Put up for Thanksgiving at a San Antonio radio station website:
If I have a “main” story about gratitude in meeting a musician, it is my longtime friend Warren Jones that I have to talk about.
I started graduate school at the San Francisco Conservatory in the fall of 1974. The graduate school class was small – 20 or so. Many of us had accomplished some good things as musicians, but one of us, Warren Jones, was rumored to be the most significant of us. I didn’t know him at all.
We took a class together that met in the evening. Around dinner time I was in a practice room, working on the Oboe Concerto by Richard Strauss. The door burst open.
“Do you have a piano score for that?”
It was Warren. He’s a good bit taller than me and in those days dressing in ways that I would have to call bold and colorful. I was intimidated to say the least.
“Yes I do,” I said.
“Well let me play it.”
So Warren sat down at the piano in the practice room and started to play the first movement with me. It suddenly made musical sense that it hadn’t made before. Suddenly there was time for all the things I needed to do, breathe, extra time to elongate or emphasize part of a phrase, and much more. Now I knew why Warren had the reputation that exceeded the rest of us by so much.
This, and more, was written by Mark Ackerman. Do people from around here remember him?
I know a long-time amateur oboist who switched to English horn because, he says, the oboe required more time than he had to spare for practice – the English horn being more forgiving.
So, I just tried to record a few more videos with my iPhone. The sound is pretty thin and … well … yucky (like the one below). While I have thought about posting videos of me showing various things I think are important (hand position, embouchure, breathing…), I’d prefer not having everyone think I sound as bad as all that. So do tell … what do you all use to post videos? Or is the iPhone really a good representation of how I play and is it time to quit? Hmmm.
I was reading David’s clarinet blog, where he asks clarinetists how much mouthpiece do you take in? So of course now I’ll ask oboe players a similar question:
How much reed do you take in?
Some of my students are reed swallowers. I was listening to an oboist on YouTube and the player took so much reed in that you couldn’t see a speck of the cane … the mouth was all the way to the thread. I take in very little reed. I will foolishly and bravely put up a very short video of me demonstrating how much reed is in my mouth. When I did this video I had absolutely no intention of putting it on the blog; I had a student use my iPhone to get this so she could then compare my embouchure and flat chin to her swallowing of the reed and what I call “bunchy chin”. Both of us played the same piece so she could also compare intonation and sound. But really, I wasn’t planning on showing this to another soul! (In other words, do be expecting much from this!)
So as you can see, there’s a lot of cane showing. (This video will not stay up for long; I’m not at all comfortable with the sound … or that face!)
Here’s a photo of my embouchure … a little more bearable for me to see this than hear and see the above:
I wish I could find the video the person who was playing (beautifully, by the way) and swallowing the reed.
So … how much reed do you take in? Do tell!
I am thinking about this at the moment for several reasons. For one, I was pondering why I take in less reed. I believe it has to do with control. Any part of the reed that is vibrating inside my mouth and isn’t touching the lip cannot be controlled. Call me a control freak, but I like to have control of the darn reeds! If I take in more reed my pitch center is thrown as well, and I can’t stand the tone. Yet some people can produce a lovely sound that way. I’m assuming reeds must be quite different.
And that brings me to the other reason I’ve been thinking of this. I recently purchased some reeds from a reed maker someone had recommended. (I’m looking for additional suppliers for my students, and I don’t want them to randomly spend money so I attempt to try a few reeds by various makers before giving them names.) The reeds are much shorter than what I’m used to … only 68mm long, and the reed maker uses a 46mm staple. The odd thing is, I was horrendously flat on them! Odd! I tried playing around with embouchure to see what it would take to bring them up to pitch. I had to pull the corners of my mouth back and bite a bit (possibly resulting in a bunchy chin, although I didn’t pay attention to that). I just can’t go there. At least not comfortably.
Okay, reed and embouchure ramble over and out.
And stop laughing about how I look and my sound, please!
I’ve never met Maestro Conlon. I sure appreciated this video, and it makes me wish I could meet him!
Every time I go out there I rehearse or conduct as if it were the last day and the last time and the last chance to get that piece to come to life. And every time I go out I think there could be an eleven year old out there, an eight year old, a twenty-five year old or somebody who’s eighty or eighty-five whose life can change because of your performance and they deserve 100% of your commitment. That means your mind, your body, your soul, your emotions, everything. You know there’s an expression, “You’re as good as your last performance.” That weighs on me every day.
