What did Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and A Scanner Darkly author Philip K. Dick, that visionary of our not-too-distant dystopian future, listen to while he crafted his descriptions of grim, psychologically (and sometimes psychedelically) harrowing times ahead? Mozart. Beethoven. Mahler. Wagner. Yes, while looking textually forward, he listened backward, soundtracking the constant workings of his imagination with classical music, as he had done since his teenage years. As Lejla Kucukalic writes in Philip K. Dick: Canonical Writer of the Digital Age:
After graduating from high school in 1947, Dick moved out of his mother’s house and continued working as a clerk at a Berkeley music store, Art Music. “Now,” wrote Dick, “my longtime love of music rose to the surface, and I began to study and grasp huge areas of the map of music; by fourteen I could recognize virtually any symphony or opera” (“Self-Portrait” 13). Classical music, from Beethoven to Wagner, not only stayed Dick’s lifelong passion, but also found its way into many of his works: Wagner’s Goterdammerung in A Maze of Death, Parsifal in Valis, and Mozart’s Magic Flute in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
There are currently three oboe players in the San Antonio Symphony. Mark Ackerman is one of them. He is also one of only about 100 people in the U.S. who can call himself a professional oboist.
… really? Only 100 in the United States? Can anyone verify this? I have a sneakin’ suspicion this isn’t quite right.
That being said (written, really) you can read about the retirement of Mark Ackerman, in the rather odd article.
Yep, it really was asked. Too cute!
If you could somehow attach a double reed to the end of a recorder, would it sound like an oboe?
Assuming that the original mouthpiece is no longer present, would this be theoretically possible?
En studio avec Iiria & Narcis from Simon Guyomard | Spoon on Vimeo.
En studio avec Iiria & Narcis
from Simon Guyomard | Spoon PLUS 4 years ago
Goldberg Variations – Var10
Flute — ANNA KOMAROVA/ the Rimsky-Korsakov St. Petersburg State Conservatory Music
School
Harp — ALISA SADIKOVA/ the Rimsky-Korsakov St. Petersburg State Conservatory Music
School
The Symphony orchestra of the Rimsky-Korsakov St. Petersburg State Conservatory Music
School/ Conductor ARKADY STEINLUCHT
Video – Dmitry Volohdyn
Sound – Boris Alekseev, Fedor Naumov
Trying to troubleshoot my oboe problems in my woodwind methods book. Where is the part that tells me I should never play it again?
