Today my band director wanted me to learn the OBOE, since I mastered the trombone.
I had a San Jose Chamber Orchestra rehearsal from 11:00 to 1:30. I have a student at 2:45, and if things go as planned I’ll be teaching three students in a row. (One is new so I’m waiting to hear back to verify the student’s attendance, but it seems fairly certain since they wrote today to ask if they could start up now rather than our originally planned next week time.)
I’m having a latté. Once students arrive I am rarely a zombie, but there are times when a student will be so incredibly tired and yawn so much it gets a bit contagious. So just on the off chance that one arrives in that condition, this latté is to be my insurance.
I have noticed a bit more weariness on the part of students, along with lack of practice. This isn’t unusual this time of year; they are back to school, which means earlier rising, tons of homework, and rearranging their schedules.
I, on the other hand, am a bit more energized when I’m back to work. Somehow being busy helps me. Being bored makes me tired. And boring. :-)
Celeste Johnson can do it for you:
But … really now … get to work!
(I looked up the Oklahoma First Round Etudes and I found this: Oklahoma All-State Oboe Etudes: Theodore Nieman Method for the Oboe, Nieman-Carl Fischer p. 74 Etude Adagio Elegiaco and p. 82 Etude Allegro.)
Watching an oboe trio last night at Joe’s Pub, I wondered what an alien with no respiratory system would think. “How are they DOING that?”
I’m looking forward to some Mozart, a new work by Charles B. Griffin (a composer new to me), and Jon Nakamatsu at this weekend’s San Jose Chamber Orchestra’s concerts at Le Petite Trianon. I love the piano concerto, and I’m looking forward to playing principal; for once I don’t have to worry about all those low Cs in the second movement! (I played this many times with Midsummer Mozart years ago. Mozart can be tough for the second oboist!)
You can read a bit about the concerts here. Please note: that is not Mr. Nakamatsu’s picture. ;-)
My first rehearsal is tonight. Now I’d better work on reeds ….
SO TIRED OF HEARING SCALES ON THE OBOE!
I wrote about the soprano falling into the pit, and it’s true, that no person was injured, but now I read this:
An opera singer fell off stage into the orchestra, damaging a cello worth more than £100,000.
Yeah. There are more than people in pits. There are very expensive instruments.
And reeds.
When the Marlboro Music Festival was getting started, the local paper, the Brattleboro Reformer, agreed to run music reviews if the festival bought ads – and if Marlboro supplied the reviews itself.
So Anthony P. Checchia, its administrator, turned to Mr. Rosenblatt – a resident artist at Marlboro himself – who wrote under the nom de plume H.D. Semiquaver (hemidemisemiquaver is the British term for a 64th note).
Rudolf Serkin, the pianist who ran Marlboro, was mystified.
“Serkin knew the newspaper, and he couldn’t understand how a review of this sophistication would appear,” said Checchia.
I love it! “H.D. Semiquaver” is just great!
And then there’s this:
He retired from the orchestra in 1995 after 36 years, and was admired, if not always emulated, by his colleagues for quitting at the top of his game. Few people knew how nervous he was as a performer. And yet he was frequently in the spotlight, performing concertos by Skrowaczewski, Persichetti, or Fiala, or works with prominent parts, like Copland’s Quiet City.Once he tripled on English horn, oboe, and oboe d’amore on a single program, in 1980, with the Concerto Soloists.
“He suffered terribly from nerves, and as he got older and realized how many things could go wrong, he just didn’t enjoy playing anymore,” said his wife of 56 years, a composer and pianist who would often write his cadenzas or edit parts.
RTWT
The picture below is from this page.
Left to right: Rosenblatt, Laurence Thorstenberg (later of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra), Laila Storch (author of a Tabuteau biography), John Mack (Cleveland Orchestra), Tabuteau and Walter Bianchi (of Brazil).
It was suggested that what I wrote the other day was confusing and/or misleading. And considering some comments, it clearly was! So I’m going to try again. I’m going to put this video up again, and just let it speak for itself. Apply it to your own profession or not. Your choice! :-)
Truthfully, I should apply this to myself. I need to learn to control my tongue. Badly.
… this is what I need.
I’ve had a few mishaps these past couple of days that have caused me to wonder about my words & intentions. Word for the day: caution caution caution caution caution (you get the idea!).
And so it goes ….
Practice Only on the Days You Eat
When people find out I am a professional musician many will share that they, too played an instrument sometime. Most end by saying something along the lines of, “but I didn’t like to practice.” I’m never quite sure how to respond to that because the fact is I have a secret. I don’t particularly enjoy practicing either.
I know there are people who love to practice — I even talked to one flutist who told me she prefers practicing to playing with others, which was just unimaginable to me!
my oboe bag glares at me reproachfully…
Kids in high school thought I was into classical music, because I seemed like a fifty-year-old woman to them. But I hate most classical music.
From the IDRS:
I have just received a phone call from an oboe friend who lives in Philadelphia. She told me that Louis Rosenblatt passed away Monday afternoon, August 24. Information about the arrangements will be posted here as soon as it becomes available.
The IDRS family mourns the passing of one of its most legendary members and extends its deepest condolences to his wife, Renate, and family.
From the IDRS site:
A native Philadelphian born in 1928, Louis Rosenblatt began to study the oboe with Nicholas Lannutti at the South Philadelphia High School for Boys. Later he became a pupil of John Minsker. After being graduated from high school, he was accepted at the Curtis Institute and became a student of Marcel Tabuteau. He joined the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1959 as assistant first oboe. When John Minsker retired from the Orchestra, Mr. Rosenblatt moved to the English horn position to fill the vacancy.
You can read more here.
I have to admit that I’m skeptical about the first one being entirely real, but it’s fun even if it has been cooked slightly on someone’s computer. The attached background said it is a 13,029-hour collaboration between music and engineering students (now, isn’t that a stretch?) at the University of Iowa and that most of the parts came from the John Deere factory down the road. Thanks to my friend Iby Haidari for passing it along:
The above is from here, where I was introduced to the video blow. Gotta give credit where credit is due! (It bugs me when people find videos at my site and post ‘em as if they just found ‘em when I’m just sure there were seen here first. Yeah, I’m petty that way!)
For the record, I’m doubting that it’s real as well. Doesn’t mean it isn’t fun and clever.
