Grade Five, then what?.

Grade Five - then what?

When a student passes the landmark of Grade 5 we thought it would be a good time to offer them the experience being a soloist. This was the thinking behind a phone call I made to Alan Ridout. He was a man who loved to write for actual performances, and spent a lot of time encouraging musical youngsters.

The result of a long and riotous conversation, which puzzled the people in my office at the time, was a delicious series of Concertinos. Each piece could be played with piano, but was also scored for strings, so that the player could have a first taste of performing with a small orchestra (or string quartet.)

Once he had started he kept going, completing Concertinos for:

Flute

Oboe

Cor Anglais

Clarinet

Saxophone

Bassoon

Horn

Trumpet

Flugel Horn

Trombone

Tuba

Bassoon

Several of these have been on exam syllabuses over the years, but not everybody is aware that there are string parts available for performance. If you have a student who would benefit from a bit of stage experience, please give them this opportunity.

https://www.juneemersonwindmusic.com/search_advanced_ss.php?mode=advs&adv_q=ridout%20concertino

Online Oboe Masterclasses

Celia Craig

https://artaria.co/education

Celia’s oboe teaching approach comes from a lifetime of experience at all levels – tertiary, school children, adults, professional development of teachers, beginners, workshops and within the industry at the manufacture and design level.

In addition, Celia’s playing experience is second to none, stemming from her own education at some of the world’s top training opportunities, encompassing orchestral, commercial, solo, chamber, lecturing, curating, performance practice and experience upon a number of instruments. Celia’s own teachers and mentors have been superb players and educators to whom she pays tribute as having nurtured her unique outlook which differs from the traditional model of oboe teaching.

Formerly National President of Australasian Double Reed Society, Chairman of BBC Symphony Orchestra, former active member of BBCSO Education program, Music Curator for The National Trust of South Australia, coach for Australian Youth Orchestra and Adelaide Youth Orchestra, State Music Camp of SA, leader of masterclasses and workshops at Elder Conservatoire, Royal College, Royal Northern College, Royal Academy, Guildhall School, Trinity Laban Conservatoire, YST (Singapore) Conservatory, Purcell School and others, Celia is a contributor to the new Arts Plan for SA and committed to improving its outcomes for oboists

Michael Head

Michael Head

Michael Dewar Head (1900 - 1976)



As well as being a composer, singer and pianist, Michael Head was an examiner for the Associated Board. It was when he came to Ampleforth College to examine the music students that we first met him. We knew his lovely songs, and had recently heard Siciliana for oboe on the BBC. As well as offering hospitality we were definitely hoping to get our hands on this lovely piece!

I drove down to Ampleforth College to bring him up to our house. My son Daniel, aged about 9, was in the car with me.

'Now Mr. Head is quite an old man, and may be a bit deaf. When you speak to him try to speak very clearly,' I told him.

Michael got in the car, and I went back to the music department to get his suitcase. When I returned to the car he was roaring with laughter, and so was Daniel. Apparently Daniel had said, extremely distinctly 'I think you are the oldest man I have ever seen.'

Our relationship was very warm from then on (thank you Daniel!) and we not only acquired his lovely Sicilana, but also a very striking song The World is Mad, for voice, clarinet and piano, and three other works including oboe and bassoon.
Geoffrey asked his advice on adjudicating, as he had his first engagement coming up. Michael said that however awful the playing, it was important always to say something nice - even if it was just to compliment them on the way they walked on to the stage.

That first meeting was on March 10th 1976. In April I sent him the Louis MacNeice poem that eventually became The World is Mad. During the following couple of months several other works arrived. On August 3rd he wrote from Bulawayo, South Africa, where he was not only examining for the AB but also singing his songs at recitals, including The World is Mad - ink still wet on the paper.

You can imagine our shock when, on August 24th, we heard that he had died suddenly in Cape Town. It was peritonitis - he had not reached a hospital soon enough.

