Flute Listening Project

A few weeks ago some colleagues and I were discussing the music recording business and it led to some discourse about encouraging legal Cd sales and to the larger issue of how so many student and amateur flutists are really completely unaware of the richness of artists in our field.  In fact, I asked my own class of high school and college flute students to each name for me, with no advance research or preparation, as many professional flutists as they could. Indeed, most could only name two or three players. So, I have started an experiment to broaden their knowledge of flutists and repertoire and at the same time encourage CD sales to support artists in our profession while helping my students build a valuable library.  I'll let you know how this experiment turns out and I would love it if other teachers would consider a similar experiment, or for other flutists to simply take on this assignment for their personal enjoyment.  Once my students have spent a year or two doing this assignment with flutists, I hope to branch out and start assigning them singers, string players, etc.

I copied my assignment below.

Flutist Listening Project 

NKU Applied Flute Lessons 

Dr. Nina Perlove 

The goal of this assignment is to increase your knowledge of professional flutists so that 

you can be knowledgeable about your field and gain an appreciation for different playing 

styles, training, and career paths.  It will also expand your exposure to flute repertoire and 

help build your personal music library.   

Each week of private lessons you will be required to turn in the following typed written 

assignment: 

 A short biography, written in your own words, of one assigned flutist.  

Biographies should include where the artist was born, where and with whom 

he/she trained, major professional accomplishments, and birth and death dates (if 

deceased). 

 You will be required to listen to at least one complete musical example of this 

artist using any of the resources available to you LEGALLY including libraries, 

university databases such as naxos.com, classical.com, networking sites like 

myspace or youtube, an artist’s personal webpage, or by purchasing a CD or an 

mp3 from a site such as itunes.  You may borrow a recording from a friend as 

long as you engage in no illegal duplication.  You must type the exact composer’s 

name, title, and movement name for your listening example under the artist’s bio 

and provide me with the exact source (CD Name or website address). 

 Provide one paragraph in your own words of your thoughts on the listening 

example related to the piece played and the performer’s playing style or 

interpretation. 

 Fool the Teacher!  In addition, you will need to find one flutist not assigned by 

me and complete the same assignment as outlined above, the goal being to select 

an accomplished, professional player unfamiliar to Dr. Perlove!  This way, you 

can introduce me to new players, too!  The artist must have substantial 

professional credentials such as positions in symphonies, recordings, teaching 

positions, and/or prestigious concert engagements.   

The written assignments will be turned in each week and then you will be expected to put 

them in a listening notebook that you will keep and add to each semester.   

At the end of each semester, you will select two of your favorite artists from the semester 

and be expected to purchase one CD from each artist. Of course, if you purchase any CDs 

during the semester’s assignment, those may be considered part of your end of the year 

acquisition. The goal will be to build up your personal music library.  Consider this part 

of your “textbook” expenses for the course. 

Help! I have to play in a dead hall.

QUESTION POSTED ON THE FLUTE PAGES FLUTE LIST

Dear Listers,

I lost a competition last year even though I was fully prepared, because I found myself in a competition room (hotel function room) with no echo at all, that I couldn't hear myself at all, I got panic and then made several mistakes+cracks+intonation errors.

This year, I will be facing the same situation again soon in a wind concerto competition.  The hall has a big curtain behind and then all the hall is surrounded with thick carpets, I believe this hall is for theater plays not for musical performances.

Please help a fellow flute competitor.  What should I do?  I am so scared right now because I know I will not hear myself at all.  I'll be playing like deaf.

Advice needed urgent.  Many thanks to you.

Regards,

Johann, age 13

NINA’S ANSWER:

Johann:

I understand how frustrating it can be to play under such circumstances. I think if you know in advance the hall will be dead it can be helpful to practice in similar conditions, but often we don't know in advance what the hall or room will be like, and furthermore, many times even when playing in a resonant hall, under performance conditions, many players will FEEL like their sound is not responding or carrying (frequently due to dry mouth). So WHAT CAN WE DO?

First, remember that projection is less a function of what happens to the sound after you play than a function of how the sound resonates inside your body, and while the room may have changed, your body hasn't! When you are in a dead hall, instead of stressing out about the lack of reverb in the room, which you can't change anyway, increase your awareness and enjoyment of how the sound resonates in your sinuses, neck, chest, and feet!  If you can create the resonance inside, you can TRUST that it will carry through to the listener even if the conditions aren't ideal. And if you do have some cracks, remember it is not the end of the world (and it happens to all of us!), but is rather a signal that you need to force less and resonate more. 

