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Poor, poor Lexi. How much you have to learn about the thrilling world of double reed instruments. It’s not the reed on an English horn that’s crooked, it’s the bocal (like the bocal on a bassoon). You only get crooked reeds when you get pissed off at them and snap them in half, which doesn’t usually happen because burning them is much more satisfying. And to further screw things up, the “English” horn isn’t a horn either. Only the “French” horn is. And the French horn isn’t French either. Which is why it’s only supposed to be called the horn . . . but if you say horn people ask you what kind of horn . . . how frustrating.
Why don’t they change the name to the German Horn
I think it’s more fitting
-Em
“It’s all you, babe.”
“Yeah, I thought so too.”Oh, all you lovely band geeks – I’m simply taken aback by all the instrumental debates
Yes, the pianist was correct: the “English” horn isn’t “English,” per se. It’s pretty much accepted that the oboe and its relatives arose out of the shawm family of instruments common to the English and French courts/traveling musicians of the middle ages. The oboe and EH (which truly isn’t a “horn” in the modern sense of the word) reached their current form courtesy of the French…yay French citizens! Oh…I LOVE the French horn. If I could play anything, that is what I would play. When the French horn (also known as the “horn in F”) is played well (i.e. Danny’s scores), it’s undeniably sexy. (Can an instrument really sound “sexy?” A French horn player, of all people, once told me that the oboe sounds “sexy” in the mid-to-lower registers). Although, like the oboe and most double reeds, when played badly, the listener really just wants to put that poor “musician” out of his/her misery. (Not that I”m advocating any more violence towards musicians…).-E (who oftentimes melts into the carpet in sheer joy when she hears the 1st movement (“Gandalf”) of the Lord of the Rings Symphony…yet, her favorite movement is still “Lothlorien”)
Oh, yeah I love French Horns! I’m always using them in my compositions.
Lexi:
“you know what? here’s a music-themed (heh. themed.) bit of conversation. i saw the new west symphony do what it does, and all was lovely, (including chris o’reliy playing the concerto for left hand.. in a trench coat!) then, they had to play bolero. bloero-bolero. is anyone besides me annoyed by that tune? the good news is, i fell inlove with the bassoon, (someone blushes) bad news is, i had to listen to a million-minute track that repeats itself more than i do!”Actually Ravel himself was annoyed by the Bolero. To be more specific, it was the success that the piece had that annoyed Ravel. He just wrote it as an orchestration exercise, the next thing he new it was being played the world over – He probably wished the same could be said for his Piano concertos. Personally, I really like the build up he creates in an exercise – showing off the different instruments (in a way, it’s like a skeleton form of Prokoviev’s Peter and the Wolf). I’ve been way from the message board for a while because I’ve been in a Classical Music mood recently, and have set my Elfman CD aside for a while – which is why I felt compelled to reply to the Match Girl Lexi’s concert review.
Nat who just got the new recording of “The Planets” by the RSNO under the baton of David Lloyd-Jones on the Naxos label, and found a used copy of Michael Nyman’s “For John Cage”
As for the double reed debate, I’m biased, so my vote for bassoon should be thrown out.
John Cage…didn’t he do a choral “work” entitled 4 minutes and 36 seconds? (Okay, the title is probably wrong, but I’m not a vocalist…when I was in college, our choir did a work by him entitled “4 minutes and (some number of seconds that I’m a little fuzzy on).” It was hilarious!
Double reeds – hey, I’m biased,too…although I find them all lovely in their own way
Keep on spreading the band geek love… I love “The Planets!” They do a laser light show at the local planetarium (sp?) and it’s occasionally accompanied by “The Planets.” It’s surprisingly fun…but more often than not, they crank up Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” instead of neat-o symphonic music – bah!-E (who finds Bach’s “Coffee Cantata” particularly appropriate this morning…and is also listening to far more wind band music than film scores as of late. For those of you who like Frank Ticheli, I might suggest Carolyn Bremer)
for everyone who cares to read: i’m not even in band. haven’t been since junior high. it was a pretty funny happening yesterday when i heard ‘nigh train’ playing in another room and rushed over to yell at the speaker, “I played this in band!” this was in the safety of my own home, but my sister had guests over.. so..
yeah, i think band wasn’t fun until junior high. first, (4th grade!) they said my arms were to short for trombone! nooooo! (of course, the only reason i wanted to play it was because of the joke, “what does the skeleton play in school band?” but i was still very sad.) so, i ended up with a ::shivver:: cla-clarinet. ::someone throws a tomato:: well, by junior high, i had insisted on playing percussion.. but that bich-girl (who knows what her name was) hogged the snare! so, i pretty much played anythng else. actually, everything else. you could see me running from the bass drum to the tom-toms to the tymphonies just to strike the triangle once and start all over again all in one song. (don’t forget the spectacular tambourine solos. see how pathetic that sounds? if only i had played snare. i had such a better sense of rhythm than whoever she was.) anyway, i stopped before i had to march.