June Emerson

Siciliana - oboe & piano

Three Hill Songs - oboe & piano

Three Fantastic Pieces - bassoon & piano

Trio - oboe, bassoon & piano

The World is Mad - mezzo, clarinet & piano

Michael Head: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Head_(composer)



The BIG Double Reed Day

Sunday 19th November 2017

For Information and Bookings:
 

www.bigdoublereed.com

Gloucestershire Double Reed Day

Gloucestershire Double Reed Day

Sunday 26th June 2016

For Information and Bookings:

www.glosdrd.org.uk

A Quintet Selection...

Some of our Favourite Wind Quintets

by June Emerson

(and The Canile Quintet)

It was a freezing night in 1969 when five wind players first met to play together in Hertfordshire. It was a successful and somewhat riotous evening and we became a regular wind quintet: The Camerata. Over the years two personnel changed and the name was changed accordingly, but 41 years later three of us were still together, with two others, as The Canile Quintet. Michael, the clarinettist, had suffered for some time with his eyes, and by 2011 he couldn’t see well enough to play any longer. It looked as if it was all over.

By July 2015 however, after several gruelling eye operations and with music enlarged to A3 size, he was ready to have another go. Hesitant and careful at first, by the end of the third day things were pretty well back to normal, and out came the champagne!

We played through almost all of our repertoire, and at the end I asked everyone to name their favourite quintet, and give the reasons for their choice. It was an extremely difficult exercise, and in the end we each chose two. These are the results:

Wendy, flute:

Invitación al Bolero from the Suite Popular Cubana by Dario Morgan, because in a short and beautiful piece everyone has something gorgeous to play.
Quintet Op.56 No.1 by Franz Danzi because there is so much of interest for all the instruments.

Steve, oboe:

Capriol Suite by Peter Warlock because it’s a lovely arrangement of lovely music which is far too good for string players.
Pastorale by Gabriel Pierné because it brings back happy memories of playing it at an outdoor concert in France - oboe offstage at the end.

Michael, clarinet:

Trois Pieces Brèves by Jacques Ibert because it is wonderfully written, particularly the second movement for flute and clarinet. The last movement is a challenge from which we were once saved at an outdoor concert in France by the arrival of the Mistral.

Novelette in C major by Francis Poulenc, because I just love it.

June, bassoon:

La Fille aux cheveux de lin from Debussy Suite No.1 as a sort of test, because it is only after a week of living, eating, drinking and playing together that we can get all the nuances and entries perfect.
La Cheminée du Roi René by Darius Milhaud, because of the wonderful sonorities, and the tender coming together of flute and clarinet in the final bars.

Christine, horn:

Sortie in E Flat by Léfebure-Wély because I want it played at my funeral, and I challenge anyone to hear it without smiling.
Quintette in C major by Claude Arrieu, because it is so quirky, and I love the rich harmonies in the slow movements.

Since its foundation the quintet has raised over £20,000 for various charities, and hopes to keep going for a good while longer. We’ll be celebrating the 50th Wedding Anniversary of Wendy and Michael in 2016.

LINKS:

For accommodating larger size music Michael can recommend

the Stagg extra wide music stand

IMPROVISATION

- its uses within a classical instrumental education.

A guide to greater expressivity and 

confidence in performance.

by Melinda Maxwell

Principal Oboe,
Birmingham Contemporary Music Group & Endymion,
Consultant in Woodwind Studies RNCM

Teacher: Ok, here’s the moment at the end of the slow movement in this baroque sonata to invent a phrase of your own, so, have a go.

Student: I can’t do that!

                            

I have heard this reply often and it applies to so many moments in our music making whether playing by ear or inventing ornamentation or cadenzas or even singing, that I get genuinely upset at the level of, I suppose, fear and misunderstanding.

Let us start at the beginning. Improvisation is an enormous subject but I’d like in a few paragraphs to shine some light on thinking about it in different ways.  One of the comments one hears quite often, particularly when related to jazz, is “Oh if you improvise you can play anything you want. Who’s going to know what’s right or wrong”.  And the answer is: “It makes no difference if the music is free, structured, diatonic or atonal. Improvisation is a skill that has to be learnt and practiced like any other skill and whether right or wrong does not come into it”. This may sound confusing but no true improviser enters the moment without having thought about, practiced and explored the parameters first.  Why is this?  Because there are millions and millions of ways of saying the same thing, and this very process is what makes improvising so very special and exciting. If you know the route you may take you can exploit your ideas to their full capacity.

