Similar Posts
New old blog posts
In order to try to keep things tidy around here, I’ve reorganized the site a bit (again). One thing that happened was that the old “articles” section disappeared and some of the old articles have turned retroactively into blog posts. The official start of the blog was May of 2008, but some of my old stuff (going back to 2001) can now be found there.
Here are a few highlights:
- Does material affect tone quality in woodwind instruments?: Why scientists and musicians just can’t seem to agree, March 2007
- Buying woodwind instruments, January 2005
- Multi-instrument method in Rahsaan Roland Kirk’s “Creole Love Call”, December 2002
Also, don’t be shy about pointing out broken links, etc., while the dust is settling around here. Thanks!
Faculty piano and woodwinds recital, Sept. 13, 2012
Kumiko Shimizu, piano
Bret Pimentel, woodwindsFaculty Recital
Delta State University Department of Music
Recital Hall, Bologna Performing Arts Center
Thursday, September 13, 2012
7:30 PMProgram
from Suite for Flute and Piano
Claude Bolling (b. 1930)I. Baroque and Blue
V. Irlandaise
VII. Velocefrom Four Personalities for Oboe and Piano
Alyssa Morris (b. 1984)II. White
I. YellowThree Pieces for Clarinet Solo
Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)I.
II.
III.Naima
John Coltrane (1926-1967), arranged by Bret PimentelPeace Piece
Bill Evans (1929-1980), transcribed by Brent EdstromFuzzy Bird Sonata
Takashi Yoshimatsu (b. 1953)1. Run, bird
2. Sing, bird
3. Fly, birdBallade
Keri Degg (b. 1975) Read More “Faculty piano and woodwinds recital, Sept. 13, 2012”New sound clips: Faculty woodwinds recital, Sep. 13, 2012
Here are some sound clips from my faculty recital last month. I try to make a point of keeping myself challenged, and mission accomplished on this one.
The repertoire, selected collaboratively with my outstanding pianist colleague Dr. Kumiko Shimizu, was all pieces with some connection to jazz music. First up on the program was selected movements from Claude Bolling’s Suite for Flute and Jazz Piano. Flute isn’t part of my teaching assignment at Delta State, but this piece was too fun to pass up and my flutist colleague Dr. Shelley Collins is extraordinarily supportive of my flute playing. Since I spend most of my work week living in reed land, however, my flute chops don’t get the attention I would like, and I’m a bit self-conscious about my sound and my control of the instrument. I hear a number of things on the recording that I am less than satisfied with, but overall I think it went okay, and it was well received by the audience (even the part of the audience whose grade doesn’t depend on keeping me happy).
Next was a new-ish piece by young composer Alyssa Morris, a fellow BYU alum. I had heard her Four Personalities for oboe and piano performed by Nancy Ambrose King a few years back at an IDRS conference, and it immediately sprang to mind when I started brainstorming jazz-influenced oboe pieces. We performed the first two movements (second, then first), which, to our ears, had the strongest jazz elements. The first movement (performed second) in particular has characteristic swing rhythms and figures, and it was strange but fun to tackle those things on the oboe.
At the John Mack Oboe Camp over the summer, I heard a fine performance of this piece by the Oregon Symphony’s principal oboist, Martin Hebert. I also got some reed help from Linda Strommen (of Indiana University), which has greatly improved the pitch stability of my reeds. I’m pleased with the improvement over last year’s recital. I’m not sure I have entirely adapted tone-wise to the change, however, and I was a little surprised by my sound on the recording—to me, I don’t quite sound like me.
Read More “New sound clips: Faculty woodwinds recital, Sep. 13, 2012”
IDRS 2008 Conference report
I just got back from a fantastic week at the International Double Reed Society annual conference at Brigham Young University. The IDRS folks really know how to put on a great event, better than any of the various other instrumental organizations whose conferences I’ve attended. They seem to draw lots of high-caliber talent to perform and lecture, and everything is always impeccably organized. And being both an oboist and a bassoonist, IDRS is a nice two-for-one deal for me. Read More “IDRS 2008 Conference report”
2013 in review
Here is a recap of some of my favorite stuff from the blog from 2013. Because hey, I’m on vacation too.
