oboeinsight

Just listen. You’ll understand.

Now some might say, “but can he play oboe anyway?” So here is the same guy playing with a real reed:

and this:

I’m assuming you all can hear the huge difference between the fake cane reed and the real ones. If not … get your ears cleaned. Please.

Marcus tagged me. But I played earlier and, believe it or not, that book is still the closest to me at this very moment!

Most of my books are in other rooms. The family room has DVDs, CDs and records (that I can’t even listen to!). Ah, but there’s my Bible. You really want to read about Balaam here? :-)

…the chief protagonist is an ageing composer/conductor who is obsessed with revitalising his failing powers by humiliating, then seducing, young female musicians in his orchestra, even as his wife is having a serious operation.

Okay, it’s an opera plot, but I did laugh.

You can read about it here.

And it goes on:

An egotistical serial-philanderer? Not like any real conductor, then. “Well, I can certainly think of one or two candidates, as I’m sure you can,” Berkeley giggles. “But this is essentially fiction.”

“Essentially fiction” …? But we all know the stories. Right? Funny how quiet we all are about them, though. I guess no one wants to spill the beans. Some of these conductor stories (rumors, to be honest, and I’ve not ever read anything that makes them fact) are pretty awful and actually criminal. Yet no one talks. I don’t know if it’s about job protection, fear of a lawsuit, or just that we are all very good people who don’t like to ruin anyone.

Well, nix that last one. I know, at least, that I’m not that good of a person. (I’m thankful no one can crawl into this brain of mine and hear my frequently awful thoughts. Sometimes I’m horrified by what comes into my head. Sigh.)

I’m not talking about anyone I’m currently working with, nor would I tell you if I was talking about anyone I’ve worked with in the past, so don’t be guessing. And don’t ask me because I won’t tell. We are currently working under Paul Polivnick who is one of my faves, so no, you can’t be thinking he’s one of these scoundrels! (And he sure has done a fabulous job this week, working with us in this somewhat interesting—as in sort of challenging for reasons I won’t go into right now—set.)

But I ramble.

Okay … exhaustion has hit me hard today. With this exhaustion has come sadness. So I’m going to rest and dump the sorrow. A bit of sleep might help. (Meanwhile I’ve put on some sad music because I do tend to wallow in this mood when I’m weary.)

Over and out.

I went to this link and watched and listened to their demonstration. When we finally get to the woodwind demonstration I wonder “Well, was that supposed to be an oboe or a sax?” Which tells you it doesn’t work for these ears. But how about other readers/listeners? What do you think? I’d love to hear from players of other instruments. Do your sections sound off as well?

And did they put the person speaking way too close to a microphone? It bugs me, anyway.

So check it out and fill me in, if you feel like it.

Or don’t. Your choice. :-)

So some conductor (woulnd’t ya know it? j/k) is in trouble for saying he bought instruments when he didn’t. Ya just can’t cheat the tax folks. Even in New Zealand, I guess.

Nelson Symphony Orchestra director David John Lindup is in custody after fraudulently claiming GST refunds worth $1.3 million for musical instruments he never bought.

This is rather costly publicity, but it did get me to look up the orchestra.

(RTWT)

Columbus would become one of the nation’s largest cities without a full-time professional orchestra.

(RTWT)

Columbus is fifteenth. We are tenth.

Just because your city is large doesn’t mean a symphony will be supported. Trust me.

But maybe it has something to do with the how we look. Take a look at Wikipedia’s pictures of the cities. Can’t say that San Jose’s is exactly stunning. At least not in that picture.

I notice that Symphony Silicon Valley doesn’t really have a wiki page while Columbus Symphony does have one. I guess we don’t rate. Oh well. The old San Jose Symphony (RIP) didn’t get one either, and we were one of the oldest symphony orchestras in the west. (San Jose couldn’t support that group — one that provided a great deal more work for yours truly. Such is life.)

I’m home. I think I got in the door sometime around 10:15. I’ve been playing oboe and English horn since before 10:00 this morning. (The first rehearsal began at 10:00, so I think I was probably warming up at around 9:20 or so.)