Over the years I have discovered that this very thought - that there are many ways of saying the same thing - has made me rethink how I perform and practice. Invention is a powerful imaginary tool and when you apply it to patterns and phrases you find other ways of playing something just as powerful and meaningful.

Let’s start with practicing.  What I’m about to talk about can apply not only to students at music college but also to younger players.  We all know that to master your instrument you have to spend hours and hours sorting out and improving many different techniques that span, for instance and to put it simply, soft, slow legato playing to loud, fast, clean articulation. These constitute what might be called the basics of playing that need to be practiced on a daily basis. Even if a player has thirty years experience they always return to the basics because they form the roots of all technical control. The point is that the art of playing changes as you develop. You improve slowly over time and as you improve so your exercises need to be tailored to suit. Here enters the first stage of invention. You may notice that while reading (although even if not reading) certain exercises that they have been digested and your mind starts to wander because it becomes boring. At this point invent an additional idea like a change in dynamic shape, how and when to add vibrato or change the articulation and emphasis, and this can enrich ways of hearing what you do. Ways of hearing and listening are of course paramount to exploring how to improve what you do.  Reading exercises gradually becomes unnecessary because you have naturally memorised and internalised them. Once memorised you can shift and shape them to suit you every day depending on what you need to achieve.  The improvising happens when you think while playing of changing the direction because it feels right. This instinctive feeling gives you confidence in what you are trying to achieve. Playing scales can feel like a real dirge but as we know they are essential for tuning, tone, developing key sense and learning fingerings. There are millions of ways of playing scales, the obvious being to change the patterns of articulation and dynamic shape and of course tempo. What if you didn’t start on the tonic and began on a different note in the scale? This would do two things. You would learn to hear them differently and you would discover modes. You would also really learn how they sound. This might develop playing in cycles of fifths and here we start thinking harmonically which deepens our understanding of modulation and harmony.  You may say, but this is not improvising per se.  To which I would retort, it’s the start of taking control of how you play and this then determines what you play, this being the first premise of thinking freely and improvising with your thoughts.

The next stage is to experiment with melody and here the fun starts. You may feel you know Ab major and its colour. If you improvise a melodic shape in this key with a beginning, middle and end, and it could be as short or as long as you like to work effectively, this process activates your imagination and allows you to find out what’s in your inner musical ear. Once you start tapping into this enormous space the possibilities of expression are infinite. This does many things. It nourishes your instinct which in turn feeds into your confidence which then filters into your standard repertoire whether it’s orchestral excerpts or recital pieces. You may also very well find that you begin not to need to read the music and gradually, step by step, start to memorise. Playing from memory is an extremely useful tool because it makes you listen harder which will naturally improve the way you play.

Which brings me to the first exhortation “I can’t do that!” Well now by this stage having attempted some of the above you can begin. In a lot of baroque sonatas there are moments with pauses usually at the end of movements that need a little phrase from the performer that offers their thoughts on the movement they’ve just played. This musical comment in a lot of cases need only be a breath length. If you have already started to play with your instinct in your practicing as described above, this procedure is not daunting at all. In fact it can be of enormous pleasure. To find the right phrase needs a bit of time and thought, and exploring what it could be through improvising, is the key. It encourages you to think about the material in the movement, to understand the style, and to achieve the right kind of expression. This then leads into styles of ornamentation, not only baroque, but classical. This will also inform your listening of great players that you aspire to, doing the same thing.

The next step in improvising could be your classical concertos that will need little cadenzas, and by this stage you may very well have thoughts on how to modulate from key to key using dominant and diminished sevenths, how to design a form, and how to improvise using the classical patterns in your concerto.  I have written three cadenzas for each of the movements of the Mozart Oboe Concerto and I did this by improvising around the material until my ear was satisfied with how they should sound.

Following on from this you may find that you invent something that goes in a completely different direction. You may take a theme from any piece of music and start moulding, fiddling, playing, and improvising with it. This is the beginning of exploring your musical mind that then empowers your musical imagination and confidence.

