Tuesday, February 16, 2016

What is the Oboe, Anyway? - 1

In the minds of many, the oboe is just a clarinet or a carrot.

After service was over on Sunday a few weeks back, one of the men in the congregation came up and told me how much he liked my clarinet playing.

I was playing my oboe d’amore.  I just said thank you. It has been my experience through the years that trying to explain the differences between a clarinet and an oboe is just too much information for a lot of people. So, thank you is my standard answer if someone says they like my playing.

The gentleman then went on to explain how some guy made a clarinet out of a carrot.

I lost count of how many of my friends have sent me that video.

I just say thank you for sharing the video. That’s interesting. The guy in the video is a very clever man, I tell them.

Some people see the d’amore and ask me what it is. I say it’s an oboe of love. That can be a conversation stopper, which is a mercy.

So, what is an oboe?  Hmmm.

I can tell you what it is not.

It is not a clarinet.

It is not a carrot.

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