My mouth says it’s had enough! That was a long day of music. (And yes, I know there are some out there who do a whole lot more, and I have friends with “real” jobs who deal with this just fine. I’m just wimpy!) :-)

Beauty and the Beast is a busy show, and doesn’t have a lot of resting time. It has some very pretty music, and I have a few solos that are great fun to play. I’m hoping I can see a bit of the show, but I won’t know until we move into the pit. There are some extremely quick instrument switches; there’s no time to put the oboe on a stand, so it has to sit in my lap. In one instance I have one measure to make the switch, if I’m remembering correctly. But I think it’ll be an enjoyable run. The music is a bit different from the time I played it when it was out on tour … I suspect they’ve simplified a few things. Ah well.

And does anyone else hear the Tristan and Isolde quote toward the end of the thing? It just cracks me up … I’m guessing it was put in there as a little joke. But who knows?

Maybe I’m so out of it I’m just imagining it?

Could it be …? ;-)

Opera is hoity toity people.

To darn funny. Thank you, Steve Colbert. Watch it here.

Colbert and Nathan Gunn? Very cool.

“It’s hard to sing in front of people with your shirt off.”

Who knew that Frank Sinatra conducted Mitch Miller playing “Air for Oboe” by Alec Wilder?

I sure didn’t.

You can listen to a bit of it over here.

More unique to our waitlist review though, we may consider the level of continued interest in Vanderbilt, the content of any new information that has been received since our decisions have gone out, and what elements of each application fit with the outstanding needs and goals of our incoming class (the aforementioned scenario, if we need oboe players, we’ll admit more oboe players, etc).

(Found here)

Once again, the oboe is used as an example at an admissions site.

Here are some other examples of the oboe thing going on at admissions sites and blogs:

We will do jazz in a classical music style.

-found online

I’m just not sure what that means. But it’s probably just me. Right?

I think I’m just too exahausted, although I have no excuse to be so tired. I’m just home from the final Gershwin set rehearsal, and it was a double service day, but the concert really isn’t difficult for me, so it’s not like I was working terribly hard. Maybe it’s just thinking about the 6 1/2 hours of rehearsal I have tomorrow prior to the symphony concert.

As I was setting up for yesterday’s rehearsal one player was warming up on his sax. It was loud. 90 decibels loud. And he was only warming up. We have a lot of saxes for this concert. And a drum set. I knew we had trouble. I talked to our concert manager about getting a sound shield and at first was told they were all in use so I couldn’t have one. I mentioned the 90 decibels with just the one person warming up. A bit later a sound shield was brought to me.

Good thing I had my decibel meter! (Thanks, Mom!)

Still, it was going to be an awfully unpleasant situation. The sound shields do a little bit, but not enough. I knew it was an ear plug gig for the entire week. Sigh.

BUT!! We were moved prior to the start of the rehearsal. I was so relieved. I would have worn my earplugs had we not been relocated, and playing a wind instrument with ear plugs in is a very unpleasant experience. I hear my tongue inside my head (really!), I hear my sound as very tinny and ugly. It’s just awful. Where we are now I don’t think I’ll need plugs at all, and I gave my sound shield to another player who is still in front of the saxes.

There’s a good article on the problems we deal with. And yes, of course it’s the nature of the biz and all to have to deal with this (I’ve read some blog entries by non-musicians who seem to think we are just big babies and should quit if we can’t handle the noise). Our hearing, as you might imagine, is quite important. Loss of hearing is not a good thing!

It seems to me that we are playing louder these days. There’s a beauty and wonder in a hushed pianissimo and I’d love to get to that more often.

But I’ve said all that before. I wonder if anyone can hear me?

You know how I just blogged about thinking of mixing music, poetry and art? Heh. Read:

Ice-T, the provocative rapper and actor, will perform with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra on June 18 at Hilbert Circle Theatre in what is believed to be his first symphony engagement.

He will narrate “Ask Your Mama: Twelve Moods for Jazz,” a poem from the 1960s by Langston Hughes. The ISO and the McCurdy/Wright Jazz Quartet will accompany the poetry, while images by photographer Gordon Parks and painters Romare Bearden and Jacob Lawrence are projected above the stage.

