Gustav Holst wrote a wind quintet

Gustav Holst wrote a wind quintet! It's not well known, and was in fact lost for many years. Written in 1903, the manuscript was rediscovered in 1978, and it received its official world premiere in 2006. More than a century between composition and performance, that must be some kind of record. Raymond Head seems to have edited the definitive edition, which is available from his web site.

Never cry wolf

The film adaptation of Farley Mowat's Never Cry Wolf features the bassoon prominently. This is a fictive addition by the filmmakers, as Mowat never mentions a bassoon, but it's a small change to an already somewhat fictional book, and it makes us bassoonists happy. Here's one of the appearances of the bassoon:



Wow, I can't sound like that in my living room, much less outside in the snow. Still, gorgeous playing --- David Wells says  it's Rufus Oliver of the SF Opera. David also writes quite a bit more about the movie. There's also a discussion of it on the excellent and new-to-me blog, Dr. Pierce's Bassoon Studio.

How to annoy the bassoonist

It's totally unclear to me how this is working, exactly. With the valve slides gone, we're left with a fairly short, cylindrical bore. Why does that sound anything like a bassoon? Hm.

And, for those who'd like to sing along, here are the lyrics:

"I... am not an english horn. // I am not an english horn, I cannot play so high // I am not an english horn..."

Michael Jackson's Beat It, performed on a contra

Looping with Google Glass

Nice, catchy little piece. And the first person view of the whole process is fun.

The Heckelphone

I've seen pictures of the Heckelphone, but I don't think I've heard it before. Here's a recording of the Hindemith Heckelphone trio:

Buried in bassoon reeds

What an odd video. I don't think I've ever seen that many reeds together in one place before. The whole thing makes me think of Rule 34.

Nice multi-bassoon arrangement

The piece is Celine Dion's All by Myself. Great work on the arrangement, the playing, and the video. Parts are available, says the creator.

A bassoon piece in a young composer competition

Check this out: there's a bassoon/piano piece in the finals of a Conservatory Canada  creative music competition. The next round is determined by popularity, so vote early, vote often. Bookmark the vote page, set a reminder on your calendar: you can vote up to once per day, until the end of October.

The Baroque Bassoon

Lovely video with demos of Baroque, Classical, and modern bassoons. (h/t The Heckler.)

 

A staging of L'après-midi d'une faune

The students of U Maryland, in one of the most inventive stagings of a classical music work that I've seen. Odd to even use the word "staging," rather than performance. In the groups I'm in no more thought goes into stage presence than a reminder to stand up when so directed, and quickly, before the audience stops clapping. ("Sometimes the window is short!" we were told by a conductor recently.) But here, the work has been turned into a performance of dance as well as sound. And yeah, you have to be able to play while walking and moving. And have the music memorized. Marching bands do this routinely, of course, but you never see it in the concert hall. It's a lot more work for the orchestra, but I think it's really effective for the audience. It is, after all, a show.

Playing bassoon on the subway.

No, not the subway station, on the train itself. With the rest of your orchestra. Jeez, and I complain when the chair's not quite right.




The group is Copenhagen Phil, with a Peer Gynt Suite flash mob.

Trimming a clarinet

I'm fascinated by the construction of instruments. I tend to think of instruments as expensive and permanent, with acoustics fixed in form and unchangable. They're not of course. Someone made them. And to the maker, adjusting an instrument is no scarier than making it out of wood in the first place. Here's Morrie Backun tweaking a clarinet for Ricardo Morales, jamming a reamer into a $8k piece of wood as casually as any reedmaker, making reeds.

21st century music

I started a thread on Reddit,  asking for suggestions for 21st century classical music to listen to. It's not that I've listened to, and become bored of, everything that's been written in the 20th century, or any other century, rather it's just an excuse to find some new music. Many people responded, and I collected the ideas, found links to samples where needed, and put them all in alphabetical order. (I'm like that.) I haven't had a chance to listen to much yet, but I will.

