“So it’s like a symphony, right? The piston goes down, and comes back up.”
What is it with ad companies and using music as some sort of metaphor or example for whatever they’re advertising? And how the heck is a piston going down and coming back up like a symphony?
Of course advertisers and newspapers love to [...]
I like Wagner’s music much better than anybody’s. It’s so loud that one can talk the whole time without people hearing you.
-Bob Marley
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Some neighbors to the west side of our house have had music blasting both today and yesterday. But I don’t even have a clue what they are playing. All I hear—and feel—is the bass cranked up to who knows where going boom thump boom thump boom boom thump thump.
And this makes me grumpy.
Which makes me [...]
… not that I’m one of the “gals with big jobs” …
And yes, I realize it is totally unhip to say “gals” (but it’s also unhip to say “unhip” so oh well!), but when someone says “guys” what’s a gal to do? ;-)
“All of us guys with big jobs are always looking for new pieces [...]
Art is a kind of illness.
-Giacomo Puccini
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According to this I am officially OLD because I remember this. Well, I don’t remember this video, but sure remember the song. I whistled right along, thank you very much!
Now I’m allowed to say I’m old. But someone else. NO WAY.
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Looks like I’m not a top 100 classical music blog any longer.
I’d go cry in my beer, but I’m not having a beer. So oh well.
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Last night, prior to the opera, I had this glib little conversation with some colleagues. I’m not sure how we go on to the subject of reeds, but I tossed out my little story about a coaching session I once had with a principal player of the San Francisco Symphony. (This was years ago.) The [...]
It is a coincidence that these two words rhyme, cause me great distress, and won’t behave?
Now if only my reeds would flourish like weeds, and my weeds would fail like my reeds, I’d be a much happpier camper. But I am currently a Most Unhappy Camper. I’ve been working, working, working on reeds. Nothing [...]
Someone did a search on brain damage and oboe playing.
Yep. This is the perfect place to land. ;-)
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Or should it be “It was the reed, stupid!”?
I guess my feeling as if it was the OBOE was merely panic mode; once the first reed didn’t work nothing worked because I was freaking out.
Pulling out the instrument today, I went over the top joint, where I was just sure there was a problem. Not [...]
Our server seems to be up & down; I just had to restart the computer yet again. So I do apologize if you sometimes don’t see me here. I’m not sure what’s up because I’m a certified Computer Idiot.
Anyway, off to teach and work on my oboe … back later ….
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My music has a high irritation factor. I’ve always tried to say something. Eccentric lyrics about eccentric people. Often it was a joke. But I would plead guilty on the grounds that I prefer eccentricity to the bland.
-Randy Newman
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I had opera tonight. I wasn’t stressed about it at all. When I’ve done seven rehearsals and three perfomances and things have gone fine what’s to worry about, eh?
Hah!
I did a bit of warming up. Not as much as usual, though, because I was handing out music for the next Symphony Silicon Valley set [...]
There is too much emphasis on technical perfection nowadays, and not enough on what music is actually about — irony, joy, human suffering, love.
-Mstislav Rostropovich
Just a few links:
Washington Post
New York Times
Regnum News Agency
KYIV Post
Just a few videos:
Bach: Prelude, Suite No. 1 (no date given)
Bach: Bourree, Suite No. 3 (1962)
Haydn: Cello Concerto (1981, with Ozawa)
Brahms: [...]
