Faux is … well … faux

21. May 2009 · Comments Off on Faux is … well … faux · Categories: Ramble, Videos

faux [foh]
–adjective
artificial or imitation; fake

So is faux good? Maybe sometimes …? But an orchestra?

You can listen to the “fauxharmonic” yourself right here and decide for yourselves. (Some of the instruments don’t sound quite right, as you may notice.)

Oh, I just found some YouTube clips, so you can watch too:

Hmmm. A bit of Adagio for Strings in there. I’m sure it’s deliberate as it’s far too obvious not to be. Funny.

This next one sounds, at times, a bit like those old switched on Bach recordings or something … is that just my ear?:

These might be handy to work with, but musically it just doesn’t do it for me. I would think a conductor would get little satisfaction from it as well. It seems like it would be a faux experience only. It’s amazing to me, what technology can do, though. And it’s probably an ego trip for someone who could never actually get a real conducting experience. And no wrong notes, no missed attacks, no bloops … now that is truly a faux experience!

But the conductor can’t scowl at anyone either. Poor conductor.

Heinz Holliger

21. May 2009 · 10 comments · Categories: Birthdays!, Videos

Today is Heinz Holliger’s 70th birthday. When I was in high school he was one of the oboists we all sort of watched. His sound isn’t what many of us in the states were aiming for, and his reeds, I’m sure, were not what we were striving for, but the guy could play anything, it seemed. Since then so many other oboists have popped up, and I rarely hear about him any more. But here it is, his birthday.

Happy Birthday, Mr. Holliger!

Here is a video from quite some time ago, I’m sure (considering the hair!):

Here is a 1993 video:

And this short clip is from 2005, and is what I think of Holliger more for:

Finally, a work that requires no good reed at all, from 1971:

TQOD

21. May 2009 · 2 comments · Categories: TQOD

Just picked up my oboe after nearly a decade of inuse… can still play a a# scale.

Where I Perform We Have Scent-Free Rules

21. May 2009 · 5 comments · Categories: News, Opera

But I guess this particular opera can’t:

Mr. Laudamiel, a French fragrance designer who has created perfumes for Clinique, Estée Lauder, Ralph Lauren and Michael Kors, is collaborating on a “scent opera,” a new performance art that pairs music with a carefully orchestrated sequence of smells, some pleasant and some real stinkers. The opera, titled “Green Aria,” will test the boundaries of scent art when it opens at the Guggenheim Museum in New York May 31.

RTWT