Oates for Tanger
Abroad to many several places about several businesses

Thu, 28 Apr 2005

Ce caractère Tendre, Aisé, Naturel, qui flatte toujours.
Les airs dont il est composé ont été appellés BRUNETES, par rapport à celuy qui commence "Le beau Berger Tircis, &c" qui finit par ces paroles, "Helas, Brunets, mes amours," Une preuve de la bonté de ces Airs, c'est que malgré leur ancienneté, on ne laisse pas de les apprendre & de les chanter encore tous les jours; ceux même qui possedent la musique dans toute son étendue, se font un plaisir d'y goûter ce caractère Tendre, Aisé, Naturel, qui flatte toujours, sans lasser jamais, & qui va beaucoup plus au coeur qu'a l'esprit.
From the Avertissement to Brunetes meslees de chansons a danser, Ballard. Facsimile edition La Société de Musicologie de Languedoc
Posted at 22:12#

Tue, 26 Oct 2004

John Peel 1939-2004 +
Teenage dreams are hard to beat
Posted at 22:04 #

Thu, 29 Jul 2004

Valtice early music school
I had hoped to bring back some photos of the early music school in Valtice for the site. In the end though I was far to busy playing flute to pay much attention to photography. I managed to catch at least one or two of Nancy, Oswald and Thomas though.
Posted at 23:11 #

Fri, 5 Mar 2004

L’expression de ce gémissement mille fois sublime d’une ombre souffrante et désespérée
...Il semble donc que la flûte soit un instrument à peu près dépourvu d’expression, qu’on est libre d’introduire partout et dans tout, à cause de sa facilité à exécuter les groupes de notes rapides, et à soutenir les sons élevés utiles à l’orchestre pour le complément des harmonies aiguës. En général cela est vrai ; pourtant en l’étudiant bien, on reconnaît en elle une expression qui lui est propre, et une aptitude à rendre certains sentiments qu’aucun autre instrument ne pourrait lui disputer. S’il s’agit par exemple, de donner à un chant triste un accent désolé, mais humble et résigné en même temps, les sons faibles du médium de la flûte, dans les tons d’Ut mineur et de Ré mineur surtout, produiront certainement la nuance nécessaire. Un seul maître me paraît avoir su tirer parti de ce pâle coloris : c’est Gluck. En écoutant l’air pantomime en Ré mineur qu’il a placé dans la scène des Champs-Elysées d'Orphée, on voit tout de suite qu’une flûte devait seule en faire entendre le chant. Un hautbois eût été trop enfantin et sa voix n’eût pas semblé assez pure ; le cor anglais est trop grave ; une clarinette aurait mieux convenu sans doute, mais certains sons eussent été trop forts, et aucune des notes les plus douces n’eût pu se réduire à la sonorité faible, effacée, voilée, du Fa naturel du médium, et du premier Si bémol au-dessus des lignes, qui donnent tant de tristesse à la flûte dans ce ton de Ré mineur où ils se présentent fréquemment. Enfin, ni le violon, ni l’alto, ni le violoncelle, traités en solo ou en masse, ne convenaient à l’expression de ce gémissement mille fois sublime d’une ombre souffrante et désespérée ; il fallait précisément l’instrument choisi par l’auteur. Et la mélodie de Gluck est conçue de telle sorte que la flûte se prête à tous les mouvements inquiets de cette douleur éternelle, encore empreinte de l’accent des passions de la terrestre vie. C’est d’abord une voix à peine perceptible qui semble craindre d’être entendue ; puis elle gémit doucement, s’élève à l’accent du reproche, à celui de la douleur profonde, au cri d’un coeur déchiré d’incurables blessures, et retombe peu à peu à la plainte, au gémissement, au murmure chagrin d’une âme résignée... quel poète !... Hector BERLIOZ Traité d’instrumentation
Posted at 10:00 #

Thu, 12 Feb 2004

Dayton C Miller
The Dayton C Miller collection is now online. "Comprising nearly 1,700 flutes and other instruments, statuary, iconography, books, music, tutors, patents, and other materials mostly related to the flute, the Dayton C. Miller Flute Collection draws its holdings from all over the world and represents the work of at least 460 European and American instrument makers."
Posted at 11:47 #

Mon, 9 Feb 2004

L'Oiseau Lyre
This is just to remind me to add L'Oiseau Lyre to the publishing links.
Posted at 9:28 #

Fri, 23 Jan 2004

Helmholtz notation
A mistake in a posting of mine to the early flute group was the result of my not ever having heard of Helmholtz Notation. I have now.
Posted at 15:36 #

Renaissance Flute Days
Too my eternal regret I missed the Rennaissance flute days in Basle. Jane Bowers though has posted a long review of the event with discussion of the various contributions and links to published papers. She's also written a long review of Ardal Powells excellent book.
Posted at 10:45 #

