Contrabass Digest

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2000-03-18

 
From: "Tom Izzo" <jeanvaljean@ntsource.com>
Date: Fri, 17 Mar 2000 19:00:35 -0600
Subject: Re: [CB] [Contra digest]
Reply-To: contrabass@contrabass.com

> didges mounted on stands in front of his face (so he can play in different
> keys - only one or two notes out of these things - no one has come up with
> the slide didgeridoo yet.)

Oh, Contraire!

Albeit referred to as a different name: "Windbreaker"

Peter Shickele performs on Windbreakers and SLIDE Windbreakers, essentially
Americanized Dij's.

Tom

---------------------------------------------------------

Date: Fri, 17 Mar 2000 19:13:12 -0500
From: Jim Katz <JimKatz@JohnAbbott.qc.ca>
Subject: [CB]  didjeridu
Reply-To: contrabass@contrabass.com

Wonderful to hear from Dr. Grant!  So there are didjeribones.  Could you
post a picture someplace?  I want to see that.

Jim

Jim Katz,DSB
(Distant Second Bassoon)
I Medici di McGill
Physician Orchestra
Montreal, Quebec, Canada

 Writing About Music Is Like Dancing About Architecture.
 

---------------------------------------------------------

Date: Fri, 17 Mar 2000 19:23:04 -0500
From: Jim Katz <JimKatz@JohnAbbott.qc.ca>
Subject: [CB] Question for Lelia
Reply-To: contrabass@contrabass.com

Hey, if you don't play these things in an orchestra or amateur groups,
what do you do with them, anyhow (If this is too personal a question, or
police attention may be drawn by your answer, don't feel obligated....)

Jim

Jim Katz,DSB
(Distant Second Bassoon)
I Medici di McGill
Physician Orchestra
Montreal, Quebec, Canada

 Writing About Music Is Like Dancing About Architecture.

---------------------------------------------------------

From: "Dr Guy Grant" <guygrant@tassie.net.au>
Date: Sat, 18 Mar 2000 11:14:49 +1100
Subject: RE: [CB] oops...
Reply-To: contrabass@contrabass.com

Gday

Didgeridoo is usually the first spelling in the dictionary but there are
quite a few others. And didjeridu is onomatopoeic and not an Aboriginal
word. The Aboriginals have about 45 different words for didjeridu including
yidaki, yiraki, bombo, bambu, pampuu, and ilpirra. Didjeridu seems to be the
spelling favoured by scientific and music journals.

Guy

---------------------------------------------------------

From: "Dr Guy Grant" <guygrant@tassie.net.au>
Date: Sat, 18 Mar 2000 11:14:58 +1100
Subject: RE: [CB] Didgeridoo, North Americans, etc
Reply-To: contrabass@contrabass.com

Dear Jim

There are many slide didjeridus, slidjeridus and didjeribones. My brass one
was made in Toronto and its maker (Phil Sarazen) envisaged its use in a jazz
band. A German firm was offering aluminium slidjeridus and didj players
commonly put one piece of PVC inside another to make a didjeribone (as
played by Charlie McMahon). All these devices are useful when you only want
to take one instrument to a gig. Then it can be tuned to the key of the
piece being played or a sympathetic key.

Dr Guy GRANT
www.oddmusic.com
---------------------------------------------------------

From: Heliconman@aol.com
Date: Fri, 17 Mar 2000 20:25:36 EST
Subject: Re: [CB] Didgeridoo, North Americans, etc
Reply-To: contrabass@contrabass.com

In a message dated 03/17/2000 10:35:09 AM Eastern Standard Time,  JimKatz@JohnAbbott.qc.ca writes:

<< no one has come up with the slide didgeridoo yet >>

I believe you'll find the slide didge to be made in Canada, according to a
recent post here! I've seen one for sale here in Boston already!
---------------------------------------------------------

Date: Fri, 17 Mar 2000 18:00:11 -0700
From: Grant Green <gdgreen@contrabass.com>
Subject: Re: [CB] Secular vs. other music...
Reply-To: contrabass@contrabass.com

