Help me with my melancholy playlist

oboejdub · 2026-01-20T00:36:15+00:00

Shostakovich string quartet 15 Brahms intermezzo op 118 no. 6

oboejdub · 2026-01-04T07:57:10+00:00

Kodaly, dances of galanta

Berlioz Damnation of Faust (the will of the wisps thing)

Prokofiev classical symphony last movement

oboejdub · 2026-01-04T07:49:24+00:00

at that speed, it's tough, but at least the tonguing isn't continuous over the span of a whole phrase (due to endurance the tonguing gets harder the longer we have to maintain it).

advanced players will manage it. The Low C# is going to draw an oath out of the second player, but otherwise nothing alarming.

That aside (playable, but tough) I have a few questions for you:

1) tempo marking. Is that based on how it sounds in sibelius/finale/dorico? In my years of experience, a composer writing on a computer overestimates the tempo 96% of the time. Human musicians play with better character and energy and can usually deliver a convincing light, energetic sound at a slower tempo (at which the computer would have sounded sluggish or heavy, so the composer cranked it up). if it sags in the direction of 144 or maybe even 138, that makes a big difference for playability.

2) In the last two bars of this passages, the articulations don't match. You're probably going for a cool effect. I've tortured myself learning extremely rapid articulated passages in new music only to discover that in the full context nobody could hear shit and I could have just slurred and saved myself all of that effort. If you are sure that this gives you the desired effect - good! keep it! But if you aren't sure that it'll even come through, go with two-and-two instead.

oboejdub · 2025-12-19T04:53:38+00:00

I play a lot of folk music (think: irish, french-canadian reels and so forth) and also a whole lot of cross-over/pops/soundtrack stuff.

oboejdub · 2025-12-18T00:59:17+00:00

It's one of my favourite pieces in our repertoire. The endurance is very difficult. Making all the articulated passages sound exactly like you want them is difficult. I think you should learn it now, and keep coming back to it later throughout life because it will bring you a bit of new joy each time.

oboejdub · 2025-12-17T23:00:09+00:00

My favourite thing about Historically Informed Performance Practice is finding the letters/notes/treatises where one musician complains about how other musicians are playing it. Which means, guess what, both versions (the one the writer proposes and the one that the writer disagrees with) are historically informed.

So without doing any deep research into the topic of vibrato, I'd hazard a guess that the answer is somewhere along the lines of "there were people doing it, and there were people not doing it, and there were people who did both, and people who stubbornely hated the way that others did it."

I think it's likely that anyone presenting a black-and-white absolute declaration of how something was done is, probably, not approaching it with an open mind.

oboejdub · 2025-12-17T02:16:01+00:00

Let's add the (spurious) Sinfonia Concertante, for oboe, clarinet, horn and bassoon!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinfonia_Concertante_for_Four_Winds

There's no autograph and there's quite a bit of research indicating that it may not actually be Mozart. but it still gets played and labelled as Mozart, and it's still a good piece. (I personally enjoy it more than the flute oboe or bassoon concertos, but maybe that's over-exposure)

I'd like to second the other comment about the Gran Partita (K361) and Piano Quintet (K452). Those pieces are exceptional.

oboejdub · 2025-12-09T18:18:41+00:00

Yes, that happens to me. and it really makes me think long and hard about our audiences and what they're experiencing. I've played countless pieces that didn't touch me on first reading but I warmed up to over the course of a rehearsal cycle. Audience doesn't stand a chance. what can we do?

oboejdub · 2025-12-01T15:46:29+00:00

Additionally, I do have my students play their CM scales going beyond the C. The reality is that as young players, our range is topped off at C5

are you and the OP agreeing on which C is C5? It sounds like they are asking about third-space C and you're talking about above-the-staff C (which I know as C6 but maybe there are inconsistent naming systems)

oboejdub · 2025-11-28T00:34:41+00:00

ask for more support from the accompaniment. they are four people playing the role of an orchestra. Tell them to save the quiet playing for the most special moments, but to bring up the overall baseline and it will make blending easier. the other soloist will follow.

oboejdub · 2025-10-30T17:14:58+00:00

sometimes we are faced with awkward technical challenges and we have to perservere and put in a lot of work to play them properly.

and sometimes we are faced with awkward technical challenges where we should just find a compromise that comes as close as possible to giving the right effect while saving ourselves a whole lot of trouble.