Mon, 22 Dec 2003

Old flutes
I've taken ages to get round to posting a link to Rick Wilson's excellent site which is remiss of me.
Posted at 22:26 #

Sun, 21 Dec 2003

The Music Library of Jean-Baptiste Christophe Ballard
"The Ballard family of music printers held exclusive royal privilege for printing music in France for over 200 years beginning in 1551 with their association with Adrian Le Roy. Jean-Christophe Ballard's vast collection of musical works contained in his music library, listed in his inventory after death, numbers almost 1050. Described meticulously over 45 pages, it is set along side the 100 pages of music titles found in his music store. Surprisingly, his library includes a stunning collection of Italian music by both well-know and obscure composers which accounts for some 40 percent of the collection. Although his music library spans three centuries, the 17th century collection represents its central component. This study presents the complete transcription of the music library inventory with statistical collection analysis and commentary as well as eleven plates of document illustrations. Additional archival documents on the Ballard family recently discovered by the author add important historical data. Together, these shed new light not only on music repertoire during the French Baroque, but importantly, on Ballard's musical vision as an expression of his personal taste and as a reflection of French taste contemporary to his time." Fascinating research by Tula Giannini on her site.
Posted at 18:54 #

Sat, 20 Dec 2003

Musique dans un Salon Parisien sous Louis XV
My flute teacher, Jean-François Alizon's ensemble La Messinoise has released a new cd of "Music in a Parisian Salon during the reign of Louis XV". Works by Leclair, Rameau and Marais. Details of the cd, how to order and several mp3 extracts to enjoy are available __here__
Posted at 23:13 #

Wed, 8 Oct 2003

Captives
When I rather lightly called this weblog Oates for Tanger I was picking up on a passing reference in Pepys diary. Of Tanger, or of why Pepys should be trying to ship oats there, I in fact knew little or nothing. It seems that this is not entirely suprising as the whole episode was something of a fiasco from a british point of view and didn't fit in at all well with the picture of the british empire commonly dispensed to schoolboys (at least to this one).
I was fascinated then to happen on Linda Colleys book "Captives, Britain, Empire and the World 1600-1850" the first third of which is entirely devoted to the British colony in Tangiers taken as an illuminating illustration of the relations between Britain and the north african offshoots of the Ottoman Empire in particular and the wests relations with islam in general. Topical and highly recommended
Posted at 20:45 #

Sun, 7 Sep 2003

Glossa Globe Hazelzet
As I mentioned in the post below I've come to appreciate abbeillemusique.com (despite their broken search engine). Unfortunately they don't stock either Glossa or Globe which is a bit of a blow for Wilbert Hazelzet fans. Amazon and others have the Glossa recordings, haven't so far found out where to obtain the Globe cds.
Update: Cd direct in germany stocks Glossa and Globe amongst others.
Posted at 18:06 #

Fri, 29 Aug 2003

Latest releases from Abeille musique
Abeille musique is a french on line cd store specialising in independant labels. In the links on the right of this page you will now find a regularly updated list of their new issues. NB. I have **no** connection with them at all and gain **no** benefit whatsoever if you buy cd's from them I'm just interested to keep an eye on their new releases.
I'm having some difficulty filtering the links to keep only early music releases so you may see some contemporary stuff as well. I'll test it for a while and see if it seems usefull.
Posted at 20:37 #

Thu, 28 Aug 2003

Burney on Quantz
"In 1752, Quantz, who had the honour of being the late King of Prussia's master on the German-flute, published in German and French an excellent treatise on the art of playing that instrument; a work not only useful to flute-players, but to every kind of musician. His counsel to young students in Music are built upon good sense and experience and though his genius for composition was not original, he was a keen observer of the beauties and defects of others, both in composition and performance. His advantages in hearing at Dresden, in the most flourishing time of that court, the greatest performers then living, and afterwards travelling through Europe for improvement, with an acute understanding and an insatiable thirst for knowledge, enabled him to embellish his instructions with anecdotes and observations which, notwithstanding the vicissitudes of taste and style, are still extremely valuable."
From Charles Burney, A general history of music. vol IV chapter 10 page 588. Facsimile at http://ace.acadiau.ca/score/facsim3/index/index2.htm
Posted at 14:55 #

A weblog fed and watered by Cowderoy.

More info on:

Living sims
Bronnen
Spelletjes sites
Fungames4u.nl
Verdienplek.nl
Negs.nl
Spelwurm.nl
Rgames.nl
Voetbal hobbysite
Van a naar bridge
Bridgekids
5spelletjes.nl
rpgzone
Shoot m again
Vliegerblad
Flipper pinball fan
Spelstek
Gratis spelletjes spelen
Pspnieuws.nl