Manufacturing & Art
The relationship has made no sense from the very beginning, for a number of reasons:
Still, something about the instrument has always enchanted me. Perhaps a part of the enchantment has to do with an affinity for the instrument's personality, potentially difficult and admittedly different. Or perhaps it's simply that I love the sound, and especially love the fact that it's me, partnered with my bassoon, helping to make that sound. My own mediocrity is momentarily forgotten amidst the realization that I'm somehow helping make such beautiful music.
Which brings me to the true reason for this blog. A year ago, on my birthday, I received a gift, something I've longed for more than twenty-odd years since college... A new bassoon. And not just any bassoon, but a Fox. The bassoon I was given by my wife was worlds apart from the nondescript, off-brand, plastic instrument I'd played in college, and I've tried to care for it as best as I could since receiving it... Which is why my wife and I traveled to Whitley, Indiana, this past weekend.
Whitely, Indiana, is home to the world headquarters of Fox Products, the premiere US manufacturer of bassoons, contra bassoons, oboes, and english horns. It was an amazing visit as, while my own bassoon was receiving its initial annual service, my wife and I were given a tour of the factory. From aged maple to gorgeously finished and fully tested instrument, we saw how Fox manufactures bassoons, via a meticulous and labor intensive process that takes approximately six months. Fox bassoons are manufactured by people who are skilled craftsmen and craftswomen, wood workers, machinists, wood finishers, and many other meticulous jobs requiring skills more typically associated with jewelry making than factory work. At Fox, the boundaries between manufacturing and art are blurred, with the occasional computer-controlled machine coexisting with legions of highly skilled people, combining to create products of unparalleled quality that are essentially handmade.
But enough words. Come... Take a tour with me, and see 'the Fox magic' for yourself.
Well, that's about it for today's 'virtual tour'. I hope you enjoyed it! ;-)
PS: If you'd like to hear me playing my bassoon, errors and all (pained smile), here's a recording of Pachelbel's Canon in D, played on my Fox-Renard 220.
|
Labels: bassoon, bassoonist, bassoonists, bassoons, Fox products, Indiana, manufacturing, music, South Whitley
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home