I’d like to return to an earlier point I mentioned about the millions of different ways there are of playing the same thing. In performance we take a lot of effort in preparing “the perfect” interpretation. Yes there is a sort of ideal way of playing something, but I believe there is no such thing as a perfect performance. Music is a living art and in performance little things may not go in quite the direction that you intended. This can be due to intangible things out of your control like the light, atmosphere or certain conditions. This can be off-putting and frustrating and there is a sort of feeling of resigning to a negative or insincere delivery because how you wanted it to go has not happened. If on the other hand you have internalised the music and prepared many versions that may differ in small details of how you think it should sound then this approach is a much more musical, enjoyable and of course daring way of performing. You can tailor the performance to suit the moment. It also gives the music energy, spontaneity, drive and commitment. This way of gently improvising as you go brings you much closer to what performing is really about.

Needless to say this is now getting very advanced and the one thing to remember is that there should always be ample and regular time to explore all these stages. These processes cannot be learnt quickly. It takes time and patience and can go on for the rest of your playing life. The wonderful thing about it is that it gives you the freedom to find out what is your artistic voice and after all, this is the beauty of learning an instrument. It mirrors your personality and who you are. Improvising gives your musicianship integrity by furnishing your musical mind with tools that will enhance your listening and your performing.  

MELINDA MAXWELL

published by Emerson Edition

Cadenzas to

Mozart's Oboe Concerto

Pibroch

for oboe & drone

OTHER USEFUL LINKS

Birmingham Contemporary Music Group

Endymion

Royal Northern College of Music

Intonation... it’s not just about the tuning

by Celia Craig

 Principal Oboe, Adelaide Symphony Orchestra

Intonation - a particularly hot topic for wind players. Good intonation makes the difference between audition and trial success or failure – and is a skill that sometimes passes unnoticed, because one is often only aware of the absence of intonation! Here are eight tools which can be kept in the intonation ‘toolkit’…

1. Know your instrument

It’s important to start off perfectly in tune - playing comfortably at A440. Warm up properly, allowing for temperature differences, to make sure you’ve really ‘nailed’ your own pitch. It makes life so much easier when everyone really is in tune from the start! Play in tune with yourself - be aware of your instrument and its intonation strengths and weaknesses. Practice intervals at home and check tuning with that most ‘unforgiving’ of instruments, piano.  Try not to let difficult notes on your own instrument be an excuse while practicing. Arpeggios are the best! Support the high notes! Make middle and low range super reliable. Do work on intonation itself in your personal practice.

2. Know the tonic

Most works (except the most modern) have a pitch centre/key. Feel the tonic- practice identifying it, remember it throughout. The key will change throughout episodes in the piece. You need to know what the current tonic is, in order to know what degree of the scale you are playing, and to be aware when you are ‘home’… (i.e. returning to the original tonic). If everyone does this, intonation is easy! The harmony is the truth of the music, whether it is properly grounded or not, and a stable pitch is its foundation. Try to stay constant during the piece (especially as your embouchure gets tired), as we can sometimes gradually go out of tune. Tuners are good, essential even, but know their limitations and keep using your ears and brain. Oboists have a particular responsibility for intonation- and not only because the conductor is likely to refer back to you for a reference without warning: don’t be caught off guard! Practice pays many dividends when you know your instrument really well.

3. Feel the harmony

Not just the tonic: acknowledging which degree of the scale you are on and tuning intervals accordingly, e.g. wide fifths, low major thirds and so on. Get into the habit of checking every note as you play for whether you are consonant or dissonant. This eventually becomes second nature and really influences the way you can phrase.  My favourite thing! In a wind section, some keys can be particularly hard -  A and E major for example, as the number of instruments playing crucial major thirds on difficult notes often make these keys harder to tune and as a trap for the unwary, easy to let intonation slip as the piece goes on. It takes some discipline and team work for entire sections to play consistently in tune. Second players often find themselves playing at an interval of a third with their respective firsts, one example when intonation is really crucial for the thirds to stay in tune, and when both second players are a long way apart, making it harder for them to hear each other than for the principals. This is when personal intonation discipline becomes really vital. If you can get to know your colleagues, this is a luxury and what makes regular wind sections sound unified, as everyone grows to know everyone else’s playing (and instruments).
 

