learning to play the oboe in my dreams (sure to work better than today’s 1st hilarious lesson)
San Francisco Classical Voice has a new look. I can’t quite figure the site out now. (How stupid AM I? Just about that stupid!) I mean, are ALL the reviews for the week on the main page, or is that only a sampling? Should I look for more? Did they skip SSV last week? But I’m sure I’ll figure it out. Meanwhile, I did see that they now list music blogs and yours truly is listed there.
No, I didn’t try to rate my own blog (I’m probably one of my harshest critics although I suspect not the only one who might not offer me five stars!), but I wanted to give 5 stars to a few blogs I like. Hmm. I don’t see that we get to do that. Maybe only SFCV writers get that opportunity.
Or maybe I’m too stupid to do that, too.
We aren’t going to SoCal. No more contemplating this thing. There’s just too much going on. I’ve just got too much on my plate. Dan has papers stacked up. I’m bummed that I can’t see Kelsey & Mel (I miss them tons), but I think we’ll fly down some time later, when we have more time and less stress.
But while I’m sticking around, I think I’ll do some cleaning. Let’s start with my computer screen.
Yeah, I’ve put this up before. It’s just time again.
Sometimes it’s difficult to know what is best. If I happened to have some important solos coming up, would it be better to stay at home and stress or worry or — yes, it happens — practice and work on reeds and attempt to relax (hah!)? Or is it better, knowing I have reeds that are working well, to escape, visit my lovely daughter and son-in-law, and enjoy a weekend with them? Will I stress even more there, being away from the horn, or will I relax, being away from it?
I just want someone to tell me what to do!
Practicing oboe. My reed isn’t working. :(
The grave voice of the oboe is heard from the bassoon, where, without becoming assertive, it gains a quality entirely unknown to the oboe and English horn. It is this quality that makes the bassoon the humorist par excellence of the orchestra. It is a reedy bass, very apt to recall to those who have had a country education the squalling tone of the homely instrument which the farmer’s boy fashions out of the stems of the pumpkin-vine.
The humor of the bassoon is an unconscious humor, and results from the use made of its abysmally solemn voice.
Heh. Ah, that abysmally solemn voice.
This is from the same place I found the oboe description. But I read that it’s from a book called How to Listen to Music by Henry Edward Krehbiel. If you go here you can read it via gutenberg. The book was first published in 1896.
Heh … I just read this online. And, due to all those viola jokes, I thought the answer should be: “No, but you might be too smart.”
Sorry. I just couldn’t resist. Poor violists.
And yes, there are oboe jokes too.
Truth be told, lots of folks take any music joke and insert their instrument of choice. Unless they insert the conductor. :-)
I slept until 7:45. That’s not a good idea when I have a 10:00 concert. I need more time — not to get ready, but to wake up! I’m still very blurry-eyed, and I can’t even fathom that in one hour and twenty minutes I’ll be blowing air through a tiny reed, making sounds that are supposed to be decent.
Right now the only sound I want to make is … well … nothing. I want to be back in bed.
Musicians are not morning people, for the most part. I have a musician friend who has a “real job” (yeah, you out there. You know who you are!) and she comes to orchestra at night and I just can’t figure out how she does it. I just figure she’s a better person than I.
But who isn’t, eh?
is surprised at how much an oboe costs…about $1000+ :P
Related to this is a hand gesture that some conductors use to alert musicians that they are playing too loud. It is known (somewhat antagonistically) in the business as “the Hand.”
Check out this blog entry. It’s interesting to hear what Bruce Hembd has to say about “the hand”.
It’s interesting to see his take on things. Mine? While “the hand” is telling us to be quiet, it sometimes causes us — me, in any case — to tighten my embouchure. And a tight embouchure isn’t good for a low note attack. Sometimes we get “the hand” prior to that low note, as the conductor is just sure we’ll be too loud. Sometimes it’s while we are playing a low note, and that isn’t always pleasant either. And sometimes we are getting “the hand” when we are actually playing as softly as we possibly can. (Shoot, one time I finally played “air oboe” and the conductor was finally happy with the volume. Go figure.) So I really have to fight “the reaction” to “the hand”.
Thank you, Lone Oboe for alerting me to this:
I’m not Catholic, and I wasn’t in even a speck ‘o green today (it was all black, since I was too lazy to change after the concerts … really!), but this it a lot of fun. :-)
And now I bid you all g’night.
The San Francisco Opera House is exactly the same, same coffered ceiling, same sweeping balconies, but the music isn’t.
I’ve been invited to sit through 3-1/2 hours of Dr. Atomic, the new opera about Robert Oppenheimer and the first atomic bomb test. Long recitations from declassified government files and the Bhagavad Gita set to trilling, clattering, pulsing sounds, atonal explosions and lyrical flights.
You made it through Parsifal, Peterman, I keep reminding myself.
So you can buy a dress based on what this guy saw at the opera? Or something. RTWT.
Way beyond my means, though, so while it’s a lovely dress, I’m gonna let it go. (I did read up on the company and while it’s based on the Seinfeld character it’s for real.)
It is also the kind of event that, during Denève’s tenure, the RSNO does increasingly well. He feels that, four years into the job, the orchestra is finally taking the shape he wants. “They have had to cope with a lot of changes. At last, I have fantastic new first oboe, which is so hard to find.” (There is, apparently, a world shortage of oboe players.) “Many orchestras struggle to find a great first oboe.” Denève stops and giggles. “By the way, he’s French”
Hmmm. Is there really a shortage of oboists? I wonder.
(And why is it that the word “giggles” bothers me? “Laugh” is fine. But “giggle” sounds so … I dunno. Childish, maybe?)
I’m always excited about a Mike Oldfield release and particularly about this one as it is his first classical album. Peformed by an orchestra with real instruments.
But I knew that I don’t get classical music and that in general classical music leaves me perplexed as to why it has had such a fan base throughout the centuries.
And this CD did not change that. It is boring and uninspiring and not at all how I imagined The Music of the Spheres.
Read here.
I’m home from the Kiddie Concerts. The concerts are nicely put together by the conductor, Peter Jaffe. He is full of energy, and is really good with children; enough humor to get them up for things, enough control to get them quiet. So it was fun, even though I managed to count wrong TWICE! (Mr. Jaffe was gracious enough not to glare, but boy did the oboe section get a lovely and clear cue for the entrance the next time we played.)
Something about 10:00 AM and all … sigh.
One thing to note: Because I was an English horn player for so many years, this is the first time in my career I’ve played the second movement of the Tchaikovsky sixth. Same with the March from The Love For Three Oranges by Prokofiev (but that’s not quite as common as the sixth). Funny how that happens, eh?
I also tried three of my EH reeds and, dare I say this, I think I like them for next week. I hate saying anything, though, because while of course I’m not at all superstitious I worry about saying anything confident like that. Go figure.
I have two hours now to eat (I forgot breakfast again!), rest up, and get ready to teach three students.
Then I have a night off. Woo hoo!
