Concerting oboe: timbre, technique, traditional and latest methods of playing
Authors: Martynova Valeriya 
Published: May 2019

Background. Oboe as a concert instrument has passed a rather long path of evolution, on which it has been improved according the parameters of its design, the technique of virtuoso play and the requests of composer writing. The concentrate of universal capabilities of the soloing (concerting) oboe is the concerto genre, in which all these parameters are combined in an integral entire. The objective of this article is to sequentially consider the components of the concerting oboe “image”, such as timbre and articulation-and-stroke technique, including typical and latestmethods of writing and playing. The methodology of researching based on the set of such approaches to the phenomenon under study as historical-and-genetic, deductive, system-and-structural. Results. Based on the consideration of the concerting principle in its historical and stylistic dynamics, the article reveals the specifications of timbre-and-technical means characterized the oboe in various genre forms of the concert. The data on the specifics of the oboe effects found in the concert music for this instrument are also systematized. The latest methods of playing are characterized, and a refined classification of multiphonics used in modern oboe practice is proposed. It is noted that the concept of concerting style first appeared in the Baroque era, when instruments and voices in the new homophonic practice began to reach the level of soloing. At the same time, the principles of concerting manner as a dialogue in various forms of its implementation were formed, among which the form of group or collective concerting represented by the genre of concerto grosso was primary in instrumental music. Within this form, the concerting oboe stands out, and for a long time it participated in a trio of soloists who performed in this genre as concertino opposing to grosso – the mass of the rest of the orchestra. The article identifies the main specific features of the timbre and technique associated with the oboe design (double reed) and the performer’s breathing (gradual exhalation). Particular attention is paid to the oboe effects technique, as well as a set of means for sound-producing and sound-leading characterized this instrument in its comparison with others belonging to the same family (wood winds) or to others (bowed string, brass instruments). On this basis, a description of the performing means of expressiveness of the oboe is proposed, including not only the specific (timbre-and-acoustic), but also the universal components that the oboe takes over from others instruments playing with him in an ensemble or an orchestra. In particular, among such there is the vibrato technique, which came to the oboe practice from the string instruments, as well as the two main groups of effects – connected (legato and its types), divided (staccato, spiccato, martele) and the special methods of playing adapted “for the oboe”, in particular, pizzicato and “slap”. (For an oboe, the “slap” is a sharp tongue strike on the reed with a simultaneous key strike or without it, as well as a key strike without blowing air in). Among the techniques that have the specific forms of reproduction on the oboe, the article discusses tremolo of different interval volumes, to which a special fingering is adjusted; frullato (the “oral” kind with using of the “r” sound like in a trumpet, and “overtone” kind producing by a performer’s throat); glissando, existing on the oboe in two versions, labial and finger. As examples of the latest methods of playing specified to the concerting oboe practice, those are discussed that contribute to the timbre re-coloring of the same sound or the sound set that significantly expands the sound-and-color capabilities of the instrument, and promotes to the process of its further universalization. These, for example, are bisbigliando, the technique that came from the harp practice, when an oboist gets the same sound in different ways; variety kinds of multiphonics; smorzato (a slow fluctuation of sound volume), oscillato (a similar change in pitch). Also the technique of doubletone is mentioned, when the oboist sings along with playing, which allows to produce consonances (intervals and even chords) on the instrument. Conclusions. The results of the research confirm the fact that the solo concerting oboe was formed in the process of a long historical and stylistic evolution, which is reflected in the genre of concerto for oboe, where the timbre-and-technical capabilities of the instrument are most complete. The complex of technique effects as the component of musical expressiveness was especially importance in formation of the cumulative sound image of the “universal” oboe. Thus, the concerting oboe was formed in line with the general processes of the development of musical thinking, which was connected with the practice of concert style, the principle of concerting as a musical and aesthetic category. Reflecting in different genre forms the development of the concert music, collective and solo, the oboe “sound image” has acquired by now the quality of genuine universalism, while retaining its specificity, connected with the features of its performing factor. The prospects for further study of the stated topic are seen, firstly, in the concretization of the stylistics of the concert oboe on examples of works of the concert genre; it will be necessary to build a certain logic of selection of material, which should not only illustrate the historical process, but also contain characteristics of individual creative embodiments of the “image” of the oboe by composers and performers. Secondly, they may be connected with the possibilities of projection in the proposed research methodology onto the concert music for others instruments.