05. July 2007 · Comments Off on Diva on the Verge · Categories: Ramble

One evening, by accident she happened to glance at her watch while singing a sustained top C at a gala evening – the audience laughed and loved the naturalness of her performance.

I think I’d like to see and hear this.

05. July 2007 · Comments Off on A Poem · Categories: Ramble

Double Reed by Kazim Ali.

(I’d print it here, but there’s this thing called copyright ….)

05. July 2007 · Comments Off on A Mini-Oboe?! · Categories: Ramble

Youngsters could soon play a part in a musical revolution by taking up an instrument experts feared was heading for extinction.

The oboe has been listed as one of five classical instruments on a national “endangered species” list because too few people play it and orchestras have struggled to recruit members in their woodwind sections.

Now a Sussex firm is leading an attempt to redress the balance by getting children to start playing it again.
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T W Howarth in Worthing, which supplies woodwind instruments to several London orchestras, has designed and built the first child-friendly version of the instrument.

Their mini-oboe is considered a breakthrough in the music industry.

I want one! I want one! (Can you tell I’m jumping up and down and raising my hand and saying, “Pick me, pick me!”

You can read the whole article here, including a comment by a Bay Area local, Bennie Cottone. (I agree with him; I’m a bit shocked that oboists are a rarity in the UK; we sure have plenty here!)

05. July 2007 · Comments Off on MQOD · Categories: Ramble

It was a lifeline. Boarding school being a brutal place for me, I learnt to retreat into my head and music became an escape. I can cope with almost everything now, including, I should think, prison.

-Eric Idle (talking about classical music, read here.)