The architecture of the bassoon reed

Barrick Stees has a great series of posts up on the physical mechanics, kinetics, aerodynamics and acoustics of the bassoon reed: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. I've read many of the same sources, and I'm not sure I'd agree with every statement there (eg, the larger cross section of a more rounded wires would, I'd guess, lead to lower flow rates, less vorticity, and lower flow resistance, contrary to the statement in the "wind tunnel" post, but aerodynamic resistance may not be the same as what a reedmaker/user means as "resistance"), but nevertheless, I think we desperately need this kind of thinking to guide new ideas in reeds. More later, I hope.

The Baroque Bassoon

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

 

Music in space

Can you play music in space? Absolutely. This video shows flute playing (actually, an Earth-space duet, which must have made for interesting sync difficulties), but people have played keyboards, guitar, and so on. Here's a NASA article on what's involved.

"When I played the flute in space," says Ochoa, "I had my feet in foot loops." In microgravity, even the small force of the air blowing out of the flute would be enough to move her around the shuttle cabin. In fact, even with her feet hooked into the loops, she could feel that force pushing her back and forth, "just a little bit" as she played.

Zero gravity would be convenient for bassoon playing, where performing standing up has always presented a challenge of holding up the instrument.

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.

Sightreading a show.... in Carnegie Hall

I have to sightread a concert tomorrow. I can tell you, this was not the plan. I'm fairly good at reading, at least for things inside my comfort zone, so I ought to be able to survive. I've always been good at reading, even when I was a beginner, to the extent that for many things I've wondered if practice has any effect on the quality of my playing. Still, even if the notes are not a problem, that doesn't mean that rehearsal is useless. There are always questions of interpretation and ensemble, not to mention basic matters like is this in two or four, are the repeats good, what's going on during this rest so that I can feel confident on the entry. There are always questions, and even once through can address most of them. So yeah, I'd prefer to not sightread the show. Optimal for me, for the kind of amateur groups I play with, is one or two rehearsals.

And that's how I set up the performance tomorrow. I got asked to fill in on 2nd, I could make the concert and the final rehearsal, I said yes, I showed up to the rehearsal... and the principal player didn't make it. And he'd carefully collected all the 2nd parts from the librarian, in preparation for me coming. Uhh... I hung around for awhile, reading bassoon cues off a trombone part, hastily printing out things  off of IMSLP, so at least I've heard a bit of a couple of pieces, but it was almost entirely a write-off. (And I'd missed my son's concert to be there, very annoying.) Tomorrow I'll have to have my wits about me. I hope the principal shows up, and brings the music with him.

This is nothing compared with what my teacher had to do. He sometimes subs in our local professional symphony, typically playing contra. This august ensemble is celebrating a major anniversary, and so managed to score an invite to play in Carnegie Hall at the Spring for Music festival. Taking a symphony on the road is a massive undertaking, but also a massive opportunity. They did tons of publicity, in the end convincing more than 1000 locals to take a trip to NY with them. (I hope they thought to get a cut of the travel packages!) And they ran a very interesting program, full of new pieces and commissions that they've done. Complicated pieces. But no worries, they're pros, they've had a year to plan and prepare, and scheduled a couple of local concerts with the same program, to benefit locals who couldn't make the trip. Well, the principal bassoonist had a bit of a health issue, so just in case, they had my teacher sit next to him during the last rehearsal, looking over his shoulder, to cover the unlikely event that he'd be required to sub. The principal played the local shows fine, but didn't receive clearance to fly. And so, my teacher ended up playing principal in the Carnegie Hall concert, a historic occasion for the orchestra. After watching a rehearsal and single soundcheck. I'm sure it went wonderfully, but jeez, talk about pressure.

Ooh! Ooh! Ooh! Légère bassoon reeds!

Check it out: Légère will be adding bassoon reeds to their commercially available synthetic reeds. Their clarinet reeds have been very successful. James Campbell is a strong advocate, and told me that for some European orchestra (Berlin?), Légère had converted not just one player, but the entire section. But the architecture of a single reed is simpler than a double reed, and the last time I checked, they hadn't been able to solve the complications in manufacturing the reeds. Evidently, that has changed. I've added my name to the waiting list. I'm pretty excited, this could be big.

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.