Archive for January, 2007
Wednesday, January 31st, 2007
I cut up the recording and multiplied the loop maybe 7-8 times. I had intended to use the oboe as the main melody instrument, but since I was so eager to try the structural idea, and since the oboe takes 15-20 minutes to “start up”, I went for the low whistle instead.
Hmmm. Doesn’t the writer [...]
Posted in Ramble, imported | Comments Off
Tuesday, January 30th, 2007
We started the show about 15 minutes late. They said it was due to “parking issues”. (I do know the Sharks were playing tonight.) I was at my car at 11:00 PM. I began work at 10:00 AM, which means I was at the hall a bit after 9:00 AM.
This means I’m very, very tired.
I [...]
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Tuesday, January 30th, 2007
I got got got no time.
Today is the Camelot marathon. Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse. Come home, eat a very early dinner, watch 10 minutes of Law & Order and a few minutes of BBC news. Check email. Read a few blogs. Blog this.
Soon I’ll be in black and back in the car.
Then it’s sound [...]
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Monday, January 29th, 2007
Musician: Do you want more vibration here?
Guest conductor Susanna Malkki: (pause) I want … (pause) I want it to be beautiful.
Read at the SLSO blog, written by Eddie Silva. The orchestra was rehearsing John Cage’s Credo in US.
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Posted in Quotes, imported | Comments Off
Monday, January 29th, 2007
A study of cancer patients in 2000, led by Dr. Barry Bittman of the Mind-Body Wellness Center, linked a particular type of drumming activity to increased immune response. It seemed to help patients’ immune systems seek out and destroy cancer cells.
A study by Bittman and colleagues at Loma Linda University and the Bay Area’s Applied [...]
Posted in News, imported | Comments Off
Sunday, January 28th, 2007
Your playing is like salt water taffy. You see all the beautiful colors, red, yellow, blue, but they all taste the same.
-Marcel Tabuteau
Posted in Quotes, imported | 2 Comments »
Saturday, January 27th, 2007
Another video of the oboe quartet. And yes, triplets again.
I guess I’m in the minority!
Gee … what a surprise. Heh.
Posted in Videos, imported | 2 Comments »
Saturday, January 27th, 2007
So … Mozart’s Oboe Quartet … how do you play the grace notes? In this video the oboist turns the grace note with two sixteenths into a triplet, as does this player at what looks to be a student recital(?). I’ve always played a true grace note, as has another oboist-friend of mine. I’m curious [...]
Posted in Ramble, imported | 2 Comments »
Saturday, January 27th, 2007
A dog barked, some four year old boy screamed, and chickens died.
Posted in News, imported | Comments Off
Saturday, January 27th, 2007
So I guess Christopher Lee (AKA Count Dracula, Fu Manchu, Count Dooku/Darth Tyranus, Saruman) has a CD out. And you can also hear him sing a metal version of The Toreador if you’d like.
Well. Okay then.
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Posted in Ramble, imported | Comments Off
Saturday, January 27th, 2007
Gentlemen are kindly requested to wear evening dress for premieres. Gentlemen are in any case required to wear a jacket and tie at all performances. Items of clothing which do not comply with a proper theatre decorum shall not be accepted.
La Scala has decided to tell the men what to wear.
We women are off [...]
Posted in Quotes, imported | 2 Comments »
Saturday, January 27th, 2007
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOZART!
You still sound mighty fine.
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Posted in Announcements, imported | Comments Off
Friday, January 26th, 2007
The enticement of a string of decoys and an adjustable double reed variable tone caller must be compelling to the average feather-brained mallard.
I knew you wanted to know that.
Part of the article itself is pretty odd … a woman opens her fridge and finds a duck staring her in the face.
Cool eh?
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Posted in News, imported | Comments Off
Friday, January 26th, 2007
It’s not a very difficult process, the only thing is in the refinement, but it can be a lot of fun. Sort of like carpentry. And not many of the other instruments apart from bassoon do the same thing.
Hmmm. Am I in the minority here? I find reed making difficult, and I’ve never found it [...]
Posted in Videos, imported | Comments Off
Friday, January 26th, 2007
I landed on this site and read a few interesting little things.
I’ve now read at two different sites (see this for the other) that the writers were given inside information about the 2007-2008 Opera San José season. Huh? I find this a bit curious, since I posted it a few weeks back, as did MikeR, [...]
Posted in Ramble, imported | 3 Comments »
Thursday, January 25th, 2007
Even with only four fingers per paw he does fairly well. But do you notice how snooty even cartoon characters are when they play classical music? It’s simply unavoidable. ;-)
Posted in Videos, imported | 2 Comments »
Thursday, January 25th, 2007
MD: As an Apple person, you must have an iPod. What do you have on it?
TH: I have every iPod that’s been made — that’s how sick I am. I carry anything and everything I possibly would want to listen to. I have a lot of jazz. I adore Ralph Towner, Leo Kottke. I’ve always [...]
Posted in Quotes, imported | Comments Off
Thursday, January 25th, 2007
… mind you, not in a physical way … but if I wanted to get more hits here at this little site, I guess I should have blogged about Nathan Gunn last night. It sounds as if it worked for one blogger.
But then … of course I’d never check my stats and see how many [...]
Posted in Ramble, imported | Comments Off
Thursday, January 25th, 2007
I’ve things to do here, so I’m not going to get up to San Francisco tonight, but Robert Gable’s blog entry took me to a group called Formerly Known as Classical, which took me to their program page. I’m impressed with their name, their youth (all teenagers), and the title of their upcoming concert, My [...]
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Wednesday, January 24th, 2007
… or I guess I should call it The Magic Flute, considering ….
I had forgotten that the Met broadcast would be on at 10:00 PM, and I tuned in about 8 minutes into it. Rats. I would have recorded it tonight, but too late now.
Still … I’m sorry to hear it in English. I [...]
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Wednesday, January 24th, 2007
Somehow I landed at an iTunes link that took me to a San Jose Symphony recording. I can’t get the link to work, but if you go to iTunes just search on San Jose Sympony and you’ll find it. Quite a while ago San Jose Symphony (RIP) recorded Henry Brant’s LItany of Tides, and [...]
Posted in Ramble, imported | 3 Comments »
Tuesday, January 23rd, 2007
“When I switch on Britney songs like “Oops! I did it again!” or “I’m not that innocent!”, the wild boars come snorting out of my fields and run for the woods.”
So the Vietnamese pigs were faring very well with classical music. Turns out they weren’t the only ones with discerning taste. It appears that [...]
Posted in Links, imported | Comments Off
Tuesday, January 23rd, 2007
Please don’t try to make things nice! All the wrong notes are RIGHT. Just copy as I have — I want it that way.
-Charles Ives
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Posted in Quotes, imported | Comments Off
Tuesday, January 23rd, 2007
Oh Rats and Double Rats! I just checked my calendar; I won’t be seeing our son, Jameson, as Prospero. The Tempest conficts directly with Camelot. With some shows I’m able to take an absence or two, but in this case it’s a one rehearsal show and two-week run, no absences allowed. This will be Jameson’s [...]
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Monday, January 22nd, 2007
I landed at a blog because of the use of “English horn” and here’s what I read:
There’s a section toward the end of the second movement where the piano defers to the cor anglais (fancy for English horn) that, well, if you know of a passage more beautiful, please let me and my planet [...]
Posted in Ramble, imported | 2 Comments »