Author: d-oboe
Date: 2007-05-22 19:42
I would still argue that there is punctuation, even if it isn't written in. It's there, within the music. Back to the reading example. One could easily write a very long sentence - and some authors do - but there is still built-in punctuation: indeed, there has to be! Just the presence of the verb, subject, adjective, and adverb gives a sense of organization, which in turn creates a less strict, but still palpable punctuation. The "breathless" effect is the same idea. Even if the musical effect is to create a very long phrase, there will still be many discernable musical shapes within it - which should be a place for a breath.
I suppose the reason most players resort to the circular breath is that it is quite easy to do, once acquired, and can extend phrases for minutes. But the easy way is not always the right way. A circular breath, by its nature, removes from music its most powerful feature: silence. Even if the silence is only a fraction of a second long, it fine-tunes a performance in a way that constant circular breathing can never hope to match. The main reason, I guess, why many people shy away from this type of playing is that it takes incredible skill to be able to let go of, and pick up a phrase seamlessly. The circular breath just irons over that gap...but is it really the right way?
|
|
The Oboe BBoard
.jpg){kind=small}
