Favorite blog posts, June 2014

The problem with “ethnic” woodwinds

I am trying to get away from using the term “ethnic” woodwinds, one that I have used frequently in the past as a catch-all for the instruments I play that aren’t modern Western woodwinds. The term was problematic from the beginning, since, for example, I was using it to include instruments like recorders, which fall squarely under the umbrella of Western music traditions, but are arguably period or historical instruments. Additionally, I find that the term “ethnic” increasingly grates on my ear as too ethnocentric and limited a view, and incompatible with my real attitudes concerning music from cultures and traditions other than my native ones.

Dissertation: Woodwind doubling on folk, ethnic, and period instruments in film and theater music

My doctoral dissertation is now available online through the University of Georgia library, entitled Woodwind doubling on folk, ethnic, and period instruments in film and theater music: Case studies and a practical manual.

Review: Ben Britton’s A Complete Approach to Overtones

A review of Ben Britton’s book A Complete Approach to Overtones: Vivid Tone and Extended Range, a broad-based approach to improving every aspect of saxophone tone production (particularly tone, intonation, and response).