4. Voice the chords - to hide or not to hide?

When tuning a larger chord, vital work for wind sections, be aware of the relative importance of your note within the chord, or a wrong balance could mean that the chord may never sound in tune. The tonic needs to be heard - not necessarily the loudest - but everyone needs to be aware what it is. It’s vital that every note is focussed, that the player is aiming for a pitch which is in their head. It’s great to work in a wind section where everyone is thinking. Don’t be afraid to experiment with balance as this has often solved chords that were proving really hard to tune.

Tancibudek Wind Quintet

5. Listen actively without blame

Sounds obvious, but do keep listening all the time and on every note. Try switching your attention from yourself to everyone else and back again. It’s important to be able to listen in an active sense, analytically, and adjust but without judging or blame. If it’s out of tune, don’t panic, keep your head and if it’s balanced, nicely voiced, matching vibrato, and musical, nothing will sound too bad! Positive mind set, clear and active observation: great skills to develop.

6. Immerse yourself in the music

It’s a mistake to focus solely on intonation. Even if something is perfectly in tune, it won’t sound good if the players have worked entirely on tuning and expression has gone out of the equation. Tuning a tricky octave or interval or chord also entails matching sounds, vibrato, balance and expression, and not being afraid. If all else fails, think of the music, articulation, expression and vibrato and perhaps the intonation will solve itself. Immersing oneself in the music solves many issues, including nerves. You’re only acting - if it’s a scary quiet bit for example - think of acting scared but not being scared. It’s a performance. You did your homework. Trust yourself.

7. Good ensemble playing

Employ all the skills: ensemble, expression,  matching sound and articulation, being led by your principal - and being aware of the ensemble style of the whole orchestra. Really good ensemble players are good team members and can support each other discreetly; a little shuffle or quiet acknowledgement after a tricky part,  voicing the octaves so that the lower one is slightly louder for hearing intonation… tiny variations can make things easier and more successful and the really switched on players can predict what might be useful through their active listening. Being aware of the breathing of the section helps you to match articulation and expression - follow body language and in-breaths, which indicate how loud, how to articulate, etc. This is something you will probably have learnt in youth orchestra training at various levels. It’s likely you are already doing all of these things to some degree, if so; great stuff, keep it up!

Onstage with Boulez & the BBCSO -
80th birthday celebrations

8. Finally - Enjoy!

A great team effort can make the difference between agony and fun! Remember that it’s great to relish the challenges of your work, and develop skills to conquer them. Relax, use your intonation toolkit and enjoy overcoming the challenges!

LINKS

Celia Craig's website

www.celiacraig.com.au

Aeolian Orchestra Concert at St Giles' Cripplegate, London - 22nd April 2012

Sunday April 22nd, 2012

Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No.2 in C minor, Op.18

Shostakovich: Symphony No.5 in D minor, Op.47

Aeolian Orchestra

Conductor: Rory Storm

Piano: Lara Melda

The Aeolian Orchestra is joined by pianist Lara Melda, BBC Young Musician 2010, for Rachmaninov’s 2nd piano concerto. This is the first time Lara Melda, Rory Storm and The Aeolian Orchestra have performed together. It is also the first time that any of the three have performed the work.

Venue

St Giles' Cripplegate

Fore Street,

Barbican

London

EC2Y 8DA

Ticket Details

7 (£3 Students)

Aeolian Orchestra

For more information on the Aeolian Orchestra, visit their website: http://aeolianorchestra.wordpress.com

The Carter Wind Quintet visit June Emerson Wind Music

Carter Wind Quintet

June Emerson Wind Music had a visit on 9th December from the Carter Wind Quintet who are one of our Launchpad prize-winning ensembles for 2010.

They braved the snow and ice to come and spend the day playing through many of our wind quintets. As the surroundings here are so picturesque, particularly with all the snow, they also brought along their concert clothes and a camera, taking the opportunity to get some new publicity shots!

Jessica Lowe (flute), Mary Noden (oboe), Holly Reardon (bassoon),
Emma Whitney (horn) and Emily Heathcote (clarinet)

It was lovely to meet them all. They really enjoyed themselves and found lots of new music to add to their repertoire.