A new reed for an oboe d’amore

An oboe d’amore – or hautbois d’amour – from our collections had since long lost its double reed. The reed, essential for producing sound, had in fact disappeared since the instrument was acquired in the 1880s. Unfortunately, it is not unusual for our instruments to be missing a reed, or a mouthpiece. These smaller, detachable and fragile components have often been changed several times by the musicians themselves and may have become separated from their instrument over the course of their history.

To give the public a correct reading of an object on display, it is preferable to show it with all its attributes. But this is not always possible, for example because of the state of conservation of a given instrument or a lack of reliable knowledge, and an object may then be presented “as is”. In the present case, it was decided to give back a double reed to Johann Heinrich Eichentopf’s oboe d’amore, dating from the second quarter of the 18th century. It was made as it was in those days, using reed, brass, linen thread and beeswax. Marcel Ponseele and Stefaan Verdegem, two musicians who specialise in historical oboes, have joined forces at our museum to produce this historical reed. Marcel also makes oboes with his brother Francis. And Stefaan, in addition to his teaching and concert activities, has produced a catalogue raisonné of the oboes in the MIM  (http://brusselsmimoboecollection.kcb.be/).

Making an oboe double reed requires the right materials, the right tools and, above all, know-how and a little patience. While oboists, even those playing on modern oboes, usually make their own reeds, making a historical reed, without the help of machines, is very much a craft. The main stages, which can be seen in the film we made in the restoration workshop, are summarised here.

The first step is to make the staple (or bocal), a conical metal tube that will hold the reed itself and be inserted into the instrument: it is cut from a 0.4 mm thick sheet of brass and wound around a small mandrel. Then, using a piece of reed (Arundo donax) 15 mm in diameter, the reed is cut, gouged and scraped to give it its general shape. It is also moistened to make it easier to work without breaking. The staple is sealed with a linen thread and the reed is then fixed to it, also using a thread coated with beeswax. The reed is then scraped and cut to the right length to allow its edges to vibrate freely against each other, using the double reed principle. This principle is common to all types of oboe, whether ethnic or not, as well as bassoons and certain bagpipes, for example. Finally, a trial run on the instrument allows our makers to check that the work has been done properly! The double reed can now be placed in the display case on the instrument it was made for.

The oboe d’amore is longer than the ‘normal’ oboe and is tuned a third lower, in A. It has a conical bore and, as we have seen, a double reed. It is most often recognised by its typical bulb- or pear-shaped bell, known as the Liebesfuss or pavillon d’amour (love bell, literally), although it is also available with a normally flared bell. Its tone is softer than that of the oboe, both warm and melancholic, and that is probably why it is associated with the words ‘amore’, ‘amour’, and ‘Liebe’.

In the first half of the eighteenth century, it was in vogue in German-speaking countries. Johann Sebastian Bach wrote several fine works and passages for the instrument, as did other composers such as Christoph Graupner and Georg Philipp Telemann. As tastes changed – or maybe because love only lasts for a while –, the oboe d’amore fell out of fashion in the 1740s and had practically disappeared by the end of the century. It was not until the end of the Romantic period and the rediscovery of Bach’s works that this instrument was also rediscovered. It was subsequently modernised, fitted with additional keys, and regularly integrated into symphony orchestras. The man who was to become the first curator of the MIM, Victor-Charles Mahillon (1841-1924), played a major role in the instrument’s revival. It was with full knowledge of the facts that he bought this instrument in 1883.

We hope you enjoy rediscovering the instrument and its new reed in the display case on the +1 floor of the museum, as well as the making of the reed in our home-made video hereunder.

Text: Géry Dumoulin

Bibliography

S. Verdegem, “Fétis, Gevaert, Mahillon and the Oboe d’Amore”, The Galpin Society Journal, vol. 68 (March 2015), pp. 75-120.

G. Burgess, The Oboe, New Haven, London, Yale University Press, 2004.

B. Haynes, The Eloquent Oboe: A History of the Hautboy from 1640 to 1760, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2001.