>come flowing out right about now.  In Biblical times, the world of
>secular music was almost non-existent.  Religion was such a huge part of
>life that it was inseparable from secular activities.  As a result,
>secular music was actually religious music.  Secular instruments were
>actually religious instruments.  The shofar example is prime, because

I don't have any handy references about music in biblical times, but
my impression is that  religion has mainly borrowed or co-opted music
and art that pre-existed in the culture.  Without intending to start
a religion debate, from the ascendancy of Christianity around 300 AD
until the Renaissance, the Church was the primary record-keeper and
history-writer in Europe.  I think much of what was written was
intended to convince one's superiors in the Church hierarchy that one
was doing quite well with the peasant population in whatever outlying
district one managed, regardless of the degree of actual piety
present.  Church records say that all or most activities were devoted
to religious uses, and they've burned all the other records.
Hmmmmm.....

Apart from any natural bias, most music wasn't written down, even in
the Renaissance.  Tunes and songs were passed from musician to
musician, learned in person from someone who knew them.  Oral (or
non-written, anyway) culture often leaves few traces in the historic
record.  There are quite a few instruments that existed in the middle
ages and Renaissance that weren't permitted in church (I think only
sackbuts and organs were considered "proper" - ask any trombonist!),
for example shawms, rackets, curtals/dulcians, bagpipes, rebecs,
lutes, recorders, etc.  These instruments existed and, if they
weren't played in church, must have been used for secular music.  The
few tunes apart from Gregorian Chants and Hildegard von Bingen that
we *do* have from the middle ages are dances...

At least, that's my opinion...

Grant

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Grant Green               gdgreen@contrabass.com
ecode:contrabass       http://www.contrabass.com
Professional Fool -> http://www.mp3.com/ProFools
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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From: "Harry Searing" <hsearing@home.com>
Date: Fri, 17 Mar 2000 21:34:35 -0500
Subject: [CB] Eagle book
Reply-To: contrabass@contrabass.com

Dear Abi, (always wanted to write that!)

I've never run across this book and I've got 3 5-drawer file cabinets
stuffed with useless bassoon music and related publications!

Can you send me some more info?

Thanks.

Regards,
Harry Searing

---------------------------------------------------------

Date: Fri, 17 Mar 2000 22:43:47 -0500
From: "Abigail S. Tenenbaum" <abi@brandeis.edu>
Subject: Re: [CB] Eagle book
Reply-To: contrabass@contrabass.com

She spells it "Abby" thank you very much.  I changed my spelling in 8th grade!
Anyway...my fingering chart booklet is not in the same building as I am right
now.  When I next go to visit my bassoon and its music, I will look up
publishing info for you...

hope this "advice" from "abi" is adequate!  ;-)

abi

Quoting Harry Searing <hsearing@home.com>:
> Dear Abi, (always wanted to write that!)
>
> I've never run across this book and I've got 3 5-drawer file cabinets
> stuffed with useless bassoon music and related publications!
>
> Can you send me some more info?
>
> Thanks.
>
> Regards,
> Harry Searing
---------------------------------------------------------

From: NINEWINDS@aol.com
Date: Sat, 18 Mar 2000 12:20:24 EST
Subject: Re: [CB]  [Contra digest]
Reply-To: contrabass@contrabass.com

In a message dated 3/17/00 4:24:57 PM, you wrote:

<<only one or two notes out of these things - no one has come up with the slide didgeridoo yet.) >>

Not true! Susan Rawcliff an instrument maker in Southern California has made
a slide digerdoo, but according to some people's opinions on this list I
guess she should have called it a Rawcliffophone.
---------------------------------------------------------

From: BJacobs571@aol.com
Date: Sat, 18 Mar 2000 13:44:17 EST
Subject: Re: [CB] dideridoo???
Reply-To: contrabass@contrabass.com

    This is just my personal opinion but I think the Digerdo is the most
overrated instrument in the world. If you listen to one for five minuets you
have heard it's entire repertoire and in my option there is no reason to ever
listen to one ever again.