(RTWT)

Not exactly what I had envisioned, but still ….

Feel like no one knows your pain at work when the tempo suddenly picks up and you’re left to lead in front of a crowd?

The stage is full of sympathizers at the Memphis Symphony Orchestra.

Who knew that the tuxedoed and bejeweled musicians are also section leaders (read: division managers) running teams of worker bees through moments of grandeur and plenty of just plain monotony?

This article might be of interest to some readers. The orchestra is being used to educate FedEx folks.

As the orchestra floated through Beethoven, Loebel stopped to introduce management modules scripted to heighten business concepts.

“We have to balance our roles within the texture of the music. Some are playing constants and some shift,” Loebel said.

When he asked principal flutist Karen Busler about her role in bar 67, he got this:

“I’m the diva,” she said to snickers from the kettle drums to the strings.

Turns out, how the rest of the group supports her is the same sort of teamwork that happens every day at the Cannon Center or the FedEx hub.

“I make the diva look good,” said Robert Woolfrey, principal clarinetist. “I provide accompaniment and set up the rhythm to make her sound good.”

Salvalaggio’s role was subtler. “My sense of good taste and camaraderie tell me to play under her.”

Of course they probably didn’t hear about how we can also sink another player or conductor, or how some folks just can’t get along. Salvalaggio doesn’t mention that some players don’t have good taste or camaraderie. I won’t go there either.

Oops. Too late!

Really, though, we all attempt to work together and get along. Even if we’d not get along off stage, on stage is different. You have to put hostilities aside. You have to forget “issues”. You have to deal. And make good music.

Anyway … ramble ramble … enough of me!

… or, shall I call is a “show”?

Funny thing, that. Dan and I were talking about this a while back. I’d not call an opera performance a concert, but I’ll call it a performance or even, rarely, a show. I will call a symphony concert a concert or a performance, but not a show. I will call a musical theatre show a … get ready for it … show. Ballet? I call that a performance. If we are doing a concert version of an opera (not staged) it’s a concert performance of an opera. (I hope you’re taking notes; there will be a test later today.)

Anyway, the Merc has an article about this week’s concert, show. It includes this:

“This show,” Mok predicts, “is going to knock everyone’s socks off. We’re going to run it like a regular radio show, with real live actors. Very cute. Very glamorous.”

She has retooled the script, originally co-written with Gershwin biographer and BBC producer Rodney Greenberg, to emphasize the composer’s time in California. Putting his stamp on the updated script is Hoyt Smith, an announcer from classical music station KDFC (102.1 FM). He will appear onstage as the radio announcer, reading transcribed 1930s commercials for Feenamint laxative chewing gum, a ubiquitous sponsor of the era, and bantering with Joseph Frank, longtime professor of voice at San Jose State University and the other actor in the production.

And of course there will be plenty of music, not just from Mok and the orchestra, conducted by Paul Polivnick, but from singer Sarah Uriarte Berry, who has starred in Broadway productions of “The Light in the Piazza” and “Les Misérables.”

She will sing a Gershwin medley of “Nice Work if You Can Get It,” “Someone to Watch Over Me” and ‘S’Wonderful.” The arrangements are by Bill Holcombe, a saxophone-playing alumnus of Tommy Dorsey’s big band, and will hew closely to the originals by Paul Whiteman, whose name and orchestra were synonymous with Gershwin in the ’20s.

(RTWT)

It’ll be interesting to see and hear how all of this falls together. (I do hope we on stage can hear … sometimes it’s impossible to hear what the miked speakers are saying for some reason.)

I used to put together Christmas programs with readings, a cappella singing, and poetry. I have long thought I’d love to do some recitals that included poetry, music and photography. (Having a husband who does fabulous photography helps me dream!) So I’m all for these kinds of things. Who says every single thing I do as an oboist has to include silent people applauding at exactly the right times, sitting very still in their seats? I dream of chamber music concerts where we chat with the audience. Or even say, “This next piece has this killer thing that scares me to death … let’s see if I can get it!” Heck, why not? Wouldn’t it be kind of fun to bring the listeners a little closer to what we do sometimes?