lexi: and speaking alternatives of elfman, i’ve got the tv showing moulin rouge. and does anyone else love requiem for a dream?
hmm.. john cage… wasn’t he a character on mortal combat.
lexi: ::takes her childhood memories and hides in a corner::
i dont understand why such an insepid topic ushers in so many inane responses, sometimes i forget this is an elfman discusion board.
oh, this is the response i get? sorry. but aren’t i talking about music? instruments? sure. maybe the johhny cage thing was off, but i didn’t start it. besides, the beginning of this discussion was about bridget fonda and a reason to go to old navy. isn’t that a bit odd?
alright. um.. dick tracy is playing in the background at my house. isn’t that an awesome score? it’s so, uh, brassy and powerfull, but i sure am sick of this movie. moreover, i went off to a sport card shop and bought a pack of dick tracy movie trading cards for 75 cents. (actually, i bought a pack of beetlejuice the animated series, a pack of batman returns cards, and the dick tracy cards at 3 packs for a dollar.) also, they’ve got sleepy hollow cards for 2 dollars. i couldn’t afford them. this stuff is almost elfman related, right?
lexi: “you’re arms lopped off.” “no it isn’t!”
You were almost right Erika, John Cage wrote a piece called “4 minutes and 33 seconds” and it can be preformed by anyone. You just sit in front of an audience for 4 minutes and 33 seconds (or just stand there if you are a choir). Cage was a “great” musical liberator, and in this work he was showing that the music being “created” was not what was on stage, but what the audience did. If they sneezed or coughed, or even booed, that was considered the “music” – it was fighting the adage that music, as definition, was organized sound. In some other pieces he came up with his own way of notation (especially in his vocal music), and was one of the first to create a prepared piano. He freed up composers in many ways.
Nat who says today’s music history lesson is over
since when do movie trading cards contain elfman music
i.. uh.. well, the pota promo card says:
“music is a key element in every tim burton movie. And Pota is no exception. APES continues the winning creative partnership of director Burton with acclaimed composer Danny Elfman. The APES score (the first from Elfman on the Sony Classical label) joins an impressive list of memorable burton/elfman collaborations, including: Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, Batman, Batman Returns, Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, NMBC, Mars Attacks! and Sleepy Hollow.
“POTA’s visual artistry, brought to life by this powerful orchestral score, provides music lovers and fans of epic films with a unique, enthralling listening experience.”lexi: “Bam! the bullet of justice caps evil’s ass!” -good excel from excel saga.
Erika – – ohhhh my god!! I thought I was the only one who ever saw the horn as a sexy instrument!! Unfortunately the only horn players in my “real” band (let’s not even discuss symphonic, only wind ensemble) are girls. When a guy plays it though, oh holy god!!!! Drives me NUTS. Trumpet isn’t too bad either. Maybe because all trumpet players are pretty good looking. The fluegelhorn though . . . that is my current instrument-obsession. I really adore that sound, and it’s just too bad that it’s mostly only used in jazz. I was listening to this one guy that I already kind of like play the fluegelhorn earlier this month, and that was probably the closest I’ve ever come to swooning :-p Of course, I think so much of the attractiveness/sexiness/whatever of an instrument has to do with the person playing it. And I don’t mean the appearance or whatever . . . it’s the attitude.
Hey, I like the sound of the clarinet, and I like playing it! Stop bashing it!
Infynitie – yep, attractiveness is definitely in the instrumentalist’s attitude, at least in my opinion. Oboists and double reeds in general are simply weird. I had someone tell me that the double reeds are the oddest people in a wind ensemble/orchestra…and musicians are odd to begin with – LOL! There was one guy, a non-musician, who said that “double reed players are attractive, if you’re into geeks.” Ha! A male jazzer trombonist I knew also played first French horn (in addition to being a composer) in the local symphony. He was very quiet, but incredibly intuitive and intelligent when he did talk. I”m beginning to think that’s the typical attitude of male French horn players (well, either that, or they’re a-holes and empty their spit valves onto your shoe. I haven’t observed the female French horn players, so I’ll stay off that area of the subject). Discounting the few a-hole French horn players, they’re darn attractive. (Quiet, intelligent, and somewhat mysterious…in addition to the fact that they play a darn sexy instrument!) Trumpets tend to have inflated egos, whether they’re male or female. Trombonists (classical trombonists, that is…jazzers are a COMPLETELY different story) tend to be ignored, and stick to their own little group, except when they get to flex their musical muscles on “trombone/testosterone passages” (i.e. “Tempered Steel”). Heck, these are just my observations. They don’t really count for anything…
Oooh, they have Burton/Elfman film trading cards?! I must figure out where those are in my stupid-arse town…
-E (“I just can’t get enough…” of discussing wind band literature = geek alert!)
:puffs chest out: well, I got MY promo card from the POTA soundtrack. didn’t you get one?
lexi: ouch. my back is stuck like this!
Now wait a sec! I thought Danny was married! What happened to that? And what about his 2 daughters? When did all this take place with Fonda and all of that?
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