Does oboe rhyme with elbow or hobo best?
If you go here you’ll see “Don’t Miss The Audition” … but it was today and of course I was at work. I meant to write about it earlier, in case any readers would have found it interesting. I so apologize.
The Audition, directed by award-winning filmmaker Susan Froemke, looks at the intense pressures young opera singers face as they struggle to succeed in one of the most difficult professions in the performing arts.
So I missed it. And I don’t see that I can see it later.
I’m bummed. I really would have liked to see that.
So today went well. The reed that I wanted to use and attempted to use last night got a little work done to it and, lo and behold, it worked well. Low notes? ✓ Intonation? ✓ (Although maybe my colleagues would disagree.) Response? ✓ So yay for that reed. I really enjoyed playing, and it’s a joy to sit with such wonderful musicians. :-)
During an intermission I was told the Giants won, 2-0 too. NICE! So is the answer that I shouldn’t be watching. Gee, hope not!
We don’t have another performance until Thursday, so I’m hoping I’ll get some more reeds together by then. In addition, I need to get to work on the Piazzolla Suite for Oboe and String Orchestra. (You can see that info here. I’ll be performing that work May 23. Somehow that date is getting closer faster than I thought it would!
I have 50 minutes before I leave for opera. I dipped my reeds in water and I was thinking I would be checking them out to see what they are up to today. But, truth be told, I need to close my eyes for at least a short time. I went to church, and it wasn’t easy to keep the pesky eyes open through the service. That’s what I get after staying up too late last night.
Guess I’ll crash for a time, even while leaving the Giants game on. Maybe I’ll wake to a good score. We’ll see.
I’ve been home since about 11:30. I’m wired. Annoyed. Frustrated. And yearning for a little chocolate.
The audience was quite enthusiastic, so I guess they must have enjoyed the opera. Standing O … and I’m not even sure when it began; seems as if it might have been prior to Carmen coming out for her bow …? It’s always great to see a happy audience!
Me? I hated my reeds. Every. Single. One. We’ve had a major change of weather, and all of my reeds were acting like rebellious teenagers; they would behave okay for a very short time and then surprise me with silence. Then they’d turn ugly, later turning back into something sweet, but not for long! Yeah. Just like a teenager. (Not that MY kids were that way, but I’ve heard stories.)
And I have to go back tomorrow and deal with these rebellious critters again. I can’t imagine I could put something new together by 3:00 tomorrow. Especially what with church before that, where we are not celebrating “real Easter” as some folks call tomorrow … oops, I mean today, don’t I?! (Sorry guys, but I’m not old enough to know when Jesus actually rose from the dead … wasn’t there to record the date. Good on you for your wisdom and all.)
Now I suppose I should crawl into bed, even though I really want to eat some chocolate … which appears to be nonexistent in this house. :-(
I wonder why I get nervous for nearly everything these days. Even Carmen. Aside from one brief low note moment I really don’t have anything to fret over, and even that is pretty darn insignificant. But yes my stomach is telling me I’m nervous. How silly is that?! I suppose it’s just knowing it’s opening night. Somehow that adds a bit of pressure.
Truthfully, though, I can’t figure out why the nerves are kicking in.
In other news … Dan took my picture today. MY picture. Anyone who knows me knows I’m not photogenic. But I had to get one for a concert I’m doing in a bit over a month in Santa Cruz. (I’ll fill you in later on the concert. Maybe.) Now I just wait to see the finished product. Maybe he can make me look ten years younger. Ya think? One can do nearly anything with Photoshop (or whatever he uses), right?
Not quite what Bizet had in mind, I’m guessing, but you can hear some of his music in this very old cartoon.
Intonation can be a tricky thing. Really tricky. And we tend to be rather defensive about it when someone tells us we are having pitch problems. Or at least I do. I think it’s because it implies I can’t hear things correctly. It’s scary to think I might not be hearing correctly.
And sometimes I don’t, I guess, because I do get corrected by some people I trust to be better than I about these things. Sigh.
What is really interesting, though, is to ask people who are all in the same group about intonation issues. It’s sort of like polling an orchestra on a conductor; the responses really run the gamut and you wonder if everyone was seeing the same person on the podium.
I do try to work with my students on intonation. Oboes have a tendency to be sharp. I know I do. Because we tend to be sharp we sometimes over compensate and play flat. Go figure. It’s a tough situation.