- The Fingering Diagram Builder got a new major release, plus a minor release. Development has slowed down a bit on this, not because I’ve stopped planning and working on improvements to it, but because it’s really working surprisingly well at this point and its popularity is growing in a satisfying way. I expect future releases to be on the deliberate side at least for the foreseeable future. (Don’t let that stop you from sending in your suggestions, feature requests, and bug reports.)
- My Woodwind Doubling in Musicals list got a long-overdue major overhaul. Check it out and share information about the shows you have played.
- I discontinued my “woodwind blogs you should be reading” series in favor of a monthly roundup of my favorite posts. I think it’s more interesting and useful, plus I can give regular shout-outs to woodwind bloggers who are consistently putting out good stuff, or highlight a diamond in the rough.
- I finally got most of my best advice about doing a multiple woodwinds degree all in one place.
- I ranted about why I think music education is important (spoiler: it’s not math skills).
- I gave a presentation and a recital.
- I want my students to show up, to be individuals but also embrace tradition, and to listen critically to themselves.
- I reviewed Butch Hall Native-American-style flutes, Hercules saxophone/woodwind stands, and some innovative new products from Vandoren (note the date on that one). Note to makers/sellers of woodwind products: I get a large amount of traffic to this site for my product reviews, and in more than a few cases my reviews get higher Google placement than the makers’ own websites. Drop me a line if you want to send me cool stuff to check out (even just on loan).
- I wrote about the flutist’s tongue, the clarinet’s break (part 1 and part 2), the bassoon’s terrifyingly numerous high F-sharp fingerings, and clarinet-to-saxophone doubling or vice versa.
- For electronic-woodwind buffs, you special kind of nerds, you, I did a how-to on playing the Telemann Canonic Sonatas on wind controller with a delay pedal. You, too, can play duets with yourself.
- I gave unsolicited advice to high school and college students on auditioning and on buying new instruments.
- And I did my best to clear up some things for the Twitter generation of musicians.
Thanks for your ongoing support. Best wishes to you and your reeds for 2014.
New sound clips: Faculty woodwinds recital, Aug. 27, 2013
It’s time again for the annual post-mortem on my on-campus faculty recital. This year’s program was all Telemann, which was fun. Since some of my most formative years as a musician happened back when I was primarily a saxophonist, I still feel a little out of my depth with Baroque style, and preparations for this recital turned into a great opportunity to study, listen to recordings, and work on my ornamentation skills. (I found Victor Rangel-Ribeiro’s Baroque Music: A Practical Guide for the Performer to be invaluable, and it even has a chapter specifically on Telemann.)
I’m fairly pleased with how the A-minor oboe sonata turned out. My intonation has improved in leaps and bounds since I got some excellent reed advice at the John Mack Oboe Camp a summer ago (what a difference a change in tie length can make!). I did struggle a little bit on stage with the Mississippi Delta August humidity making its way into my octave vents, which you can hear in places in the following clip.
I have also been working on my double-tonguing on the oboe, and while it’s not perfect yet, I think it turned out quite well here. The fact that I wanted to use it on this piece probably belies some issues with my Baroque interpretation: it might have been more authentic either to slow down or to slur more, but I liked the effect and felt good about at least partially mastering the technique.
And, of course, it is great fun to play with harpsichord and cello. As we sadly do not have a full string faculty here at Delta State, I had to convince a cellist to come in from out of town. It’s scary to meet and rehearse with someone for the first time on the day of the recital, but the recommendations I had gotten for her turned out to be solid, and she played like a total pro.
I was determined to finally perform some recorder repertoire on this recital. My initial thought was to do the Telemann recorder suite, but since I already had the basso continuo lined up, I did some more research and discovered the delightful sonata in F major. The humidity had a fairly significant effect on this instrument, too, especially with me perhaps over-practicing on it in the weeks prior to the recital, so my tone and stability aren’t what I would have liked them to be. Too many cracked notes and response issues in the extreme upper and lower registers. Still, bucket list item checked off.
One definite doubling blunder: I went from oboe to recorder on stage, and wasn’t fully in recorder mode when I started the first movement. The recorder’s breath requirements are much lower than the oboe’s, and so I started off the movement with a rather ugly cracked note (not included in this clip…). But I am quite happy with how the slow movement turned out; here it is in its entirety: Read More “New sound clips: Faculty woodwinds recital, Aug. 27, 2013”