thinks I’m all wrong. He may well be right.

It’s very rare for me to say that I know I’m right. I’m willing to hear others out. And I may just be too dense to “get” all the subtleties of the opera.

I’m also willing to listen to the opera again.) I’ve been known to change my mind. I also know that while some works “grow” on me and improve with age and listening, others don’t. (Take Carmina Burana, for instance! When I was in high school I thought that was one incredible work. Now I can take it or leave it, leaning more toward the leave it side. But oh no! Will this get me into more trouble? Probably so. Sigh.

Read my public humiliation here. 😉

See, here’s the thing. “I’m an oboe player, Jim, not a critic.”* Or a composer. OR a scholar. And I’m also very wimpy and somewhat flip-floppy and I’m especially easily intimidated. So being critiqued by someone like ACD makes me think I’m probably all wrong.

That’s how my mind works.

Or doesn’t work. You decide. 😉

*If you don’t get this silly quote you are probably just too young or too old. (I, on the other hand, am “just right.”)

In Other News —
we had two symphony rehearsals today and I’m back on second oboe and there are a whole lot of low note entrances that are driving me nuts! Playing second is such a challenge, and often a frightening thing. The thing about the second chair is that you are not really supposed to be noticed all that much. Play to loudly and you are wrong. Miss an entrance and you are even more wrong.

I sure get angry with composers who make the second oboist come in pianissimo on a low C. Why the heck didn’t he just write it for English horn and make our lives easier? Huh?
—–