happy new year, I guess.
i’ve never understood what the big deal was, to be honest. I just have to remember a new number when I write checks. And I write checks infrequently these days. My real year begins when the new opera and symphony seasons begin and the schools start up, to be honest. So [...]
Kim Witman brings us some more pit stories.
Silly brass players. ;-)
So I’m going to be reorganizing my blog links. It’s time. Some folks haven’t been writing for months. If that’s you, and you still wish to be included, please let me know. Otherwise, it’s curtains for you. So take a bow if you’d like.
If you are a blogger as well as a reader of this [...]
I went to see Sweeney Todd today. I’m not going to put up a huge review. It’s not my style. But I’ll write a wee bit here.
I wasn’t blown away. I guess I was expecting—or hoping—to be. It was fine. It was disturbing, as it should be. But there were just a few things [...]
Read here:
WANNA SEE: The Anchorage Symphony Orchestra has excellent double reed players. Some pieces featuring oboe, bassoon and English horn would be wonderful — maybe some Sibelius or Shostakovich? And I’d love to see Ralph Vaughn Williams on next season’s program.
The above is a mini-quote by Leonard Bernstein, read in this article by Anthony Tommasini. Check it out.
(By the way … I loved the illustration, by Koren Shadmi, at the top of the article. You can read the illustrator’s blog here. He does really great work.)
So … is Bach really pronounced “Batch” by some? That’s what it sounds like in this podcast by “audio newsstand”, whatever that is. (New to me, anyway.) And Prokofiev as “Procofeeve” (or something like that, with the accent on the first syllable). The British sounding voice sounds computerized, with no expression whatsoever. Of course a [...]
How many times have you read that (title of this entry) in a review or article (or on wikipedia) about the English horn? Yeah. too many times.
Several years ago I found an article that I clearly just skimmed, because I sure hadn’t noticed this:
There isn’t really anything “English” about the English horn: The instrument, [...]
If you’re not vocalizing, something’s missing.
-Kim Kashkashian (violist, read here)
I try to get my students to sing on occasion. They fight that. I can’t imagine not singing, and of course as some around here will tell you, I tend to whistle along with music when I’m in the car. I like silence. I adore silence [...]
I did a gig recently that I have sworn I will never do again. I was freezing the entire time. I was so cold that my body ached from being so tense. One player was so sharp and one so flat there was nothing to do about pitch. (They didn’t seem to notice any problem.) [...]
I have a habit of asking my students how they are when they walk into the studio. Actually, the conversation usually goes like this:
Me: “Well hello there! And how are you today?”
Student: “Tired.”
Me: “Well, that’s nothing new. And how’s the oboe?”
Student: “Okay.”
I hereby announce that I am not going to be asking [...]
Daily Observations blogger Charles Noble writes about and has a link to “weird classical music news” in the Seattle Times. I’m with him; the weirdest news of all is that the Seattle Times’ writer, Melinda Bargreen, omitted anything about their very own symphony orchestra. To these ears that speaks volumes.
Okay, I’ll admit it: I like weird things, and I like funny shows, and I like parodies. And I have a strange sense of humor in some people’s minds. So when Jameson brought home a DVD of Flight of the Conchords I was drawn in pretty darn fast. Especially with I’m not cryin’.
Sibelius gave the call of the swan to a rarely-encountered instrument, the English horn - which is actually a variant of the oboe. The choice is perfect, as the calls of the swan are stark and chilly.
Um. I don’t understand. Is the writer suggesting that the English horn is stark and chilly? Do tell!
I [...]
I was looking up the Bach Cantata #82. Lo and behold, one movement is listed as “Ich babe genug” by both iTunes and emusic.com.
Yes. I laughed.
So do we translate that as “I’m enough babe”, ya think?
Jason Heath (also of Jason Heath’s Double Bass Blog) writes about 10 Wacky Things he’s witnessed going on in a pit.
So … have I witnessed all of this behavior? Let’s see ….
1. Watching TV…in the pit!
Have I seen it? Yep. The offender was a brass player, and a sub at that! An audience [...]
How could it not be dark when someone says, ‘I’m going to bake you in an oven and eat you”?
-Alice Coote (Hansel, in the Met’s Hansel and Gretel by Humperdinck)
Well, yes, it does seem rather dark, eh? The quote above is from this article The opera will be in movie theatres on January 1. Go [...]
So when oboists begin, they aren’t playing the popular Gabriel’s Oboe or Penderecki, and you might not wind up playing in a major symphony orchestra like Liang Wang for a while. But they can play some simpler tunes and I say, good start, Sarah!
No, she isn’t my student. I just found this on [...]
There are a lot of oboe works I am not familiar with. I’ll admit that up front.
So I just found a CD at iTunes with Jan Thuri on oboe, playing with the Thuri Chamber Orchestra. The CD is called F. X. Thuri Oboe Concertos. I assumed Thuri must be related to Jan, and probably [...]
First we had oboe shoes. And now we have auditions shoes.
Just so you know.
The musical instruments that are considered woodwind instruments will be equipped with one or two reeds. The shaping of woodwind musical instruments is tubular, and certain woodwinds will have several curves in the tube, which will allow different sounds to be made simply by the shape of the instrument. The musician will place a reed [...]
Scott Bearden won the Chester Ludgin Memorial International Verdi Baritone Competition in November. Read about it here.
Scott will be singing the lead in Opera San José’s Rigoletto in February. (Opera San José needs to update a lot of their “where are they now?” bios. I suppose it is pretty difficult to keep up with [...]
This blogger gives you a list of 5 ways to thank your music teacher.
Now … what DO I want? REEDS. REEDS. REEDS.
Got it? ;-)
Okay. Joking. Go to concerts. Practice. Show up to your lessons. Don’t cancel at the last minute. Laugh at my bad jokes.
What do I think of TGM’s suggestions? Just [...]
One of my UCSC oboe students (Thanks, Becky!) sent me this URL, pointing out the oboe player. With a weird looking oboe. The video is so blurry and moves quickly form the oboe so I can’t quite get a handle on what it is. Is it white? Metal? Some sort of Baroque oboe (see how [...]
Okay, now that my Nutcracker is over, I’ll post my (very bad) poem. This is for you, Jason! Of course you, being a bass player … maybe you stand through the ballet and can’t relate to the words? ;-)
(And if readers hate the word “butt” please just skip this post!)
These lyrics go along with the [...]