Or maybe I’m just crazy.

This week we are doing an all Gershwin concert. Gershwin music is one of those things … kind of like the whole opera/musical theatre thing I guess … where one wonders if it’s “classical” (in that general way, not in the era way) or pop music.

Okay, maybe no one else wonders, but whatever.

If we were doing his Concerto in F with, say, a Mozart overture up first, then a, I dunno, little bit ‘o something else, and ended with the concerto, it would be considered a regular sort of symphony concert, right? (Even though someone blogged about Porgy & Bess not being an opera, I do think Gershwin fits in the classical music genre.) But we are doing the Concerto, plus Rhapsody in Blue (another work that is sometimes on a symphony concert), and then a bunch of arrangements of his music. Also included is a singer and a radio announcer who will do old-time radio commercials (maybe with other things as well; I don’t know yet). So to me, it has become a pops concert. And I guess it is selling out, too. (I mean the concerts are selling out. I’m not saying we are. I certainly have felt that way other times, though!)

I don’t really mind a pops concert now and then, as long as it is put together well, includes good music, and includes high quality playing. It’s weird, though, to have such miniscule parts. The doublers have most of the music. So I guess this is a bit of a “coaster” for me. I do miss playing the English horn part in the concerto, but it works okay on the tenor sax. I think that, too, makes it feel more like a pops concert, though.

But I like what I do. I’m not complaining! And I do love Gershwin.

Publisher and editor Trevor Cramer of TrevCo describes Lacy’s music as “innovative, refreshing and creative.” He says that the new pieces are “a wonderful addition to the literature available to the double reed player and others.”

Since some readers are double reeders, I figured I’d post a link to this article. (I did have to kind of laugh about the photo of the composer. My first reaction was, “too bad he has half a face.” I know it’s supposed to look creative and all … just doesn’t work for me.)

You can also visit Trev Co Music to see what else is there. It’s a good resource for double reed musicians.

Variations on an opera theme must be in the air today … I just read this:

The Canadian Opera Company in Toronto, best known for producing classical European operas for almost 60 years, is breaking new ground with an original hip hopera production on Wednesday.

Soprano Teiya Kasahara, baritone Justin Welsh, pianist Liz Upchurch, plus local rap DJs lil Jaz and T.R.A.C.K.S. composed the work in hip-hop beat mode, rather than operatic orchestration and vocals.

Their new work, “Hip Hopera”, is a story about the challenges faced by an interracial couple.

So now we also have “hip hopera”.

Shall we invent other operas? Anyone want to jump in here?

Of course there’s always ObOpera … which consists of only oboists. Everyone’s dream, I know.

I’ve blogged about this before, I’m sure (I’m too lazy to check right now). But what does make an opera? What makes a musical? I would never call Oklahoma! an opera, and I would never call Turandot a musical. But what about A Little Night Music or Street Scene? Do tell!

One blogger is quite clear that Porgy and Bess is not an opera. Period. Another writer calls Carmina Burana a pop opera.

Years ago I heard a rather snooty sounding man say opera doesn’t use amplification and musical theatre does. (This was back when Luhrmann’s La Boheme was being done, and he was clearly aiming his shots at that.) Others say it has to do with the moving of the story line … something about how the song or aria stops time or causes the story line to progress … something like that, anyway. Some might say it just has to do with the quality of the writing, but of course that gets mighty subjective.

One thing I have noticed is that musical theatre is much more likely to alter instrumentation … somehow instrumentation doesn’t matter to MT folks nearly as much as it does to the opera people. (It matters to me!)

And then there’s “what ruins an opera?” I think the following, which I just read about here, would do it for me:

Five years ago in Berlin, San Diego Opera’s Ian Campbell attended a controversial new version of Puccini’s “Turandot” that had French soprano Sylvie Valayre emerging from the stomach of an enormous teddy bear and the tenor using a giant cell phone to punch in the answers to the opera’s riddles.

Well. Okay then.

