So today was our second rehearsal and our first sitzprobe. I always love these first rehearsals with the singers, although not as much as I used to; in the old, less nice theatre, we could actually see the singers. And that was fun.
This year we have a whole lot of new singers. At first [...]
So go here, and enjoy!
(Thanks, Pam!)
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So … heigh ho, heigh ho … and all that jazz. It was great to see my colleagues. NOT great to cause clarinets to tumble. Yes. Me. I am usually tremendously careful in a pit, as is required by union regulations and copyright law if you want to survive pitworld. But today I exercised my [...]
When A Chorus Line came out the first time, folks realized they could hide an orchestra. When I played it the pit was entirely covered so that you couldn’t see us at all. There was a reason, I was told: the musical was to feel as much like a real audition as possible, and of [...]
This DVD might be worth the price. (What is the price?!) I think I’d like to view it. (Would our local library carry such a thing? I wonder.)
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“…nobody goes to a concert to listen to a computer.”
Well, now maybe some will disagree with that. But there you go. The guy who is all about the Vienna Symphonic Library is being quoted here.
Several folks have written about the VSL, and some have offered up listening tests. And yes, it seems that musicians—perhaps [...]
I continue to work on my list of double reed players in European Orchestras. This is pretty fun to do, actually, but it does take a lot of time. Check it out and see what I’ve got up so far!
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Pieces of music are wormholes, which we can enter to escape our normal experience of time.
Robert Spano, quoted in Justin Davidson, “Measure for Measure” (The New Yorker, Aug. 21, 2006.)
(This quote was stolen (Borrowed? I could try and return it later, I suppose) from a Terry Teachout entry in About Last Night. And I must [...]
A former oboist turned computer guy turned apprentice at a mental hospital turned goat farm worker has a book out. About a former musician turned computer guy turned apprentice at a goat farm and organic gardening center, and aide at a mental hospital. Hmmm. From oboist to a mental hospital? Okay … I won’t write [...]
This article suggests that Jim Broadbent may be in the Tim Burton Sweeney Todd movie, and that he might be Judge Turpin. Of course it also says Johnny Depp will be Sweeney. So who knows?
But when they explain the musical and say this:
Although MSN doesn’t mention a particular role, Broadbent would presumably be cast [...]
Pardon me while I ponder.
I received some spam today (surprise, surprise … or not really … 86 pieces of spam in my folder … grumble). Some spam includes bizarre random lines. Some are from books (I sometimes google them—or goggle, as I typed first—and find out what book is being quoted). And today there [...]
When you’re doing what you love, you can just let the beauty pass through you. You don’t have to own it.
Robin Moore (More magazine.)
Thanks, Pam, for the quote!
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… and no, I didn’t mean good reed!
But I just read an article about a new book and this paragraph telling about the book just made me think, “Hmmm. Maybe I need to read this”:
Yakov is a member of that generation of the Russian intelligentsia which was shaped during Soviet times and faced significant challenges, [...]
I had read news that Johnny Depp was to be singing Sweeney Todd in the movie that Tim Burton will be directing. Jameson, our seventeen year old, thought this preposterous, but I’m a Depp fan to the max, so I was ready to accept it, even while I understood his reaction.
But now he may or [...]
I’ve written before about the work called Gabriel’s Oboe, from the movie The Mission. The work is named Gabriel’s Oboe because the oboist is a Jesuit named Gabriel; it has nothing to do with the angel Gabriel, in case you were wondering! The movie itself is, to me, painful and beautiful and very troubling. [...]
I’m going back to see The Light In the Piazza tonight; I bought tickets for Dan’s birthday. I hope he likes it as much as I did! :-)
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When people ask me if musical theatre should be taught in music colleges, I reply that there is no need. All anyone needs to study is the second act of La Boheme because it is the most tightly constructed piece of musical theatre that there is. It is practically director-proof: you can’t stage it badly [...]
I fight against the void. I think I’ve written something acceptable, and then, when I look at it again, I find it execrable.
-Charles Gounod
(I’ll be playing Romeo et Juliette, by Gounod, next week with Opera San José.)
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What do 200 nearly beginning oboists sound like?
:-)
I was playing English horn on some sort of shortened version of Nutcracker. The second half of the show didn’t need me, but I realized, during intermission, that I was supposed to play something on oboe after the second half ended. Yikes. My reeds were at home (apparently I didn’t play oboe in the first [...]
It’s better to be booed than to be forgotten.
Mike Krukow (commenting on the crowd’s reaction to Jeff Kent coming up to bat)
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So if my blog is really worth what these folks suggest, why is my savings account suffering so?
My blog is worth $19,194.36.How much is your blog worth?
Hmmm. Send your oboeblog payment to my PO Box and maybe I’ll start believing this goofy stuff! ;-)
But, really, I’m a little disappointed in this meager sum. All [...]
I’ve enjoyed my encounters with the Imani Winds (I own two CDs). Upon reading this article I laughed at this part:
Scott also has the distinction of being the only guy in the group. How does he handle that?
“Chocolate — and plenty of it,” quips the musician, who distributes candy to his female colleagues on tour. [...]
I’m still working at this and it’s clearly going to take a very long time to finish it! (Well, okay, it will never actually be finished … right?) But it sure is fun! I love seeing all the different names and visiting sites that I can’t understand. Somehow I can usually locate the musicians’ roster, [...]
I always maintain that playing in an orchestra intelligently is the best school for democracy. If you play a solo, the conductor and everybody in the orchestra follows you. Then, a few bars later, the main voice goes to another instrument, another group, and then you have to go back into the collective [sound]. The [...]
