oboeinsight

… I’ve heard from a number of readers. Some write to ask a question. Some fill me in on their orchestra or their private website so that I’ll add them to one of the pages that list double reed players. Some are writing about one of the universities where I teach.

And most never respond when I write them back.

I find this a bit frustrating. I like to know if I’ve answered a person’s question. Heck, I’d like to know that they received my response! I also often ask a question in return. Still no answer from most readers. Hmmm. I’m not sure what this means. Being the insecure oboe player that I am I think, “They don’t like me! They really don’t like me!” But I’m trying not to go there.

A bit Thank You to those of you who have responded. I do appreciate that!

Today, like yesterday, has been a “do nothing day” for the most part. I’ve been feeling a bit poorly. Not sick enough to stay in bed, but not well enough to want to get a thing done. Fortunately I didn’t have anything that I had to do, so I’ve been able to baby myself. But I have to feel better tomorrow. There is no choice.

Tomorrow I’m at UCSC. If I don’t go, I have to reschedule, and that’s a pain. The next day I’m back with Cats and I don’t want to leave them in the lurch. If I had paying gigs I wouldn’t get paid if I didn’t show up. (We get very little or even no sick leave for groups I’m in.) Cats isn’t a real paying gig (although we did get Jameson’s costume paid for), but I committed to it and I don’t back out of commitments. (Doing so in this case would sure set a bad example for all those high school students!)

Later: Which leads into the jury duty issue. I’ve been called to jury duty in June. I’m self-employed. If I don’t work, I don’t earn. If I happened to get called for a show I’d be in deep trouble; we can’t take off rehearsals and we can only take shows off after the first week. Fortunately (well, sort of) I’ve not been hired for anything in June, but it does make me wonder … if I had been hired to do a show (and we only get called one month in advance, at the most), would I forfeit the entire run because of the possibility of jury duty? The last time I was called I sent a letter explaining my somewhat unusual situation and they let me off. This time no such luck. So let’s say I had a gig that would have paid $4,000. I’d be out that much money! Something is dreadfully wrong with this system. It certainly doesn’t work for us little folk.

Oh well. It’s a moot point since I have no weekday work coming up. None. Zilch. Nada. So far. (Except teaching; I’ll lose all that income if I end up sitting at the courthouse.)

Of course if an employer calls at the last minute—San Francisco Opera has done that—I’d be forced to turn down a hunk of money. Unless I just ignored the jury duty summons. (Do people do that?)

Such is life. At least this life.

Ah … the stomach is telling me to lie down again. Stupid stomach.

Ah … a day off! After the week of symphony, and a week of high school Cats I can use a break! And it was a waffle morning too (thanks Dan!). Now I have church in a short time, and then it’s a Giants v A’s game. Go Giants! I don’t plan on doing much of anything else; I need to “put my feet up” as my mother-in-law used to tell me!

I’ve had a bit of the Cats music running through my head, but it’s not as bad as sometimes. Thank goodness; the music is not very good. Give me an older musical or a Sondheim show any time. Please.

My house is a mess. This is what happens when I’m busy. And tired. I think it will remain a mess for one more day. It is, after all, a day of rest. Right?

I wonder…
Maybe I’m over reacting. Maybe what Mr. Talvi wrote about women isn’t as frightful and insulting to some as it is to me. But I have a feeling I might not choose to take lessons from someone who regards women the way he does. Now I see he (and his wife) have a website about their violin studios, and it also tells me he teaches at Seattle Pacific University. It was yikes before. Now it’s double yikes!
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Nearly everyone I’ve talked to about the musical Cats doesn’t really care for the show. I’m not referring to this specific show my son is in and I’m playing, but the show in general. And while I’m glad to get to play it, and Jameson is very good in it, I agree (as does Jameson) with these folks. But I do find this puzzling. If the majority of people I’ve talked to think the show is lacking in nearly everything (musicality, plot, creativity, craft, art), why the heck has it been so popular? Weird. Kelsey, our daughter, thinks it’s all about dance and cat makeup. I’m thinking she’s right. But does that really appeal to the general public? And are the people who attend shows at my son’s high school simply more discerning. Or picky. Or do they have weird taste?

My kids were suggesting “Cats on Ice” though. They thought that would be fun.

I have a very sarcastic family. ;-)

So I’ve now playing three rehearsals and four shows. Next week I do five more. I am ready to be done now, so this will be a tiring week!
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All our children are here! Kelsey & Brandon flew in (from Irvine and Seattle) and will get to see and hear Jameson perform tomorrow night. What fun! Unfortunately Jameson is so busy he’ll hardly see them, and I have three more performances (along with Jameson, of course) this weekend, so I’ll be gone a lot as well. Show biz!

Last night was the school’s opening night performance of Cats. After the performance one of the (well meaning) mothers, who knew I was playing in the orchestra, told me that she honestly couldn’t hear any difference between our show and a professional group. She wanted to be sure I knew she meant to include the orchestra in that. I just smiled. How else could I respond, after all? But to compliment a professional by saying that this fun group of high school players sound as good as my professional colleagues and I seems just a bit odd to me. Thoughts? I’m not saying the performance wasn’t good, mind you. The students do a very good job on the music. It’s fun to work with them for a few weeks.