Update

I’m not the only one who asks things like this. I just read this:

Is Street Scene a Broadway musical? Or is it an opera? Or is it a synthesis of the two?
“It’s definitely an interesting question when it comes to Weill and his place in the musical world,” Shell said. “As far as the production is concerned, we just stay true to what he intended.”
That varies from scene to scene.
“Weill purposely did things within the first act to hook the people who were interested in opera to come to see a Broadway musical,” Shell said.
“And he gave the Broadway crowd something they could understand and appreciate in the first act.
“It moves more toward real opera in the second act. The second act is much shorter, but it’s much more operatic in construct as well as in the music. He was purposely trying to ease everybody into what he thinks musical drama would ultimately be.”
By “opera,” Shell meant music that “furthers the drama” or music in which “the musical themes take precedence and they start to make comments on the story, as opposed it just being some arbitrary accompaniment of singing.”

Yesterday I spent the entire day (waking up at 4:30) doing something other than music. Dan and I flew down to SoCal to meet with our daughter and her fiancé and then we drove to their wedding location to finalize things. It was quite the whirlwind trip; we flew home quite early this morning. I feel as if I still need to catch my breath!

I’m just home from the first of four Symphony Silicon Valley Gershwin rehearsals. This is a bit of a breezy set, although I have some notes to work on in the Piano Concerto. It turns out that I’m playing second oboe on the piece (a part I saw for the first time tonight), and my favorite part —the English horn part— has been given to a saxophone. Say it ain’t so!

Well, but I must say it IS so, and I must also admit it’ll be fine. After all, Gershwin wrote some of his works several different ways, and he did like saxes. They pretty much steal the show this week.

I do have three Beauty and the Beast rehearsals that happen during this Gershwin run, so I should just be happy that I won’t have to stress about the symphony concert. And that’s where I am, really. Not stressing is a happy place to be. :-)

I’m coaching a woodwind quintet at UCSC this year. It’s really a joy. On occasion I look up WWQs on YouTube. I ran across the one below yesterday. I really want to be the tambourine player. (No reeds!)

The group does make me just a tad seasick. ;-)

(Just kidding, folks.)

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia: It was probably as groundbreaking and revolutionary as Mozart was ever going to get. A German-based quartet staged Saudi Arabia’s first-ever performance of European classical music in a public venue before a mixed gender audience.

A very interesting story, at least to me.

Most reviewers are, I truly believe, honest people who want to write up good reviews.

Okay. I read the above and have to laugh at myself. I am such a liar!

Maybe it’s more like this: Most reviewers are, I truly believe, people. They write reviews based on what they heard. They really believe they are correct.

Is that better? Because I’m really not sure what I think about reviewers. But that’s because they sometimes hurt my feelings. And when one’s feelings are hurt one can become irrational. So I don’t truly know if they are honest, and I don’t know if they want to write good reviews. (I’m not talking “good” as in “the concert was great!” but “good” as in well written and accurate.) I only know they can make me feel very, very good, or very, very rotten. :-)

Seriously, though, I suspect most of them want to write good and honest reviews. I do think the ones around here these days are that way.

But sometimes a reviewer gets caught.

I do wonder about those reviewers. Why do they write reviews if they don’t know the difference between an English horn and a baritone horn (it happened, I was there), leave a concert early but write a full review (it happened, I saw it), sleep through it, or simply don’t attend at all (it happened, he was fired)? That’s puzzling.

Tonight is my final performance (Magic Flute) of the Opera San José season. (There is one more performance tomorrow, but I’m unable to play due to my schedule; it’s very odd, and sort of sad, to have to skip the final show of the season.) I have two symphony sets left (first Gershwin and then Stravinsky, both not “normal” concerts, which is sort of strange), and a short run of Beauty and the Beast with AMTSJ. This all fits in between today and June 8. I do have one other small job the following week, playing for a Russian Music Piano Competition, and one even smaller job in August. That’s it.

But when we play our final notes of Stravinsky I do consider the season done. I always have mixed feelings.

I’m not very good at living in the moment. I tend to be looking forward to the next big thing. So as I’m playing something — even something I love — I’m busy looking at the upcoming work. And I frequently wish I could change that.

Meanwhile, I’m looking at next season to see what’s in store. I just can’t seem to help myself!

2 Guys 1 Flute | J.S. Bach Badineri