Comments on Mahler Owes Me Ten Bucks: Principally speaking....

Yes, Baba Yaga! You know, if someone asked me to n...

2008-04-15T00:13:00.000-04:00

Yes, Baba Yaga! You know, if someone asked me to name any movement in that work (apart from the promenades) I wouldn't get it right. Even after looking at the part for a very long time. The titles to movements escape me. Even the famous movement the Samuel Gold-something and...what/who is it?? See, I'm clueless!

I'm with you for the Great Gate movement---that is truly a wonderful movement to play, and I got chills when playing it!

Why did you stop playing bassoon though? Do you miss it at all? I'm always curious as to why people stop playing. (I did myself, before picking back up about a year ago, after a 4 year or so hiatus)

Anyway, all the best to you garricks!

"…a part that goes up chromatically in fourths, ra...

2008-04-14T23:02:00.000-04:00

"…a part that goes up chromatically in fourths, rather quickly: GC AbDb AD BbEb."

That would be Баба-Яга, (Baba-Yaga), The Hut on Hen’s Legs. I know that lick, I've leaned into it half a dozen times in my musical career as a contrabassoonist. After the first reading I added it to my warm up with the trusty Seth Thomas, and the next rehearsal I was prepared.

"A lot of this can be attributed to me not working on the music enough. Shame on me. I was, and am truly embarrassed by my lack of preparation."

I learned that lesson in 1973 playing principal bassoon for Leonard Slatkin, while rehearsing Shostakovich 7, first movement, with the St. Louis Youth Orchestra. Naked bassoon solo with nothing but pizzicato under me. For a full page. I completely flubbed the first two rehearsals. I was finally ready to go at the third rehearsal, but Slatkin cut the whole thing before I had a chance to prove myself. I've never forgotten that humiliation.

Years later, when I got the chance to play principal for Shostakovich 10, I nailed it. To the wall. Every rehearsal, and every performance.

There's truth to that old joke, "How do I get to Carnegie Hall?" "Practice, my child, practice."

While I'm no longer a performing musician, I have fond memories of very nearly passing out while pushing the pedal tones for the Great Gate at Kiev and the Organ Symphony. Pure Joy!

Paul,I have chosen to allow your comment to show u...

2008-04-13T13:30:00.000-04:00

Paul,

I have chosen to allow your comment to show up on my site (as you know I moderate them) because it shows what poor manners you have.

I am not going to defend myself or my blog at all to you, because it's not worth it. You write as if you know all my intentions and whatnot, yet you actually know very little.

I would urge you to think about how and why you comment. It is clear to me that in this instance, you simply were looking to tear me down. The "please excuse me in advance" was laughable---you want me to excuse you for being unnecessarily rude and condescending? You weren't writing a comment to just disagree or share a point of view: you did it to tear me down. Do you feel better as a human being now? Did you get a really great feeling inside when you told me I misused apostrophes?

Like I said, I have allowed your post to show up in the hopes that you will read it again and see how poor your manners are. I do hope you think about your comments a little more carefully. Is the end result to tear someone down? Challenge the blogger respectfully? Or to build and encourage? Think about why you comment, and if your intentions even have the SLIGHTEST hint of malice, don't do it. You do no one--including yourself--any good, when you post with those kinds of intentions.

Please excuse me in advance for being somewhat neg...

2008-04-13T02:13:00.000-04:00

Please excuse me in advance for being somewhat negative on your immature reveal-all post. First, if you're really not ready for it, taking principal chair to provide you with material for a blog entry is disrespectful to the music. Second, if you'd practice enough, like be ready 110%, you wouldn't have to worry about whether self-confidence or self-loathing showed up. You'd automatically be confident for the right reason -- you'd done your job properly instead of having to hope for a decent result. Third, the word "its" in a possessive sense doesn't have an apostrophe. ("Its muffler" rather than "it's muffler").