Just a few numbers for you, from a performance elsewhere (but hey, Blomstedt did conduct San Francisco Symphony some time ago, right?):
Herbert Blomstedt, Gewandhausorchester & Kammerchor Leipzig
Ruth Ziesak, soprano
Anna Larsson, alto
Christoph Genz, tenor
Dietrich Henschel, bass
10. Qui sedes ad dextram Patris
The musical instruments kids play in school bands and orchestras are traveling denizens of bacteria and fungi, say the authors of a new study. Music education is great for kids, they note, but please, please wash the instruments!”
The above and more can be read here. You can also read the original study if you click on this link.
This problem isn’t just with school instruments. I have students whose reeds look moldy. Whether what I’m seeing is actually mold I haven’t a clue. It could be something else … like bacteria and yeasts, from what the dental article says.
Um … YUCK.
But I can’t recommend dipping your oboe in a soapy bath. Or anything else. I think you could probably swab it out with alcohol, but I’m not sure (nor am I sure that will kill any of the “bugs”). You can soak reeds in hydrogen peroxide, but I wouldn’t suggest letting them soak for long periods of time.
The dental study contains this sentence: “Currently, ethylene oxide is the only agent known to sterilize instruments effectively.”
Well, okay then. I looked up “ethylene oxide”:
Although it is a vital raw material with diverse applications, including the manufacture of products like polysorbate-20 and polyethylene glycol that are often more effective and less toxic than alternative materials, ethylene oxide itself is a very hazardous substance: at room temperature it is a flammable, carcinogenic, mutagenic, irritating, and anaesthetic gas with a misleadingly pleasant aroma.
(Read here.)
You can find this chemical in a lot of things (why am I finding this troubling?):
Uses
* Ethylene oxide is used mainly as a chemical intermediate in the manufacture of textiles, detergents, polyurethane foam, antifreeze, solvents, medicinals, adhesives, and other products. (1)
* Relatively small amounts of ethylene oxide are used as a fumigant, a sterilant for food (spices) and cosmetics, and in hospital sterilization of surgical equipment and plastic devices that cannot be sterilized by steam. (1)
(Read here.)
Biggest advice I can give you?: Brush your teeth and wash your hands before playing.
[name here] thinks oboe is overated
There’s a good article on Alfred Genovese here. Do check it out!
“I just take the music and see what I want to do,’’ he told the Globe in 1998. “It is always evolving. I never say, ‘OK, here it is.’ A week will go by, and I will feel differently about a certain something or other.’’
If I read the right thing, this is a Catalan shawm.
range of a good oboe depends upon 1) arm strength & 2) throwing motion…
