My personal investigation into the Dutch oboe school

Abstract

As a Dutch oboist, I investigated and explored the different aspects of the Dutch oboe school and related them to my own playing. I interviewed two senior Dutch oboists and read about the Dutch school in the literature. I listened to recordings of one representative of the French and one of the German oboe school and compared those to a recording of Jaap Stotijn, the founder of the Dutch oboe school. I also played a piece dedicated to Jaap Stotijn and experimented with making reeds similar to Jaap Stotijn’s reeds. The biggest differences between the reed of Jaap Stotijn and my own were the length of the staple and thickness of the cane. This project gave me a deeper understanding of the Dutch oboe school and how I relate to it. I could see what felt most natural to me and use it to connect to my musical background.