I have also come to realize that the best method for me to adjust to conditions such as feeling the room is dead or having dry mouth, is a psychological one. Practicing in an accoustically dead hall may help you become more comfortable with the IDEA of playing in a dead room, and therefore reduce your anxiety on the performance day. On the other hand, it could make you feel grumpy during practice that you don't like how you sound! If it is having a negative effect, I wouldn't do it. Go back to practicing in a resonant but not echoing room. 

What can you do when you are actually at your competition or concert and you feel the hall is dry? TRUST YOURSELF.

It sounds overly simple but it is actually very hard to do!

TRUST that your sound is speaking even if you don't feel/hear it the way you are used to. 

TRUST your playing, don't fight it. 

When we fight it, we start changing the way we play, over adjusting embouchure, forcing the air, blowing harder instead of resonating more, and thus cracks and errors occur. Mentally go to that favorite practice room and place yourself there. Play the way you played on your very best practice day. Hear yourself the way you heard yourself that day. 

DON'T FIGHT YOURSELF, FREE YOURSELF.  

Chances are you sound a lot better to others than you do to yourself, after all, we are always our own worst critics. Don't get in the way of letting others enjoy your playing!

I hope this helps. 

-Nina

JOHANN’S FOLLOW UP RESPONSE, APRIL 1, 2008

Dear Listers,

Thanks to many listers' and Professor Nina Perlove's advice one and a half 

months ago on the Dead Room situation, I have completed my competitions 

and have overcome the Dead Room fears.  I came 12th (of 74) in the local 

wind concerto open, and came 1st in intermediately flute solo 

competition.  Just like to thank the wonderful listers.

Johann

age 13 

Flute Music of Venezuela

Before I write this blog, let me just make one thing clear: I am not a music critic, nor do I want to be one.  As an active musician, such a role could be, quite frankly, dangerous.  So when I do write about the work of fellow musicians, my comments are not meant to assign a point system of quality or to point out my individual likes and dislikes, but rather to share discoveries which have grabbed my attention for their unique artistic value.

When Marco Granados sent me his latest recording, Music of Venezuela, I was eager to hear what he had in store, as this is a project he has been working on for some time.  I put the CD into my car stereo and was immediately greeted with the joyful and energetic sounds of Venezuelan music. It reminded me of a magical moment from the National Flute Association Convention I attended in Chicago many years ago.  One evening, a group of young flutists from the Venezuelan Flute Orchestra took over the grand staircase of the Chicago Hilton as if it were the Spanish Steps in Rome, and began an impromptu jam session.  Before we knew it, the brilliant, spirited sounds of Venezuelan improvisation filled the hotel while NFA members, business travelers and tourists gathered around, sharing a magical moment.  

There is a youthful exhilaration in the upwardly articulated arpeggios of Venezuelan flute music which is frequently played at breakneck speed and in the upper register, and which Marco handles in songs like El Vuelo de la Mosca (Flight of the Fly) with controlled abandon, a dichotomy born of technical precision and improvisatory freedom.  This is flute music on a double dose of caffeine, perfect for a morning commute.  It is impossible not to be stimulated by the frantic turns of phrase which occur so quickly that it almost sounds as if the recording had been artificially sped up (I am quite sure it was not).  After a few tracks of high energy super flute, I wondered about the softer side of Venezuelan flute music, and was greeted by one of my favorite songs on the CD, the sensitive Confesion a las Estrellas (Confession to the Stars).  

Thank you Marco, Jorge, Roberto, Leonardo (Un Mundo Ensemble) and guest artists for sharing this musical tradition with us.  Watch the video below to see Un Mundo in concert.

Competitions: Do we need them?

Competitions may be inherently flawed because music making is an art, not a measurable science or sport. Judges will always have their own ideas about what constitutes exceptional playing and in the end, there can rarely be one absolute “winner” in such a subjective art form as music.   Of course, if technical problems plague a performance, that will be a significant factor, but in most cases contestants come to a competition with solid technique already in place so the judges are really voting on the intangible elements such as sound, sparkle, stage presence, pizazz, emotion. Given that, are competitions fair? Are they healthy for a developing musician? I think they are. Watch my video to find out what I think the real benefits of competitions are.  

Read Erinn Frechette’s comments on COMPETITION AND AUDITION PREPARATION

Watch this editorial on music competitions by Benita Rose:

“Benita Rose Competitions Good or Bad- Response to Ninaflute”

Flutist or Flautist

Whenever I tell a non-musician that I play the flute, I am immediately asked the million dollar question, “Is it flutist or flautist?” I found an interesting article on Wikipedia to help me answer this question. Thank you, Nancy Toff!!



By the way, I consider myself a FLUTIST!

