The art of second Oboe
If you are anything like me, you'll have spent all your time at music college practising concertos and playing first oboe in the college orchestra. I look back with great fondness to all that fantastic experience - playing the Enigma variations under Simon Rattle, performing some of those audition classics such as Brahms 1, Mahler 3, The rite of spring. Experiencing conductors such as Pierre Boulez and the late Sir Charles Groves. It was a great time, but in many ways it left me high and dry when I came into the profession and found myself sitting in the second, third or even fourth oboe seat.
The most important thing to remember about playing second oboe is that you are just as important as the first oboe! You are right in the middle of the woodwind group, supporting the first oboe and flutes above and filling in the gap between them and the lower woodwinds. Remember that and ....
Number one rule
DON'T try to play everything too quietly. You need to give the first oboe a firm comfortable base on which to play. Yes, there are times when you will need to be able to play obscenely quietly, but those are exceptions rather than the rule. See the list below for examples of infamous second oboe solos and danger spots.
He is very beautiful..................but why the Chameleon?
Be a Chameleon
This is who you need to be as a second oboist. The beauty of this job (and I LOVE it), is that you always have to change and adapt the way you play, depending on who is sitting next to you. It's a fascinating challenge.
DON'T try and impose too much of your own personality into the group. Save those skills for when you play first oboe, Cor Anglais, solo or chamber music.
DON'T move about too much. It can be very off-putting for the first player, or give them the impression that you are trying to undermine them, or lead. Mimic the movements of the first player, move with them and in their way. They will feel at ease and think you are really "with" them. It actually will help you to get things together too.
DO be aware of where the first player and the woodwind group play in the beat. Some groups play very much at the front of the beat, others more on the beat or even behind it. You need to fit in, whatever happens.
DO take on the personality of the first player and blend with it. If they are a brown log, become a brown log, if they are a bright green leaf, become a bright green leaf! (Are you getting the Chameleon bit now?) It doesn't matter what you personally think about how they play. You have to blend, support and indeed ADD to what they are doing.
Technique
You need a reed that is flexible enough that every note, no matter how low and with how many "ps" under it will speak on time, every time. You also need a set up that allows you to adjust how you are sounding to fit in with every principal you come across. Sometimes you might need to play very precisely, with a more focused sound, sometimes blend with the big, round exuberant style of your colleague. Everyone is different! and THAT's what makes playing second oboe so interesting.
NEVER feel that as a second oboist you are just a failed first oboist. It's a completely different skill. Some people are more suited to playing first, some to playing second. Know your skills, and use them! As a second player, however, you will usually also be required to play Cor Anglais. For this you need to put a different hat on - your solo hat. It's no mean feat to play something that requires you often to change instruments, and therefore your "hat" every few bars.
Second Oboe Audition Standards
Dvorak 'cello concerto
Slow movement - Here you are the accompaniment below the first clarinet. Dvorak often writes like this, and it is intentional. You need to be playing quietly enough to blend in with clarinet solo line (and man can they play quietly), but don't forget that you are playing the oboe and not the clarinet!
Dvorak Symphony no 7
Second movement - The same idea as in the cello concerto. You are again accompanying a clarinet solo. Low Cs need to speak cleanly with no "bump".
Bartok concerto for orchestra
Second movement - this is a solo with the first oboe, largely in thirds. You need to support the first player and match what they are doing stylistically. Don't try to play to quietly and make sure the low c-sharps speak perfectly with no bump.
Brahms variations on a theme by Haydn
Theme - You are in the middle of a woodwind choir. It needs to be rhythmically accurate and controlled in volume. The bar after the first repeat is a second oboe solo, so this needs to be brought out, followed by a subito piano in the next bar. Make sure your low Ds speak cleanly, with no bumpy attack, and that you can sustain that through a diminuendo and long pause on the last note.
Smetana The bartered bride
Overture - this is in many ways harder than the first oboe part as there are some uncomfortable octave changes and the tonguing is harder lower down the register. It needs to be cleanly articulated and rhythmically stable.
Stravinsky Orpheus
Second movement - practice this with a recording of the first oboe part to see how it fits together. It needs to be expressive and yet contained.
Wagner Meistersinger Overture
Again it's a really good idea to know what else is going on around you. Make sure the dynamic is kept constant and that trills are cleanly executed. Somehow this is much easier in the orchestra than as an excerpt.
Brahms symphony number 1
Third movement - An example of where you have to match the first oboe, playing in turns so that the whole sounds like one melodic line.
Ravel Daphnis and Chloe
All the woodwinds have the quick rippling passages. The second oboe part, however, goes down to low B, which adds another challenge.
Mendelssohn A midsummer nights dream
Scherzo - not too quiet, it is a duet with the first oboe.
Puccini Madam Butterfly
There are some pearly moments in this where you have to play very quietly down to low B. There is also one moment where the strings die down to nothing and the two oboes appear with a chord in pianissimo - very low down!
Sibelius symphony number 5
Some quick tonguing low down.
