An art form itself, building an instrument can demand as much precision and craft as playing it. In Reed, the professional oboe player Petrea Warneck guides the viewer through the process of making an oboe reed. Alternating between Warneck’s construction of the reed and her performance of ‘Sonata for Oboe and Piano’, the film is a tribute to the dynamism of music and to the work that goes into making it, from the humble beginnings of its materials to the virtuosity of its greatest practitioners.
Instrument-making as dynamic as music: raw cane transformed into an oboe reed
Director: Dorian Warneck

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