21C

John Adams String Quartet, Son of Chamber Symphony to pick a couple post-millenial pieces
John Luther Adams Red Arc/Blue Veil
Thomas Ades Violin Concerto, Piano Quintet
Julian Anderson Book of Hours, Heaven is Shy of Earth
Gerald Barry La Plus Forte
Harrison Birtwistle Night's Black Bird, interview Three Settings of Celan, The Shadow of Night, Cry of Anubis, Mask of Orpheus, Angel Fighter
John Corigliano Symphony No. 2 for String Orchestra
Nathan Davis
Brett Dean Viola Concerto Rehearsal clip
Nicholas Deyoe String quartet
Henri Dutilleux Still active, but no vids of recent work
Ludovico Einaudi Oltremare
Gabriela Lena Frank Crying Song
Beat Furrer Orpheus' Bücher
Osvaldo Golijov Lúa descolorida
Michael Gordon Timber
Anthony Green Refraction Aberrance A young guy
Jonny Greenwood Popcorn Superhet Receiver
Georg Friedrich Haas In Vain
John Harbison Symphony No. 4, Piano Sonata No. 2
Jonathan Harvey Speakings
Jennifer Higdon Violin Concerto No. 1 Won a Pulitzer
Joe Hisaishi One Summer's Day Incidental music for anime
Elena Kats-Chernin Elena's aria "Classical / Experimental / Pop" says her official MySpace
Phil Kline Zippo Songs Beats and poetry
Helmut Lachenmann Grido His third string quartet.
Bernhard Lang Differenz/Wiederholung 7 Orchestra + looper
Angel Lam Midnight Run
David Lang Little Match Girl Passion, Child | Sweet Air
Liza Lim Invisibility
Steve Mackey Micro-concerto
Bruno Mantovani Jazz Connotations
Nico Muhly Bright Mass with Canons, Clear Music, Skip Town, It goes without saying
Steve Reich WTC 9/11
Todd Reynolds Centrifuge Rehearsal clip
Philip Rothman Monument Fanfare
Ryuichi Sakamoto Energy Flow Reminds me of New Age
Esa-Pekka Salonen Piano Concerto My one non-YT link.
Simon Steen-Andersen Rerendered The composer's site has the score!
Frank Ticheli Vesuvius For concert band.
Erkki-Sven Tüür Architectonics III
Nobuo Uematsu Aerith's Theme
Julia Wolfe Cruel Sister
Eric Whitacre Lux Aurumque Popular for a reason.

20C

John Adams http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51wgChtHoDI
John Luther Adams Drums of Winter from Earth and the Great Weather
Luciano Berio http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJqRvP6SU9c
Elliot Carter String Quartet No. 5
John Corigliano http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-evsvru4KR4
Henri Dutilleux Tout un monde lointain His celebrated cello concerto
Osvaldo Golijov http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fE1o_tS8P8
Karel Husa http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aw44PzSQAZg
Einojuhani Rautavaara 6th Symphony, String Quintet "Unknown Heavens"
Steve Reich Different Trains
Karlheinz Stockhausen http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1v7YYvPSYzw
Joan Tower http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZPBt-dsVm0
Charles Wunorinen http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbXyPez_1ac

Remember that three-year-old conductor?

The guy whose enthusiastic interpretation of the last movement of Beethoven 5 became a viral video? I remember thinking, wow, if this guy keeps going, someday, after many years of work, he could be standing in front of a real symphony orchestra. And it's all turned out to be true, except the "many years" part. Here he is at age four. His stickwork has become a little more conventional, but the same joy is still there.



The original video:

Ice music

Here's a guy who carves his instruments out of ice. (Daily Mail article.)
I'd think that'd create some difficulties: ice is not exactly the easiest material to work with, even when it's cold. And I note that he tends to stay away from the wind instruments. But it works well, given that. And it reminds me that cold weather is coming here, it's already started frosting in the evening, and the days are getting shorter and nippy. I'm glad I can stay indoors while I play.

A ciranda of seven notes

I'm currently working on Villa-Lobos, Ciranda das Sete Notas. I picked it from a pile of possible music M laid out because: it was relatively recent, so a good contrast to having worked on Mozart; and because it was Spanish, and I figured that I'd have a lot to learn since I'd never worked on something Spanish before. I'm having fun with it, but I was correct in thinking that I would have a lot to learn. For instance, I was having a hard time remembering its name. While chatting with my mom, I figured that it might help if I figured out what the name meant. It took a moment, but apparently it means Ciranda of seven notes. Also, it's Brazilian, not Spanish. That's what I mean about having a lot to learn. And a ciranda? That, apparently, is a
a circle dance, done in the village, with everyone of all ages particpating. While imbibing traditional Brazilian cocktails. Sounds like fun. Here's the pop singer's Ciranda, mentioned in the article about the dance:

Coffeehouse new music

I really like this: the piece, the playing, the venue, and the atmosphere.  Intimate and casual: just right, I think, for new music.

You're not hearing loud enough

TS turned me on to a set of exceptional videos on YouTube from Hal Galper,  a jazz pianist and teacher at Berklee. This one is I think my favorite, an excerpt from a master class. He explains that you play exactly and only precisely what you hear. If it's not coming out the way you want it to sound, it's because your aural imagination isn't strong enough, isn't vivid enough. I've experienced glimpses of the same thing myself, but not to the same level. It's about your hearing, and your imagination.

YouTube Symphony Finale

The YouTube symphony is almost done, and will have their final concert, live streamed over the net with a few soloists "docking in" their solos from all over the world. The project is producing lots of great video; here's one of the bassoonists working out in the wild with a keyboard player. Very nice playing in fantastic locations.



Test of the projections on the exterior of the Sydney Opera House. Wow, this is going to be a show.  The program is available on their channel: Mothership is in the middle, it closes with Firebird, and lots of cool stuff in there. I'm not sure I'm willing to stay up until 3am, but oh man.



Updated: My 12 year old insisted on being woken up to watch it live. I watched some live with him, and more on the rebroadcasts that seem to be looping right now.  A fabulous show, on all levels.