… man I wish I understood what they were saying (especially during the balloon moment). And get a load of the end of the oboist’s performance (at 2:26)! Um. No, you won’t catch me doing that jump!
Mozart sure loved himself some oboe
(And I’m thankful for that!)
Members of the ensemble do not appear to memorize the notes to heart and they constantly consult the score in form of booklets. The issue comes when these musicians need to turn that page as the performance progresses. The act of turning a page to me seems problematic although judging from how it was done yesterday, the instrumentalists obviously had little problem doing so. Indeed, each time they need to turn the page, they stopped playing temporarily. The orchestra was designed to give a certain group of players a short rest at different points of time during performance. They turned their pages during their rest time.
Yet, it looked messy in a sense that there were movements other than striking the strings, blowing the horns or the overexcited conductor swinging his hands and seemingly dancing to shape the sound that filled the hall.
I read that, and more, here. It’s kind of fun to read about a concert through the eyes of this non-musician, and see how we appear to him.
I’ve heard of “notepads” or some such thing that people use, rather than sheet music. (Oh … here’s one you can check out.) I read, some time ago, that Harry Connick, Jr. uses some sort of “electric sheet music distribution system” too. Of course if something went wrong with the machines we’d be in serious trouble. But sure, I’m going to guess that, some years down the line, we might nix the paper and move to computers. I will miss the paper and my pencil. Ah well. (And, for those of you who don’t know, our page turns are worked out so that we oboes turn when we have measures of rest, so it’s no biggie. And no, we wouldn’t want to play constantly! We need those measures of rest!) Of course these “music machines” have to be sure and provide a way for us to mark our music, and then a way to take those marks away when we get a different conductor who has different ideas. Sounds like the Music Reader has taken care of that, and then you can buy their AirTurn and turn the pages with a foot pedal. (As if we oboists don’t have enough to think about already!)
Now … when someone invents the “Perfect Reed Maker” machine I’ll buy it immediately! And if someone ever invents a plastic reed that works and sounds great our lives will become so much more relaxed. Page turns are the least of our problems!
Claire Garza’s viola stands for good and beauty. She used it to soothe patients in nursing homes and hospitals and to teach music to children.
Someone stole the viola Friday from her Swiss Avenue apartment in Old East Dallas. But maybe the burglar would have reconsidered if he had known how Garza employed the viola.
Garza, 27, said she thinks the thief came in through a locked apartment window. A violin and a DVD player also were stolen, she said.
But the viola, estimated to be worth $30,000, became the focal point.
Garza’s high school viola teacher had sold it to her, and she had used it to play more than 100 concerts in nursing homes and hospitals all over Dallas.
“It was a very special thing to have an instrument that used to belong to my teacher,” she said. “It was heartbreaking for me to have to tell him it got stolen.”
Garza plays for Texas Winds Musical Outreach, a group of professional musicians that tries to help people in the community. She also plays in the Richardson Symphony Orchestra and teaches young musicians through the Dallas Symphony Orchestra’s Young Strings program, which provides free lessons and instruments to underprivileged first- through fifth-graders.
Garza graduated with bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music and soon helped start a series of educational programs for at-risk children called the Charles Barr Concerts for Head Start. The series is named for her boyfriend, who was killed in a bicycle accident a few years ago.
Garza came to Texas after Barr’s mother, Catherine, offered her a job with Texas Winds.
Garza said the missing viola is precious to her. She just wants the thief to take care of it and return it.
“It was like my voice, and it’s gone now,” she said. “It’s such an unfortunate thing, because it was used to do such good, such uplifting things. It’s just wrong.”
Found here.
A Quiet Place
Friar Juan Bautista Sancho: Gloria I Misa In Sol
I can concentrate on the music now instead of making everyone happy. People think the tenure process is about whether you can play up to the orchestra’s standards, but it’s more about how you get along in your section.
-Michael Wayne (second clarinetist of Boston Symphony Orchestra)
I read it here.
Next Tuesday (**Ack! See update below!) I have a recital rehearsal (or an “almost rehearsal” since we’ll be checking out works but might not actually begin to truly rehearse what we choose) and a couple of Symphony Silicon Valley rehearsals and concerts. So work is now beginning for real (Merola was a great interlude, but two weeks of work surrounded by no gigs means it didn’t really feel like going back to work).
The Symphony concerts are outdoors at SJSU, and free to the public. I’ll be playing in the first two. Sadly the Cleo Laine show doesn’t use oboes, nor does the Beatles concert (boo hoo … both would have been quite fun to do), and the final concert (the band one) is on the same day I’m performing with San Jose Chamber Orchestra. In the past I would have gone ahead and done the three service day, but I’ve decided I don’t always have to do that. Yes, the income would have been nice. But no, the stress and racing from one gig to the next would not have been so much fun.
