Donald Hefner reported the following in his 1984 dissertation The Tradition of the Paris Conservatoire School of Oboe Playing with Special Attention to the Influence of Marcel Tabuteau:

The flexibility of Tabuteau’s playing is described, albeit somewhat superficially, by Harry Shulman:

“I believe that a basic, moderately dark sound allows for the greatest possibility and flexibility in the change and coloration. An instrumentalist, adhering to such a sound conception, is capable of playing a brilliant, thin sound when necessary as well as a heavily dark one. A basically thin sound is inadequate where a dark sound is called for.”

“However, there are also primary aesthetic reasons for such a sound conception. Tabuteau, the great Philadelphia oboist, as well as supreme teacher, has demonstrated through his own playing and that of his school, that this moderately dark sound and the variable around it is highly adequate to requirements of orchestral work. The instrumentalist is supplied with what I might call an “aesthetic mean,” namely a position in the sound rainbow which appears to be just right for the manipulation of the demands of a score.”