and timbre.

Hand and Upper Extremity Problems in Wind Instrument Players in Military Bands

This study examined the medical problems, especially of the hand and upper extremity, observed in wind instrument players from the military bands of the Japan Self-Defense Forces. The bands included 235 wind instrument players (184 men, 51 women), whose ages ranged from 18 to 57 yrs (average, 35 yrs). The length of their careers ranged from 6 to 41 yrs (average, 21 yrs). Methods: A questionnaire was distributed to the subjects for the health check. Results: From 235 wind instrument players, 71 (30% of the total players, 27% of the male players, and 41% of the female players) had hand and upper extremity problems. No relationship between the problem and the age or length of career was observed. The most common complaints were pain (49%), stiffness (19%), and numbness (7%). The upper extremities accounted for 52% of the affected sites and included the shoulder (6%), elbow (11%), forearm (4%), wrist (31%) and digit (47%). Musicians who played the flute, oboe, or clarinet were most commonly affected. The right thumb pain of clarinet and oboe players and right wrist pain of French horn players were characteristic symptoms of these instruments. Conclusion: Physicians, musicians, and administrators should be conscious of the potential for musicians to develop a wide array of physical problems directly related to the repeated use of their musical instruments.

Sensory motor retuning: A behavioral treatment for focal hand dystonia of pianists and guitarists

Candia V, Schäfer T, Taub E, Rau H, Altenmüller E, Rockstroh B, Elbert T. Sensory motor returning: a behavioral treatment for focal hand dystonia of pianists and guitarists. Arch Phys Med Rehabil 2002;83:1342-8. Objective: To evaluate the long-term effectiveness of sensory motor retuning (SMR), a new treatment for focal hand dystonia in musicians. Design: Prospective case series with an (adventitious) comparison group with 3- to 25-month follow-up in piano and guitar and 0- to 4-month follow-up in flute and oboe players. Setting: General community in Germany. Participants: Eleven professional musicians. Intervention: Immobilization by splints of 1 or more digits other than the focal dystonic finger. This finger carried out repetitive exercises in coordination with 1 or more of the other digits for 1½ to 2½ hours a day for 8 consecutive days under therapist supervision. The subjects then were instructed to continue practice for 1 hour daily for 1 year. Main Outcome Measures: Spectral analysis of the output of a dexterity-displacement device that continuously recorded digital displacement during finger movements and a dystonia evaluation scale on which patients rated how well they had just performed dystonic movement sequences and repertoire passages. Results: The 3 wind players (adventitious placebo controls) did not improve substantially. However, each pianist and guitarist showed marked and significant improvement in spontaneous repertoire performance without the splint. The first subject is now 25 months posttreatment. Conclusions: Results suggest that SMR is of value for the treatment of focal hand dystonia in pianists and guitarists. © 2002 by the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine and the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

Regression Analysis as an Aid in Making Oboe Reeds

Abstract Professional oboe players almost always have to make their own reeds, which involves a time-consuming process often fraught with wasted effort and discarded results. About one fourth of the total time spent on a reed involves getting it to a stage where it can be tried out on the oboe. Regression analysis was used to aid in making predictions about the ultimate quality of a finished reed based on data available at the initial try-out. The inputs to the regression model consist of several different characteristics of the cane used in making the reeds, and an assessment of the reed in its early stages through this initial try-out on the oboe. The goal to be able to decide whether or not to continue to work on the reed past this stage, based on the predictions of the regression. Thus far, the outcomes predicted by the regression have coincided reasonably closely with the actual outcomes in trials. Several regression models were tried, ranging from pure linear to curvilinear models that include interaction terms and/or squared terms. A particular curvilinear model was deemed the most appropriate.

