The WLU Oboe Studio is putting on a concert of double reed trios and quartets–including the Beethoven Trio, which is incredibly gorgeous, and a bunch of Baroque dances which are just fun. And idiot-proof (or so we hope).
There is very little more cool than the sound of double reeds playing together; with no other instruments, our tuning capabilities increase exponentially. And it’s such a pretty timbre!

My composition portfolio is being handed in on Monday. Eep. I hope I get in.

I Google things relating to oboes and oboe humour periodically, and recently stumbled across The Lutheran’s Guide to the Orchestra.

The oboe is the sensualist of the woodwind section, and if there is one wind Lutherans should avoid, it’s probably this one. In movie soundtracks, you tend to hear the oboe when the woman is taking her clothes off. Also a little later when she asks the man for a cigarette. You start playing the oboe, you’re going to have babies, take my word for it. The English horn sounds Christian, maybe because we think of it as the Anglican horn, but it’s so mournful, so plaintive. And so are English horn players. They all have deep complicated problems. They’re all down in the dumps, especially at night, which is when most concerts are. Maybe because they want what oboists have, I don’t know.

We all knew oboes are the sexiest instrument ever. And the English Horn is plaintive! Whoa! Who knew?
But what do they have to say about the bassoon?

Should a Lutheran play the bassoon? Not if you want to be taken seriously, I don’t think so. The name kind of says it all: bassoon. It’s an instrument that isn’t playing with a full deck of marbles. Maybe it’s something you’d do for a hobby (”Hey honey, let’s go bassooning this weekend!”), but not as your life’s work. Some bassoonists filling out applications for home loans just say “orthodontist.”