But it’s just intonation. Right?
Performers seem to be either very nice or very difficult (no names I’m afraid). I know I’m probably one of the more difficult, haha
-Steve Reich
So I had heard that Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg had auditioned for the YouTube Symphony Orchestra but was rejected. Hard to believe? Not really. ;-)
Proceeding on the assumption that the reader of this preface is interested in the development of my musical talent, I will try to explain, as concisely as I can, how, in this respect, my personal wheels go round. To begin with, I have only had two music lessons in my life. These were the first steps of what was to have been a full course at the Guildhall School of Music, and they faltered and stopped when I was told by my instructor that I could not use consecutive fifths. He went on to explain that a gentleman called Ebenezer Prout had announced many years ago that consecutive fifths were wrong and must in no circumstances be employed. At that time Ebenezer Prout was merely a name to me (as a matter of fact he still is, and a very funny one at that) and I was unimpressed by his Victorian dicta. I argued back that Debussy and Ravel had used consecutive fifths like mad. My instructor waved aside this triviality with a pudgy hand, and I left his presence forever with the parting shot that what was good enough for Debussy and Ravel was good enough for me. This outburst of rugged individualism deprived me of much valuable knowledge, and I have never deeply regretted it for a moment.
-Noël Coward (Preface, ‘The Noël Coward Song Book’, pp. 12–13)
“I spend probably two hours a day just making reeds,” Young says. “The goal is to make one playable reed a day.”
I often think I should be doing this. I’ve never gotten past the thinking phase.
The quote comes from this article, about oboist Katherine Young of the Florida Orchestra.
oboe reed making is good alternative to actual playing of the instrument.
(I can’t agree, but I would welcome this person into my studio to make me a few!)
No one knows what will become of Susan Boyle and the rest of her story, but it certainly has touched a lot of people’s hearts. I find it fascinating to see how she has hit so many people. If she had been 25 and drop dead gorgeous I’m guessing we would have just looked, listened, and gone on our merry way. (Or judged her harshly because of her good looks; good looks have their advantages, to be sure, but we plain folk often get very critical … jealousy? Probably!)
I did read one blogger’s comment, which suggested that she can’t go anywhere with her talent. I’m not sure I agree. I think she could sing in musical theater. I think she could have character roles. I’m just not sure why she’d really want that life … but what do I know? I kind of think her moment of fame might be what she would be best to stick with. (But again, what do I know?)
I remember when I was thinking I was going to be a poet. (Hah! I look back and wonder what I was thinking and how I thought I was any good.) Someone suggested that I stick to just enjoying it. She said, “If it turns into work it might not be what it is now.”
So I just wonder.
I’d post her video here, but all of the YouTube videos of her request that we not embed them. But if you click this you’ll see the video is all over the place on YouTube.
And now I’ll leave that story alone. Along with the YouTube Symphony, which I’m done with. And I am wondering if I should be done with a particular baseball team too. Sigh.
Carmen is a fairly easy opera for me. Now that the Aragonaise has been cut it’s especially easy. But I do wonder about the one somewhat worrisome line. What made Bizet put oboe and trombone in unison octaves? What made him give that to oboe rather than English horn? It begins on a low E flat, moves to E, then to left F, then to low C sliding to to low C#. It continues, but once I get that far I’m no longer fretting. What was he thinking? How much easier that would have been on English horn!
Still, I know I can do it. It’s just “Oh rats. There’s THAT coming up!” that gets in the brain.
You can hear it a bit here, starting at 5:16:
Or 3:41 here:
It’s not exactly a lovely bit of music for oboe. And you can barely hear it, truth be told. But of course to the oboe player, it’s the only thing going on. Funny how that goes. I can barely hear Carmen singing at that point. This is one reason I wish we had a monitor in the pit; it would actually help us with things like this, reminding us that there actually are real singers somewhere nearby. ;-)
We had our final dress today. Opening night is Saturday. 8:00 PM. Come on, you know you wanna be there! From all I hear I think it’s a good show. Saturday we’ll find out what the people who can actually see and hear it think!
For tonight it’s rest, relaxation, yummy cream of carrot soup (made by yours truly) and, in keeping with the orange theme of today, which began here I’ll try to stick with a Giants game. If only they show some promise of winning a game. We’ll see.
