Skip to main content

Upcoming Concert - Altered States!


I am so excited about the performance I have Tuesday night.  

Chicago's Fulcrum Point New Music Project is presenting a screening of Ken Russell's 1980 film Altered States, with a 75-piece orchestra performing John Corigliano’s Oscar-nominated score.  The music is amazing.  Trippy.  Difficult.  And I get to be involved!

I’ve done these kinds of gigs before - accompanying a film in real time - and it’s always challenging, both musically and technically.  The material we are playing is often demanding, and the constraints of the format means that the tempo markings are non-negotiable.  We have to start right on time, and play as fast as we have to play, and if things get off we have to make immediate and sometimes unnatural-feeling adjustments.  The job of the conductor, of course, is even more complex than usual.  The more technology is involved, the more he has to be on top of, and the less he controls, if that makes sense.  There is little room for human flexibility and interpretation, and the least error can confuse the whole orchestra, or worse, the audience.

Adding to the difficulty this week is the constrained freedom in the score.   There are many places where we have to play a set of patterns in an improvisational way.  The technically challenging figures are written out for us but we need to place and repeat them in a way that sounds random.  We have to react to other people so that we don’t line up with them, and have to listen to the effect we are creating and keep the material going.  Meanwhile, the measures are still ticking by - fast - in real time, and we have to know exactly where we are so we can stop and move on appropriately.  It’s not the hardest thing I’ve done, but it’s definitely tricky.  I have students who struggle to count beats while trilling - when their fingers get unmetered they have no idea how to keep track of time.  This feels like the same problem, raised to an uncomfortable level.  

All that said, I’m proud and delighted to be doing this work.  The composer was present for our winds-only rehearsal yesterday and will attend the performance.  My own part is not prominent and you won’t hear me, but you should catch this event.  

Details HERE.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Zoe's Musical Beginnings

I've mentioned before that I started out on the piano by figuring out melodies.  Connecting notes and trying to learn how they worked.  I'm fascinated to observe that Zoe's initial approach to the instrument is totally different from mine. She sits at our new piano and plays random notes, and tells us what to feel.  If she is playing slowly then the music is sad, and we should cry. When we are "crying" she either gets up and hugs us so we feel better (so awesome!) or bangs faster, to indicate that the music is now happy and we should dance.  Her other piano game is accompanying herself - she plays "chords" in alternating hands while she "sings" the ABC song or Camptown Races or Sesame Street.  She makes us sing along.  She loves it when we clap at the end.  When I was little I wanted to know how music worked. Although I make my living as a performer now, I learned about the interpersonal aspects of music later.  Her immediate interest is in ...
2 comments
Read more

Cleaning Your Reeds

Updated: I've posted a video of my plaque cleaning technique HERE ! Oboe reeds are made from organic material, and over time it is inevitable that they will age and change. The first few days of change are usually quite welcome, as you break the reed in by playing and the opening gradually settles down to something you can be comfortable with and the response becomes more and more predictable.  You might even hit a plateau where it appears to be perfectly consistent and reliable for several days! But after that, the reed seems to be on a constant gradually accelerating downslope, until it eventually collapses into a sharp, non-responsive, mushy mess. We can rejuvenate the reed during this time by cleaning it, and can often extend its life as well! There are three good ways to do this. First, least invasively, you can just run some fresh water through and over the reed AFTER you play each time.  Go ahead and rinse that reed in the sink, shake it as dry as possible, a...
6 comments
Read more

Knife Sharpening

I've gotten a lot of questions on this topic, and the most recent querent prompted me to make a video to demonstrate.  You can find that  HERE . Knife sharpening seems to strike terror into many hearts.  And it's little wonder.  Many famous oboists have gone on record as saying that a sharp knife is the most important aspect of reed making. People have entire systems of stones and strops and rods set up to sharpen their knives. And it is important, of course it is - but I don't believe that you need your knife to be razor-like, or objectively the sharpest blade of any in your home.  The reed knife has one job - scraping cane off in precision ways - and it has to be sharp enough for that, and sharpened optimally for that purpose.  More than that is overly fussy for my taste. This is not to say that I allow my knife to be dull.  A dull knife forces you to put too much pressure on the reed and can cause cracking. Obviously it can lead to terribly inc...
7 comments
Read more