    It amazes me that some people think that primitive instruments are
"better " than  highly developed  instruments.  When I play my clarinets I
have the control and full chromatic range to express exactly what I want to
say musically. My creativity is not constrained by the limitations of the
instrument. primitive instruments also have a limited range so it is very
difficult to play what I want to play on them as you run out of notes.

    While we are at it I think a group of people with drums are a terrible
thing. They just go on and on without any merit to what they are doing. Its
ok for them; if you are making the noise it is much more bearable than if you
are just listening. I know there are some professional groups who perform
with drums and are very good I do not mean them, its the people who get
together at parties who can't play anything else who I am talking about.

    I must point out that just because I don't like something it doesn't
necessarily mean it is bad and if the people who play digerdoos and other
primitive instruments enjoy playing them they should continue doing so. I
have no right and I wouldn't seek to stop them doing what they enjoy.  I just
won't stick around to listen to them.

P.S. is it really so much trouble to reach for the shift key when you type
the letter I.

Bernard Jacobs
---------------------------------------------------------

From: MusicDayDream@aol.com
Date: Sat, 18 Mar 2000 13:57:59 EST
Subject: [CB] musical expression....very important...
Reply-To: contrabass@contrabass.com

ok, the reply from Bernard Jacobs really bothered me. To me, music isnt jsut
music...there are sooo many kinds and i consider myself to have a wide
variety.  Im not a very conservative person...but i enjoy playin my family of
clarinet in organized bands and whatnot...its fun to play what is written in
little black dots on the paper....but that is if you like the conservative
style of music...no matter what "kind" of music it is(as in programatic,
chorales, overtures, etc.)  That can be fun sometimes.
Then there are the people who really like to feel the music.  Now i dont mean
this in offense to the more conservative players...because i get into
whatever music i am performing as much as possible.  But by playing a
didgeridu, or an djembe, or a bamboo flute...whatever more "natural" and
"original" type of instrument it may be...i feel you can express yourself way
beyond any conservative music.  These instruments arent really processed...so
there are NO limits...the limits only lie within the heart of the performer.
I highly recomend going to a "jamband" style music festival, or a drum circle
if you can't understand what i am saying, or know where i am coming from.  If
you are a more conservative styled person, you may feel a bit awkward at
first...but you will soon realize that all of the kind folks bangin there
drums and blowin there flutes wont judge...they will just accept if you open
your heart.  Everyone is kind and caring on these type of scenes....you will
experience all different kinds of
love...friendly...musical....creative...happy...everything!
What it comes down to is music is one of the ultimate forms of expression.
Anything can be expressed through music.  When performers of all kinds
express there music they can all get the same feeling.  The only difference
between the performers of different styles...is simply the tools that they
use to express the music.  But all of us musicians DO use music for the same
reasons....

so why must people insult other music styles when all they are doing is the
same as you.  maybe you dont like the sound....but you must truly listen and
give it time if you must to find the story behind the sounds....
 

Lotsa peace n lovin
dana
---------------------------------------------------------

From: "Spencer Parks" <ilylamp@hotmail.com>
Date: Sat, 18 Mar 2000 13:27:51 CST
Subject: Re: [CB] musical expression....very important...
Reply-To: contrabass@contrabass.com

Dana, You said said exactly what I couldn't put into words.  I felt the same
way after I read that e-mail from Bernard.

I also love playing the dots on the page, but only when I'm playing my sax
or the piano.  Otherwise, when I'm playing the djembe or some other drum or
"natural" instrument, I would much rather NOT be playing notes on a page.  I
play whatever I'm feeling and play off of whatever the people around me are
playing.  Drum circles are amazing things.  True, sometimes you get some
players who aren't great, but that's OK.  They're there to have a good time
and play and that's all that matters.

Please understand that I'm not trying to get you to change you're way of
thinking.  We obviously feel completely different about those kinds of
music.

SPeNCeR
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***End of Contrabass Digest***


 
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