Hi Folks,
I enjoyed this article: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/14/arts/music/oboe-laubin-jim-phelan.html?unlocked_article_code=1.FFA.FPcv.BvtJ0gyHZXc3&smid=url-share
Yours,
Dale
That was great! Love the cool photos and media that went with the article as well. I was interested in the introduction of the composite material that has been engineered to have similar sonic characteristics as wood. At the same time I took note of the fact that when the composite was demonstrated, the listener couldn’t distinguish one material from another, whereas the player could. The author thought it might be that their ear was not (perhaps) refined enough, but I’m more inclined to the belief that players feel and experience things differently when in contact with the instrument, and those differences don’t necessarily travel outward in the same way. Ebonite has this quality as well. Feels really different when playing it.
That makes perfect sense. Whenever I hear or even think about an oboe, I’m reminded of an Oregon concert I attended in the late 70s. A jazz-like band featured Paul McCandless on oboe. It was lovely. About every other solo, he’d sit down, take the reed off, wet it, fool with it, and get it back on in time for the solo. Several rounds of that during the concert.
Weird to see a former neighbor pop up here! One of his kids was a year behind me in school, I knew him pretty well. Mr. Phelan is or was the owner of a flutemaking company, Burkart-Phelan, along with his (now ex- I believe) wife.
If he was getting into oboe-making he should have stayed in our town, another friend’s dad is the principal oboist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Could have gotten some tips…