The following week we begin Opera San José rehearsals for Manon.
By then, too, all of my sixteen (possibly seventeen) private students will be back to their “normal” schedule of lessons.
I love getting back to this full schedule. Something about it makes me feel more alive. (And it gets me off the couch!)
Still no UCSC, though; I don’t go there until September 22, on the “Meet the Students” day or whatever we call it. Got that, oboists? This is the day you come in to play for me and see about taking lessons! As if UCSC oboists read this blog … hah!
**I was alerted to the fact that the rehearsal is, in fact, MONDAY. Good thing I wrote “See you Tuesday!” to a colleague. I’m not sure when I would have noticed it was Monday, even though it is clearly on my calendar for the correct day.
I’ve often said I’m not a huge fan of the woodwind quintet sound. There’s something about the many timbres (unlike the brass quintet or string quintet where the blend is so wonderful and unified) that doesn’t appeal to me, and much of the older music written for WWQ doesn’t seem all that great. But there are times, I admit, when I get a kick out of it, and if I’m playing it I do have fun. We begin our recital prep this coming week … and yes, we’ll be doing WWQ music.
I don’t know that we’ll be doing the Farkas, but here’s a fun little video by the Borealis Wind Quintet:
It’s possible we’ll do the Ewazen WWQ. Here is the first movement, played by the Soaring Spoon Quintet:
The entire group will be deciding what to play, of course, but I sure wouldn’t mind doing this as well (Russian National Orchestra Wind Quintet playing the second movement of Three Moods by Andrey Rubtsov):
You’re pretty good. You have a good technique and a nice tone, but your playing lacks maturity, as far as expression and actual musicality go.
This was written to a middle school oboist who looks to be about eleven or twelve in the video (it was put up in 2007… I think I posted it then). I’d kind of like to respond, “Your comment lacks intelligence.”
I’m sorry, but these YouTube comments just crack me up. I think anyone who posts should have to at least put something up themselves to let us know just what they can do.
Then in 2008, you can hear this young oboist play more:
And, finally, this year, a bit taller too …
Some readers may be preparing for their first experience at college. If you are an oboist (or any musician, really … but I’m oboe centric as you all know!) I would suggest that you attempt to contact the instructor if you plan on private lessons. Some schools allow anyone to take lessons (rare), some allow music majors and minors to take lessons, and for some you must audition. So if you think you are going to be taking lessons, but haven’t investigated this, now would be a good time to inquire.
In addition, I suggest you check into orchestra and/or wind ensemble auditions. Some students aren’t quite in “college mode” yet and think they can sign up, just like they did in high school, for a band. In most instances you must audition first! At UCSC I know our orchestra auditions are held a few days before classes begin (the wind auditions are on Tuesday, September 22). You have to go to the music building and sign up for these auditions. Some schools have repertoire for the auditions. Some don’t. So as you can see, you have to do a little investigating to find out what is required of you.
I always feel a bit sorry for students who, in the first week, come in to my room to see if they can have lessons; usually by then I’ve set up my schedule and have signed up those I’m able to teach.
Note to UCSC students: If you take private lessons you must also be in a major performing ensemble.
So this is a little heads up for those of you who are new to this college experience. You’re on your own now! Mom and dad won’t be assisting you (and they shouldn’t … I am always dismayed when parents try to set up things for their college-aged children). If you are planning on UCSC, send me a note, introduce yourself, and we can set up a meeting time on September 22 for an audition.
you should have seen how many times i broke my oboe & clarinet reeds when I was in marching band, trip and the reed was gone
(ARGH! You never march with an oboe. Ever.)
And then there is the sound of inlet waves on a stifling hot summer afternoon in August as they slap against the pilings and the sides of the fishing boats in a small marina that begs for a pitcher of ice cold lager.
However, music is the subject of this rant and so I shall return to topic and observe that I can think of no seventeenth classical music for ensemble that would call out for the enjoyment of the quaffing of a beer to complete the moment.
Janos Gereben didn’t write for a paper, as far as I know, but the opera list provides his thoughts. Just a snippet:
Surely, a “concept-opera” that abandons the concept in the intermission burned up its meager ideas too soon… or came to its senses. Still, consistency is valued by most people.
Just short of the primitive, juvenile carnality of another Mozart-Merola misfit, the 2002 “La finta giardiniera,” this “Cosi” is of the same mold: not trusting either the composer or the audience to make it on their own, without the constant interruption and diversion by the director.
Wouldn’t hiring a couple of audience members to keep coughing through the work be cheaper and more expeditious?
Someone has posted the reed 2 book (which is oboe & English horn) to the musical Wicked’s “Defying Gravity”.
Imagine playing a run of this and playing that oboe part over and over, day in, day out.
(And that is why you want to hear a good blend of the band and not single out one exciting part like the oboe, yes?)
