Childhood Memories

I had actually posted this before. Now that I hear it again, I am still in the same confusion as before.

I seriously need some comment on the tone of this cor anglais. Any comment.

Because honestly, I need to find a direction with my current instrument, which my previous direction fails to apply.

Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu - Satoshi Yagisawa

Like Qicai and Edna said, it is a nice song.

May Be

Currently learning this song.

I am actually confused on the song name. Whether to be "May Be" or "Maybe". I think the latter one makes more sense. 

送我一個家-泳兒

It's very rare that I will miss home. It's not that I am bloodless or cruel or forgetful, but I just think that it is quite a waste to be homesick.

There are still some times that I will suddenly think of home. Especially when I listen to this song.

Love the mood, love the music, love the vocal.

In my opinion, usually Cantonese songs will be better than Chinese version, I don't know why.

鲍比达Chris Babida

鲍比达 Chris Babida is a very much talented musician. He has a wide range of genres of musics, all with his own kind of beautiful feeling.

This is a famous tune 茉莉花 Jasmine Flower.


"Would you marry me". A piano piece with various instruments accompaniment. A nice way to propose?


Sweet Sweet Love. So sweet that I may get diabetes after hearing it. Saxophone (Soprano I think) solo piece.


And that's still a lot more of his nice musics out there. This is an artist that I will likely to walk into HMV just to buy his CD, and pay up to $50 happily, like John Adorney.

Edit: I think I am quite retarded. He has been famous for over 30 years, and so many popular songs are his work.

Continental Overture

Remember the time I felt a bit cheated by Planet Earth?

I have another thing in my mind now.

Continental Overture by Johan de Meij.

If you are really impatient, like *ahem* DK, just scroll to 4 minutes something. You will know what I am talking about.

Tips: Continent is part of Planet Earth.

By a simple survey, 50% showed that they felt cheated, another 50% showed that they felt "sien diao". (only 2 persons accepted my survey)

Tour de Japan

Tour de Japan is so popular these days.

Was listening to it, and noticed a few places that have English horn.

Then watch the youtube version. Skimming through the places that have English horn exposed or even solo parts, the videos are all coincidently away from the English horn.

Now I know why people say English horn is a not so important instrument in an orchestra.

Tears

This piece is definitely one of my favourite pieces. Or maybe, it is my most favourite one.

Since I got the score, I played it everyday. And more frequent than how I practise English horn.

But it is different. Playing this piece, I play it slowly, take long pause, as the way I want to. And every time I play means from beginning to the end.

This is a very easy piece. For PK, she can even play it 30% faster without any note wrong on sightreading. Of course not for me. I need time to read the notes. But it is exactly what the piece is, take time.

I always find myself calm and a bit happy after playing the piece. PK said, "depressing piece". But I like it. Maybe I like depress?

The melody is so simple, people may get bored by it easily. But not for me. At least, till now, I still like this piece very much.

Maybe just because of the name.

Blue Fields

From Final Fantasy 8.

Silence Speaks

Silence Speaks by Secret Garden. A song that sounds lonely.

Love how the English horn comes in.

Olivia

Copy from Daniel. I guess he won't angry. I guess...

Childhood memory

By Bandari.

A strange tone of cor anglais. Not as round and solid as usual cor anglais will sound, but still quite nice, though I will not want my tone to be like this, at least not before I can master the "solid" kind of tone.

Quiet City

Quiet City, by Aaron Copland.

Was showing this song to Dennis. Strange but interesting combination of trumpet and cor anglais.

From wikipedia:
Quiet City evokes the nocturnal introspections of the dwellers of a great city, beginning in stillness before slowly building up to a climax and then receding into silence again. The voice of the lone trumpeter, joined by that of the dark-toned cor anglais, rises and falls against the clear sound of the strings, in a cathartic release of the nostalgia, melancholy, regrets, and anxieties that distressed individuals in an urban society feel most acutely at night.

Spring Maiden

A Korean folksong, played by Nancy Rumbel on ocarina and english horn, Eric Tingstad on guitar. One thing I envy is the third octave key on English horn, which the CFA English horn doesn't have, and is the main reason I cannot play the high E as written in Planet Earth.

Symphony no. 8

Was searching for cor anglais solos in the "The Art of Cor Anglais". Then found this piece. Look really nice, claimed "must be amongst the longest of all symphonic woodwind solos."

Started to think, maybe I can go participate the solo competition with this piece. So, my potential competitors, be aware, be really aware!

Adagio

From secret garden. Posted this few months ago.

My dream tone for cor anglais.

Circular Breathing

From Geoffrey Browne: The Art of Cor Anglais

Puff up your cheeks like a balloon. Now, holding this position, try to take a breath in through your nose without letting any air escape from the 'balloon' you have made with your cheeks. Your probably find you can breathe in and out quite normally while holding your cheeks puffed up. If you can do this, then you have mastered the first stage of learning the art. This part is really quite easy. Practise breathing in and out while holding your cheeks puffed with air, and remember how this feels. This is very close to how it feels when you are circular breathing with the instrument.

Now take a reed, put it in your mouth and make it squeak just with the air in your puffed-up cheeks. The squeak will only be a short one because your cheeks can only hold a small amount of air. That is the second stage.

Put the reed onto the instrument and play a nice middle D in the ordinary way. Now things become a bit harder. Try to play the middle D using air in your puffed-out cheeks only, just as you did when you were squeaking the reed only. You can only make the note last about half a second, but that is just enough time to snatch a breath through your nose as you play. In other words, you are sustaining the note while you are taking a breath. If you can do this then you are doing pretty well.

