I last posted about performing in a rather large bassoon ensemble, but could only come up with a couple cheesy metaphors to describe what it sounded like.
Well, metaphors are no longer necessary, because now you, too, can see that very performance on YouTube. The sound is mostly synced. I’m third from the left. I’m also the first player you hear.
Enjoy.
Chopin said that the only thing more beautiful than the sound of a guitar is the sound of two guitars. A few years later (just a few), Peter Schickele followed by asking, what is more beautiful than the sound of two guitars? His answer was, of course, four bassoons.
While I certainly agree with that answer, I’d like to take that thought one step further. Why stop with four bassoons? Surely the more you add, the more beautiful the sound, right? Hey! No snickering! (Or cringing, for that matter.)
Auditions are a really defining moment for all the hard work you’ve put in during the preceding months/years in preparation. In ten minutes or less, you have to convince the panel of judges sitting behind a screen (and most likely making faces at you while eating donuts) that, out of the sixty bassoonists to show up, you are the one they really want to hire. The others are just hacks.
So, how do you do that? Simple. Don’t play like a hack. How do you do that? Easy. Just play everything perfectly. No problem! And whatever you do, don’t mess up the “Marriage of Figaro” excerpt. If you do, you may as well stop and walk out, because you just sounded like a hack.
I’ve taken four auditions in the past year, and in two of those auditions, I screwed up the Figaro. Hundreds of travel dollars, days away from home, months of practice were literally laid waste when I did that. Frustration would not cover what I felt when that happened. Here is an excerpt that I thought I could play without any problem at all, and yet, when it really counted, I couldn’t. I decided I’m not going to let that happen again.
Anybody else had that happen? I think the problem is simple, yet hard to admit: You never could play it well enough in the first place. Once you swallow that bitter pill, the solution is equally simple, yet an absolute pain to go through.
With the presence of highly robust web applications such as Joomla, and WordPress (powering this very blog) making a real case for the power of PHP, I’ve decided to take the plunge and learn it. This means three things: I have to figure out how to get it running on my Mac OS X Leopard machine, I have to figure out a good editor with which to write code, and, of course, I have to learn to write PHP. Fortunately, I’ve begun to tackle each of these steps.
All the links I mention are listed at the end. So, if you like, you can skip my long-winded yet clever and witty editorial, and just get right to all the links.
As reported by Apple blogs and news sites such as Macworld and TUAW, Apple unveiled new iPod Touches, new iPod Nanos, and new iTunes 8.0, along with the new Genius Recommended tracks and playlists, HD content to watch on your computer, as well as the return of NBC programming. New toys, new shows, new games, bla bla bla. Yay for Apple.
Whoop-de-crap.
What’s the one feature I’ve been waiting for since I got my Mac two years ago? What’s the one feature people had been predicting with more certainty than ever? What’s the one feature that didn’t get unveiled today?
That would be the iTunes Unlimited Subscription service. That was a no-show today, leaving my hopes dashed and my Parallels-Windows-Rhapsody setup firmly in place, and not going anywhere. I would love to go “all Apple”, but I remain enamored enough with the concept of subscription music that I won’t get a shiny new iPod until they decide to try subscriptions. And no, I don’t think the new Genius feature is any sort of substitute.
Oh well.
What – Another Blog Category?
I’ve been thinking about posting about my love/hate relationship with the bassoon for a while, but have wondered how to start. It came to me just now. How about this:
Hey, everyone. I’m going to start posting about my love/hate relationship with the bassoon. There’s actually a lot to talk about (no, really), what with reeds, music, auditions, technique, and performing, to name a few, and I think it would be interesting to add to the ongoing discussion. If any bassoonist happens to drop by, please feel free to comment.
Since it’s suddenly pertinent to do so, I’ll share just a little bit about my own bassoon playing history. Don’t worry – it won’t be a novel. I’ll try to get it covered in 500 words or less. Here we go.
Among other things predicted by this post, TUAW is suggesting that on September 9, Apple may introduce a subscription model to their iTunes software. I’ve posted plenty of times about what I think of the idea of subscription music (see the Related Posts below if you want to see for yourself), and any of you who have read any of them know that I think the concept is a great idea. I still use Rhapsody, and I still complain about having to boot up Windows on my Mac through Parallels so I can sync music to my non iPod media player.
Rumors like this have been circulating for years, but this time around there seems to be definite evidence that Apple has actually been negotiating with record labels for such a service. If this rumor proves true, here’s one guy that will be running out to buy an iPod as soon as he can afford one!
Anybody else heard anything about this? Do you have any opinions about subscription music?
Here’s to WordPress, the new blogging platform that is now being used to power Scroggles, and all its blogs – including this one. WordPress looks to be a huge improvement in capabilities, and I’m looking forward to exploring it in the upcoming weeks.
Thanks to greentheo, who spent a lot of time setting up WordPress, and transferring posts and comments.
Slightly updated link to this blog: http://digressions.scroggles.com
Slightly updated RSS feed: http://digressions.scroggles.com/feed