Recital Planning

31. July 2009 · Comments Off · Categories: Recital, UCSC

Every other year I am required to give a recital at UCSC. I really enjoy playing chamber music, and we are allowed to do that rather than do solo works. The trouble, though, is finding the time to rehearse. In addition, most of us live distances away from each other, and teach on different days at UCSC. I’m sure this year will be a challenge, as always.

So far we have this: the date (November 6), location (UCSC Recital Hall), and four players (flute, oboe, clarinet and horn). We have to wait on what we are hoping will create a woodwind quintet, as we are having to hire a new bassoonist. I’m hopeful we’ll know who that is by next week and can get moving on all of this. What we don’t have, aside from that fifth player, is repertoire. I have some works that are good possibilities, and there is a composer who might be composing a work for oboe, clarinet and bassoon … it would be fun to do a brand new work!

Oh … and we now have the name of our recital too:

No Strings Attached

Fun, eh? :-)

Another Day, Another Opera Rehearsal

31. July 2009 · Comments Off · Categories: Links, Oboe, Opera, Ramble

Today I have another Cosi rehearsal. I’m happy that we will finally have all the singers with us; I appreciate the orchestra rehearsals, because we do need to focus on what we have, but I adore it when the singers join us. There is nothing like the human voice!

I try to play the oboe as a singer sings. I was very flattered when a reviewer in London last year compared my playing of the Cimarosa Oboe Concerto to Montserrat CabaIIe, the Spanish soprano, and my Strauss Concerto with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf in her prime. I like to be compared with singers, not oboe players.

-Ray Still

I’m with Mr. Still on this! I like to try to sing through the oboe. I’m sure I don’t come close to what he did, but I try.

After the opera rehearsal I have a wedding rehearsal. A former UCSC student is getting married tomorrow (hi Kayte!) and I like to offer my oboe playing to students as a gift. I know how expensive weddings can be, and if I can help with this one little offering I’m happy to do so. I’m doing solo oboe, and I’ll be playing Celtic music. I found a site that had a ton of free sheet music, so that was pretty handy. And I wrote one piece, as a additional little gift. I’m looking forward to the event!

TQOD

31. July 2009 · Comments Off · Categories: TQOD

I should put a chamber group together called Americas Most Unwanted. Ensemble to have Oboe, English Horn, Bassoon, Euphonium& Bass Trombone

MQOD

31. July 2009 · Comments Off · Categories: Quotes

Mary was wonderfully supportive all the way through. It’s hard enough just being the wife of a neurotic oboe player, somebody who’s constantly going from highs to lows depending on the reed situation, and getting terribly discouraged and feeling that he can’t go on and play a concert, that it’s too terrifying. It’s been tough on her. But she’s a very strong person. I think it must be very difficult for musicians who don’t have that support at home, who have an unstable life. There are so many musicians in our orchestra who, I feel, don’t have that kind of support.

-Ray Still

I read that quote and more here.

Read Online

31. July 2009 · Comments Off · Categories: Read Online

How do I dress like a jazz violinist?

I just want to get the heck out of classical music and get into jazz music. How would I dress like a jazz violinist?

Yes, I really did read this online. Honest.

TQOD

30. July 2009 · Comments Off · Categories: TQOD

oooh. first time taking the oboe out for over a month. hope i’m still good?

Thriller … For Bassoons

30. July 2009 · Comments Off · Categories: Bassoon, Videos

While I’m busy doing another Cosi rehearsal, here’s a bassoon ensemble for you. Not quite Mozart!

First Rehearsal Over & Out

29. July 2009 · Comments Off · Categories: Oboe, Opera, Reeds

So it’s back to work … or, um, play! I had forgotten that today’s rehearsal was a 3 1/2 hour rehearsal. But of course Cosi has a lot of tacets for oboe, so it’s not like I’m playing all the time. That’s a good thing, since my embouchure isn’t at its strongest.

Reeds? Still not sure what to expect of them. I used two during rehearsal. The first was okay for a while and then it started to get a bit unpredictable if I played forte. The second was okay, but not quite what I want. One that I thought was going to be good wasn’t behaving when I played it at home. Hmmm. I think all the reeds are still deciding what they want to be.

Me too.

Here We Go Again

29. July 2009 · 1 comment · Categories: Links

Music as a weapon:

SEATTLE – The idea of using annoying music to repel loiterers is catching on a some businesses and other locations in the Puget Sound area.

Classical music has cleared the parking lot at Saar’s Market in the Rainier Beach neighborhood of Seattle where crowds of up to 25 people would hang out, leading to drug-dealing and fights.

Pierce Transit spokesman Lars Erickson told The Seattle Times that vandalism declined at the Tacoma Mall Transit Center after the classical and country music started playing in 2007.

The McDonald’s restaurant at Third and Pine in downtown Seattle also found that country music moves loiterers. The Paramount Theatre in downtown Seattle occasionally plays “It’s a Small World After All.”

Read here.

(“It’s a Small World” would probably send me away too. As does any bit of Nutcracker!)

and …

In response to constant noise caused by loud music in neighboring Arab neighborhoods, Jewish communities retaliate by playing classical music.

Found here.

But moving on to music as special …

What is it that makes music so special.. ?

Why does it seem like in some way or the other music can relate to everything. I’m not talking just lyrics, I’m talking about all aspects. The vibration of the strings, the relative pitches, major and minor notes and chords, tempo.

To read the answers, go here. Some will make you laugh. At least I think so!

