 The Oboe BBoard
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Author: rgombine
Date: 2008-08-13 17:05
My quintet is doing a wedding gig in October. I just got an email from our flautist that the couple would like to process to unaccompanied oboe! I, personally, think they're crazy, but what the customer wants . . .
Any how, I have b een told that "they don't ant typical wedding music, however they do like Debussy and Faure."
Anybody with ideas? Thanks!!
R.G.
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Author: mschmidt
Date: 2008-08-13 18:02
Well, that is rather bizarre. Seems like a procession would require something rhythmic, if not an actual march. A lot of the famous unaccompanied oboe literature is pretty ad libitum.
Your strategy could be to select something TOTALLY inappropriate (Bacchus from Metamorphoses?), whereupon the couple will come to their senses and have the quintet play the chorale from the Nielsen quartet for the processional.
Or you could pick something nice and baroque that stands up on its own apart from its accompaniment. Maybe a bourée from one of the Handel sonatas?
Mike
Still an Amateur, but not really middle-aged anymore
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Author: oboedrew
Date: 2008-08-13 19:51
Ha, that's just what I was thinking: Bacchus! When I read that they "don't want typical wedding music," that's just the first thing that sprang to mind.
Cheers,
Drew
www.oboedrew.com
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Author: vboboe
Date: 2008-08-13 21:04
Hm, wow, responsibility! and crazy perhaps, but it is an opportunity for something compellingly beautiful from you ... although to my mind any solo *single-note* instrument for a wedding processional just isn't auspicious, even if bittersweet double-reed oboe definitely speaks to the heart's reality of any marriage, but surely the wedding procession ought to have at least a harmonized duet solo melody in there, if not basso continuo chording with it? ... but as you say, what the customer wants ... so is it the bride's idea or the groom's? Find out, it matters, then select accordingly
So, if it's entirely the bride's processional as she enters, all eyes on her, it probably has to be romantic, a melody with good potential as their theme tune together, or that 'wordless tune' that the bride's heart might be singing to attract her groom -- what's your take on the bride's romantic personality? More directly, ask her what Faure or Debussy melody is she already humming to herself?
And/or, if the groom's proceeding as well, ditto from the guy's perspective
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Author: mschmidt
Date: 2008-08-13 21:48
Well, as long as we're inquiring into personalities, maybe we could find out if "Narcissus" is appropriate for the groom's entrance.
Mike
Still an Amateur, but not really middle-aged anymore
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Author: Dutchy
Date: 2008-08-13 22:13
Oh, yes. Sweet and romantic, your most dulcet reed, please, ![[grin]](http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/smileys/smilie5.gif) Emanating from up in a balcony, or from behind a screen, wafting ethereally over the congregation. Transpose it up into the phat mid-register if necessary, get away from those melancholy lower notes and dog-whistle third octave.
VERY workable IMO.
Wagner--O Star of Eve from Tannhauser. This has the added bonus of making an ideal first number, like while the first members of the wedding party are standing clustered together in the back of the hall/church, just on the brink of processing, because the song has a lengthy intro before it gets to the recognizable "hook". And then you break into "O starrrrr of eeeeve..." as the first flower girl or whatever starts coming down the aisle... [snif] I need to get out my hanky, just visualizing it.
Handel--Largo from Xerxes; Arioso.
Mendelssohn--On Wings of Song.
Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes.
Believe Me If All Those Endearing Young Charms.
Faure's Dolly and Masques and Bergamasques have some pretty tunes, but nothing sweetly romantic that I can visualize with a wedding.
Before you get the Debussy-loving bride seeing the name "Wagner" and going reflexively, "Oh my god not WAGNER", play it for her.
ETA: Just because the Wedding March from Lohengrin is traditional doesn't mean it has to be a march, or even strongly rhythmic. Most brides saunter up the aisle, not march; the processional is all about the guests gaping and whispering, and a leisurely saunter allows them to do so. My daughter walked up the aisle to a remix CD of various game/fantasy theme music, her hubby being a mad gamer.
Post Edited (2008-08-13 22:24)
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Author: hautbois
Date: 2008-08-13 22:49
Take a look at the Telemann flute fantasies. Even the slow movements have enough going on rhythmically for the bride to feel a beat to walk to. The third movement from the Telemann Sonata in A also would work unaccompanied. From Bach, the slow movement of the g minor oboe concerto (minus the last few bars) would be lovely for a wedding.
Elizabeth
Post Edited (2008-08-14 13:03)
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Author: rgombine
Date: 2008-09-22 22:03
as an update -- latest word from bride: do you have any mozart?
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Author: Dutchy
Date: 2008-09-23 14:59
I don't see why the Mozart Oboe concerto, unaccompanied, wouldn't be perfect. Just play until they're all up at the front and then stop.
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Author: JRJINSA
Date: 2008-09-23 15:21
Hey, why not? Play something the audience can recognize...much more effective. It's all about memories and making it special, right? Why play something nobody knows...unless they're music geeks, it'll just be background music.
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Author: Dutchy
Date: 2008-09-26 03:23
Yah, but I'd think that to those who possibly might know what the text means, it might be kind of a downer, for a wedding.
"Hail, true body
born of the Virgin Mary,
Who truly suffered, sacrificed
on the Cross for man,
Whose pierced side overflowed
with water and blood,
Be for us a foretaste
In the test of death."
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Author: DavidW
Date: 2008-09-26 23:16
How about accompanied oboe ... or begin unaccompanied and have the flute, clarinet, horn and bassoon come in at an appropriate time? (This should be quite straight-forward in terms of arranging the piece; the four other instruments just "sit out" the first half-page.)
Is Faure's Pavane too much of a downer to be a processional? Or to be their "non-typical" processional? Girl with the Flaxen Hair (if she has the appropriate hair colour)? Half of Syrinx (ignoring the flautist's grimaces) segueing into something that's already in the quintet's book?
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Author: oboemoboe
Date: 2008-09-30 13:28
If you want to push it even farther, I'd suggest Holliger's "Studie Über Mehrklänge" !
:^P
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Author: rgombine
Date: 2008-10-14 07:50
A final update:
Thanks again for everyone's responses. I was a big advocate for the Telemann fantasies or Bach gminor. The Pavane would have been beautiful, but the title proved to be a non-starter.
She ultimately went w/the 2nd Schumann Romance... .
R.G.
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