Youth Music Monterey Wind Trio
Jennifer Candiotti, flute Cayden Bloomer, oboe Stephen Dean, clarinet Melinda Coffey Armstead, organ
PRELUDE: Louré . . . G. P. Telemann, Les Moutons . . . Padre Martini Larghetto and Menuetto . . . W. A. Mozart
OFFERTORY: Menuetto . . . F. J. Haydn
POSTLUDE: Allegro . . . G. F. Handel
Today we have the pleasure of a wind trio: flute, clarinet, and oboe. This is an interesting evolution in the physics and psychology of music.
The flute has NO vibrating parts! Think of it! Just the air vibrates. Surely there were delusional people involved in its origin, thinking that you could play a melody by just tickling the air with your breath. Considering its hallucinatory beginning, it has achieved surprising success. (I’m not interested in your gratuitous comments about whistling, which probably gave early experimentalists unwarranted confidence.)
The next step in this evolution is the clarinet, which has ONE vibrating reed and must have been invented by flute players who finally realized the emperor wore no clothes. A knife is essential, because you need to custom shape the reeds, and also because you never know when there will be a fracas in the orchestral wind section during an edgy contemporary piece.
The oboe has TWO vibrating reeds, which must have come from a committee of conservative engineer-musicians who had no stomach for the risk of not having a spare when a single reed fails during the white heat of a solo. Also it gives the player a good reason to carve reeds all day long, even at home over dinner. For you can never have too many reeds standing by.
So there you have it: delusional, rational, obsessive, just like the fish crawling out of water, standing upright, and giving a graduation address. EnJOY!
