Malibu morning picture of the day - Monday, June 23, 2014

Dear friends, family, and random followers,

Here is the first Monday morning after the summer soltice out in the Bu.

Picture #2 is a little more interesting, but this one says what it looks like right now, in the 7:30-8:30 AM  time lot. Gray, hazy, ill-defined, hard to find the horizon.

Here's #2 BTW. It looks remarkably similar to Monday one week ago.












Don't know about you, but I had a fulfilling, but tiring weekend. My community band played a concert down in Bixby Park in Long Beach yesterday. We did a good job. Our bows were deserved. Kudos fellow band members!

Bassoon

There's really nothing to compare to playing in a medium-to-large music ensemble. I would assume playing on a baseball team or a soccer team of nearly equally talented players might be comparable--all the parts are important, but some must pop out and star at times, but the force of the whole when working together is a thing of beauty to be part of.

Pictured here is the instrument I play, the bassoon. In a woodwind section, it is one of the three bass voices, its compadres being the bass clarinet (the Thelonius Monk of the three) and the baritone saxophone (the Ethel Merman; and if you had to pin me down I'd say the bassoon is the Steve Allen of the trio). They all have their special jobs to do and good composers (few and far between) know this. The metal crook that emerges from upper middle right--the bocal--is the tiny pipe on which you affix a double reed.

Bass clarinet

Bari sax

The instrument has three voices. the bottom register is very rough textured and you can almost count the vibrations as it plays the notes below the bass clef staff. The middle register which pretty ranges the notes of entire bass clef up to maybe just past middle C is where most of the literature is written--the register has a woody, vibrant, almost intrusive quality that pushes it out to the ear more so than its partner the bass clarinet. The bassoon high register to me sounds like a flute that is having blue Monday, it has a singing, melancholy, sour sound to it. Tschaikowsky and Rossini set a lot of parts in this upper register. The opening notes of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring is the best known incidence of using this register. It takes a lot of strength of mouth muscle to play that high register in tune.

Bassoon reed

You probably never notice the sound of this instrument until someone points it out to you (and to most people, that means never). After you're aware, you will always hear it thereafter. I think this quality describes me, which is why when I first noticed it as an early adolescent, I knew it was something I had to reach for and play if ever given the chance. I hope that you have found something similar in your life that amplifies your voice.

OK, bassoon consciousness lesson is over. If you're more curious, get Thee to YouTube. Time to get to work now. Have a great week.

Love,
Pops