Reeds Are Funny (Funny hmmm, not funny hah-hah!)
I am using the English horn reed I used for last week’s Berlioz and Debussy solos. The reed felt so entirely different on the California Theatre stage. Last week it was so perfectly responsive, with just that wonderful resistance that allows me to push but not too much. This week it was just plain hard, and didn’t want to produce enough sound. I finally had to whittle away at it a bit yesterday, so that I felt more comfortable for the musical. I really didn’t want to have to work so darn hard, and it was suddenly so stiff. Now it’s just fine and last night was the first time I really enjoyed playing the solos. I don’t know if the reed changed that much, or if it’s just the change of venue. Oboe-wise I have nothing difficult to worry about, so reeds for that aren’t a problem. This is definitely an EH book, not an oboe book. Some shows are like that.

After Cats is over I now do have one very small job; I’ll be playing a wedding on unaccompanied oboe. I’m looking forward to that! It’s been requested, by the groom, that I play Gabriel’s Oboe. I’ll also toss in some of the wonderful Telemann Fantasies. Playing for weddings, especially unaccompanied, is really enjoyable.

So one more gig in my future. Maybe I’ll get more …?
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Is it possible that the conductor likes pretty young women and would prefer to be surrounded by them in the orchestra? After all, his present wife is the orchestra’s principal cellist. This would be perfectly understandable, and a sign of a healthy, youthful heterosexual male. It is confession time: during my decades in orchestras there have been numerous times when I have voted and spoken for such candidates myself. These young ladies probably got their jobs based on their Cuteness Factor, as others in the audition committee, and the conductor, who had the final say, felt the same way. Sorry guys, you don’t seem to be as much fun to be around with. Is this morally right? Of course not, and many of the people in question have proven to be disappointing professionally; even the cuteness disappears quickly. But it is part of human nature.

Read here.

I’m playing for the musical Cats. Yes, I really am.

I know, I know: 1) I should hate musicals in general because a classically trained musician is supposed to, 2) Sir ALW steals from old opera composers and we are to put our noses in the air and 3) … well … it’s CATS, for heaven’s sake. No one is supposed to like Cats.

Oh. Except all those folks who keep going to see it!

But here’s the thing: I do like musical theatre. Yeah, I guess I’ll lose some readers now, eh? But I can’t help it. I see through the predictable writing of some of the composers. I know that the music isn’t as complex as the stuff I play with symphony. I just don’t care. I like musical theatre and that’s that.

Now I do confess that Cats is not my choice for a musical. The story line … well … what there is of it … is weak. It’s mostly about Sir ALW’s music and lots of dancing. And I guess it’s sort of made more serious because a real poet’s words were used (I do wonder what T. S. Eliot would have thought of the whole thing.) But I’m playing it, and enjoying it. And, best of all, our son, Jameson, is doing the production at his high school and this gave me the opportunity to work with him and learn the book at the same time. (He’s Rum Tum Tugger, in case anyone wonders. I’ll try to get some pictures up here at some point.)

But you know what? There is quite a bit of work for me in the show. Lots of English horn solos. Nothing technically challenging really, although why ALW wrote high Gs for the oboe is beyond me; all ll I can say is “yuck” … but he wrote those those in Evita too, so my guess is he’s telling us, “See? I know you can play this high and I’m going to make you do it!” Oh, and in Cats he also wrote a low Bb for English horn which means I have to use my EH attachment; did he not know that the English horn (or cor anglais to the English) doesn’t usually have the low Bb? So anyway, I have a good number of solos and it makes me work. It’s a great, non-stressful way to learn a book. And it’s also good to have this after the end of the opera and symphony seasons, when I’m usually going through a bit of depression due to missing my friends and the playing.

The school doesn’t have an orchestra pit, so we play behind a curtain, where the stage used to be located (the place was a cafeteria/theater before, and has been transformed into a black box theatre). When we began last night I was sitting on one of the theatre chairs which is quite padded and too low. What a difference a location and a chair make! I had to blow SO much to get what I thought was a decent EH sound, and it still felt muffled. I explained to the conductor that when I play English horn I need something higher, so she had someone bring me a hard, plastic Wenger chair. My sound opened up a bit, although the curtain still sucks up some sound, and while I’m slightly higher I’m bringing my seat cushion tonight to raise me even a bit more (and maybe make the seat more bearable for the two hour sit).

The students perform “in the round” (I’m not sure if that’s a correct term): the audience is on all four sides (so maybe it’s really “in the square)? I can’t hear the kids. I can’t see them. I was hoping we’d have sound monitors in the back, but no such luck. There is a video monitor, though. Thing is, I can’t see it. So I might be performing “with” Jameson, but that’s not how it feels. Ah well. That’s show biz.

We have nine shows. I’ll play a total of three rehearsals as well. And yeah, I’m pretty much doing this for free (they aren’t making me pay for Jameson’s costume rental, which is very nice of them, since money is scarce these days for both the school and me). I believe that we folks who are in the profession should offer our services on occasion. I like to do this with students, both in the high school and at the university. I think it’s good for them and for me. I see and hear what they are doing. They see and hear how I approach music. Heck, they even hear that I’m not always perfect! The first thing I usually have to do is get them over feeling intimidated. That’s not hard to do. I’m a goof. They find that out pretty quickly! They also remind me of the fun that is involved in playing. I like that.

Sometime soon I’m going to write about strawberries, asparagus and tomatoes. Stay tuned! :-)
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