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Reader sought
Ricochet has many very literate members, several authors, several editors.
For 12 years I have been working on a paper on the making of copies of baroque oboes in the United States, 1960-1995. The paper is nearly ready to send to a major musicology journal for review. It’s 15,000 words, 35 illustrations, 200 footnotes, most of these being citations.
While I think it is very good, I can’t judge it fairly. I especially can no longer recognize flaws in my logic, inconsistencies in my time line, that sort of thing.
I therefore seek two reviewers, preferably Ricochetti experienced in arts writing, preferably non-oboe players. I will pay a modest sum for your services.
Please contact me privately.
Many thanks,
Doctor Robert
Published in Culture
Does the use of ivory present a problem? From the photo it appears that were ivory components.
The real problems come from back pressure from the double reeds causing brain damage. 😁
Ivory has a complex history. The oboes in the photo are by the French maker Triebert from circa 1830. They have original antique ivory, which was perfectly legal for decades. During the Obama years the US over-interpreted a CITES treaty to ban the importation of any threatened species and some states have forbidden any sales of ivory, so a hundred or so of my collected instruments became unsalable and thus, worthless. The Trump administration now allows ivory on musical instruments without documentation of age or provenance. But ivory is not used on new instruments, too rare, too expensive, too fraught with danger.
As to the brain damage, it is sometimes said of a fine oboist, “He was already crazy and just had to learn the fingerings.”
I loved playing oboe in high school – just standard old high school oboe, not special baroque or masterpiece. Just being the only one in the orchestra. But maybe subsequent events in my life are explained in a new way…..
It helps to have a leg up, after all.
Another instance of the Trump administration bringing back some level of sanity to government.
Yes indeed. I had a terrible time getting my colleagues to work on this; when Trump was sworn in I tried to get the American Musical Instrument Society to take this up with Naomi Raoux, then a George Mason University professor and Trump’s de-regulation czar, now a federal judge. I got nothing but abuse form other members for my trouble.
Doc, wishing you all the best on your paper. I am not the right guy to volunteer to help you proof it.
Not sure if this is up your alley or not, but…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UEnVZ3j6UA
I think the “original” version might have used an oboe, but I’m not sure of that.
Is there a musicology journal that will publish a 15k word essay with multiple illustrations — especially these days? Is it virtual — because I have a hard time believing that any print publication will take something that long. And I assume that this essay wasn’t assigned, or if so, that a 12 year-old assignment is still viable several editors later. Frankly, this sounds much more like a monograph that you might be able to publish under the imprimatur of a major music school or university — then use it as a platform for giving addresses and talks at academic conferences. . . or seal the deal on getting tenure.
Thanks, I have published five of these massive papers in J American Musical Instrument Society and Galpin Society Journal. I ONLY want a published, real paper product. On line stuff will all disappear. My last one, on the oboes of Triebert (as shown), was published in 2019, all 15,355 words, 51 photos, 8 tables and 83 footnotes of it. My best one was in 2004, “Invention and early development of the Saxophone, 1840-55”, in JAMIS, I don’t have a word count but it was 90+ pages.
I know my audience and what they read. Here, I am aiming for a higher-prestige journal which has an 8k word limit, by offering to cut the paper in half. We shall see.
Tenure? Ha! There’s not a word about marginalized victimization here, and I make my living as an endocrinologist. I do better musicology than some musicologists, but that’s secondary.
Cheers, thanks.
Didn’t Rush have something to say about some kind of musicologists?
No wait, that was Hugh Hewit.
:-)
Good luck with your paper. The right people will find you (or you, them). This sounds very exciting and you’ll have to give an update when you submit your work. I’m disqualified considering the closest I got to playing an instrument or knowledge of such is the recorder in 3rd grade.
I remember now, it was ethno-musicologists. Not a high opinion of them, as I recall. One in particular might have been interviewed at some point, and then kept sending in scolding emails about something-or-other. They had a lot of fun with it.
Can’t help you. I have no experience in publishing or writing. Would be interested in reading it though.
I have an old friend who was a Russian Literature / Russian History grad student. He is not a musician, or a devotee of classical instruments, but he’s the closest I know to what you might want.
I’m a clarinetist, not an oboist, and I do work on clarinets. I have no professional experience in arts writing. I don’t have any background at all in historical instruments or reproductions. I have a degree in music from a pretty well known music school that dates back to times when dinosaurs roamed the earth, and I have been an active player for over fifty years.
I would be happy to review your document if you would find it helpful. Contact me via PM if I can help.
I only play the Hobo in auditions. Sorry.