Through music to the stars. William Herschel, 1738-1822

IN July 1757, on a battlefield of the Seven Years War, the armies of Hesse and Hanover commanded by the Duke of Cumberland (1721-1765, F. R. S. 1760) opposed the French at Hastenbeck. Although a veteran of Dettingen and the victor of Culloden, Cumberland was badly beaten; and in capitulation his Hanoverian army suffered much before their fortunes were rescued two years later at Minden. In the meantime an eighteen-year-old oboe player in the Hanoverian Foot Guards had decided that army life was no longer for him and in November 1757 had left with his brother for England, hoping to pursue a musical career as Handel had done before him. He had already been to England once, for in 1756 his regiment had been drafted across to help resist a potential French invasion: he had thereby come to know some families in Kent and on these he hoped to depend for musical introductions. Such was the unlikely start of the career of one of the greatest of all astronomers, for the musician was Friedrich Wilhelm Herschel (1738-1822, F. R. S. 1781).

SIR WILLIAM HERSCHEL AS A COMPOSER

In a concert at the University of California on the occasion of the eleventh general assembly of the International Astronomical Union, the Griller Quartet presented two concertos by Sir William Herschel. The scores used were from original manuscripts in the collection of the Music Library. The manuscripts came to the University in 1959, from an English dealer who acquired them in the sale of the Herschel estate in Slough, Buckinghamshire. They are chiefly works for instrumental ensemble, but include violin sonatas and accompanied keyboard sonatas, some fifteen works in all. The concert marked one of the first performances of Herschel's music since the 18th century, and it afforded a rare opportunity to bring before an international assembly of astronomers some examples of musical composition by one of their colleagues. Everyone knows what the name, Sir William Herschel, stands for in astronomy, but few have any direct knowledge of Herschel, the composer, in spite of the fact that he spent a large part of his life as a professional musician and an amateur astronomer. There is, of course, a long tradition behind the alliance of music and astronomy. There was a time when musicians and astronomers were trained in the same disciplines, when they could claim an equal knowledge of the music of the spheres. But this was not the case with Frederick William Herschel. There was nothing mystical or metaphysical in his approach to the art of music. He was a practical musician of his time, and he lived in a time when musicians were too much occupied with the problems of survival to indulge in cosmic or sentimental views about their role in society. Herschel's father was an oboe player in the band of a regiment of Guards stationed at Hannover. All of his children were accomplished musicians : the oldest son, Jacob, was

Blowing a Wind Instrument

To the Editor:— Dr. Henry D. Friedman's letter to the editor ( JAMA 177 :276 [July 29] 1961) contained a false premise; that is, that blowing a wind instrument will cause increased pressure in the nasopharynx and thus produce a Valsalva maneuver. In blowing an instrument, the palate closes off the nasopharynx and thus the increased pressure is not transmitted to the eustachian tubes. As an oboe player and an otolaryngologist, I can speak from my own experience and believe that any concern over middle ear complications being caused by blowing an instrument during an upper respiratory infection is superfluous.

Essentials in the Instrumental Program

THE MAJORITY of the faults found in our average school instrumental ensemble can be grouped under three headings. For instance, here is a high school orchestra with four celli. One is playing quite well but the other three, by their combined efforts, are nullifying his good work. Upon inquiry, it develops that the first chair player has been playing for six years, but the others started in their junior or senior years. The fault here is in organization. Good organization makes provision for starting the training of the majority of ensemble players before they enter high school. In this same orchestra is an oboe player, who is making the type of unmusical contribution so frequently associated with this instrument. It develops that he has been making such sounds over a period of several years and doesn't seem to improve. The reason? His teacher, a pianist, concentrated on rhythm and of necessity said nothing about position, embouchure, or breathing. The fault here is poor teaching. Good teaching will lay a solid foundation which will insure continuous improvement within the limits of each player's inherent ability. There are other faults in this same orchestra. It is particularly noticeable that whenever the trumpets enter, they overbalance the rest of the ensemble. The tempo drags and the playing is listless. Lack of balance and incorrect interpretations are due to poor conducting. A good conductor will take a group of individuals and with them make a unified ensemble. With this ensemble he will produce music which is correctly interpreted. Here, then, are three essentials in an instrumental program-organization, teaching and conducting. Each one has such scope that only a most perfunctory abstract of each can be given here.