Skip to main content

Upcoming Concert - Final Masterworks!

I haven’t written, I know I haven’t written.  It’s because I’ve been blissing out all week on this orchestra concert.  We’re playing Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier Suite and Wagner’s Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan and Isolde - and both works are just so expertly written and orchestrated, and so breathtakingly romantic and beautiful, and so exhilarating to play - that I haven’t felt like talking about it. 

My orchestra is playing beautifully.  I love working with my colleagues here.  It’s been a pretty good year, artistically, and I can’t believe that this is our last concert.

What else happened this week?  My mother was visiting from out of town, to help us with Zoe as we both had a lot of services and schedule complications.  And because little girl adores her gramma, I was actually able to rest a little.  Catch up a little.  PRACTICE in a focused way.  Go for long runs with a friend and get self-reflective. 

I feel ready to face the next few weeks - the end of the regular orchestra season - and beyond that, to start exploring new projects.  I can’t even tell you how much I’m excited about some of my ideas.  This past year was very VERY hard for me, but I have high hopes for the future. 

Meanwhile, come to our concert tonight.  The music is astounding.  Details HERE.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Blog has MOVED

 Have you been waiting ... and waiting ... and WAITING for a new Prone Oboe post?  Don't wait here anymore!  The blog has moved to https://jennetingle.com/prone-oboe/  and will not be updated here on Blogger anymore.  Please come and check me out there!  I love you all - stay safe out there!  Jennet

Beauty of Sound

In our dress rehearsal Saturday afternoon, the conductor did exactly what I often do to my students - he asked the violins to play more beautifully, and they did.  He didn’t tell them how, or give them a flowery expressive speech, he just asked for more beauty of sound, and they immediately gave it to him.  To a great extent the sound we produce is set, based on our equipment and the shape of our mouths and our bodies - but it can be altered, too.  Adjustments in reeds and instruments can go a long way, but the key change we can make is in our own minds. I don’t know how to explain it physically, but if you determine the sound you want to make you can produce it.  Or at least you can lean in and approach it.  This is something I’ve been paying a lot of attention to lately in my own playing.  As I prepare the Saint-Saëns Sonata to perform on our Oboe Studio Recital (tonight at 7 - details HERE ), my approach is largely about beauty of sound and vibrato....

Breathing and the Brain

I’m working on the Bach E Major Partita, and it’s significantly difficult for me.  Not so much the notes, although E Major is not the most effortless key on the oboe.  Not so much the music-making, although I could work my whole life on solo Bach and never be perfectly satisfied with my choices, because it’s that complex and THAT good.  No, the problem is breathing, and breathing is always a challenging thing for a wind player. Oboists can play long, long phrases with ease. The opening in the reed is so tiny that it really rations the air, so we can play longer lines than any other orchestral wind instrument.  It’s also comparatively easy to circular breathe on the oboe, which means that we can actually take in new air while  playing and maintain an uninterrupted line.  The downside is that an oboist can never fully expel her air through that tiny opening.  We end up with excess carbon dioxide in our lungs, and as we breathe in again the new good air...