Beethoven’s Seventh slaughtered (and it’s NOT a funeral march)

I’ve just returned from seeing the movie Knowing, staring Nicolas Cage, which I felt was a fairly good (although depressing) film. I’m writing now, however, because I have never, and I mean never heard the Second Movement from Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony slaughtered as it was by the Sydney Studio Orchestra when it was played during at least two scenes in the movie. Without question, this movement is one of the all-time greatest pieces in the entire classical music repertoire and should be very familiar to anyone who is even remotely knowledgeable about music: its sublime, solemn, and absolute pure beauty. As I just walked in the door, I’ve got to admit that I have to listen to REAL recordings of it as the performance in the movie was ghastly (and that’s an understatement).

The performance was so horrible that I thought I’d see if anyone else had yet commented on it and, to my chagrin, I couldn’t find any reviews by real musicians, or even by genuine music aficionados. About all I could discover were assinine comments about the “famous funeral march” from Beethoven’s Seventh (sorry folks, but the 2nd movement ain’t no “funeral march”) – just how ignorant has the world become? One of the all-time great pieces of music is slaughtered, folks then refer to it as “funeral march,” and no one notices? Oh well, these are the same type of people who might think that the Mona Lisa on velvet would look great. 🙂

Open for business!

I’ve got to admit, I’m excited about one of my latest projects – I’m selling musical instruments. I found a great supplier, from China, when I didn’t have a bassoon. I ended up buying a horn from this company and it was surprisingly good. As a result, I contacted them to see if they might like me to sell horns in the U.S. and they were very receptive to the idea. As a result, I’ve finally received two huge boxes of instruments (yes, my living room now looks like a music store) and I’ve already listed a few of the instruments for sale. I hope and pray that God will watch over and allow this business to grow. I desperately need the money and this would be one good way for me to make some additional cash. Praying and keeping my fingers crossed. . .

Bassoon in the stratosphere

While dealing with insomina (again), I came across a rather amazing YouTube video that features a wild (but certainly creative) alteration to a bassoon that allows it to easily play many previous difficult (if not impossible) fingerings and also allows it to play in the stratosphere. While the following video may not be the most musical, it certainly is amazing – the guy seems to be able to play the A above the TREBLE CLEF (!) with ease! I don’t know of any bassoonist who can do that! I once figured out a fingering for the C above that but I literally had to use an extremely hard reed and had to bite down on it with my teeth (ugh)! While I wrote that fingering down (maybe I’ll post it here someday), I don’t think I could stand to play it now – makes my teeth hurt just to think about it!

BTW, the guy who altered the bassoon also posted the “composition” he created to show it off – I’ve posted it below the video. Absolutely unbelievable!

Musical Notation for the Screechy Bassoon

Oboes, football, and Chester Pitts

I was about to call it a night when  a good friend of mine (an oboist) sent me a link to a YouTube video that just appeared as a commercial during the Super Bowl. While I haven’t had TV (hate it) for a very long time, and am not a football fan (could never understand what throwing a strange looking ball around and smashing people was so exciting), the video was great! As you’ll notice below, it shows Chester Pitts, a football player, performing on the oboe and getting ribbed for playing the instrument. I’ve got admit, it’s a great commercial! Now, if someone would only do the same for the bassoon!

Some really nice kids

I’ve been fortunate in having many really fine young people as bassoon students. As a rule they have all been exceptionally polite, well-mannered, and hardworking kids. One of the favorite parts of my week include the times when I’m giving private lessons: it’s always a joy to pass on the love of playing bassoon to others. Of all the things I do, nothing gives me as much pleasure than playing – whether it be one on one with a student, playing chamber music, or performing a symphony. Late yesterday afternoon, one of my students called because he had a sudden conflict with his work schedule (he’s a high school kid and just obtained his first job) that prevented him from playing Beethoven’s First Symphony last night. He called me in order to fill in for him (it’s almost hard to believe that there are kids like him that are responsible enough to do such a thing) and I agreed as I really wasn’t doing much else. Besides the fact that I basically sat through the concert cold (in other-words, I hadn’t rehearsed with the group first), it was an enjoyable experience. What was so impressive; however, is that I had other students (it was an orchestra made up of high school kids) come up to me afterwards and thanked me for playing with them. I can’t tell you what a joy it was to find such a fine group of well-mannered young musicians. In this day and age of kids into punk rock, gross disrespect for others, and other narcissistic behaviors, having a kid come up to me just to say “thank you” was a breath of fresh air!