Baroque Oboe Fingerings

7/22/2019 Baroque Oboe Fingerings

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Introduction

For modern oboists, beginning to play the baroque oboe or hautboy presents aconfusing mixture of familiar and new elements. The basic diatonic fingerings and

the feeling of blowing a double reed are similar to past experience, but the crossedand double-holed fingerings, uneven resonances, and the realization that there are nooctave vents and that the same fingering can produce more than one note can seemalien and frustrating. In addition, baroque style calls for subtleties of articulation thatare often not familiar to modern symphonic oboists.

The following exercises are intended to help a beginner address these issues. #1 and#7 jump between octaves, and give the player practice in producing the intendednote in tune; they should be played slowly and carefully at first. #2 and #5 presentsome simple scales and intervals, and should also be played slowly to coordinate air

stream modification for better resonance and tuning.

Exercises #3, #4, and #6 are for finger dexterity. They should be played slurred aswell as tongued, and in all key signatures up to four sharps and flats, with attention tosmooth transitions between notes. Exercise #10, based on the famous Moyse fluteexercise, addresses all the tonalities and should also be played slurred.

#8 and #9 are intended as an introduction to baroque articulation, with the idea oflearning to speak through the instrument. They should be practiced with lowbreath pressure in #8 an effort should be made to keep the reed vibrating all thetime, touching it lightly between notes to delineate them as subtly as possible.

Exercise #9 offers an approach to notes ingales, mimicking the hard and softpalate tongue-strokes used by baroque flute and recorder players the r i syllable isthe light articulation practiced in #8 while the ti syllable is the conventional oboearticulation where the tongue blocks the air stream.

The accompanying chart shows the fingerings that I use for the Saxon model hautboymade by Joel Robinson that is used by many American players; with slightmodification they will also work with many other copies of late 17thand early 18thcentury instruments. It should be noted that many other fingerings exist along withschools of thought advocating one or another approach as more authentic or morepractical, in the end each player must make his or her own decisions as to what choiceis most satisfying.

Stephen Hammer


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Stephen Hammer -- Studies for Baroque Oboe

Exercise 1 -- Le Tombeau d'Agneau


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# n n b6

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16

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&bbb n n n21

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&n n n26

&31

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Exercise 2 -- Some scales


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&9

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&17

&21

&25

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Exercise 3 -- Five-note scale patterns


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&5

&9

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&17

&21

&25

&29

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Exercise 4 - Thirds, play in all key signatures


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simile

&46

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&54

&58

&61

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# b # n # n b w

&8

b # b n b n # w

&15

# # b n # b w

&22 # #

b

b

#

n

w&29

# n b b # b n w

&36

b # n b # # w

&43

b n b n # b n # w

&50

# n b # n b b w

&57 b n b b b b b n b

#

b

#

b

wb

&64

b b b b b n b b b # b n b wb

Exercise 5 - slowly, with even sound


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&bbb5

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&bbb21

&bbb25

&bbb29

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Exercise 6 -- play in different keys


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Exercise 7 -- Syncop octaves

Courtesy Adam Shapiro


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w

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Exercise 8 -- basic articulation

Emphasize the marked notes with articulation

All notes full value, tongue lightly as possible


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&c #

tititi

tiriti

titiri

tiriti

titiri

tiriti

titiri

tiriti

# titiri

tiriti

titiri

tiriti

titiri

tiriti

titiri

tiriti

wtitiri

&b titititi ti

titi ririti

titiri

ririti

titiri

ririti

titiri

tititi

tiriti

tiri

riti

tiri

riti

tiri

titi

riti

etc.ri etc

&b

&b w


Play equal, trochaic, iambic

Experiment with the pulse

Exercise 9 -- articulation and inequality


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&bbb

&bbb n nn## # #

### n n nnb

&b n## # # ##

### # #

### # # nnnnn#

and so on

Exercise 10 - with apologies to Moyse


Baroque Oboe Fingerings

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