So I went to the Baroque Sinfonia last week - very intriguing and entertaining!
I naturally totally loved the wooden recorders! (Years ago right after Kev and I got married I played with a recorder group that some of his friends had started. I have to dig out my ol' recorder! I miss it!)
I was amazed by the excellent musician who played a large kind of timpani-precursor thing, AND the wild theorbo, like a lute body with a crazy long neck! I've just learned more about it from this theorbo site! It can be 2 meters in length and has 14 strings. I have to ask Kev's best friend and great guitarist Bob if he's ever heard of one!
The Sinfonia played a Purcell piece and a Handel piece. I thought I'd prefer the Purcell (having played some Henry Purcell arrangements in high school concert band), but I actually liked the Handel better, because I was not too fond of the baroque oboes in the Purcell piece -- the tuning of them seemed weird to me.
Now, we all know I am hard pressed to sing in tune. :-) However I could play my clarinets and recorders in tune, and usually can tell if a wind instrument at least is out of tune. I am certain this quaveriness of the baroque oboes (a bit longer and looked slightly different than contemporary oboes) is intended. I just don't love it.
Apparently, per this YouTube video, Hanel loved oboes; and some of them at the time were called "hautboys"! (Inserted below). AND, interestingly, the fingering is quite similar on these to a recorder's fingering. Okay, I am liking these things more than I did!
Nothing like live music! Just this one concert has gotten me back in to singing in the car (like doing brass imitations to the "Overture to Tommy" on the way to the airport this morning!) I aim to go to more Thornton concerts at my local research university and employer, so stay tuned!
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