The Academy of Music
Saturday November 24 2007
A while back ago I speculated that one of the reasons why John de Lancie had such a different and piercing tone was the hall that he played in.
We all know that halls have a large effect upon our sound. Severance Hall had an effect on Mack’s tone which seemed to “fill in” the center of his tone. Avery Fisher was (not sure if they’ve changed it) considered by many musicians an acoustically drier hall. The Academy of Music was originally desired as an Opera House.
On my last trip down to visit Mr. Weber, he confirmed some of my suspicions; namely that it had a unique acoustic effect. Mr. Weber described the hall has having a “thick” feeling about it, so that players were forced to play “through the air” clear to the back of the hall. The stage itself was also unique as well, being laid out at a slight slope. One could drop a pencil from the brass section and it would roll clear to the front of the stage. Underneath the stage was also a storage area, which was covered over, and eventually filled in. Before it was filled in however, it resonated the sound of the orchestra upward and outward, functioning “like the bowl of a timpani” as Mr. Weber put it. Later, in an attempt to improve acoustics, they filled it in (this is confirmed by an acquaintance MF who recently wrote to me stating “The best were the orchestra rehearsals I got to attend. De Lancie used to change reeds about every five minutes in these, testing out their sound in the Academy of Music (before they killed the building’s acoustics by filling in the dry well below the parquet.)”). Apparently the effects did not have a positive effect upon it.
In any case, it is for these reasons that I expect Mr. de Lancie sounded as piercing as he did, and why the Philadelphia “lush string section” sounded as full as it did; they were trying to play “through” the air.
I would love to write Mr. Woodhams a letter and ask him the changes he made upon his reeds once he moved from the Academy of Music to the Kimmel Center (the new home of the Philadelphia Orchestra since 2001. One certainly hears a difference in sound from his old recordings of the Strauss and Brahms Symphonies (amongst others) and the newer stuff.
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Alex Klein on Geico Ads?!?!?!?
Tuesday November 13 2007
So I’m watching the Redwings get kicked in the rear by the St. Louis Blues. And then comes a Geico Insurance ad. With Alex Klein. He’s not doing anything oboe-like. He’s not even doing anything remotely musical. But there he is, Brazilian accent and all! What’s going on!?!?!?
So I went to Youtube and searched him and couldn’t find him but I did find this.
[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=KCfGhMPXD-Y]
UPDATE : Thanks to the kind reader Bautbois, here’s the ad!
[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=HOYnOeo42ko]
Oh my… a deep breath…
Monday November 05 2007
10 hours of rehearsals and a concert later, I have survived this weekend. The U of O Wind Ensemble and Orchestra played a big Gala at the Hult Center and I survived the long hard week of midterms and concerts. Next up is Beethoven 5 (where I’m playing 2nd, for what feels like the 100000000th time) while simultaneously rehearsing our all-Liszt concert which will include a piano concerto, Les Preludes, and Hungarian Dance #3.
I am still keeping very busy. I was up at 6:00 am studying my History of Opera book and am planning a trip over to the Library this evening to watch Alceste. Meanwhile, I made about 10 reeds yesterday, all which finished up very nicely. I’m making some great reeds right now, which is good news since I need to get all caught up on my orders. (SORRY… TO ALL… OF YOU… WHO… ARE… WAITING…!) I have about 15 or so left before I’m caught up on that end.
I’m working on a chamber music recital in December with Helena. We’re working on the Telemann Quartet (ob/fl/fag/continuo), the Lalliet Trio, Zelenka #2, and one piece yet to be determined. (I’m hoping the other players will come up with something so I don’t have to kill my endurance.)
7:30 am. Time to get to school for my 8:00 am Zelenka rehearsal!
Ah— the life of a grad student.
Read the RestPercy Grainger
Thursday November 01 2007
So for Wind Repertoire class we sit around and listen to wind rep pieces, discuss them, and have a lot of fun. In this week’s wind rep class, I spotted a note while looking at the score of Percy Grainger’s Hill-Song no. 2
To Conductor:
All the double-reeds (oboes, English horn, bassoons, double-bassoon) should be played with a soft reed, so as to produce a wild, nasal, “bagpipe” quality of tone. The gentle, emasculated tone-quality produced by a hard reed is utterly out of place in this composition. The saxaphones should produce as “reedy” a tone as possible. Do not try to subdue the naturally “robuster” saxophone tone down to the volume of a clarinet or an oboe; the office of saxophones is to provide a tonal strength midway between the volume of the woodwind and the volume of the brass.
From now on, I’m going to keep two reed cases. One marked “soft” and the other marked “emasculated”.
Midterm over!
Thursday November 01 2007
Sorry for the delays on the reed orders. My midterms are over, and after this weekend, (a total of 10 hours of rehearsals on Saturday and Sunday, 2 concerts) I should be able to get completely up to date on my reed orders. Sorry for the delay everyone.
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