So, everyone, we’re back! There have been some changes, as you can no doubt see, and things are still under construction.

Bede Hanley!

We had a masterclass with Bede Hanley the other day.  When Jim told us about it we were all like, “Who is Bede Hanley?”  It turns out he is principal oboist of the Auckland Symphony.  The one in New Zealand! (Where there are sheep! I wonder if he practices surrounded by sheep. This is what I picture when I picture  oboing in New Zealand.) He used to play in an orchestra in Spain, although he was originally from Saskatoon and studied in Cleveland with John Mack.
We got to ask him a bunch of questions about playing overseas, questions like, “How do you get a job?” (You send a tape, and they invite you and usually pay for your plane ticket.) “I thought European orchestras don’t like North American players?” (They don’t tend to hire North American players, but some do.  More and more orchestras are mixing sounds.  There is a very mixed section (North American, English, German) sound in the Auckland oboe section.) “How many auditions did you take before you got a job?” (He didn’t take too many  before getting the job in Spain, and then he auditioned several more places before getting the job in Auckland.  He said he learned more as a member of a panel than as an auditioner; he learned what makes a player stick out of the crowd: tone, control, and something individual.)

It was highly informative and interesting!

All the oboes in the studio who are auditioning for the National Youth Orchestra played for Bede, so I made a list of his comments for each excerpt.  Here they are:

Brahms Violin Concerto:

Danie made NYO last year. She was in her first year! We were all intimidated.

-Stay away from forcing your tone, especially on the high C, and during dramatic crescendos. (This I wasn’t so sure about. I mean, essentially true, but the way he demonstrated it sounded as though he was tapering every note, and I get yelled at when I do that. I’ve always thought that pushing through/spinning out the note was a better way to maintain motion. Obviously don’t force it, but don’t die away either.)
- Dynamics are not a button on an amplifier. “Opening your sound” is the way you treat the air, not the amount of air.
- Our oral cavity is our left hand.
- Play open and full, not hard.

Scheherezade:
- Playing the repetition as an echo is a good idea, but do not slow down on the echo.
- “Less pushing, more sound.”

Beethoven 3:
- Vibrato needs to be integral to the sound, not added to it.
- Long G should not be loud, but needs to be *alive*.

Aimee's Tombeau is fast fast fast.

Tombeau:
- This is a very reed-specific solo.
- Keep it contained, remember it is a piano piece. It should be fast, not frantic.
- The first half of the second part, embouchure should be shaped around high notes. The second half should be shaped around the low notes.
- Movement 2 is an excerpt about articulation and the low register.
- It should be light and delicate, short and clean.
- An accent =/= percussive tongue. It needs to be brought to life via vibrato and tone.
- Tombeau is mostly in soft dynamics, but consider them to be “chamber dynamics,” and that almost everything you play needs to be brought out and played soloistically, with a softer colour rather than dynamic.

In other news, I have nearly finished my piece for orchestra, “Analogue.”  It is somewhere between 6 and 8 minutes long, and I think/hope it is going to sound pretty okay.  It’s being read by the KWS on February 27th, sometime after 1:30 at Centre in the Square, so if you can come out, you *totally should.* Peter wants me to start something else while I tweak “Analogue,” so I think I’m going to write a short piece for all the double reeds at Laurier (14 of us), and then my aural comic! Are you excited? I am excited! I finally have a better, more workable idea which came to me while I was massacring Tombeau.  I hope I did not give too much away!

Speaking of composing, today in Comp Seminar we were looking at some clips of various kinds of opera and musical theatre from all over the world.  We watched a clip of “Rigoletto,” some Cantonese opera, Japanese Noh, “Einstein on the Beach,” and some of the quasi-operas that were the only entertainment in China during the reign of Mao. (Also some of Peter’s Guerilla Sound Events, which are fantastic and remind me of Posterchild who is also awesome!) Watching the foreign clips made me realize that I can’t focus on the music of opera-type-things if I don’t understand the words. All I got out of “Rigoletto” was that one of the guys had *giant* eyebrows which reminded me strongly of trees; all I got from the Cantonese opera was that there was a lot of sleeve action (they had really long “tiered sleeves” which they were constantly rolling up and hiding their hands in), and only the lead character’s pants in the Japanese Noh kept me interested (they were *boxes*, I swear!). Conclusion: I get distracted too easily. But that’s the story, morning glory!

At Laurier we have the good fortune of being taught by two of the best oboists in Canada–Dick Dorsey and Jim Mason.  They each teach a masterclass; Jim’s are on Monday and are the regular playing kind, and Dick’s are on Friday and are usually technical masterclasses where we learn about articulation, vibrato, dynamics, repair of the oboe, and so on.  Now, there are not *that* many technical elements to playing the oboe when you compare the list to the number of Fridays in a school year. So, naturally, there is some repetition, almost to the point where the older oboists make jokes about it (peep peeps!).  This past Friday, however, Dick asked us what we wanted to talk about.  I have a lot of interest in the history of the oboe, and I always feel so uninformed when people start talking about famous oboists, so I asked Dick to tell us about different oboists and their students and so on.  So he did! I could not *believe* the amount of knowledge this guy has, we made a giant list, a family tree in fact, coming down from Georges Gillet through Tabuteau (and on down through Ralph Gomberg and John deLancie to Jim and Dick, to us).

But, I thought, how cool would it be to find out where a whole bunch of other oboists came from?  So here’s my idea: Here is the family tree we made up from Dick’s knowledge alone.  If you could email me or post in the comments about your “oboe lineage” I will add them to the tree! And if you know some other people’s lineage, tell me that, too! Wouldn’t it be *crazy* to trace everyone’s teachers back to Tabuteau? We are like family, guys.

I shall scan the tree soon, after I get Jim to add his considerable knowledge to it. Anything you give me will be added as well!

In other news: iTunes has the complete Eugene Ormandy Original Jacket Collection, listed for over $70.00 on Amazon for $9.99! Best deal in life.  It comes with a digital jacket reproduction, too.  I am excited!

Do you know what else I am excited about? Aimee is a finalist in the WLU Concerto Competition, and both Danie and Kristen are winners of the Youth Orchestra Concerto Competition! Jim has heard from his colleagues that they are all impressed with the strength of our oboe studio. I am so proud of you guys, Gwen, Kristen, Danie, and Aimee!

So I graduated, everyone! I finally played enough studies out of my Barret book to move on to the Ferling.  I am both excited and afraid, I think. Ferling looks intimidating. But all of my reeds were pronounced promising yesterday, and I got all of my studies crossed of, including an articulation study that has pretty much been a mental block for me for a *year*.

Hooray!

Today is an exciting event. Matt Brubeck and David Braid are coming to play a noon-hour concert and to give an improvisation masterclass. It is the first improvisation masterclass we have ever had at Laurier! I am intrigued.

Finally, I should like to apologize for today’s comic. I read it yesterday and groaned and thought I ought to be shot in the foot. If you are having similar thoughts, please do not act on them!