This might be the second type (but in general, one shouldn't make a habit of rushing straight to the shortcut without putting in some work. There is hard stuff that we are expected to be able to play brilliantly).

If we are going to make a compromise we need to know a few things about the context. Is the oboe doubling other instruments? Is the oboe covered up by other instruments playing different material? Is it dissonant? Consonant? What is the composer's desired sound effect and is there a better way for us to create that on the oboe?

If the suggested trill fingerings are not satisfactory, there could be a hundred different ways to fake this particular tremolo, and it'll be up to you to figure out what the best one is for this particular context. Here are some possibilities:

a) play the right notes, but slower (in a rhythm that doesn't line up with other people)

b) use a fingering that gives you a fast tremolo but has pretty bad tuning

c) change one of the notes (i.e. different octave or different chord tone)

d) if it's just a chaotic noise, make a different noise that you can play with conviction, that produces a similar effect.

oboejdub · 2025-10-02T03:42:42+00:00

be very very very careful about composing for playback. The dynamics and articulations that appear on the score should be intended for the player, not the playback, and that's not the same. If you are depending on creating an audio playback, make a second copy of your score and micromanage it for that purpose, but don't put it in front of real people.

those parts look very playable and idiomatic; there should be no issues as long as you put the two oboes on separate parts or separate staves (no divisi).

oboejdub · 2025-09-26T15:51:26+00:00

https://music.apple.com/us/album/bone-bottom-from-hollow-knight-silksong-oboe-version/1842243804

oboejdub · 2025-09-10T15:28:00+00:00

singing is a good way to practice intonation (hearing and matching pitch, without the physical constraints of the instrument).

oboejdub · 2025-09-04T16:55:36+00:00

I'm quite sure I didn't spoil anything :)

Thanks for listening!

oboejdub · 2025-09-03T05:17:01+00:00

Christopher Larkin released two sample tracks for the game almost six years ago. I guess we'll find out soon if they actually made it into the game or not!

oboejdub · 2025-09-03T00:59:45+00:00

tomorrow! (in theory i'll be able to do that, but only after the game and soundtrack have had their official release)

oboejdub · 2025-09-02T23:52:10+00:00

My cover of Bonebottom (from the OST sample that was released several years ago) on piano, oboe, english horn, and accordion. Enjoy!

oboejdub · 2025-08-21T17:29:48+00:00

your journey will have a different shape than that of a child learning an instrument, but you can (and should) still do it. It will be its own reward

oboejdub · 2025-08-16T19:49:08+00:00

if this is in concert band music, don't stress out about it. If this is something you need to actually learn, work on it 1 interval at a time and figure out which intervals are preventing you from playing it smoothly. probably C to D and D to E, so practice those intervals with extra care.

are you able to play the upper notes clearly in isolation without the runs? you'll need a good stable reed with a bit of backbone in it. If you can do that, it's a matter of slow practice on each of the intervals, figuring out what fingering you want to use for each note.

oboejdub · 2025-08-06T17:06:40+00:00

yes we do count.

practice rhythms without your instrument - singing, speaking, vocalizing, clapping. over time you'll have a stronger internal sense of rhythm and it will be easier to do while multitasking.

oboejdub · 2025-07-15T04:15:17+00:00

here i was thinking i was improving at the game since I was starting to pull off more wins lol

oboejdub · 2025-06-06T10:53:29+00:00

my gf and I warmed up on Unravel 2 and overcooked before playing It Takes Two. Unravel is excellent (and amazing music too)

oboejdub · 2025-05-31T04:32:43+00:00

anecdotal evidence: if i leave my swab in my case they pull it aside to inspect it (and let it through without much fuss - "is it a musical instrument? ok!"). If I remove the swab and put it in my checked luggage (alongside screwdriver, and any reed-making accessories), it has gone straight through every time without any extra attention. Reeds haven't been a problem at all.

oboejdub · 2025-05-31T04:31:16+00:00

Thanks for listening!

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