-James Conlon
Did he write for a symphony orchestra? Does he write for a jazz orchestra? Come on, man. He’s just a rapper. There’s no comparison.
I’m not putting him down or making a judgement or anything, but we come from two different sides of the planet. I spent 28 years learning my first skill. I don’t rap. It’s not the same thing.
A producer has to have some sort of skills that enable him to be a producer. It’s totally different to know what to do with 16 woodwinds you know from piccolos down to bass clarinet.
It’s a whole different mindset. No comparison. None.
-Quincy Jones (about Kanye West … ouch! I read it here)
ATTENTION: 4 instruments were stolen from the 5th Ave Theatre. A Brannen-Cooper10K gold flute, a Burkart-Phelan piccolo, a Buffet Crampon R-13clarinet, and a Yanagisawa 991 alto sax. If anyone sees an instrument like any of those listed above on Craigslist, E-Bay, or in a pawn shop…or Music Store, please contact Dane Anderson @ 5th Ave Theater or the Seattle police immediately. Thanks!
Until recently, energy efficiency was treated like the second oboe in the clean energy orchestra – it was definitely there, but no one paid it much attention.
Want to read about the principal oboists of the Boston Symphony Orchestra? C’mon … you know you do! Just go here and scroll to the oboe section of the page.
Wouldn’t it be great if we could find this information for all major orchestras? Even better would be to have sound clips for each player. Of course that’s asking a lot … but I love to ask a lot of others.
I landed at a blog of an oboist at Boston Conservatory. In it she bashes some people, including faculty and students at her school.
I continue to be puzzled by people who blog about their music lives, assuming (I would guess) that no one will find them and they won’t be held accountable for what they write.
Reminder: what you write on a public blog is … well … public!
I just received this (and a whole lot more; that was one long email!):
BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA AND WGBH BOSTON TO PARTNER WITH THE NEW AUDIOVISUAL LABEL, ICA CLASSICS, TO DISTRIBUTE 32 HISTORIC BSO DVDS
FIRST SERIES OF THREE DVDS TO BE RELEASED ON FEBRUARY 22, 2011, FEATURING THE BSO UNDER THE DIRECTION OF CHARLES MUNCH IN MUSIC OF DEBUSSY, RAVEL, WAGNER, FAURÉ, FRANCK, AND BEETHOVEN
BSO PERFORMANCES ORIGINALLY RECORDED AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY’S SANDERS THEATRE BETWEEN 1958 AND 1961 FOR BROADCAST ON WGBH TV AND DISTRIBUTED THROUGH THE EDUCATIONAL RADIO AND TELEVISION CENTER
The Boston Symphony Orchestra and Boston public broadcaster WGBH have partnered with International Classical Artists and their new audio and audiovisual label, ICA Classics, to release 32 BSO historic DVDs over the next four seasons.
The first set of these new BSO archival DVD releases will feature Boston Symphony Orchestra performances that took place at Harvard University’s Sanders Theatre between February 4, 1958 and October 31, 1961, under the direction of Charles Munch (BSO Music Director 1949-1962). These DVDs—featuring music of Debussy, Ravel, Wagner, Fauré, Franck, and Beethoven—represent some of the earliest televised concerts with the Boston Symphony Orchestra (the BSO was first featured on television in 1949 in an NBC radio and television special). Originally broadcast on WGBH television and distributed through the Educational Radio and Television Center (precursor to WNET) to educational television stations nationwide, these BSO/Charles Munch performances are being made available on DVD for the first time commercially through this new partnership between the BSO, WGBH, and ICA Classics.
The first three DVDs will be available starting February 22, 2011 through Naxos of America and can be purchased from Amazon.com and retail stores across the United States, as well as the BSO’s website, www.bso.org. The Boston Symphony will also offer buyers the chance to pre-order the DVDs starting December 1, through www.bso.org or by calling 888-266-1200; these pre-orders will be fulfilled soon after February 22. The DVDs will also be available to purchase in the UK through the ICA Classics website, www.icaclassics.com, beginning January 31, 2011, as well as in retail stores throughout Europe.
A short clip of La Mer, from 1958, can be seen & heard here.
