Sad, but a well played oboe is one of the prettiest sounds to me. Add a piano and my heart will melt.
(and thanks, Ben Opie!)
Sigh … reading the oboist’s bio:”In addition to oboe, Colin also plays clarinet, english horn, violin, 5-string banjo, acoustic/electric bass, piano, saxophone, flute, guitar and harmonica.”
And later: “Outside of music, Colin also works as a dancer, actor, stuntman, singer, choreographer, acrobat and martial-artist. Most recently, Colin had the honour of playing the devil fiddler in the flying blue canoe for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Opening Ceremonies.”
Um. Okay then. I’m appropriately humbled.
Beginner oboe is not sensual. It sounds like a duck — a pissed-off, monotonous duck. I had no patience for it. Kim fared better; oboe requires stubbornness, a dogged determination to stick to plans, and Kim radiated moralism and discipline, from her face-yanking ponytail to her sensibly sneakered feet. She liked to watch me in class and point out when my behaviour fell short of community standards: “Just because you’ve helped yourself doesn’t mean you can’t help others.” She wrote stories for English class about bad children who watched TV and ate junk food instead of doing their homework; I think this was literally the worst thing she could imagine. She also had almost no musical sense, which I think helps when you’re trying to teach yourself beginner oboe.
Hmmm. I was sort of a moralistic kiddo too (still am, actually). Maybe that’s why I’m a good oboist? :-)
I really liked reading this. Check out the whole thing!
And, for the record, I do not own a bag that says, “Music is my bag” … and if I did it would be because a student gave one to me as a gift. (Students do give me such sweet gifts on occasion, and sometimes they are these “musical” gifts. If one did give me a musical bag, I would bravely use it, in honor of the student. Honest!)
Thank you, Jennet Ingle, for this:
The Unfussy Oboist does not spend her whole rehearsal period on reeds, though – she plays on the reed du jour and makes it work. So I was busy before and after rehearsal trying to make the right sound but I forced myself to not switch reeds or scrape and fuss during the piece. In the end, the reed I went in with was not the reed of a lifetime, but all the audience needs to know is that it works – no one is interested in how much work I have to do inside my mouth to make the effect happen, and my colleagues aren’t interested in that either.
Yes. I really appreciate all that Jennet has to say in this post, and I hope I can apply it to my own professional life. Great post! :-)
O Thou In Whose Presence
Eric Whitacre: I Thank You God
From the Weiss family (David is the former principal oboist of the LA Phil.)
Oboe Brands & Prices?
I’ve been playing oboe for 5 years now. I’ve been thinking of buying my own oboe (public school ones kinda suck). I want to find one the is affordable yet great sound. What are some good brands & price ranges? Hopefully anywhere from $400-$600. Thanks in advance. :]
Questions like this always make me a bit sad. I also worry that the young player will buy one of the cheap oboes that are good only to use as a lamp stand. Sigh.
I read it here.
Many thanks to Bob Hubbard, of Westwind Double Reed for this:
What musical instrument sounds better? Oboe or Trumpet?
Ha ha ha! my sister(who plays the oboe) and me (trumpet) were having this huge debate about whose instrument soundz better! I don’t really care who wins, but just wanna know!
In a recent review of the New York Philharmonic at Ravinia, Tribune music critic John von Rhein refers to the noise of the crickets. On behalf of all the cicadas, who have rehearsed very hard for these few weeks of glory at the festival, please do not confuse them with crickets. I am concerned that he might next confuse an English Horn with an oboe.
-Tom Adolphson
I found it here.
The concert began when the lights were dimmed and Stephanie Kulas ’11 walked to the middle of the stage, took a deep breath and proceeded to play her clarinet with spot on tone and clarity, performing with total confidence and grace. Kulas’ music was titled queerly with monikers such as “Vivace assai” and “Adante espressivo” but was played with ultimate lucidity and focus, as she put all her attention into her performance.
This just made me smile. So I thought I’d share.
We have AT&T Uverse. We also have our landline through AT&T. AND our cell phones are through them as well.
Today?
Well, my cell phone works. That’s it. Nothing else. Nada. Zilch.
We’ve been having issues on and off for a while. I’m ready to dump ‘em and try something new. Trouble is I’m an idiot so I don’t know what else we can try.
But AT&T Uverse? You are really really bugging me and the only thing that was worse today was getting to Peet’s in Willow Glen (for a latté and free hour of internet) and having the guy who took my order be incredibly rude to me for no reason at all. I was being nice. Really! I even asked him after his rude little outburst if maybe he wanted me to go somewhere else … he was just plain mean.
So now I have no internet until who knows when unless I take advantage of a locale that provides free access. I guess this blog’ll be a bit boring for a while.
Hmm.
Maybe it’s already boring? Ack!
The oboe I want is $11,225.76 0.o
I told the audience, I said, ‘this is an amazing moment for me because the man that all clarinetists have to say is their idol is sitting in the box up there, it’s Benny Goodman,’ And everybody went, ‘AH!’, you know. Everybody was looking up at Benny and clapping and I didn’t notice that the bottom part started falling off the clarinet, and started… they fell on the stage of Carnegie Hall, so I scrambled down on my hands and knees and grabbed them before they fell off the stage and put it back together sort of quickly – it worked, but I’ll never forget that moment when I was looking up at Benny’s box, and my clarinet was rolling across the stage of Carnegie Hall. Oy.
-Richard Stoltzman
I read it here, and you can hear an interview with Stoltzman there.
