Actually, I just got done listening to your performance as you posted your response. Coop, you're being a bit hard on yourself. I did notice the confusion at the start of that one piece, but other than that minor snafu, I really enjoyed it...GREAT GOING! I know when you're involved in something that passionate, you do tend to nitpick your performance...but honestly, ease up on yourself and enjoy the experience. You played wonderfully and should be proud of your accomplishment bro!
Thanks for the congrats on being one of the winners of the SB contest, that was some game and fantastic winnings to top it off with! Go Giants...
As for your folks, they only want what's best for you...give them time, they'll come around. Remember, just because you're 32 doesn't stop them from being a parent. In their minds, you will ALWAYS be their child and their snicker was just a way to show that they care. When you get a chance, explain to them how smoking a cigar relaxes you and creates that moment of peace in an otherwise hectic lifestyle....when they see the excitement on your face as you explain this, they'll back off and smile! I promise... :thumbs:
Thanks Gary. Kind words from you.
You're right. A few months away from the performance will help me forget every little last twitch that felt like such a big deal in the heat of the moment.
I've just listened through the last three pieces (Loeffler, Telemann, and Dutilleaux) and they sound okay. I think the crappy sound kind of helped masque some of the little mistakes that felt so big. at the time. Plus the two smokes I'm enjoying make the blow a bit easier. Currently on an Illusione -2-. Tasty little bugger.
My parents are very supportive and you're right. they only care for my well-being. My father asked if I still smoke cigarettes as well and when I told him that after smoking such wonderful rich tasting cigars, cigarettes only taste like death to me, he grinned and was grateful that I wasn't partaking in those.
Thanks again for your support.
Since people are taking the time to watch this, I thought I'd post the program notes to help you along.
Program Notes
Robert Schumann – Three Romances
In 1849, Robert Schumann had one of his most productive years of his life, composing nearly 40 works, many of them sizeable. During this period, Schumann composed
Drei Fantasiestücke Op. 73 for clarinet,
Adagio and Allegro Op. 73 for horn and piano, and
Three Romances Op. 94 for oboe and piano. All three chamber pieces are still beloved and performed regularly today.
Three Romances are all written with a relatively moderate tempo, with the two outer movements being marked as “Nicht Schnell” or “not slow”. While this instruction may sound clear, the wandering melody of the oboe in the first movement is not in any rush, and is in search of emotional resolution. The second romance begins with a simple, peaceful melody but quickly wanders harmonically and finds its way into angst, before finally finding its way back to the original melody. The third romance begins mysteriously again, before finally ending peacefully, and back in the same mood the piece began.
Throughout the piece, one can hear Schumann’s manic-depressive tendencies with explosive musical outbursts, an illness that would drive him to a nervous breakdown only three years later, and institutionalize him five years later. Schumann would die only two years later in 1856 in the institution.
Charles Martin Loeffler – Two Rhapsodies
Charles Loeffler was born in 1861 in Germany and moved to the United States in 1881. A year later, he was hired by the Boston Symphony Orchestra as the concertmaster of the orchestra, a position he would hold for 21 years.
In 1901, Loeffler composed Two Rhapsodies for oboe, viola, and piano, based after two poems written by Philip Hale. The tone of the music and poem are both very dark, with many programmatic gestures written into the music in all parts. Listen specifically for the rumble of thunder in the opening piano, goblin dance, frogs, and of course, the bagpipe.
Georg Philipp Telemann – Tafelmusic II: Quartet in D minor
While his contemporaries such as J.S. Bach and George Frideric Handel are today the more well-known baroque composers, Georg Philipp Telemann was the leading German composer of his time. Telemann was able to fill many of these demands, leaving us with thousands of pieces to perform, many of which have long been forgotten.
Tafelmusic, or “Table Music” was written for the purpose of being performed as music for important banquets as a kind background music. Telemann obviously took such a genre with a grain of humor; as music such as the Quartet in d minor would hardly be described as “light listening” or” good for the digestion”. The quartet, which was originally written for two flutes, bass recorder, and continuo, is commonly performed with a variety of different instruments. The first movement begins with a canonic introduction of each instrument as it demonstrates Telemann’s counterpuntal prowess. The second movement brings the Bassoon to the forefront, with difficult extended 16[sup]th[/sup] note passages and an exciting quick dance. The third movement returns the music to a Siciliano, and uses different pairings of instruments to experiment with texture. Telemann crossvoices these pairs, sometimes using the oboe on top and flute below, or the bassoon above the oboe which creates different colors while using modern instruments. The final movement is an exciting five part rondo (a-b-a-c-a) and includes an unusual lyrical major section interjected in section C.
Henri Dutilleux – Sonata
Henri Dutilleux was born in 1916 and educated in Douai, France until the age of 17 when he moved to Paris. After serving in the military during WWII Dutilleux began to familiarize himself with the music of Bartok and the Second Viennese School (of twelve-tone composers). Dutilleux later would disown all of his compositions written prior to the piano sonata (1946-48), choosing to embrace his newly found tonal scheme. The oboe Sonata, copyrighted in 1947, falls right upon this border.
The oboe sonata shows signs of both his previous influences of Ravel and Debussy, as well as his new influences of Bartok and Stravinsky. The first movement starts with a very simple melody devoid from color and change, until halfway through the movement. The murky calmness builds in tension until it erupts in a primal scream of repeated high F’s as the piano continues to try to interrupt the oboe. The second movement begins with a violent rhythmic ostinato in the piano until the oboe introduces a percussive, repetitive melody, reminiscent of Stravinsky and Bartok’s textures. The third movement is a throwback to Dutilleux’s original training, with the transparency and fluidity of Ravel’s melodies and colors. The movement is in traditional a-b-a sonata form, and while it is truly beautiful in its simplicity, was particularly disliked by Dutilleux because of its tonality.
Notes by Cooper Wright
Poems from
Two Rhapsodies
The Pond
Full of old fish, blind-stricken long ago, the pool, under a near sky rumbling dull thunder, bares between centuries-old rushes the splashing horror of its gloom.
Over yonder, goblins light up more than one marsh that is black, sinister, unbearable; but the pool is revealed in this lonely place only by the craakings of consumptive frogs.
Now the moon, piercing at this very moment, seems to look here at herself fantastically; as though, one might say, to see her spectral face, her flat nose, the strange vacuity of teeth – a death’s – head lighted from within, about to peer into a dull mirror.
The Bagpipe
His bagpipe groaned in the woods as the wind that belleth; and never has stag in bay, nor willow, nor oar, wept as that voice wept.
Those sounds of flute and hautboy seemed like the death-rattle of a woman. Oh! His bagpipe, near the cross-roads of the crucifix!
He is dead. But under cold skies, as soon as night weaves her mesh, down deep in my soul, there in the nook of old fears, I always hear his bagpipe groaning as of yore.
-Phillip Hale
Good luck, and congratulations, either way. It's a great accomplishment.
