Posts Tagged ‘ classical music ’

Rachmaninoff Vocalise – for Mom

Rach_vocalise_image

Rachmaninoff Vocalise Op. 34, NO. 14. Video of my practice today. Great piece for working on phrasing and breath control. Mom loves this piece (and has sung it) and always asked me to play it. When I do, she tells me to support more, play slower and phrase longer. Thanks, Mom. I added text comments throughout the video. Enjoy. Clarinet – Buffet R13 A Mouthpiece – Hawkins B Ligature – Bay, gold plated Reed – Legere Signature 4.25

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Columbus Symphony: Challenging times and hope – How the job of a performing musician must radically change

Columbus Symphony: Challenging times and hope – How the job of a performing musician must radically change

Columbus Symphony: As salaries drop, players look elsewhere | The Columbus Dispatch. In a well written article, Jeffry Sheban of the Columbus Dispatch considers the musician’s point of view in response to the drastic shrinking budget for the Columbus Symphony in the past 5 years. One gets the sense that the musicians of the Columbus Symphony are responding naturally to insecurity in a market driven economy – They are seeking other options. To be fair, Mr. Sheban should have mentioned bright possibilities enabled by our recent merging with the large and successful Columbus Association for…

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Has Classical Music Lost Its Sense of Humour?

Has Classical Music Lost Its Sense of Humour? « Marion Harrington’s Clarinet World. Clarinetist friend Marion Harrington suggested we classical musicians need to show our fun sides once in awhile. I agree. On reviewing the vast majority of classical music’s media output, a complete novice to the genre would be forgiven for thinking that we’re all a very dull and boring lot. Don’t misunderstand me, I take my career very seriously, but I simply can’t remember the last time I came across a video or any audio that evidenced classical musicians having a blast –…

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Music born of sleepless nights

Music born of sleepless nights – Arts & Entertainment – Lifestyle | Central. Talk about inspiration from life’s tribulations! Insomnia drove top Australian composer Brett Dean to get his sleep patterns checked out. He was only getting about 20 minutes’ shut-eye a night. The experience of polysomnography, the complicated tests used to measure sleep and diagnose disorders, inspired and gave name to his latest work, commissioned for Southern Cross Soloists which is led by his brother Paul on clarinet. The five short movements – Theta Waves, Myoclonus, Sleep Spindles, Delta Waves and Dream Sequence –…

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Great Moments In Film Orchestration History: Bernard Herrmann :: Film Music Magazine

Great Moments In Film Orchestration History: Bernard Herrmann :: Film Music Magazine

Great Moments In Film Orchestration History: Bernard Herrmann :: Film Music Magazine. A well written article about the coloristic creativity of Hollywood composer Bernard Herrmann, who scored such films as “Psycho” and “Citizen Kane”. Of course, I chose it because the bass clarinet is used in such a sinister coloring as the one described here. In “Journey To The Center Of The Earth,” (20th Century Fox, 1959) there are two standout uses of unusual color becoming a dramatic element. In a scene involving a giant snake, Herrmann coaxed a low, unsteady moaning effect out of…

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Take note: Music improves learning. Written by an eighth grader!

Take note: Music improves learning  | ajc.com. An impassioned plea to stop cutting funding from school music programs, written by an eighth grader! Childhood, when minds are young, open and quick to absorb information, is the most vital time to play music. Statistics show that playing an instrument pays off; there is a direct correlation between playing a musical instrument and achieving higher grades. When I attended All State, a prestigious performing group, the conductor asked for a show of hands to the following question: “Who of you is on honor roll or principal’s honor…

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Musical Interpretation II: Moving from Human Juke-Box Machine to Doing a Dan Dare

Musical Interpretation II: Moving from Human Juke-Box Machine to Doing a Dan Dare « Marion Harrington’s Clarinet World. My friend Marion Harrington has published the second in a series of articles on the colossal subject of interpretation on her blog. She offers clear and sensible advice to all musicians, and encourages fearlessness (with proper study) in tackling the daunting task of creating a personal style. She also suggests that musicians need to lower their barriers to sharing “practice” recordings to enhance fresh thinking about our own ideas. Along with mastering technical difficulties, it is vitally…

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H.L. Mencken’s Saturday Night Club reconvened by Concert Artists of Baltimore

via Clef Notes: H.L. Mencken’s Saturday Night Club reconvened by Concert Artists of Baltimore – The Baltimore Sun’s classical music critic Tim Smith blogs about the sonic art, local and beyond – baltimoresun.com. Fresh ideas for the rebirth of classical music in the 21st century; taking ideas from the past. Intimate settings, blurring the line between audience and performers, playing and sharing music for pleasure. From the first sounds of the opening movement to Schubert’s “Unfinished” Symphony — scored for five strings, clarinet, flute, horn and piano — a really cool picture emerged of what…

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Spring Reverb: Golia/Turetzy; Dana Reason Trio

sandiego.com | Arts | Spring Reverb: Golia/Turetzy; Dana Reason Trio. There’s also an element of 20th-century classical piano music to her thought—the fragmented, block forms, shifting meters, and piquant dissonances of Stravinsky; the asymmetrical rhythms and spicy harmonies of Bartok; the sardonic wrong-note neo-classicism of early Shostakovich and Hindemith. Fresh ideas for classical music and beyond? … Golia had so many clarinets, flutes, and saxophones propped up next to him or in a travel bag that Turetzky joked that the real Museum was the one next to Golia. Each work began with Golia pondering which…

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Clarinet News first week of March

Summaries of clarinet news the past week. From California, a rediscovered work sounds like something which should be played more often. I’m always looking for works for clarinet and strings. An obscure work by film composer Bernard Herrmann was the highlight of Monday night’s concert in Samueli Theater, the final event in the Pacific Symphony’s annual American Composers Festival. A quintet for clarinet and string quartet, written in 1967, “Souvenirs” comes out of the same chest of drawers as Herrmann’s score to Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo.” It is a lovely, seamless, autumnal work. …The piece sounds…

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