Author: Dutchy
Date: 2008-04-14 03:54
Well, three years ago I set out on my Oboe Odyssey with the stated purpose of "getting good enough at it that I could hold my own with our church's orchestra, such as it is." But the only people who were aware I was doing this thing were the members of my immediate family.
The orchestra meets on the second Sunday of the month at 5 p.m., rehearses a set of 6 or 8 hymns, then plays them through at Sunday night prayer meeting while people sing along (including one as an offertory), and then the best of those hymns will be played during Sunday morning worship the following Sunday.
It's all very low-key, and about as relaxed and non-performance-oriented as the average amateur oboist could wish. It's not a very big church.
So about three weeks ago, during handbell practice one night, I overheard the orchestra director (Trumpet) discussing with the Clarinet the fact that they might have to cancel orchestra for good, since Violins 1 and 2 were two elderly brothers who due to health issues weren't going to be able to continue, and the Bassoon, Teen Trumpet, Alto Sax, and Teen Flute had all left or were leaving for college, and that left only a Trumpet, a Clarinet, a Flute, and an occasional Baritone when he was in the mood for it, and the Clarinet's husband had just gotten a transfer and she was going to be leaving, too. So why bother with Orchestra if it's just a Flute and a Trumpet, and a Baritone only when he's in the mood?
So, impelled by desperation, I came out of the closet. "Wait! Don't cancel orchestra until I get there!"
I spent the last three weeks in a frenzy of stamina-building woodshedding, hammering my way through most of the Hal Leonard Favorites over and over again, mainly afraid that my embouchure would poop out on me halfway through the third hymn.
But it didn't, and I feel like I accomplished myself well tonight.
Except for the occasional pitch issues, as you can hear in the first video. I've never played with other instruments before; all my playing has been with playalong CDs, and I found the sheer noise level of the brass to be a trifle disorienting. And there were times when I was definitely hearing four different pitches, so it was a tad confusing, but I'm sure I'll get better at it.
Sorry for the poor video quality; Hubby recorded me with his Samsung camera, and wasn't always completely focused on the task at hand. The best "take" was marred by his lengthy conversation with someone in the pew behind him, so I didn't upload it.
But I didn't quibble with him about video quality, because I had told him, "I just need something to upload to Youtube so my oboe board peeps can see I'm a real person, not just some oboe wannabe up in her bedroom with a vigorous fantasy life." Well, I do have that, ![[grin]](http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/smileys/smilie5.gif) but I do also--finally--play the oboe well enough that I didn't embarrass myself unduly.
And the Trumpet, who is an elementary school band director, after the first runthrough of the hymns, complimented me with some slight evidence of relief on the fact that at least I wasn't flat. He said, "When you're a band director, you hope you'll only have one oboe in your band, because then you'll have only one oboe that's flat." So any pitch issues I had were overall fleeting.
I'm playing out of two different books on two different stands, just to add spice to the proceedings. Our church hymnals came with orchestrated parts for Brass, Woodwinds, and Strings, and some of the arrangements are quite pretty, but some of them are really boring and unmelodic. They're by an assortment of arrangers, and some of them obviously don't play the oboe, so they have it grumbling along pointlessly in the lower register, where it's totally drowned out by the brass. On some of those, I just popped it up into the upper octave where it sang nicely along with the Flute.
So on some of the hymns, I'm reading off the Oboe part on my right-hand music stand, and on some of them I'm just playing the alto line from the hymnal an octave higher, on the left-hand stand.
One of the arrangements starts right out with two measures of "Tacet" for the oboe. So I was just sitting there. And the Trumpet stops us and says, "What's the matter?" And I said, "I've got two measures of Tacet". And he said, "...don't do tacet." So I shrugged and played part of the alto line an octave higher for two measures there.
And another one had two measures of rests to start. So I just went ahead and played part of the alto line for that one, too.
And another one had a trill on D for a whole measure. Cool! I got to do a trill. And the Flute looked over at me, startled. I said, "I've got a trill there."
They're all just used to playing the hymns straight out of the hymnal. But I was, like, "Dudes, where's the fun in that?"
Oboe debut part 1
Oboe debut part 2.
Go me.
Feeling inordinately pleased with myself tonight.
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The Oboe BBoard
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