There’s always a place for the E-flat clarinet. Nobody wants it, because it doesn’t work. It’s something like a French horn — excuse me, a horn, you don’t call it a French horn — because if you hit a note hard, it tends to shatter. With the E-flat clarinet it’s a double-reed. It’s like blowing — playing through a straw.
I believe that classical music snobs who think that Top 40 pop hits and the Grammy awards really mean anything re “popular culture” should be forced to listen to “Eine kleine Nachtmusik” repeatedly.
I read it here
Oboe is a weird instrument. Maybe it was my early exposure to the BBC made-for-tv Chronicles of Narnia soundtrack. Maybe it was my childhood love for Peter and the Wolf. Whatever the cause, the sound of the oboe sends me off into some trippy transcendent green space that slightly resembles the British country side.
Next time you’re near a radio, listen to some classical music. The endings are hysterically funny. All that fanfare. All that drama. I picture a guy in short pants and a ruffled shirt jumping out and saying: “Ta dah!”
I always think it’s interesting to hear what musicians have to say about their craft and the music that they’re playing. Ms. Trautwein, made some particularly apt comparisons between growing through music and cultivating a garden; Mr. Rosenwein provided a bit of insight to the not-so-glamorous life of an oboist (who knew they made their own reeds?); and Ms. Hashizume provided some information on the differences between the baroque and modern violin, and how that affects the sound.
I read it here.
Yes, it’s not-so-glamorous at times. But I do love it!
My biggest regret is giving up a free ticket to see Heinz Holliger, then one of the best oboists in the world, to go to my host sister’s birthday party, because I thought the boy I liked and was sort-of-going-out-with would be there. He wasn’t, I had a pretty ordinary time, and I should totally have gone to see the oboist. Blergh.
But there was my solo, shared with the oboe and one of the trumpets, I think. It was out of tune, although I blame the oboe, like I always do (What? Do you know how much trouble I had in GBYSO my first year during the Suk? DO YOU? When a flute and oboe are playing together in a duet, and the flute is in tune with the orchestra while the oboe isn’t, the flute sounds out of tune. If the flute tries to play in tune with the oboe, the flute sounds out of tune again. I say [expletive deleted] it, and blame the oboe).
the beginning of the Mozart oboe concerto is like CDCDCDCBCBCDEFGABCBCDCBAGGGAFDCBAGFFFFEDCC
Jammed with Hammy and his oboe of expensiveness, which was fun. Oboes should feature more in jazz, in my opinion, it sounds like a wooden saxophone, which is simply awesome.
Classical Music is not as popular today as it used to be. It has been around for hundreds of years and it is the oldest type of music out there.
I really need to like… think of where my life is going and make decisions. I have no idea what I’m supposed to do now that I can’t go to grad school. Maybe I can go for something else…? I mean, I have a BA… but like, most programs aren’t going to accept me with like, some random BA in nothing. Maybe I should’ve gone to school for music or something. You don’t have to like… go to the country of oboe and get a job in oboe for years to like… play oboe. You like get the required training just from playing and going to normal school.
I have been searching for the country of oboe for … like … just … eons.
I remember signing up for band and finding out that the only woodwind instruments left to play were the oboe and bassoon. I chose the basso0n because it matched my hair.
It is so wonderful to be able to play again in a decent group. I am playing an opera and am just having a blast. It really amazes me sometimes just how much I love playing the oboe. Really, music is such a HUGE part of ME and I don’t think there is any instrument more beautiful than the oboe.
(I’ve been negligent; no BQODs or TQODs recently … sorry folks … I know how necessary they are. Or … um … not.)
Elsewhere in the I Ching (I can’t find the passage right now) it is mentioned that music can also be demonic. There are certain dischordant sounds and rhythms which evoke evil, madness and despair. That’s why I no longer listen to modern pop music. Something evil began to be expressed in pop music starting about 30 years ago in genres such as heavy metal and punk-rock.
And it’s not only because I’m a snob – which I freely confess I am. I also do not listen to socalled modern “classical music.” Sometime in the late 1930s, classical music composers (not all but most) started to write dischordant “music.” To be fair their music was a reflection of the horrors of the time: the rise of Communism, Fascim and Nazism and the threat of world war. But I cannot bring myself to listen to it.
I did check out an English Horn today, which was pretty cool. Except the English Horn is heavy, and the case didn’t have a neck strap. And also, the English Horn is hard. The oboe is about a jillion times easier.
(For the record, I don’t use a neck strap. I have rather strong hands, so I don’t use a peg either. But if I had to use something it would be a peg … I think the neck strap is rotten on the neck.)
