Blog for Flutists and Composers
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Intonation IV: Our Partner in Crime
By Partner in Crime I mean our most common collaborator in the traditional repertoire: the piano (or harpsichord). Here is some information I’ve gleaned from reading Fundamentals of Musical Acoustics by Arthur H. Benade (standing left in photo, playing homemade flute). To know the acoustical properties of the piano is to be able to deal…
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Practice Motto: Amongst Our Weaponry Are….
Surprise, fear, ruthless efficiency and a fanatical devotion to the— wait a minute —– that’s not my practice motto, that’s The Spanish Inquisition skit from Monty Python! Hmm, well, surprise and fear do come into play now and then. It’s the term ruthless efficiency that’s been running through my head recently. Ruthlessness seems to be…
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Intonation I : Flutonation
Practicing intonation, I’ve noticed a few funny quirks of mine which I know are shared by many other flutists, so I think it is worthwhile confessing and hanging them out to dry.(By the way, barring any live musicians I can scare up to do my nerdy exercises, my partner in intonation practice is my Korg…
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Intonation II: “Gimme That Ol’ Time Religion”
Here’s a still from the TV broadcast of us playing Henze’s Requiem in the Cathedral of Cologne, April 2009 Our latest concert presented quite a challenge! The Cathedral of Cologne has an evening temperature (this time of year) of 15.3˚ C (59.4˚ F). That was with spotlights and extra spots from the television crew. As…
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Intonation III : the Spectre of Spectralism
Some days ago I got the score for G. F. Haas’ new work „ … wie Stille brannte das Licht“. (What is it with German-speaking composers and their titles with elipses?). It got me thinking about how different composers notate microtonality. I like what Haas has done, it is explicit in placing the note within…
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Seminar with Brian Ferneyhough 25 March, 2009
Almost didn’t get out of bed that day. I was under the weather, and a warm blanket, but I managed to hop on the train to Amsterdam in time for Ferneyhough’s seminar on his flute pieces, which was organized by Joel Bons (artistic director of the Nieuw Ensemble) and Harrie Starreveld. Harrie kicked off by…
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Robert Dick, 22 March 2009
Left to right: Charlotte, Johanna, Nozomi, Robert, Wan, Kanae Last weekend I had the pleasure of attending, albeit briefly, Robert’s masterclass in Wuppertal, Germany. It was great to see him! The last time I saw him, he was walking out on a concert I gave at the BAM in New York! Not because of me…
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How To Get Pregnant – Even If….
Even if you are a man! There’s a man behind this idea – sax player Ned Rothenberg, to be exact. He described his practicing as “getting pregnant” creatively. Here is the article where he mentions it. I really admire his improvisations. He must spend a lot of the time pregnant! His CD “Amulet” with Tuvan…