The Reed Trio
The Oboe, Clarinet and Bassoon ensemble is often referred to as Trio d’Anche or Reed Trio. As the name suggests each instrument uses the reed to make a sound. The combination of instruments came to the fore in the 20th century thanks mainly to our French colleagues and composers including Milhaud, Francaix, Auric and Ibert.
Reeds
Humidity, temperature, enzymes, air pressure, acoustic all play their part in ensuring that a reed is never the same wherever you are….. we can all get a bit twitchy during a performance or rehearsal.
Knives are an important part of an oboist’s or bassoonist’s kit. Knives are used to make microscopic changes to the dimensions of the reed to counter the effects of the above. That’s why, though fun to do, it isn’t necessarily the wisest move to upset oboists and bassoonists in rehearsal 🙂
If bassoonists do get twitchy about reeds I’ve never noticed it – being the bass section they tend to be little more laid back in any event. Oboists are quite often to be seen working with pieces of string and wire and shaving minute amounts of cane from their reeds. If you spot coloured bits of string tied to radiators, door handles, table legs it is quite possible that a lesser spotted oboist or bassoonist has passed by at some time or other.
Clarinettists tend not to make their own reeds. However this means we can happily go through several boxes of reeds looking for THE reed. You can quite often find a clarinettist by following a little trail of discarded reeds & plastic reed containers.
and finally…
For those who like that sort of thing there’s a brilliant wikipedia article about all things bacterial to do with reeds….(not for the faint of heart).