Let me out myself once more: I like live music, played by warm bodies, for warm bodies, in real rooms. I prefer live performances of music made for live performance to recordings. I like the spontaneity and variation a live performance necessarily brings to a work and I like the way the music dissipates in a real room or out-of-doors space, as the sound waves are absorbed and reflected into both air, architecture, ear, and memory. A live performance of music is a unique event in time, space, audition and memory for which there is no adequate substitute.
“Oh my gosh! Why are there wood chips in front of our couch?! It looks like a hamster lives in front of our couch!!”
Read here.
Love it!:
Speaking of music–tip for the day:
It is impossible to play the oboe well after sprinting up ten flights of auditorium stairs, through the lobby of a fine arts center, and to the back of the parking lot, even if you’ve had five minutes to drive and relax on the way to the next performance. Probably something to do with breath support. It’s a better idea not to double schedule concerts. Just don’t do that. Also, I recommend not assembling the oboe in the car while sitting at a stop light, because then you have to make certain it doesn’t roll off your lap while driving. Very unsafe. Don’t do that either.
I am going to hopefully major in Woodwind Performance, with an emphasis in oboe and English horn- provided I can rent an English horn
I plan on selling and making more oboe reeds by the middle of this year!!! I am not sure how it will work, but it should work out once I have worked on my techniques….
Haha, so lately I’ve been, erm, I dunno, behaving like a 50 year-old, and listens to many, many classical pieces.
A note perfect, literal performance does not necessarily mean it is musically well parsed or that it draws you in with style.
I read it here, at The Buzzing Reed.
Traveling with an oboe is like traveling with an infant. You can’t just bring a small carry-on because you aren’t just bringing the oboe, you’re bringing the oboe’s reeds, reed tools, music, extra cane in case you have to make more reeds. Seriously, it feels like a diaper bag sometimes.
I figure, as long as I’m going to teach saxophone, I might as well add flute, clarinet and most recently acquired, oboe, to the pile. Right now the local music shop has a guy that teaches sax and clarinet. Well, that’s nice and all, but if I teach more horns, I’d be more likely to be hired as the sole woodwind teacher.
The disbelievers, they say, “But you haven’t played them all as long.” To that, I say, stick it in your ear.
I’d just like to say that I cannot promise to only listen to classical music- I will try to listen to it on a daily basis though.
This is the first blog post (dated December 22, 2009), from A Year of Classical. I am looking forward to reading these, beginning with the earliests posts to the latest, and then I’ll attempt to read what the blogger continues to write about this year long adventure with classical music.
Here’s the explanation for the blog (and the title of the blog):
A year of living classically
This is an experiment. For 2010, I will average a minimum of 2 hours per day of classical music. I have a strong background in jazz and pop music, but will now listen to only classical music for one year. Good friends will pitch in with reviews and guidance. For me, the goal is education and the tactic is immersion.
I love it! Whether or not the blogger becomes addicted to classical, how cool is it that a person is willing to give it a year’s worth of attention.
Maybe I should do the same with … oh I dunno … yard work?!
No. Isn’t gonna happen. ;-)
usually I’m just the second oboist that no one really knows about..now I’m a star English hornist but I don’t see how I suddenly became well known.
So, my oboe teacher went to this music conference last week. She was supposed to find me a good oboe. Instead, she comes back with a clarinet for my brother! WHAT’S UP WITH THAT!?
Sad story. I was observing a rehearsal on the campus of unnamed university I never attended. The director was taking his group through a piece. I didn’t really care for his style, but he was getting the job done. Musical things were tossed about. Rehearse. Stop. Rehearse. Stop. Section leaders being jerks towards the members of their sections. Typical behavior for a group that thinks it’s better than it is and standard operating procedure for members who know they are being watched. Things were going along OK until…the English horn solo. The guy on the podium had no idea what to do to fix the issues this horn player was having. ABSOLUTELY NO CLUE. I knew. Roll in. Add the right pinky on the ‘c’ key. Check the reed for balance – the reed needed work anyway. If the director had checked the horn, he would have found an issue with the left hand action. NO CLUE. He drilled this poor kid for 5 minutes. No improvement. His solution. Take it to your studio teacher. NICE JOB, JERK. But, alas, he was the jerk with the special paper that said he spent more time talking about making music from behind a desk than me. I was actually more determined to get that college job more than ever after that experience, but alas, the special titles are for the people with the special paper, jumping from position to position, padding their resumes, making contacts. Here’s the sad part. I was accompanying a gentleman on this visit and he was totally pumped after seeing this rehearsal. “That’s the way I want my rehearsals to go. Boom. Boom. Boom. No BS. Just get to it. Have your s— ready and put up or shut up.” Blah, blah, blah. Inside I replied, “Dude, the guy didn’t do anything a trained chimp couldn’t do. He didn’t have clue on how to fix half of the issues in that rehearsal. The only thing keeping him out of trouble was the talent level of the musicians in the band and the quality of the studio teachers at the school.” Unfortunately, my colleague was lost on this reality. Alas, indeed.
C’mon now … does this blogger really think every conductor should know each and every orchestral instrument and it’s foibles, fingerings and other features? As a university instructor (of oboe, duh) I have certainly never expected that. If I coach students and some are playing instruments other than my own I would suggest the students see their teachers as well. (And I don’t have that marvy little piece of paper that gives me a higher position at the university either … no need to make my lack of interest in obtaining that a sore spot. It was, after all, my decision not to get it!)
Ah, some people. It’s so easy to judge others when you aren’t in their position.
Um. Sort of like I just did. Eek!
Now, I am not a vengeful person by any means, but I have the kind of noisy neighbors that make finally learning Oboe, which I have wanted to for years, a rather appealing new hobby. This probably won’t happen.
I arrived home this evening after work to the musical sounds of my neighbor playing the oboe. All I ever hear her playing is the same scale over and over. And as soon as I heard the oboe playing tonight, my immediate thought was, “how sad, playing the oboe on a Friday night.”
(The writer does go on to say maybe it’s not all that sad after all … but the above just cracked me up and I had to place it here.)