-Nina


From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Naming controversy: 'flautist' vs. 'flutist'


The choice of "flautist" (from the Italian flautista, from flauto, and adopted due to 18th century Italian influence) versus "flutist" is the source of minor dispute among players of the instrument. "Flutist" is the earlier term in the English language, dating from at least 1603 (the earliest quote cited by the Oxford English Dictionary), while "flautist" is not recorded before 1860, when it was used by Nathaniel Hawthorne in The Marble Faun. While the print version of the OED does not indicate any regional preference for either form, the online Compact OED characterizes "flutist" as an American usage.[1]

Richard Rockstro in his three volume treatise The Flute[2] written in England in 1890 uses "flute-player". The US player and writer Nancy Toff, in her The Flute Book, devotes more than a page to the subject, commenting that she is asked "Are you a flutist or a flautist?" on a weekly basis. She says, "Ascribe my insistence either to a modest lack of pretension or to etymological evidence; the result is the same." She describes in some detail the etymology of words for "flute". (She is an editor for Oxford University Press.[1]) She compares OED, Fowler's Dictionary of Modern Usage, Evans' Dictionary of Contemporary American Usage, and Copperud's American Usage and Style: The Consensus. Fowler says "flautist" has displaced "flutist" in usage, though "flautist" is not so popular in the USA. She prefers "flutist" personally and etymologically.[3]

The first edition of the OED lists fluter as dating from circa 1400 and Fowler's Modern English Usage[4] states that "there seems no good reason" why flautist should have prevailed over fluter or flutist. However, according to Webster's Dictionary of English Usage,[5] flautist is the preferred term in British English, and while both terms are used in American English flutist is "by far the more common choice".

James Galway summed up the way many players of the flute feel about "flautist", saying, "I am a flute player, not a flautist. I don't have a flaut, and I've never flauted."

Click here for Fenwick Smith’s take on the subject.

10 Flute Demonstration RESULTS

This post is a response to THIS BLOG. Watch that one first.

Find out the which flute is which and hear them again! 

Then watch video part 2 to find out winners of the voting and my responses to many of your questions.

If you are interested in learning more details about these flutes, please don't contact me, but contact Burkart Flutes and Piccolos at 978-425-4500 or visit them at www.burkart.com.

If you want to ask specifics about the instruments in this demo, here are the serial numbers for the flutes I played:

#1 .016 silver (my flute, sorry!) with plat riser

#2 19.5K Gold body 488, head 2027

#3 10 K Gold - body in tape, head 1344

#4 14K soldered, body 446, head 2027

#5 14K drawn, body 07035, head 2027

#6 595 drawn, SOLD

#7 .016 silver (mine) with platinum head # 1979

#8 998 body 459, head 2147

#9 .016 body (mine) with 14K head 2027

#10 595 drawn body sold, 998 head with plt riser 2020

Which flutes did you prefer? Which flutes did I prefer? Could I hear a difference between metals? If so, why? Can we prove that different metals sound different?  

You may find the study SILVER, GOLD, PLATINUM - AND THE SOUND OF THE FLUTE interesting. It “proves” that there is no measurable difference between metals, just players. 

“I found this exercise extremely interesting, both as a flute player and coming from a background in psychology. The fact that overall we were not able to distinguish between the flutes, and that flutes 1 and 10 and also 3 were most voted for, seems to result from the Primary and Recency Effect, aka the Serial-Position effect. Basically we chose the flute at the start (primary) and end (recency) and flute 3 would also fit with the primary, because our brains are just wired to remember those best. It's scientifically proven that information at the beginning and end of a event is best recalled. So I found myself not surprised by the results from this regard and predicted 1 and 10 would get the most votes before hearing your results. This may sound like utter rubbish but I do feel that it's an interesting, possible explanation which must have contributed to the outcome in some way at least.”

- Eoghan, Ireland

Cultural Creatives and the Future of Classical Music

In a recent interview in Fanfare, the talented flutist and arranger Robert Stallman made a fascinating observation, “there’s a quiet revolution going on; there’s a growing public that’s hungry for something genuine and inspiring—something that goes deeper. So you have these “cultural creatives” tuning out what big media promotes, because they want something personal, beautiful, and real. And of course chamber music is all those things and more. It’s rich with worlds of meaning that are absolutely life giving, sustaining, and uplifting for us on a daily basis. And in time more and more people will be able to find it on the Web where you don’t have the old set of “gatekeepers.” 

This is exactly what REALFLUTEproject.com is all about and I have been thrilled to share this vision with all of you, my fellow “cultural creatives.”

Photo: Robert Stallman

Hear me perform Stallman’s arrangement of the Carmen Fantasy