I just read this on a YouTube video:
six pieces for oboe (or other instrument in Bb) and piano
Opera star Elina Garanca sings “Age of Aquarius” … and again I have to credit Opera Chic who seems to find everything!
First Netrebko and now this? What shall I put up next? Hmm?
How about we put both Netrebko and Garanca together and have ‘em sing something … oh I dunno … operatic or something? Hmm?
I don’t know what to make of this, but I suppose I should thank Opera Chic for bringing it to my attention.
Philipp Kirkorov & Anna Netrebko:
… but I’ve never showered WHILE playing.
I just ran across a very bizarre YouTube video. It has oboe in the piece, so that’s why I was alerted to it. It is supposed to be someone’s original composition, but whoever wrote it clearly knows the Marcello oboe concerto and it’s really a sort of reworking of the slow movement.
So you wonder why I can’t put it up here so you can all puzzle over it with me? You DO wonder … right?
It’s apparently in memory of dogs being hit by cars because the video is of dogs being killed on freeways. Really.
I don’t even know what to say about this other than this: bizarre.
“Sleep Concerts have been a great success in Japan, where sleep deprived workers will happily pay £50.00 for the privilege of nodding off to a live music performance; so that they can get some much needed shut eye. This idea has inspired us to create our own UK version of the concert, which will provide exhausted Britons the opportunity to relax, take a nap and feel revitalised; resulting in improved physical, mental and emotional health.”
With the sole aim of the ‘Sleep Concert’ being to help the audience nod off, Travelodge surveyed 6,000 Britons across the UK to establish the repertoire for the performance. As a result Travelodge is working with quartet String Mania to devise a range of snooze inducing music which will include; works by Mozart, Bach, alongside renditions of crooner Michael Buble, Coldplay and Snow Patrol’s chart-topping hits, amongst others.
Somehow I don’t think Bach & Mozart would be thrilled with this one ….
Read Online:
Q: Can you use an oboe reed on english hornA: No. An English horn reed has wire that stabilizes and focuses the tone of the notes above the staff.
Read here.
Heh … who knew that was the reason?! (So I guess all those players who do use wire on oboe reeds may go ahead and use that oboe reed on an English horn then, eh?)
Mozart, widely regarded as one of the greatest classical composers of all time, wrote his first symphony at age eight and was dead by the age of 35. Schubert also died when he was 31, while Chopin famously didn’t live past the age of 39. Moreover, the phenomenon of the castrato in classical music in the 1700s shows that young people haven’t just been interested in classical music throughout the years – they’ve practically been canonised as part of a classical music tradition that, although lost, is not forgotten.
So it appears that dogs and oboes are a popular YouTube thing:
Okay. I’ll stop now.
There were all shapes and sizes – the large and the small, the young and the old, and even a heavily pregnant woman who had re-scheduled the birth of her twins so she could take part.
But the one thing the 5,200-odd people who posed for the American artist Spencer Tunick at the Sydney Opera House earlier today had in common was that they were all totally naked.
I read it here.
Whoa … rescheduling the birth of twins?
No way would I be there. I’d just use the excuse, “Gotta make reeds.” Yeah. That’d work.
I just read this: “How to Use a Horn for a Knife Handle” … and you can just imagine, I’m sure, what I’m asking myself: “How can a French horn be used as a knife handle?”
Duh. They were talking deer or elk horn.
Sometimes it becomes quite obvious how my mind is so music-centric. Sad, but true.
Or maybe not so sad. Maybe kinda cool … um … right? ;-)
… let’s say … um … you played well enough that even you were quite satisfied and even happy. Let’s say your colleagues were complimentary, as was the maestro, and the review was quite complimentary as well (although it was, in your opinion, a bit inappropriate). Let’s say you were even getting sort of confident that you played really, really well.
Then let’s say someone you know comes up to you, looking terribly seriously and even a little miffed, and she says, “I missed you Sunday.” You respond, “Huh?” (thinking she meant the Sunday performance of a different concert that you didn’t play). She again says, “I missed you. For the Ravel.”
Um. You pause.
“But I was there. That was me!”
Yes. Really. It could happen to you.
Or maybe it can only happen to me.
“But that didn’t look like you!” The person then went on to try and console me. “Well, you sounded fine. But not like you usually do. I’m just used to your big sound,” and she continued, and continued … and I kind of wanted to go crawl in a hole.
Let’s say that happened to you. Would you laugh, cry, or just scratch your head?
I didn’t cry. I did laugh. And I’m still scratching my head. Some people had come up and said it was the best they’d heard from me. I felt as good as I can about my playing, too. And I’m a harsh judge when it comes to my own playing.
Ah life. Never a dull moment!
Ah, typos!
Itkin said the Rossilini piece is famous among musicians for its incredibly difficult oboe part. It’s a must-have on every oboe audition, and it’s a piece that is only chosen if the company’s oboist is more than simply competent.
So guess the work! (It’s fairly easy, actually. I think any oboist who has seen the audition rep will know.)
If your goal were to introduce classical music to a teenager or young adult unfamiliar and uninterested in it?
Below are some of the suggestions (I’ve done some snipping…). I can’t say I’m impressed … although of course it’s always fun to “trick” a teenager. Um. Right?
If a teenager is uninterested in listening to classical music, you can always trick them into listening to it.
Step 1
Go buy the Walt Disney film Fantasia. It is a movie even the young at heart would enjoy watching and the music played throught the film are classical pieces….
Step 2
Take them to see ballet companies that put on shows in your town.
Swan Lake and The Nutcracker would really keep a young adult interested and in this way you’ll be doing a double favour to their senses both optical and acoustical.Step 3
Christmas is comming up. There are classical Christmas songs that are very nice to listen to.
Step 4
Buy special packages of classical music that I am sure are available in your nearest music store. Straus is really a nice introduction to classical music as it can also be danced to. Also the Four Seasons by Vivaldi is nice as well.
Step 5
I leave best for last and that is YOU listen to classical music often enough and at a time that you know your young one is listening. This is sort of “music washing their brain” and they will become familiar even if they don’t admit they like this type of music.
And there you go. So c’mon now … get to work!