The next stage is tricky. As the air in your cheeks runs out can you take over the blowing with your lungs in the normal way, so there is no interruption of the air stream? You probably won't achieve this on your first attemp, but now you have the general idea and with practice you will succeed.

The type of sound you make by blowing with cheeks is not as good as the tone you make by blowing in the conventional way with your lungs and diaphragm. You cannot really expect a seamless join between two methods of blowing, but to become a master-craftsman at circular breathing the final stage is to ensure the pitch of the note does not alter as you change between blowing with your mouth and blowing with your lungs.

You will find that circular breathing is easier on some notes than on others. Some notes require more air than others do, so you should choose notes that require the least air. That is why I chose a middle D for learning. It would have been much harder on a low B. Try circular breathing on different notes to see which work the best. This will help you plan your breathing, as you should when you tackle a long solo. When you r technique is perfect, then you may want to play every piece apparently in one breath, but I would recommend that you do not. Circular breathing can be rather a strain on the throat and anyway your embouchure needs a rest from time to time. But more than that, you yourself may appear not to need a breath but music often cries out for spaces which might as well be used for the player to breathe. There are only a very few pieces that require circular breathing, and so I would say that if you still find circular breathing a problem then forget about it altogether. Breathe in the conventional way, and put as many breaths into the music as you possibly can.



I failed on the second stage. There is no way for me to squeak the cor anglais reeds with just the air from "balloon". But I really think that my 80 seconds (20 bars x 4 beats per bar x 1 second per beat) solo in planet earth movement 2 requires circular breathing.

The Performing Artist

From Geoffrey Browne: The Art of Cor Anglais

At some time in most people's careers, whatever they do, they take stock of their chosen profession and think to themselves "what on earth am I really doing?" After all the philosophising, for professional players the answer is simple "I am trying to make a living". And then you might ask, "why am I a cor anglais player and not a principal oboist?" The answer to this lies mainly in chance, the opportunities available at the time and the quality of your instruments. To anyone who finds they are the cor anglais player in a symphony orchestra one thing is perfectly plain, that he or she is one of the principal soloists in the company. Likewise, it is also clear to everybody else.

When you are making your living, then the criteria for playing are that firstly it should be of a high standard, and secondly that it should be consistent. Anybody can make a mistake and this is forgivable, but in general, the standard must be consistently high. For this, you need technical ability and confidence. Sometimes life can be turbulent or concert conditions unfavourable, and these factors can undermine one's confidence.

It has been said, back in the nineteenth century, that "perhaps no person can be a poet, nor can even enjoy poetry without a certain unsoundness of mind, if anything which gives so much pleasure ought to be called unsoundness." And it needs to be said that if he is the sort of artist who needs to go down to the South of France and cut his ear before he can create art then such a person will hardly be suitable for a symphony orchestra. A professional musician has to produce exactly what is wanted, precisely when it is required, and often to other people's standards. This can be very stressful. One can wander around "vales of golden daffodils" to the heart's content and dream up all manner of artistic ideas, but when it comes to the concert hall you are a technician, you know how to control your playing and you know what to do if something goes wrong. As of all professionals, more is expected than would be from somebody who just plays the instrument for fun. Try to find different ways of playing tunes, to keep them alive, unexpected, and interesting. Try to avoid formulae for playing music, for a formula in musical interpretation is as painting-by-numbers compared to art. Standardisation is a twentieth century concept, a product of the industrial revolution, and may not be appropriate for earlier pieces.

For the sake of argument one could say there are two types of artist, the creative and the performing artist, but immediately one will discover that all performers are to some extent creators and all creators are to a degree performers.

As a performer, you must concentrate on your breathing. Not just in taking breaths in the right places and in a way that suits the music, but you must learn how to breathe in the few seconds just before you have to play. You should make yourself breathe slowly and regularly, and not very deeply. You should try to breathe in the same way that you would when you are at home and relaxed.

There is a natural tendency to get very excited before a solo and also to be very apprehensive that it may not go well. The most common cause of anxiety is a bad reed or an instrument that won't work properly. So constant maintenance of instrument and reeds is obviously very important. Clean out your octave keys and check your F#/G# link. As for excitement, it is really quite important to keep your heart rate down, especially before very slow solos. You do not need drugs for this, just learn to control your breathing. Breathe not too quickly and not too deeply. You will find your heart rate remains steady and you will retain a good control of your solo.

To be a performer we need: -

1. To know the pieces very well.
2. To be able to cope with unfavourable conditions.
3. To learn to breathe properly not only during a solo, but also just before we play.
4. To have a reliable technique and to be able to produce a variety of styles and sounds in all registers.
5. To have sensitivity to the changing musical environment and the ability to adapt.
6. To draw together the threads of our own perception with those of other people, so that Art is a shared experience.
7. To have a clear idea of what we are trying to achieve artistically.
8. A reliable and accurate reflection of the quality of our work.

Beyond that, success in the way we play is a matter of sheer determination.

Also from the book:
The cor anglais is a solo instrument in its own right and you are more likely to play it well if you specialise.
As a cor anglais player, the only other problem you will have to cope with is ... the envy of those who play other instruments!

Planet Earth

Planet Earth, the song we will be playing for next concert.

I have another song in my mind when I was hearing it.

Let's compare.





I don't know what you will feel. I felt a bit cheated.

Lux Aeterna

A song that my friend recommended to me. From "Requiem for a Dream" (I have no idea what it is).