Music is a performing art: even masterpieces need to be performed to live.
-David Bratman
I agree.
I read it here.
I think there should be a practice room without a piano. So I could practice my oboe. I always start playing oboe and take a lip break and play piano. But I always end up just playing piano for another hour….glad I finished the piano minor because now I actually enjoy piano again
Carolyn Hove plays English horn in the Los Angeles Philharmonic. I’ve located a few videos on YouTube. How fun to find these! Prior to each video is the description from the YouTube page:
Excerpt from a 2010 recording session of the opening section of Richard Lane’s “Introduction and Allegro” (1983) for English horn and piano (Editions Bim) with Carolyn Hove, English horn, and Vicki Ray, piano. Completed version eleased in 2011 on Crystal Records CD# 823, “Eclecticism.”
Excerpt from 2010 recording session of Richard Lane’s “Introduction and Allegro” (1983) (Editions Bim) for English horn and piano. Carolyn Hove, English horn, and Vicki Ray, piano. Complete recording released on Crystal Records CD #823, “Eclecticism.”
Excerpt from a 2010 recording session of Ms. Hove’s arrangement (Editions Bim) of Beethoven’s “7 Variations,” on the theme, “Bei Männern welche Liebe fühlen,” from Mozart’s opera, “The Magic Flute.” Carolyn Hove, English horn, Vicki Ray, piano. Final version
released on Crystal Records CD #823, “Eclecticism.”
… what fun to hear these snippets, and see them crack up at the end there. 🙂
Read Online
They had rehearsed the piece only once, but already the musicians at the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra were suffering.
Their ears were ringing. Heads throbbed.
Tests showed that the average noise level in the orchestra during the piece, “State of Siege,” by the composer Dror Feiler, was 97.4 decibels, just below the level of a pneumatic drill and a violation of new European noise-at-work limits. Playing more softly or wearing noise-muffling headphones were rejected as unworkable.
So instead of having its world premiere April 4, the piece was dropped. “I had no choice,” said Trygve Nordwall, the orchestra’s manager. “The decision was not made artistically; it was made for the protection of the players.”
The cancellation is, so far, probably the most extreme consequence of the new law, which requires employers in Europe to limit workers’ exposure to potentially damaging noise and which took effect for the entertainment industry this month.
But across Europe, musicians are being asked to wear decibel-measuring devices and to sit behind see-through anti-noise screens. Companies are altering their repertories. And conductors are reconsidering the definition of “fortissimo.”
Alan Garner, an oboist and English horn player who is the chairman of the players’ committee at the Royal Opera House in London, said that he and his colleagues had been told that they would have to wear earplugs during entire three-hour rehearsals and performances.
I read this and more here
Hmmm. I think that comparison is a bit faulty.
I understand why musicians don’t want to be forced to wear earplugs. I don’t wear them unless I have to. But if things are too loud it’s simply unwise not to wear them. You can’t undo the damage to ears, and time won’t change things in most instances. It’s not like a bad haircut.
FYI: if I have a solo you can bet those earplugs are on the stand. I don the earplugs when things are so loud you don’t hear the oboe or English horn on their own.
I got an oboe for Christmas I am so freakin happy I could just burst
Yep, changed the blog — hope you like the new look. If you don’t, I do apologize! It’s just time for something new, and I liked this template. If you visit my other blog, the pattyo, you’ll see that the two blogs have a similar look. I like the two to have some sort of connection. I’m silly that way.
I still have work to do to get everything up and running, and I also have to decide if I’m going to keep all the links to other blogs up (do any of you check those out?), but at least I’ve got it going now. I knew if I didn’t do it before I get back to symphony this week I’d probably not do it for a long time.
I’m also not going to be posting certain things every week as I have been. I know, I know, I’ve written that before. This time, though, I have no choice! I can’t find YouTube videos to fit certain categories (the OutsideMyWorld™ and WorldReeds™ are especially difficult). From here on out things will be posted if I find something to fit, but it’s sure not going to be every week. It’s time to let that obsession go.
FBQDs and TQODs can easily continue, though; people never cease to write things that I find humorous, annoying, or touching about the oboe! Go figure.
