Scraping of reeds by Brazilian oboist — a study of the adjustments in the oboe reeds under the action of external climatic agents

Abstract

The present research aims to observe and identify the adjustments proposed by Brazilian oboists on oboe reeds prepared for the performance and which suffer changes due to the action of air humidity, temperature and altitude relative to sea level. Possible tendencies in the preferences of sonority and flexibility of the oboists interviewed were also investigated, trying to understand if there was any factor connecting such tendencies with the types of adjustments proposed. In order to direct the research to a focus of common interest to the interviews, we summarized the different schools of scraping in two: German School and
American School, considering that these schools exert great influence in the most diverse styles of scraping. A notorious Brazilian phenomenon was also investigated, which is the peaceful coexistence of the different
schools within the orchestras. As part of the methodological procedures, a brief bibliographic survey of authors discussing oboe scraping was carried out, in order to understand what is considered a ready prepared reed for a performance and what characterizes it. The online survey tool “survey mokey” was also used for an investigation with Brazilian oboists, observing the tendencies of sonority, flexibility and adjustments of the reed. After analyzing the data, there was a graduated list of adjustments classified by the Brazilian oboists within their scraping schools. It was concluded that there are very similar characteristics in the preferences of sonority, flexibility and adjustments, pointing to a probable cause that approaches the different schools of oboe in national territory.