Oops!

28. July 2009 · 3 comments · Categories: Oops!

Directed by Ira Siff, who managed a winning “Cosi Fan Tutti” here a few seasons ago, this “Don Gio-gfgbugcw0

cw-4vanni” was highlighted by clever acting and excellent singing.

(Yes, the spacing was like that.)

Sometimes things just make me laugh. This was one of ‘em. I’m going to guess it gets fixed soon, so this link my not show the problem any more.

I’m still trying to figure out how to pronounce “Don Gio-gfgbugcw0

cw-4vanni”

;-)

In 13 Hours …

28. July 2009 · Comments Off · Categories: Oboe, Opera, Videos

… I’ll be meeting up with my carpool to go to the first Cosi fan tutte rehearsal. I haven’t worked for so long … my last job was June 7. Wow! Close to 2 months. Let’s hope I remember how to play well with others. ;-)

Here is the overture and E la fede delle femmine:

As you can hear, the principal oboe has a bit of an important part in the overture. I’ve heard both the opening solo and the faster part at so many different tempi I never know what to expect with a new conductor. When I practice I work on everything at a variety of tempi, just to make sure I can do whatever the conductor asks. And of course the one tricky bit near the end of the opera is the biggest question mark of all. Time will tell!

You can hear the oboe solo at about 2:55 in the following video (I’ve done the solo at that tempo as well as a much speedier one, so who knows what tomorrow will bring.):

TQOD

28. July 2009 · 1 comment · Categories: TQOD

You might be an oboe geek if the best thing to happen to you all summer is an RDG half price sale on cane…

Ouch & Double Ouch!

28. July 2009 · 1 comment · Categories: Bassoon, Videos

“Hallway Oboe”?? So a bassoon played in a hallway becomes an oboe? Say what?!

For something that is, perhaps, a bit more fun, here is the Bocal Majority (is this a bassoon quartet, or four hallway oboes?):

Music Injuries

28. July 2009 · 1 comment · Categories: Links

Members of competitive high school marching bands may not be considered athletes, but they work like them — and get injured like them.

Gary Granata, an exercise physiologist in New Orleans, reached that conclusion after surveying 172 members of the local Avon High School Marching Band about how hard they work.

“We saw a level of physical demands and injury incidence comparable to what we see in high school sports,” said Granata, owner of PerformWell LLC, a firm providing nutrition, fitness and wellness services to sports teams, bands and other groups.

The Avon Marching Band members completed an anonymous questionnaire for the study, which was presented at the recent annual meeting of the Indianapolis-based American College of Sports Medicine.

As a result of rehearsals or performances, 17 percent reported they were always tired, nearly 44 percent said they were frequently tired, and 38 percent indicated they were occasionally tired. Nearly one-fourth had experienced episodes of faintness or nausea after band participation, and more than half had heat-related illnesses.

Nearly all of them, 95 percent, had sore or stiff muscles after rehearsals or practices. About 39 percent reported an injury that was a direct result of band participation, while a fourth of them said they had a previous injury that was worsened by being in the band. Injuries to nearly 28 percent of them were serious enough to see a physician. A variety of injuries were reported, including those to ankles, knees, hips and lower back.

What is completely missing in the article is something I am well aware of these days: hearing loss.

Knowing more than I used to about this issue, I wish that band students would have annual hearing tests. And I wish even more that they wore musician’s earplugs — especially when they rehearse in small band rooms and blast away.

You just don’t get a second chance with your ears.

Yet Again …

27. July 2009 · 2 comments · Categories: Ramble

… classical music (Mahler this time!) is being used to keep the riff-raff away.

THE use of classical music to make people feel safer and deter graffiti artists, could be rolled out across Dartford.

Music by composer Mahler is currently played on repeat in the Princes Tunnel in Central Park.

Leader of Dartford Council Jeremy Kite says that since the tunnel was reopened with the music in March, there has been a marked decrease in graffiti there.

He says that people feel safer, enjoy the music, and that he has instructed council officers into looking at introducing the idea elsewhere.

Cllr Kite said: “It’s worked really well so far.

“It’s my hunch that young people creating graffiti don’t find it cool to be surrounded by classical music.

“They can’t show off and invite their friends to see it.

“They don’t want to stay there.”

However playing music to stop people daubing graffiti is not a novel idea.

Classical music is played in town centre subways in Blackburn and Burnley, to discourage youths from hanging around there.

And Co-op stores, in Perry Street and Dene Holm Road, Northfleet, ran a similar scheme in 2005 by installing loudspeakers playing classical music outside.

It was such a success staff felt they did not need to continue the scheme.

Cllr Kite said: “We don’t want to give the impression this is a negative thing, people enjoy having music around.

“People feel happy during the working day.”

Just yards away from the Princes Tunnel is a skate park which with the council’s consent, is decorated in graffiti.

News Shopper spoke to some of the skaters, who gave a mixed reaction to Cllr Kite’s plan.

Charlie Pankhurst, 25, of Northdown Road, Northfleet, said: “If it works it’s a good idea, it may stop them hanging around in certain places.

“But playing a bit of classical music isn’t going to stop the worst offenders, if they’re going to do it, they’re going to do it.”

Michael Barnett, 20, of Chastilian Road, Dartford, said: “I don’t think it’s a good idea, it’s a bit stupid.

“Music’s just music, you can’t say everyone’s going to feel the same.

“I think white noise would work.”

I read it here.

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